Helga's Locket / Sid and Germs (Hey Arnold Season 5 Episode 6) - 'Toon Reviews 34

If you like this review and want to stay updated for what else I have in store, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter. Now on with today's review:

Helga’s Locket

By the sound of the title of this cartoon, you have to wonder why the show is making it about Helga’s prized heart-shaped locket with Arnold’s picture inside at this point.  I mean, she’s had it ever since the beginning, and the title makes it seem like she’s getting it for the first time.  The best thing making this work is that this locket gets a new inscription on the inside which, as usual, describes her intense love and affection for Arnold.  This factor being enough to justify the locket being at the forefront, the plot can officially unfold as another one about Helga’s crazy attempts to keep her crush secret. 

Just after she gets her newly inscribed locket, she’s persuaded to worship Arnold from afar on his fire escape.  While doing so, she drops the locket which gets caught by Arnold’s pet pig, Abner, who, in accordance with acting like a dog, brings it over to Grandpa.  He sees the heart-shaped locket of Arnold as an anniversary gift from Grandma, and instantly treasures it.  Arnold, however, insists that they should just replace the picture of him with one of Grandma, despite how much Grandpa likes the locket as it is.  Either way, it brings up a strong possibility of the locket being open, and Helga’s secret being exposed.  For that, she once again must infiltrate the boarding house to steal the locket back without anyone knowing.  Yes, Helga being led to do this is nothing new, but it’s entertaining every time, mostly from whatever she gets up to while sneaking about.

This also goes for the crazy stunts to get back what’s hers undercover.  Some of them aren’t that elaborate like trying to simply take it when Grandpa has his back turned or when he’s asleep.  Such elaborate tactics do exist in plenty of other places though like using a magnet to fish it off his neck, or wearing a phony disguise to convince Grandpa it’s worth millions.  These are the types of schemes that suit the comedic appeal of how far Helga is willing to go retain her secret.  The actual plans are highly creative and take the audience in with how hard it is to maintain a role resulting in a last ditch effort to break character. 

There’s also overdramatic staging to Helga’s schemes when one of schemes to take the locket from Arnold’s room takes so long she’s forced to hide on the roof.  It’s capped off by Grandpa coming up to take the locket back leading to Helga screaming in the rain over it as if something truly horrible has happened.  At one point, she even considers giving up and letting her secret be revealed and accepting possible ridicule, highlighting specific reasons she hides these things from the outside world. 

She goes through with getting her locket back anyway though and as the cartoon ends, she succeeds just as Arnold and Grandpa finally get it opened.  However, she escapes with it just after they agree only a crazy person would want to steal such a thing.  Really even if there is deep reasons for Helga’s love for Arnold, there’s no denying that crazy is a good word to describe her.  That’s why even though her undercover stunts to keep her love secret have been done before, they’re some of the most enjoyable times had in the series.

A+

Sid and Germs

I’ve made it clear that I’m not a fan of Sid and his tendencies to overreact to anything and everything.  He can get really overbearing and lack all sense of logic starring the audience right in the face.  For that his material is seen as very dumb and frustrating to sit through.  Heck, sometimes it can get outright bad.  Regarding this cartoon, while he does still overreact, there is at least the slightest bit of weight to his paranoia. 

The opening establishes him as a very skilled frog catcher which the fourth graders need in a contest.  He’s even revealed to have his own pet frog, and little scenes throughout the cartoon demonstrate their care for each other.  Still, this is not the most sanitary activity, especially from the looks of it.  This sets up the story to have Sid fear the health ramifications of not just frog-catching, but his entire daily life. 

The next day, he and the rest of the class see a film about health, the biggest takeaway being how germs are basically on every surface imaginable.  Germs soon become Sid’s major paranoia for the cartoon.  Unlike most of his freak-outs though, there is the slightest good reason to be concerned.  Germs really can get you sick, or worse, especially at a young age.  That’s the best reason to consider making sure to take good care of oneself. 

Sid actually does have a few good measures to stay healthy like keeping his food covered, using disinfectant on surfaces like his desk, and cleaning out his room.  True, his approaches start going too far when he comes to school in a diving suit and starts ripping out everything he considers germ-ridden in school, but his intentions still exist.  He only truly goes too far when his fears of germs interfere with other people’s business such as throwing out Harold’s lunch because it fell on the floor.  That alone is enough to see something wrong with his extreme measures.  At times, you have to wonder why he never gets that he can just wash germs away with soap and water or that some germs are necessary to keep immune systems active.

The only sense of reason given to him is that he’s giving up everything he loves because of this unnecessary fear, and his bond with his pet frog has the most weight to that.  That said, the claim that the world is full of germs and he can’t get rid of them all only leads to a dimly staged eerie dream sequence.  With a pale light illuminating everything, the fright factor is realized as every area of Sid’s room fills with germs represented as green bugs.  The words of being unable to get rid of them all in mind, his cleaning does nothing as the spokesman in the health video explains.  To seal the fright factor, no one can here Sid’s calls for help and he’s eventually consumed by the innumerable germs.  Scary dreams sequences are nothing new, but this one not holding back is perhaps the best way to bring Sid back to his senses.  In fact, I don’t think any prior paranoia was resolved with a dream, so that makes this resolution stand out all the more. 

So, Sid reunites with his frog and honors his frog catching team by scoring victory in the contest seemingly having a better understanding of germs.  He is still overboard with ridiculousness at times and his claims may not have the strongest merit given his attitude for the most of the cartoon, but it doesn’t sting that much.  With an understandable circumstance being the reason for his extreme behavior, this is one of Sid’s smarter works that most others don’t even come close to.

A-

The Ranking

1.      Helga’s Locket

2.      Rhonda Goes Broke

3.      Sid and Germs

4.      Phoebe Breaks a Leg

5.      Principal Simmons

6.      Fishing Trip

7.      Sid the Vampire Slayer

8.      Gerald’s Game

9.      Stuck in a Tree

10.  Big Sis

11.  New Bully on the Block

12.  Bag of Money

 

 

The next Hey Arnold review covers a new beginning to Arnold and Helga's relationship when he accidentally beans her with a baseball, and we finally meet Grandpa's old friend Jimmy Kafka.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the return of Xiaolin Showdown with a look at the Season 2 premiere.

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