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Arnold
Visits Arnie
The kind of cartoons this season that remain as strong as ever are those that bring a scary
atmosphere. This cartoon fits that
category.
It all begins when Arnold
announces to his friends that he’s going out of town to visit his cousin Arnie. Most everyone is practically disturbed that
he’s even considering the visit mostly because of his weird behaviors. Normally I’d call this inconsiderate, but
considering his last appearance, it really feels like there’s no heart or good
reason for Arnie’s ways. His rude
manners, disturbing ways of talking to people, and showings of his weird
collections portray him as unsettling and he doesn’t seem to care. Still Arnold plans to go visit because he’s
family.
It isn’t long before he arrives
at Arnie’s hometown, and his cousin’s mannerisms are ever prominent. However, this isn’t all as Arnie shows him
around his town, showcasing how his nature is inherent of everyone there and
not through acting like him. You see,
Arnie is much like a splitting image of Arnold, looking just like him but is
unsanitary, unfriendly, and dull whereas he’s friendly and fun to be
around. This is true of the other kids
Arnold meets. They’re all doppelgangers,
or doubles, of kids he knows marked by similar-sounding names with their
personalities swapped with someone else’s.
Some of their personalities are exaggerated to an unprecedented
degree. Lila’s doppelganger, Lulu, is
Arnie’s girlfriend, but rather than being overly nice and doesn’t like-like
Arnold, she’s not only into him, but is also a total creep. She harasses Arnold by flirting with him
despite him constantly telling her to stop.
Other doppelgangers merely follow the convention of swapping
personalities. Stinky’s doppelganger is
smart while Phoebe’s doppelganger is a dumb country kid. Gerald’s doppelganger is paranoid while Sid’s
doppelganger is chill. Harold’s
doppelganger is an uptight neat freak while Rhonda’s doppelganger is a slob.
Then there’s Helga’s doppelganger, Hilda,
which reveals interesting inner workings of Arnold’s mindset. While Lulu, standing in for Lila, represents
the girl Arnold has a crush on, she’s not respecting him. Hilda, this warped version of Helga, is much
nicer and even poetic. This is all it
takes for Arnold to start getting interested in her. The thing is that these traits are inherent
of the real Helga, but she doesn’t show them.
It’s a sign that she and Arnold really could be a good couple if they
did.
As for now, something still doesn’t
seem right because Hilda thinks nothing of Arnold’s gestures of affection, and
shows more attention to Arnie. Later,
she reveals that Arnie’s the one she’s far more interested in. Then comes the real creepy part as Arnie
accuses Arnold of coming to steal his girlfriend. While there’s confusion over who he’s talking
about, Arnold doesn’t have time to process this as all the doppelgangers come
to watch his cousin fight him like it’s part of a scary movie.
Before things can get really bad though, Arnold
discovers that the whole thing is just a dream and becomes relieved to find all
his friends as the way they’re supposed to be.
This includes Helga being a jerk, and he accepts who she really is rather than who
he dreams of her to be. Ultimately he
does nothing about actually visiting Arnie, making for a hard truth that some
people who act weird really are too weird to be around, even if they are
family. There’s certainly a lot of
interesting elements that unfold in a world that seems familiar but also not
right making for an unforgettable experience.
A+
Chocolate
Boy
The
most unique takes on life issues come from animation, especially when they’re
through elements of childhood. When done
well, the audience can get the idea of the issue while also finding intrigue in
how it comes from something so common to people in the youthful stage of life.
There has been a character who’s a stand in
for addicts called Chocolate Boy. However,
this is the first time his addiction to the popular confectionary
is brought to the forefront. He’s not
like your average kid who merely enjoys it; he’s practically obsessed with it,
acting like a feral animal just to get some.
As you can see, the cartoon goes all out with putting the addiction in
chocolate addiction.
His weird
mannerisms become the target of ridicule for other characters, namely Wolfgang
the fifth grader. He bribes Chocolate
Boy with a huge bag of chocolate if he can go without it for two weeks. Chocolate Boy approaches Arnold for help who
thinks him going without chocolate for two weeks means he’s trying to break the
addiction for good. It’s clear to see
how visibly hard it is for Chocolate Boy to avoid the food that makes up his
name, as would be the case for any addict.
He experiences strange behaviors, talks nonsense, and looks for anything
to work as a chocolate substitute, including ants. Plus, he’s hounded by a particular
pointy-noised fifth grader just to make sure he doesn’t break his end of the
bargain.
Chocolate Boy only stops these
behaviors when the two weeks are up and Wolfgang offers the big bag. Since Chocolate Boy is basically back to his
old ways, Arnold is disturbed that he was only letting go of chocolate as part
of a bet, and rightfully so. Chocolate
Boy had a good opportunity to adopt a healthier attitude and went through that
entire practice just to hold one off even longer.
Thankfully, being called out slowly gets
Chocolate Boy to realize what’s wrong with how he leads his life. After eating the big bag, he’s put through
pathetic tortures dancing for malted milk balls, and he’s digging in a dumpster
just to find discarded chocolate.
Such
embarrassment and unhealthy practices lead him back to Arnold with help on
really breaking the habit, and Arnold pulls out the big guns. He shows a slide show of how chocolate
addictions can ruin your health and bring a life of crime. There’s also a sauna session for Chocolate
Boy to sweat out all chocolate from his system, which could work, but since
he’s only a first grader, he doesn’t get it.
Then following a few gags of attempts at finding a vegetable to serve as
a chocolate substitute, Chocolate Boy is at his most endearing.
