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Dinner for
Four
Some of the most interesting stories of the series involve Helga’s intense love for Arnold. Despite how important he is to her, she’s not in the position to flat-out confess her true feelings, often covering them up by being a bully. This typically results in her pulling off all kinds of crazy schemes to at least impress him to some extent, most of which come with creative setups. This cartoon is no different.
At this point in the
series, Arnold is much more open about his feelings for Lila with her being so
kind, accomplished, and above all, sophisticated. Although she was the one who made Arnold
interested in Lila to begin with, Helga is immensely jealous and makes it her
goal to prove she’s more sophisticated.
She gets her chance when she wins a free dinner for four at a French
restaurant, which some may remember from the Valentine’s Day special. Helga makes sure everything is perfect for
this dinner date. She invites the right
people, her best friend Phoebe, a boy her friend knows well, Gerald, and his
best friend, Arnold, and memorizes instructions on a tape about
sophistication. Such preparations result
in a charming night at the restaurant with Helga as the host. She delights with using sophisticated phrases
she doesn’t actually understand and genuine effort to make herself look good in
front of Arnold for once. The fact that
the food’s all free is what makes the dinner especially work.
However, there’s a major snag with the latter
factor. When Helga gets the bill, she’s
shocked to find out that she and the others are eating at the wrong
restaurant. They’re instead at one with
a similar name to what she won the free dinner for which, while not shown here,
is right across the street. In my mind,
this is a clever way to throw a wrench in the plan. This unexpected turn of events makes it
difficult for Helga to keep up her sophisticated act, though she does a fine
job of correcting herself.
Even so, she
also tries to cover up the mishap with all kinds of crazy stunts. First, she makes everyone order more food
which, from how I usually feel after one meal at a restaurant, is certainly not
a good idea. Then, she’s pushed to go
ahead and lie about her identity to make the restaurant think she’s important. However, the lie is quickly shot down when
the restaurant staff gets a call from the famous person she said she’s
granddaughter to, and they bring the cops in.
The biggest maneuver to avoid the bill is inviting Nadine to come with a
box full of cockroaches to let loose in the restaurant. This brings a lot of chaos to the facility,
though you can’t deny that it’s an out-of-the-ordinary way to do it.
Still, it hardly seems fair that the
restaurant has to suffer for an act that wasn’t their fault. Thankfully, Helga is called out for this, and
despite needing to be pushed to do so, she goes back to explain the truth,
though she and her friends have to wash dishes to pay up. The ending may be built solely on giving
Helga consequences, but there’s also some accomplishment to it when Arnold
admits that what she did was pretty sophisticated. It may not be in a way she planned, but it’s
nice to see Helga satisfied with how things went.
This cartoon has an interesting premise with
imaginative after effects that do their part to get Helga closer to Arnold. Just don’t be surprised if you have the word
“sophisticated” on your mind by the end of it.
A+
Phoebe
Skips
When a cartoon introduces an event to shake the status quo a
bit, it’s either a bold move, or a big disappointment should it decide to go
back to normal in the end. The latter
can be tolerable if there’s a legit reason for things going back to
normal. That’s kind of the case here,
but the reason is not as strong on all fronts as it could be.
The potential shakeup here is Phoebe being
declared no longer challenged by 4th grade academics and is bumped
up to the 6th grade. She’s
absolutely excited by this opportunity while Helga is dismayed that her best
friend is no longer going to be around, and she takes the announcement a bit too
harshly.
At the 6th grade,
Phoebe finds it to not be as intellectual or engaged as she thought. For one thing, the teacher is clearly not
interested in his job and shows no real interest in Phoebe earning her place in
this higher grade. Even more pressing
are the new “friends” Phoebe makes in the class, which makes the cartoon very
discomforting. They’re a gang of
stuck-up judgmental girls who clearly fake interest in Phoebe’s
accomplishments. They also pretend to be
her friend by having her hang out with them and treat her like one of their
own. At the same time, they take
complete advantage of her by making her pay for their things, forging
signatures for excuse notes, and doing their homework.
Stuff like this takes up much of the cartoon,
and it is not a pleasing sight. It
brings the idea that all older girls are judgmental bullies who exist to ruin
the lives of anyone younger than them. If I can be frank, they’re really
ruining their own lives for not doing their own work or covering their own
expenses. This is already a huge setback for the show as it’s frequently made
it seem that all kids in grades higher than the 4th are bad. They even disregard earlier development
considering that two girls in the gang, Maria and Connie, have shown good
traits before. To top it all, when
another younger student transferred to the 6th grade comes in, only
then do they tell Phoebe their friendship wasn’t real and toss her out. I have to question how the new girl doesn’t
realize this when she’s not far from Phoebe getting dejected by the gang taking
her in.
As you can see, Phoebe’s ordeal
is pretty torturous, but it’s all made better by what it leads to. While she was in the new grade, Helga has
been trying to find a new best friend.
Although we only see attempts with a few kids, it’s clear that no one
can really replace Phoebe in her eyes.
When Helga finds out what Phoebe’s been through, it feels like she’s
talking from the heart on how Phoebe’s not stupid for trying the new grade and
reaffirms her as her best friend. Plus,
while it’s unfortunate that we don’t see it, it’s implied that they give the
girls what they deserve.
Since Phoebe’s
back in the 4th grade with her next appearance, it’s clear the
status quo is maintained. I get that
it’s because of her bad social experience, but she’s still doing well
academically. This is still a good
opportunity for her in the long run and she can easily try to make better
friends in the class. There just isn’t a
strong enough way to say that she absolutely must go back to her old
grade. At least her friendship with
Helga is plenty genuine to justify this move.
Thanks to that reminder, this cartoon is spared from being brought down
by unfortunate stereotypes. Good
friendships truly triumph.
Just so you know, next time you see this show is when its new
digital look officially kicks in.
B+
The Ranking
- Dinner for Four
- Stinky’s Pumpkin
- Phoebe Skips
- Eugene’s Birthday
The next Hey Arnold review is on the very first one to use digital animation. However, it's one of the weakest of the series with a cartoon about Arnold getting in trouble for not snitching, and one about Helga and Olga trying to bond, but Olga as a student teacher just ends up embarrassing Helga.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews, from Star vs the Forces of Evil, it's "Demoncism" and "Sophomore Slump."
If you would like to check out other Hey Arnold reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
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