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Helga
Sleepwalks
We have even more great fun from Helga’s attempts at keeping
her love for Arnold a secret in this cartoon. In fact,
this one is right up there with some of the more creative measures with crazy,
funny, and at times intense outcomes.
Well, I don’t mean life-or-death when it comes to intense, but getting
on the edge of confessing everything is no doubt a big deal for Helga.
It all happens innocently enough with a few
scenes of Helga once again showing affection for Arnold behind his back. Adding to the already noteworthy romance, its
portrayal here comes with a few daydream sequences going out with
creativity. We have Helga suddenly
becoming a master of the guitar as she performs for Arnold at his doorstep and
then saying monologues to him against a starry backdrop. Granted, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen
Helga’s fantasize about her romantic feelings, but they’re at their most
relevant here for what they build up to.
When Helga gets home that day, she develops a problem whenever she nods
off or goes to bed. She enters a
zombie-like state where she walks a clear concise path to Arnold’s boarding
house and is at the risk of revealing her secret there, potentially causing
embarrassment. In other words, Helga
develops a sleepwalking problem. As a
result, her dreams of confessing her love to Arnold transcend to reality as she
prepares romantic gestures and monologues completely unaware.
Out of this setup is a collection of funny
moments of awkwardness when Helga comes to the boarding house. She arrives with flowers, and Grandpa answers
the door, giving her a big surprise that wakes her up. She winds up in the boarding house kitchen,
and is only safe because Arnold’s grandma sees her as Eleanor Roosevelt. Then, she’s suddenly taking a shower in the
boarding house’s shower and barely makes it out unnoticed. It’s a lot of funny stuff to come from the
sleepwalking, meaning the ailment is mined for a lot of entertainment potential
through Helga’s shock of what she gets up to.
The humor factor is further enhanced by her measures to stop herself
from sleepwalking through blocking the door and hooking herself onto
caffeine. For how extreme these measures
are, they don’t stop the sleepwalking at all.
Unarguably desperate times lead Helga to get help from her best friend Phoebe
to watch over her and stop the sleepwalking herself. On a side note, there are some implications
that Phoebe is aware of exactly what Helga is trying to keep secret. That’s a very notable layer to this
friendship if Helga trusts Phoebe enough to share it with her. Once more, these big measures don’t do a
thing as Helga still sleepwalks out despite Phoebe watching over her albeit
still catching her escape. This brings a
fun climax where Phoebe rushes to track Helga down before it’s too late, and it
seems that way as she prepares to tell Arnold a romantic poem on his fire
escape. There’s a nice relief though as
the football-shaped silhouette in the window is of a plant, and Helga’s
aggression hides the truth when Arnold does see her.
As for the cause for the sleepwalking, it
comes from her constant snacking on pork rinds which interestingly has some real life truth to it. It also works as
a twist since we see Helga eating them throughout the cartoon, and their ties
to sleepwalking are not clear or obvious.
It’s a pretty genius and clever move the way I see it.
This is easily one of my favorite cartoons
about Helga keeping her crush secret with strong memorable humor and how every
moment adds to the big picture.
A+
Fighting
Families
I may not watch a lot of game shows, but I really understand
the appeal of watching people answer questions and do physical challenges to
win prizes. Interestingly enough, in
addition to cartoons and sitcoms, Nickelodeon also made a name of itself
through game shows, and are slowly returning to focus on them nowadays. That’s why it’s fitting that this show has a
cartoon set against a knowledgeable, physical, and significantly slimy game
show, i.e. this show’s version of Family
Double Dare.
It just so happens that
an episode of a TV game show called Fighting
Families is being filmed in Arnold’s very neighborhood. His family is
chosen to compete against one from an opposing school said to be very perfect
in how they dress, think, and act. With
this setup in mind, this cartoon is a great opportunity to feature the unique
personalities of the residents of the boarding house work off of each
other. Since his grandparents are a
given, the residents compete for the right to go as Arnold’s siblings allowing
their dynamic traits to work off each other.
We have solid entertainment from Ernie’s physical skills, Mr. Hyunh
acting smart albeit hard to understand, and Oskar struggling to be
presentable with a lack of skills. That
said, these guys being against each other in their attempts of getting picked
really doesn’t show them as the family unit they need to be for the show. They show the kind of behavior that no one
should ever express on live TV unless they want total shame nationwide. Arnold ultimately chooses the more skilled
boarders, Ernie and Mr. Hyunh, to join him and his grandparents, but that
doesn’t mean the sense of family is finalized.
This leads to the actual game show which makes the cartoon much more exciting. The staging of the game arena, the energy of
the host, and the atmosphere of the challenges capture the feel of game shows
greatly. You can’t help but get invested
in how Fighting Families brings to
mind any acclaimed game show with plenty of passion gone into it. It’s this tone that makes the cartoon stand
strong though. Story-wise, it’s held
back a bit by the reprehensible behavior of Arnold’s family while the opposing
family triumphs. For one thing, since
Ernie and Mr. Hyunh got on the team like they wanted, there shouldn’t be a
reason for them to fight, but they do.
Also, their whines and petty insults are just unacceptable for live TV,
and it’s hard to buy they’d be allowed to continue for their behavior. They do get called out by the host, but
shouldn’t the damage of how they act in the first part already be done and
unable to be forgotten about so quickly?
This is just me though, and if you ignore that, it’s pleasing that
when Arnold tells them how wrong this behavior is for a live game show,
they all work better afterwards. It
adds to the fun of the race to question podiums, the trivia questions even if
they’re clearly just aimed at kids, and the final tug-of-war match. In fact, the perfect family breaks down their
image with aggression, whining, and freak-outs over disgusting slime when the
other family keeps outmatching them.
It’s no surprise that there’s cracks in the perfect image as is the
usual case in real life, but you’d think they’d know things like the slime and
the physical challenges prior. Needless
to say, when they’re beaten in tug-of-war, Arnold’s family’s victory feels
undoubtedly earned.
There may be a
couple leaps in logics hard to suspend disbelief towards, but there’s still
lots of fun in the great game show atmosphere and satisfying conclusion.
B+
The Ranking
- Helga Sleepwalks
- Veterans Day
- Headless Cabbie
- Back to School
- Helga’s Parrot
- Oskar Can’t Read?
- Dinner for Four
- The Beeper Queen
- Stinky’s Pumpkin
- It Girl
- Polishing Rhonda
- Baby Oskar
- Weighing Harold
- Big Gino
- Chocolate Turtles
- Friday the 13th
- Grudge Match
- Fighting Families
- Phoebe Skips
- Eugene’s Birthday
- Weird Cousin
- Egg Story
- Student Teacher
- Love and Cheese
- Jamie O in Love
- Deconstructing Arnold
- Full Moon
The next Hey Arnold review is a major one to develop an urban legend figure Monkeyman, and Helga and Harold go on a cross-country trip to get home after getting left behind on a field trip. Both are really great watches just so you know.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews from Star vs the Forces of Evil it's "Butterfly Trap" and "Ludo Where Art Thou?".
If you would like to check out other Hey Arnold reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
I think Fighting Families may have the distinction of most batshit insane custom end credits music ever featured on Hey Arnold!
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