With coaxing from Arnold, he explains that he
first got chocolate from his nanny, someone he really loved. That all changed when she left for some
unknown reason, and gorging on chocolate is the only way Chocolate Boy can feel
connected with her. The following scene
of him breaking down to Arnold on how much he misses his nanny seals the
emotional weight of Chocolate Boy’s background.
However, there’s a healthy resolution as Arnold convinces Chocolate Boy
to end the addiction not just for him, but for the sake of his nanny to let her
know he’s good and happy. Sure enough,
it all works as Chocolate Boy is true to his vow and stops eating
chocolate. However, he’s now stuck on
the healthier substitute, radishes.
Still, an addiction is an addiction and it’s clear he’ll need more
help.
Either way, creative staging makes
for not just an interesting look into addictions, but also an emotionally heavy
chocolate-coated one as well.
A+
The Ranking
1. Arnold Visits Arnie
2. Chocolate Boy
3. Beaned
4. Helga’s Locket
5. Ghost Bride
6. Ernie in Love
7. Rhonda Goes Broke
8. Sid and Germs
9. Phoebe Breaks a Leg
10. Principal Simmons
11. Fishing Trip
12. Sid the Vampire Slayer
13. Old Iron Man
14. Gerald’s Game
15. Suspended
16. Stuck in a Tree
17. Big Sis
18. Gerald vs Jamie O
19. New Bully on the Block
20. Bag of Money
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Harold is teased for being beaten by Big Patty in arm wrestling because she's a girl, and Arnold gets to hang out with a rich guy.
If you would like to check out other Hey Arnold reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
Ahhhhh, sweet validation. Helga on the Couch, Parents Day, Arnold's Christmas, etc... they're all great but in my humble opinion THIS... this is Hey Arnold! at its finest (well, of the 11 minute stories, anyway). This was the episode that struck me the most as a kid, because beyond the eerie Twin Peaks-esque atmosphere (when I first revisited this episode as an adult I kind of expected to see David Lynch credited somewhere... but no), there is a LOT to read into with Arnold Visits Arnie.
ReplyDeleteI could honestly go on for hours about this one… I’ve read some pretty in depth fan analyses on it and the layers to this one are many and fascinating. It kind of blew my mind as a kid with its implications about Arnold’s psyche, even if I didn’t fully get it yet. Since this is all a dream coming from his subconscious thoughts and feelings, it blew my young mind when he instantly fell in love with ‘Hilda.’ Up until that point I never really thought that Arnold shared Helga’s feelings in the slightest, but that made me realize HOLY CRAP HE’S IN LOVE WITH HER TOO, HE JUST DOESN’T REALIZE IT YET. And the way Hilda just abruptly disappears and the scene suddenly changes from heartache to horror makes the whole dream sequence feel accurately dreamlike. This one may not be the most emotionally heavy HA! episode, but it does always leave me with a strong mix of fear, sadness and also hopefulness at the end, so it does work effectively.
Well, that’s the review I’ve been waiting for. I look forward to the rest of course but I’m glad this one got the love it deserved.
Oh, and Chocolate Boy is a great one too... just not quite as multi-layered and fascinating as the former.
I just realized that the episode Chocolate Boy has basically the same plot as Oscar Can't Read. Both Oskar and Chocolate Boy ask Arnold to help them with something in order to get something out of it (Oskar learning to read so he can win a bet with Ernie and Mr. Hyunh, Chocolate Boy asking Arnold to help them not eat chocolate for 2 weeks so he can get a 10 lb bag of chocolate at the end of that period), only for both of them to realize what they really need and the next time they ask Arnold, they're serious about it.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't necessarily say animation has the most unique takes on life issues, especially with how limited the medium can be. Take Chocolate Boy for instance, who would go on to return to his addiction for chocolate after this episode, because status quo is king in animation. The only animation that has ever broken this curse, AFAIK, are BoJack Horseman and, to a far lesser extent, Futurama. This results in some pretty generic and predictable overarching storytelling in an animated series, something live action series that delve into life issues (like Mad Men or even Fresh Prince of Bel Air) would have an easier time handling.
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of story driven shows that change and evolve the worlds, and develop characters significantly, trumping the Status Quo is God trope. I've even reviewed shows like that such as Steven Universe, Amphibia, The Owl House, and OK K.O.
DeleteThere's also plenty of other shows that constantly change the status quo I haven't reviewed (Avatar: The Last Airbender is a particularly big example.)
I think you misinterpreted my comment. I meant that Hey Arnold stuck to the status quo and thus suffered for it; I wasn't supporting status quo in animation, I was using its presence to discredit animation as a medium. Note how I mentioned that Chocolate Boy returned to his status quo after this episode.
DeleteI do agree that status quo limits animation's potential, but I was saying that there are still plenty of shows that don't hold itself down to the status quo other than Hey Arnold, and the shows you mentioned are not the ONLY ones that do it. And as for Chocolate Boy, at least his appearances after this are cameos in the background and clearly not the focus of the scene. It's at its most blatant in The Jungle Movie, but it's kind of ok there since the show hadn't produced material in a long time, so it would be necessary to stick to familiarity so people would know who the character is. Though I guess showing Chocolate Boy with radishes would have been a much more clever reference.
DeleteI still don't agree that animation has the MOST unique take on life, certainly not any more than live action - at least, not American animation anyway as they tend to target younger demographics even in 2023, thus further limiting the medium. Japanese anime though is an entirely different story.
Delete