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Monkeyman!
Some of this show’s most interesting stories are those that explore
urban legends or eccentric figures in the main city setting. They may lead strange unusual lives, but
their stories show that for all their off-the-wall customs, they’re still human
like anyone else. For this figure, he’s
been making short random appearances running down the street shouting
“Monkeyman!” ever since the show’s beginning.
However, only now are we getting a cartoon exploring his background and
developing his character.
For one thing,
we start off by seeing that there’s more to his usual shouts than one would
expect. Arnold once again gets mugged,
and Monkeyman rushes in to set him free and chase down the thugs. Naturally, this strange person everyone knows
little about saving him is a big topic of discussion among Arnold’s friends. While most of them talk about how crazy this
occurrence is, Arnold simply wants to find Monkeyman so he can thank him.
It takes a lot of waiting, but Arnold does
eventually catch sight of Monkeyman where even more of his customs reveal
themselves. He’s a grown man living a
literal childish fantasy, treating a bunch of cardboard boxes as an actual
superhero lair. That’s not even
mentioning deliberately living like a monkey, mostly through eating nothing but
bananas and frequently adding the word “Monkeyman” to all his sentences. Basically, he’s so fixated on his love for
monkeys and his superhero persona that he doesn’t really engage in the real
world.
Even with these social issues,
there’s very much an endearing and relatable reason for them. Monkeyman’s fascination with monkeys was
innocent enough in his childhood years where he spent a lot of time watching
monkeys at the zoo, though this got him teased by bullies. One day, he decided to fight back against them,
and that convinced him to become a superhero full time, protecting the helpless
and downtrodden. His behavior may not be
the most ethical, but it’s hard to fault the big reason for their
existence. It’s a result of personal
growth towards standing up to oppressors.
Even so, it’s good for Monkeyman’s sake that Arnold’s thanking him
involves showing him parts of the outside world he’s been missing out on. They start as simple gestures like dinner and
a banana split dessert, but then Monkeyman himself wants to experience more
things. Surprisingly, they turn out to
be high class activities like fancy clothes, art museums, and operas suggesting
he’s aware of how eccentric his superhero customs are. He even constantly has to stop himself from
uttering “Monkeyman” while in his fancy getup and suggests letting the police
take care of all crimes.
Of course, not
taking matters into his own hands leads to bad outcomes. Not only does Sid get mugged and lose his
prized Beatle boots, but it happens right in front of the opera house Monkeyman
is at. He doesn’t notice or help in the
crime, and ends up berated by Sid for it.
However, Arnold still knows that Monkeyman is a good civilian, and he
convinces him to not abandon his superhero work over one mistake. That’s one of the best and most refreshing pieces
of advice for anyone, and there’s effectiveness to it when Arnold sees
Monkeyman got the Beatle boots back at the end.
This cartoon further highlights the show’s strength of showcasing the
humanity of anyone daring to be different from the majority of society.
A+
Buses,
Bikes, and Subways
This is one of the show’s best-constructed stories, priding
itself on crazy challenges to overcome made believable by two dynamic
characters living through them.
It
starts out on a promising note with the class going on a fun field trip to a
chocolate factory and the look inside the place lives up to its potential for
excitement. Circumstances get in the way
of everyone spending the whole day there when the child stand-in for addicts,
Chocolate Boy, stows away to go on the trip without permission. There’s no other choice but to cut the field
trip short to get Chocolate Boy back to school.
This is good news for Helga who was never up for the field trip, and is
much more excited for going to a wrestling match that night. When everyone is getting on the bus, she’s
keen for everyone to make it, so she goes back for Harold, who’s loving the
field trip by eating tons of chocolate.
This act makes them both miss the bus, so Helga and Harold now have to
find a way to get home themselves.
If
their views on the field trip weren’t obvious enough, the heart of the story is
how two radically different characters, Helga and Harold, work off each
other. They may have tough exteriors, but
they think differently. Helga is easily
frustrated with getting back for her wrestling match, while Harold is overly
naïve about the decisions he makes along the way. Both characters are fully realized offering
their own experience to every challenge they run into while heading home. This is especially great because there’s
great imagination to the challenges. There’s a variety of transportation rather
than just on foot going from the subway, to a two-person bike, to a river
boat. Each encounter with different
modes of transport get creative every time.
The bike actually belongs to a circus of midget clowns, making for a
funny type of edgy when they chase Helga and Harold for stealing it. As for the boat, it belongs to that sea
captain who frequently pops up on random occasions, making for a seaworthy tone
to follow for a while.
Regarding how the
story keeps going to one creative scenario after another, it comes down to poor
decisions on Harold’s part. There’s no
exaggerating that the difficulties of the trek home are because of him. It’s hard to judge him for missing the bus
since better attendance should have been taken before it left. However, there’s no way to not fault Harold
for getting off at the wrong subway station, stealing the clown bike, and
pulling the cork from the boat. That’s
the kind of frustrating stupidity that should not be taken lightly, especially
in a bad situation.
In a smart move, the
cartoon does not do that as Helga vents out all of Harold’s bad decisions on
this day instead of accepting them, and Harold doesn’t argue. His behavior is treated like the problem it
is that needs to be worked on. In the
end, Harold does that in a moment of redemption. He ends up knowing exactly where they are,
and gets Helga to the wrestling match she’s been longing to see, putting them
both at peace.
I always love a story
with a lot of excitement to offer, and this cartoon has just that. We have two different characters
working off of each other in many creative situations, and their challenges
bring a satisfying conclusion for both of them.
A+
The Ranking
- Helga Sleepwalks
- Monkeyman!
- Veterans Day
- Buses, Bikes, and Subways
- 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 reveals that Grandpa has a sister, and Coach Wittenburg returns to take up synchronized swimming.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is Part 2 of the "Super DuckTales" arc from DuckTales.
If you would like to check out other Hey Arnold reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
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