Monday, April 8, 2019

Helga's Masquerade / Mr. Green Runs (Hey Arnold Season 4 Episode 17) - 'Toon Reviews 28

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Helga’s Masquerade

Although it’s part of Helga’s nature to cover up her true self with mean behavior, there are times where she acknowledges that being nicer can benefit her.  This cartoon presents her best effort at showing kindness as learned from who is arguably the most overly kind character in the cast, Lila. 
The fact that Arnold is so interested in her and is always trying to get her to like him-like him is the biggest reason why Helga feels the need to get good behavior lessons from her.  I do have to question why Helga isn’t being openly honest about why she wants Lila to train her.  It’s been established that Lila knows that Helga’s in love with Arnold and is willing to comply with Helga’s plans to get together with him.  If this wasn’t the case, then it would make more sense for Helga to not be open about why she wants to learn kindness. 
This is just a minor detail, and what follows nicely reflects Helga’s change in behavior.  She’s under the impression that good behavior is like an art with concise steps to follow which she’s always jotting down notes of.  When trying them out at first, the results are quite laughable.  Her efforts at the steps are clear, but she ends up ruining their appeal with insults that don’t feel genuine but do leave an awkward sting.  Giving into taunts and insults cements this first attempt as a failure.  It’s only through spending more one-on-one time with Lila that gets Helga to truly understand kindness, not necessarily in its own strategical way, but through basically copying Lila.  Testing her behavior again works this time, but it’s basically a spitting image of Lila’s typical mannerisms.  Helga even has a higher, kinder tone of voice like Lila’s. 
However, Helga’s form of kindness doesn’t stop there.  There’s a costume party going on during the weekend, and she has an interesting choice what she’s going as.  To Helga, it’s not enough to act like Lila to win over Arnold.  She has to look like her too, and coming to the party in a costume of someone the kids know well really makes her stand out from the crowd.  This move even gives Helga the results she wanted.  Because she looks like Lila, someone Arnold like-likes, he spends much of the party hanging out with her.  They have conversations, offer food to each other, and get in on the party games. 
This is the kind of bonding with Arnold that Helga’s always been after, but others are quick to point out the catch.  Arnold tries to explain that he’s hanging out with Helga because of how she’s acting, but is told that he’s doing it because she looks like Lila.  This suggestion proves true when he actually calls Helga Lila at one point.  The real kicker is when Helga removes her costume and drops the phony kindness act, and Arnold doesn’t seem interested in being with her anymore.  It brings a somber tone that even if Helga’s true to herself, like she should be, she may never win over Arnold. 
Thankfully there is hope to be gained from this when Arnold tells Lila that for all of Helga’s meanness, there are times when she can be nice like tonight.  This not only shows that good nature was inside Helga all along, but that there is progress in Arnold liking her for who she is and that’s good enough for Helga. 
This leaves the cartoon as an interesting strategy for Helga to get somewhere in her desired relationship telling a universal message in a creative way.

A

Mr. Green Runs

Mr. Green is one of the more memorable business owners in the cast, but the stories he’s given don’t present him as more than just the neighborhood butcher.  Working in this cartoon’s favor is an opportunity to open up a new outlet on his life, showing that people from humble upbringings can accomplish great things. 
He shows great concern for the well-being of the neighborhood he lives in, particularly with a huge gaping pothole in front of his shop.  It’s honestly hard to miss it from its size, and it causes frequent commotion.  Along with Arnold, Mr. Green goes to the city’s official council building to talk with the head Councilman, Gladhand. 
Right off the bat, it’s painfully obvious that Gladhand is no-good when it comes to running the city council.  He’s constantly off on important “lunches” even though it’s long after lunchtime and shows no interest in concerns that the populace has to share.  He does ultimately listen to Mr. Green’s concerns, but even when he says he’ll fix the pothole in front of the store, his efforts are extremely minimal.  All he does is place a single board over it, and that turns out to be not enough to stop catastrophes from happening.  In fact, the board leads to an even crazier turn of events when not only does a car fall in, but it causes another car to drive over it and crash into an electricity pole causing a blackout. 
It’s at this point when Mr. Green is moved to take the ultimate stand by running for city council against Gladhand in an election.  Just from one passionate speech about the well-being of his neighborhood, his potential is undeniably clear.  Even with the great support of the town and a strong campaign from Arnold, Mr. Green is unsure of trying his hand at politics.  I could say that there’s no need to feel this way given how confident he was in his push for improving the neighborhood, but the fact is being a butcher is what he’s better at.  Even if he has potential, that doesn’t rule out being nervous about something he’s very new at. 
Truth be told, his efforts are nothing against Gladhand who leads in the polls.  By the way, with how uncaring he is for his people yet still having enough supporters, I’d say Gladhand is pretty ahead of his time when it comes to our future government officials.  Anyway, because of his status, Mr. Green tries to be more like Gladhand to improve his chances. This practice proves to be way too awkward to help his cause because he doesn’t understand the words he uses.  It only takes one talk from Arnold that following Gladhand’s ways should never have been an option, and Mr. Green should promote himself by being true to himself.  This may sound like a basic moral, but being true to oneself is the best advice for people of all ages, inspirational even. 
This story proves it when Mr. Green wins over the public again by equating the city to a big slice of meat.  His popularity is so clear, that a scene of Gladhand trying to get Arnold to get Mr. Green to drop out of the race if he fixes the one pothole feels pointless.  Arnold doesn’t even have anything to gain from this.  The pointless tone really proves itself when Mr. Green wins the council position with no trouble at all in the end.  It’s an obvious ending, but it comes off as inspiring of saying that anyone, no matter where they come from, has potential to reach great heights in life.  Maybe it would shine more if Mr. Green’s councilman position was shown more after this, but as this cartoon stands, it's still a very good starring role for him.

A-

The Ranking

1.      Helga Sleepwalks

2.      Monkeyman!

3.      Veterans Day

4.      Buses, Bikes, and Subways

5.      Headless Cabbie

6.      Grandpa’s Sister

7.      Back to School

8.      Helga’s Parrot

9.      Oskar Can’t Read?

10.  Dinner for Four

11.  The Beeper Queen

12.  Helga’s Masquerade

13.  Stinky’s Pumpkin

14.  It Girl

15.  Polishing Rhonda

16.  Baby Oskar

17.  Synchronized Swimming

18.  Weighing Harold

19.  Big Gino

20.  Mr. Green Runs

21.  Chocolate Turtles

22.  Friday the 13th

23.  Grudge Match

24.  Fighting Families

25.  Phoebe Skips

26.  Eugene’s Birthday

27.  Weird Cousin

28.  Egg Story

29.  Student Teacher

30.  Love and Cheese

31.  Jamie O in Love

32.  Deconstructing Arnold

33.  Full Moon


The next Hey Arnold review has Helga take up therapy where everything known about her makes for a truly complex character study, maybe even one of the strongest in all of animation.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the third part 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.

1 comment:

  1. I know Arnold did at least acknowledge Helga's effort at kindness (albeit a false effort), but the way that scene showed him brushing her off after the costume change wasn't executed as smoothly as I would've liked. If anything, it made him look like a jerk who only valued Helga for her Lila-imitation. I know he said it was getting cold outside, but he could've invited her inside, or something. Anything but make that transition look like Arnold's a shallow twat. Oh well.

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