Phoebe's Little Problem / Grandpa's Packard (Hey Arnold Season 5 Episode 14) - 'Toon Reviews 34

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Phoebe’s Little Problem

It’s times like this when I’m grateful that I review the series in production order as opposed to airing order.  You see, the cartoons of this episode are the final ones to air, even though they were not meant to be.  The unfortunate thing about them is that one of them is the series at its most immature as well as one of its most uncomfortable works. 

It focuses on Phoebe on her way to receive an award for perfect attendance, but just so happens to eat a whole tin of prune cookies on her way there.  This sets into motion the driving force of the cartoon’s conflict. 

When she gets the award, Phoebe expresses gratitude for the kindness and support from all her peers at PS 118.  These feelings soon become compromised with what happens next.  Because of the prunes, she ends up letting out a fart, and is holding the microphone near her backside making it stand out even more to the audience.  After that, it’s nothing but laughter and scorn from the entire PS 118 student body with Phoebe suffering through it all. 

Right here is where the discomfort abounds with all of Phoebe’s hardships being over a fart.  Never mind that the story is working off of something unpleasant that sounds weird and smells bad, but it’s simply well below the standards of the series.  Nearly everyone laughing at Phoebe for that fart just feels so dumb and juvenile.  As is often pointed out, as unpleasant as farts are, they are still a natural part of life, so why laugh at one?  Heck, even the cafeteria people treat it as a big deal by dropping suggestions over what Phoebe should eat which makes everyone laugh even more.  This wouldn’t be such a big deal if it was forgotten about after one day, which it should, but it’s not so easily forgotten.  The students may be young, but this is still one of their less tolerable moments. 

To the story’s credit, there are heavy repercussions to this teasing with Phoebe legitimately not wanting to go back to school again because of it.  Despite how serious this outcome is, it’s practically disturbing that when the students hear of this, they have to be bribed into trying to get Phoebe to come back.  Mr. Simmons’ class goes to Phoebe’s to comfort her, but the following sequence offers anything but comfort.  A student goes in to cheer Phoebe up, they do a good job, but then they just have to mess it up by saying the wrong thing. 

Only Arnold is able to tell Phoebe what she needs to hear; if she can’t face this embarrassing moment, she can’t face anything in life.  This is all good, but it feels like it’s out of obligation for Arnold to give the advice because it’s what he does.  This could have been a good opportunity for other characters to show the depths to their relationship with Phoebe.  Helga could have gotten her out of her funk since she is known for being a good friend to her.  The cartoon also could have been explicit with her crush on Gerald for once by having him make her feel better. I mean this is the last season after all. 

Either way, Phoebe returns to school triumphantly declaring she’s not going to let the fart get in the way of her life again.  However, another embarrassing moment takes its place when the students end up laughing at Harold wetting himself.  He had it coming since he did start the teasing, but it doesn’t feel right that Phoebe fiendishly enjoys his suffering, making her no better than everyone else. 

For relying too much on gross humor and starring a fickle cast, it’s no doubt kind of sad that this cartoon is one of the last seen works of the show for many years.  Good thing the fact is that this isn’t the true finale.

D

Grandpa’s Packard

Though this cartoon’s companion is an embarrassing work in every sense of the word, this one has a lot of the charms most would expect from the series.  For that, it’s much more acceptable that it’s part of the last episode people saw of the series for 13 years. 

It’s somewhat of a period piece with an old-school setup, running with conventions of detective movies that were probably all the rage in Grandpa and Grandma’s youth.  The story has Grandpa take advantage of his prized car known as a Packard.  He enlists it in an automobile show where he competes alongside the cars of many shady figures seen throughout the series, including his rival Rex Smythe-Higgins.  There isn’t much competition between these egos as Grandpa easily wins over them all. 

Shortly after this, he’s met by a woman in an exotic foreign attire called Ivana Divancevic. She offers to take pictures of the Packard and send them to where Grandpa lives later.  There’s something suspicious to all this though, as would typically be the case with random people asking for addresses.  This move comes with consequences as the next morning, Grandpa finds his prize-winning Packard missing, and he practically goes into mourning over it. 

Out of this direction comes a big air of mystery as Grandma, in her ever-versatile mindset, takes on the role of a detective.  This in turn gives the cartoon a feel of 1940s detective or film noir movies in all her mannerisms and approaches to talking with others be they her assistant or the suspects.  The atmosphere is felt when they drop in on the most likely suspects, the contestants of the car show.  It turns out that every one of them has an alibi and had nothing to do with the theft. 

Also keeping it fun are a few 40s references allowing the mystery to feel like a period piece.  Grandma calls herself Spade, as a reference to Sam Spade, and refers to Arnold as Marlowe, or Philip Marlowe.  When investigating a scarf like the one Ivana has, they run into a store owner modeled after Peter Lorre, accent and all.  To make the references even more credible, this particular one is the biggest break in the case. 

Arnold and Grandma are led to Ivana’s home where they find a red Packard, but are quick to suspect that it’s actually Grandpa’s Packard painted over.  In a few scenes, they also figure out a few clues on the inside like a radio stuck on one particular station, and a bottle cap with a message that was left behind.  Such inspection of clues adds further authenticity to the mystery.  Ivana soon busts them resulting in a climax very in line with 40s detective films. There’s a battle with a red paint shooter as if it were a rifle, and Arnold and Grandma are saved by a sudden appearance of Grandpa.  He ends up revealing that Ivana was actually the Jolly Olly Man in disguise, acting out of rage over a bad day which includes Grandpa accidentally running him off the road.  That demented ice cream man should be lucky that the only charges Grandpa offers is that he make the Packard green again.  When you put everything together, you can’t help but feel that the outcome of the mystery was pretty easy to see with the clues and the suspicions of Ivana. 

Nevertheless, this is one of the freshest and most interesting outings with Arnold’s grandparents.

A

The Ranking

1.      Arnold Visits Arnie

2.      Chocolate Boy

3.      Beaned

4.      Helga’s Locket

5.      The Racing Mule

6.      On the Lam

7.      Ghost Bride

8.      Grandpa’s Packard

9.      Ernie in Love

10.  Rhonda Goes Broke

11.  Sid and Germs

12.  Family Man

13.  Phoebe Breaks a Leg

14.  Rich Guy

15.  Principal Simmons

16.  Harold vs Patty

17.  Fishing Trip

18.  Sid the Vampire Slayer

19.  Old Iron Man

20.  Gerald’s Game

21.  Suspended

22.  Stuck in a Tree

23.  Big Sis

24.  Gerald vs Jamie O

25.  New Bully on the Block

26.  Phoebe’s Little Problem

27.  Curly’s Girl

28.  Bag of Money

 

 

 

 

 

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode with Mr. Simmons' class getting filmed for a documentary, and Big Bob has a crisis that completely changes his lifestyle.

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