Monday, March 4, 2019

Headless Cabbie / Friday the 13th (Hey Arnold Season 4 Episode 6) - 'Toon Reviews 28


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Headless Cabbie
This show doesn’t just stand out for portraying relatable events from different points of view.  Some of its most memorable experiences come from telling urban legend or scary stories which tend to craft an interesting atmosphere.  A lot of the time these stories go all out with darkness whether it be ghosts haunting a house, a wheezing ghost with a treasure in a cave, or a train driving straight to the underworld.  However, this season has a scary story that allegedly tops them all. 
It all unfolds when Arnold and his friends are having a sleepover, and pass the time by telling ghost stories.  Arnold has one that easily delivers on the scare factor.  It’s about a cabbie driver going about his business when he meets a woman looking for her dog.  They find it as the cabbie enters the park, but he keeps running away.  The pursuit of the dog becomes more intense as the woman demands the cabbie to go faster.  Eventually, a scarf the woman gave the cabbie gets caught on a branch forcing his head off just as the woman had planned.  Now the spirit of that event lives on as the cabbie’s ghost allegedly haunts the park to this day. 
A big reason why this story is so impactful is how it shows no fear in showing dark repercussions.  An innocent cabbie trying to help someone out is caught in what turns out to be a sick twisted plan resulting in his decapitation.  As a family show, you don’t normally expect events to go this far.  The use of dark, moody scenes and freak events like running into a man with a hook hand as well as a message of the cabbie haunting the park add to the feel the story goes for. 
Now, as effective as the story is, it’s not all that the cartoon consists of.  After Arnold tells the story, the guys decide to go out for ice cream, and the park is the quickest way to get there.  Along the way, there’s some unease about going through the place where the spirit of the headless cabbie is said to haunt to this day.  This is especially true for Harold who’s the most hesitant about going through the park.  It’s pretty telling how impactful the story is when the biggest and toughest-looking member in the group is unable to hide his usual insecurities. 
From there, the guys start feeling like they’re living the story, noticing eerie similarities, and on a foggy night too.  Some of them have logical reasoning to them, like the sounds of trots on the cobblestones turning out to be Eugene in clog shoes.  One is completely misinterpreted when they all find a man with a hook with a hand who’s actually trying to sell something.  However, there are some events that are pretty on the nose with their connection to the story like the same breed of dog happening to be there and a red scarf caught in a tree.  The guys start panicking as they notice more signs while only Arnold keeps the peace by pointing out possible explanations for what they find.  Even that becomes hard to argue when they find an actual cabbie manned by a seemingly headless man carrying a demonic laughing woman, bringing a legitimate scare.  However, there’s an explanation for this that’s both unexpected with Ernie being the cabbie in an oversized coat, and funny with the laugh coming from Mr. Hyunh who likes doing it. 
In the end, the legit fears turn to laughs that easily catch the audience off guard.  However, the fear factor still exists when Ernie picks up a mysterious woman looking for her dog who gives him a red scarf.  Knowing the legend, I think you can guess what this suggests.  The great success of this scary story-themed cartoon comes from the lengths of the featured story and how you legitimately wonder how true it really is.

A+
Friday the 13th
I honestly don’t know where the old saying that Friday the 13th is dedicated to bad luck came from.  It’s also one that can be easily disproven since I can think of plenty of Friday the 13ths in my life no different from any other day.  That’s why when there’s a cartoon about characters living through that day and making a big deal over how it relates to bad luck, it’s a little too ridiculous and hard to get behind. 
For this one, it’s at least nice that Arnold’s goal is to prove how ridiculous the beliefs surrounding Friday the 13th are.  Even so, it’s still pretty absurd that everyone else is a strong advocate for what the day allegedly brings.  I get Arnold’s eccentric grandparents, but then we have Gerald who says he couldn’t leave the house without the appropriate good luck charms.  Eventually, Arnold not believing in Friday the 13th is discovered by that one-dimensional fifth grade bully, Wolfgang along with his assistant Edmund.  Through a tense confrontation, Arnold is roped into doing all the things said to bring certain years of bad luck and has Gerald do it with him.  Through stepping on cracks, breaking mirrors, and opening umbrellas indoors, Arnold and Gerald certainly look brave against the superstitious crowd. 
The thing is, the cartoon actually supports the prior belief that Friday the 13th is a load of nonsense and makes said crowd look ridiculous.  This may seem hard to believe at first since bad things seem to happen to Arnold and Gerald all day following breaking all those superstitions.  However, the direction of the storytelling outright states that these things aren’t happening because of the nature of the superstitions.  They’re all direct results of the dirty work Wolfgang and Edmund do behind their backs.  They mess up their desks, make their lockers stuck, puncture their bike tires, and drop paint and fish on them.  Not to mention, when Arnold and Gerald break down and buy a reversal bad luck kit, they cause them more humiliation by switching their cream with honey.  Can you guess what that attracts?  This isn’t really bad luck if outside sources are causing all these bad things happening. In fact, only one bad thing truly seems somewhat far-fetched.  Why are there so many bees living in a city area? 
That said, outwardly showing that Wolfgang and Edmund are responsible for what Arnold and Gerald endure doesn’t make for any tension.  The audience knows the reasons behind what’s happening to them, making it too easy to see that Arnold was right about Friday the 13th all along.  If we didn’t see Wolfgang and Edmund cause trouble when it happened, there would be a legit reason to think that Arnold and Gerald shouldn’t have broken the superstitions.  The answer could’ve come right after they discover Edmund’s symbolic purple gum, and not before.  Since we know the truth, there’s no question as to whether Arnold was right to start this. 
Even so, it’s great that Arnold and Gerald get back at those bullies with a retaliation involving many black cats which they’re able to get thanks to Arnold’s grandma.  Given how one-dimensional they are, any consequence they get for their uncalled for jerkiness is pleasing.  Even if it is held back by a lack of tension, I cannot give enough credit to this cartoon for showing that Friday the 13th is really not worth making a big dal over.  All you really need to do is be wary of bullies.
A-
The Ranking
  1. Headless Cabbie
  2. Oskar Can’t Read?
  3. Dinner for Four
  4. The Beeper Queen
  5. Stinky’s Pumpkin
  6. Big Gino
  7. Friday the 13th
  8. Phoebe Skips
  9. Eugene’s Birthday
  10. Student Teacher
  11. Jamie O in Love
  12. Full Moon
The next Hey Arnold review nails dark humor as Helga sets out to stop a parrot from blowing her secret love for Arnold by killing it, and Arnold and Gerald run into trouble while delivering chocolate turtles.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the second part of the "Time is Money" arc from DuckTales.
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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