Love and Cheese / Weighing Harold (Hey Arnold Season 4 Episode 8) - 'Toon Reviews 28

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Love and Cheese

Remember “Operation Ruthless,” a cartoon about Arnold trying to win over his current love interest at a fair devoted to cheese with Helga trying to sabotage the couple?  Well that formula is brought back with this cartoon, only Arnold’s love interest this time, Lila, is far more age appropriate.  Also, instead of being too nervous to talk to Lila, Arnold just goes ahead and asks her out right from the start, and they’re together for the whole event.  While this makes the viewing experience much less awkward and dull, there are lots of glaring issues to be found.  It’s not necessarily with the story itself, but more with the idea of Arnold’s crush on Lila. 

As some may remember, Arnold getting into Lila is an after effect of a misunderstanding that she thought he loved her from the start.  With the truth known, Lila ever since decided that she likes Arnold as just a friend, but he keeps trying to get her to like him-like him.  This make Arnold look kind of pushy and oblivious to the way things are.  It really doesn’t measure up to the mature image he’s built up at this point in the series.  It would make much more sense for him to just accept that she’s just not into him, and that’s how love works a lot of the time. 

Not helping is that Lila’s overly sweet personality seems to get overbearing with every role.  It kind of makes me long for the day when there was a suggestion for a somber reason for her need to be happy and perfect all the time.  Without it, she’s “ever-so” one-dimensionally nice that she’s not worth getting invested in.  She also puts somewhat of a damper on the fun of the Cheese Fair. She advises Arnold not to hit other bumper cars even though that’s the point, and coaxes Arnold to win her a teddy bear only to say she doesn’t need it afterwards.  Not to mention, she’s totally unmoved at throwing up after going on a ride at top speed.  There’s just something unnatural about how well she’s able to take everything. 

Then there’s Helga’s attempts to ruin this date which, while in line with her own feelings for Arnold, feel really bad even for her.  They don’t just amount to sabotaging pranks.  Some include legit harm like ramming Arnold and Lila’s bumper car, making that ride go too fast, and worst of all, making them sink in the tunnel of love.  It’s kind of disturbing that Helga resorts to hurting Arnold to get closer to him.  It doesn’t feel right that she’s doing this to Lila too.  For one thing, it was Helga who caused the misunderstanding that got Arnold into Lila.  Lila even knows about Helga’s crush for Arnold, further explaining why she’ll never like him as more than just a friend.  The latter point could very well show this plan has no reason to happen since Lila clearly shows support of Helga getting together with Arnold.  This also makes the cartoon confusing when you look at the signs of support towards Arnold and Lila.  Her good attitude towards Arnold despite everything, stakes during the sinking scene, and sign of hope that she may love him some day aim to make them feel closer.  Plus, Helga all alone as the Cheese Fair lights go out ala “Operation Ruthless” invokes the same somber mood for the more interesting potential romance. 

This is still a decent cartoon on its own, but the unfortunate implications from everyone in this love triangle hold it back.

C-

Weighing Harold

I notice that most people are very self-conscious about their weight and often try to adopt healthy lifestyles to keep themselves fit.  I’m like that too, though I imagine that when people are younger, they don’t seem to care much about how large they are.  A good example of a character like that is Harold, someone well-known for eating a lot for the fun of it.  With this cartoon, it shows that even the largest of kids can feel like something’s wrong with how they look. 

After a round of eating a lot of ice cream bars, Harold slowly becomes self-conscious of his weight.  There are comments on being the Jolly Olly Man’s best customer, his “friends” Sid and Stinky bad-mouthing him behind his back, and a random woman calling him a fat boy.  It legitimately feels like the world is calling Harold out for being true to himself and that he absolutely needs to lose weight.  This is a potential move that is a very healthy option for Harold, but the pressures behind it are clear since comments from the world around him inspire him to do this. 

There’s a suggestion for a creative way for him to do this with a cruise designed to help obese kids lose weight.  You’d think this is where we’ll see Harold try to lose weight, but this setup isn’t even shown.  We only see Harold leave on the cruise and return after a scene dissolve which is disappointing.  Even more disappointing is that Harold comes back much fatter than normal, overly bloated in fact.  That’s kind of frustrating considering it goes completely against the cruise’s purpose.  There’s a legit reason for this later with Harold revealing to have done nothing but eat there, but you’d think the cruise counselors would discourage that. 

I do give credit for the relatable direction of overeating being the reason for Harold’s larger weight, knowing it’s a common response to stress over what other people think.  It’s also the reason Harold can’t be seen the way he is.  Arnold does take him out in secrecy to bring his weight down with exercises and toning down the eating.  His advice about Harold losing weight by his standards and no one else’s is also relatable advice for anyone with a weight problem.  Really, not worrying so much about what other people think is one of the best things to hear about anything.  I just imagine how more interesting this would have been if Harold learned all this at the cruise.  No matter what, when Harold appears much thinner than ever and is praised for it, it’s a satisfying conclusion all around…until he decides to celebrate by eating more ice cream bars.  This implies that he’ll just get fat again, but it is still Harold being true to himself, and the show wouldn’t be the same if he just stopped eating a lot. 

It may not take the most creative directions, but I admire this cartoon for reaching out to the overweight and self-conscious in such a respectable manner.

A

The Ranking

1. Headless Cabbie
2. Helga’s Parrot
3. Oskar Can’t Read?
4. Dinner for Four
5. The Beeper Queen
6. Stinky’s Pumpkin
7. Weighing Harold
8. Big Gino
9. Chocolate Turtles
10. Friday the 13th
11. Phoebe Skips
12. Eugene’s Birthday
13. Student Teacher
14. Love and Cheese
15. Jamie O in Love
16. Full Moon

The next Hey Arnold review features Helga become a famous star and hate it, and the world decides to forget the benefits of Arnold's advice and make him stop giving it.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "Sweet Dreams" and "Lava Lake Beach" from Star vs the Forces of Evil.

If you would like to check out other Hey Arnold reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.