Monday, April 15, 2019

Dino Checks Out (Hey Arnold Season 4 Episode 19) - 'Toon Reviews 28

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Dino Checks Out

Stories about professional singer, Dino Spumoni, may be few, but they’re some of the most fascinating and classy works of the show.  Coming from a series starring kids and adults common to ordinary life, a lounge singer with a mid-life crisis really stands out.  Plus, his music styles are a nice break from the norm, hence the atmosphere he brings.  Put together, all of Dino’s starring roles amount to an interesting look at his rise and fall of fame.  He started off strong and loving his singing career.  Then, things got complicated through tensions with his lyricist and failed attempts to keep sales up.  It’s a pretty relatable look at what many in the entertainment industry face, and an interesting driving force for this half-hour special. 
It’s reported that Dino was lost at sea and is later confirmed dead, an emotional undertone with a believable execution.  Like most famous people from back in the day, there’s a news report recounting his life around the time of the announcement.  It mostly explains what’s known about Dino, but elaborates it more than ever, especially through how bad his later years turned out, including a reveal of many failed marriages.  This tone is followed up on by scenes of a funeral, not holding back on the depressing atmosphere with many people talking about Dino, and making sure respect is paid.  Speaking of respect, for a singer with a failed career and marriage, it’s astonishing how broken up people are by his loss.  Now, since he was always a big support to him, Arnold is easily the most broken up by the loss.  Scenes of him walking around all sad and being reminded of the death perfectly reflect what it feels like to think of the loss of a good friend. 
After such a tactful tone to the subject of loss, Arnold finds that Dino Spumoni is actually alive, and faked his death as a last-ditch attempt to boost his sales.  Trusting Arnold to cash any potential checks, he secretly moves into the boarding house where he got started, and everyone’s eccentric enough to think he’s a ghost.  It’s a crazy scheme for sure, but it adds a lot to Dino’s character for getting this convoluted to recreate the good old days.  Simply cooking up new songs on his off hours like when he got started is practically the most joy he’s gotten in ages.  Through it all, Arnold’s legit claims of the amorality of this act and that Dino can’t perform these songs live because he’s dead don’t faze him. 
What does faze Dino comes in an interesting direction.  Someone puts on an act featuring covers of Dino’s old songs while preferring to be called Dino, and he’s praised for all this with highly anticipated concerts.  He’s even shown to find great happiness in Dino’s old life by moving into the real Dino’s mansion, and even dating his most recent ex-wife.  It’s here where the real Dino realizes that his life really wasn’t as washed up as he thought it was.  This revelation brings a grand finale where during a performance of the fake Dino, he knocks the singer out, and reveals the truth to the audience.  He understands that what he did was wrong, but through a gradual applause that starts with Arnold and is followed by the entire audience, Dino truly does have loyal fans.  His final performance of a new song “Don’t Count Me Out” is a catchy as usual work of his that nicely reflects his arc in this special and is sure to remain in one’s head for life. 
Interesting things are done with Dino Spumoni here.  Through looking into his background, the reactions to his supposed death, and reminders that he can be relevant after all, this is one impactful show business story.
A+

The Ranking

1.      Helga on the Couch

2.      Helga Sleepwalks

3.      Monkeyman!

4.      Veterans Day

5.      Dino Checks Out

6.      Buses, Bikes, and Subways

7.      Headless Cabbie

8.      Grandpa’s Sister

9.      Back to School

10.  Helga’s Parrot

11.  Oskar Can’t Read?

12.  Dinner for Four

13.  The Beeper Queen

14.  Helga’s Masquerade

15.  Stinky’s Pumpkin

16.  It Girl

17.  Polishing Rhonda

18.  Baby Oskar

19.  Synchronized Swimming

20.  Weighing Harold

21.  Big Gino

22.  Mr. Green Runs

23.  Chocolate Turtles

24.  Friday the 13th

25.  Grudge Match

26.  Fighting Families

27.  Phoebe Skips

28.  Eugene’s Birthday

29.  Weird Cousin

30.  Egg Story

31.  Student Teacher

32.  Love and Cheese

33.  Jamie O in Love

34.  Deconstructing Arnold

35.  Full Moon
 
The last review for Hey Arnold Season 4 is a wholesome beach story that does a lot of justice for the featured characters.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is Part 4 of the "Super DuckTales" arc.
If you would like to check out other Hey Arnold reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

2 comments:

  1. Y'know, I used to consider season 3 kind of where the show peaked in terms of consistently great episodes, and after there were always like five to ten episodes like "Full Moon" for every one "Helga on the Couch," but after reading the sheer number of glowing reviews for episodes from season 4... I gotta go back and watch a lot of these. I may have been wrong...

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    Replies
    1. Season 4 does have a lot of groan-worthy episodes where characters feel out-of-character and inconsistent (Miriam is a big one, though her inconsistency has been present throughout all seasons).

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