Monday, March 18, 2019

Veterans Day (Hey Arnold Season 4 Episode 11) - 'Toon Reviews 28


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Veterans Day

When it comes to historical holidays, it seems like it’s difficult to show that in media.  This is probably why you hardly hear people talk about them, and that they're just treated simply as days off.  For that, I consider it a special occurrence when a show turns out very respectful to such holidays.  A big example is this endearing special about Veterans Day. 
In real life, most people know it honors all the brave people who fought in major wars America was involved in.  However, it feels like they think more of what they’re going to do during the long weekend.  Arnold and Gerald demonstrate this at the start by thinking of what to do at this time.  That’s when their parental figures, Grandpa and Gerald’s dad Martin, come up with an idea suitable for the holiday by going to the nation’s capital for a Veterans Day celebration.  Along the way, they tell the boys of their war service with Grandpa in World War 2, and Martin in the Vietnam War.  Making these tales stand out is how the boys perceive them.  Arnold doesn’t high expectations given his Grandpa’s interest in tall tales while Gerald thinks a little too highly of his dad’s contributions. 
As for the stories themselves, they’re major highlights of the special with intriguing insights of how meaningful war contributions can come from anywhere.  Grandpa wasn’t a revered soldier in the army, having pretentious dreams despite only being given menial work.  In fact his biggest mission was to take a large shipment of bad meat to be dumped, but this ended up bringing his true shining moment.  He was captured by a Nazi battalion who stole his meat, but through a hilarious conversation with the Nazi major, he made them think it was good.  This made the troop very sick allowing the American allies to pass through to Berlin and win the Battle of the Bulge with no trouble.  What’s more, at the special’s end, Grandpa considers Arnold’s feelings and shows him proof of the story’s truth by showing him a hidden statue.  The best part about this is even if most can tell that nothing like this happened in real life, it’s still fine to include this.  It was never documented exactly how the allies got to Berlin. 
As for Martin, his war contributions don’t sound quite as impressive.  He was drafted when the Vietnam War was nearly over, was sick for most of training, and was laughably bad at combat when he could show up.  He was relegated to a simple file clerk position who barely saw action apart from one time when he used papers to heal a wounded soldier.  Gerald is majorly disappointed by this and feels that his dad’s war contribution was meaningless since anyone could have done that.  That’s pretty disrespectful for sure, but in all honesty, it kind of works for the message the special is going for.
The last scene during the Veterans Day celebration features Martin and Gerald meet the soldier Martin saved.  He’s eternally grateful for what Martin did for him after being left behind and nearly bleeding to death.  The fact that he’s now a happy man with a loving family shows just how big Martin’s actions really were.  Anyone could have done what he did, but through what this act led to, Martin has a lot of merit for making it happen.  This right here perfectly captures what should be taken from Veterans Day.  No matter how small one’s contribution to war is, they can always go a long way through being part of a greater good.  It’s precisely why it’s important to honor those who fought for us, and make the day quite inspirational too.  The tact and respect this special brings to it make it one worth saluting.

A+

The Ranking

  1. Veterans Day
  2. Headless Cabbie
  3. Helga’s Parrot
  4. Oskar Can’t Read?
  5. Dinner for Four
  6. The Beeper Queen
  7. Stinky’s Pumpkin
  8. It Girl
  9. Polishing Rhonda
  10. Weighing Harold
  11. Big Gino
  12. Chocolate Turtles
  13. Friday the 13th
  14. Grudge Match
  15. Phoebe Skips
  16. Eugene’s Birthday
  17. Student Teacher
  18. Love and Cheese
  19. Jamie O in Love
  20. Deconstructing Arnold
  21. Full Moon

The next Hey Arnold features Grandpa go back to school where he succeeds and falls out again, and Arnold and Helga take up parenthood, yet Arnold turns out to be the bigger jerk.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the last part of the DuckTales "Time is Money" arc.

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

1 comment:

  1. I admit, I tend to overlook this one a lot. Any episode lacking in the Helga department is always going to be a detriment for my bias, but it does have a healthy dose of Grandpa to make up for that. And after rewatching this one at long last I was incredibly moved. It's also one of the funniest episodes of the series which is kind of amazing for the subject matter. I hope this episode is remembered long from now for being the only kids cartoon ever to feature Hitler getting a wedgie if nothing else...

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