April Fool's Day (Hey Arnold Season 5 Episode 18)

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April Fool’s Day

There’s an interesting background to the last two episodes of Season 5, both of which consist of full-length cartoons.  They basically wouldn't exist if it wasn't decided to release a TV movie of the series to theaters, but I'll get to that when the time comes.  One of the episodes is a very welcome addition to the series building upon character backgrounds and paving the way for something even bigger.  The other one, this one, is just a random escapade suggesting how desperate the show is to make a story centered on a holiday. 

It seems that it’s a drawback that comes with doing holiday specials.  It’s easy to make some out of the big meaningful ones, but since there’s so few of them, shows often have to scrape the bottom of the barrel for other holidays to capitalize on.  The thing is that the usual result is utilizing holidays that don’t have much merit for existence other than childish fun or materialism.  April Fool’s Day is one of those lesser holidays without anything meaningful to its nature.  It’s set up as a day for everyone to mess around and pull pranks, but at least in my experience, no one is really into going all out with pranks and treats it as a normal day.  At best, people make stuff up on social media to intentionally drum up excitement over lies, but that’s still not special.  In other words, April Fool’s Day feels very pointless which does not work in this special’s favor. 

Arnold actually has the most believable mindset when it comes to this holiday, not being into its spirit of pranks. His grandpa and entire school, however, treat it like a major holiday, like one most people have to celebrate.  The efforts gone into the pranks even show with rampant animals in the school halls, fabricated deaths, punching gloves springing out of lockers, and more.  I’m honestly curious to know if there are people who go this far with pranking because everyone I’ve met in life has always known not to go too far with such a thing.  From an enjoyment standpoint, a lot of the pranks are honestly pretty funny, though a lot of them are also stupid and childish as well. 

This is especially true for the pranks Helga pulls on Arnold.  While this seems in line with her usual treatment of him, her pranks on Arnold feel wrong and hard to understand.  It becomes easy to side with Arnold when he gives in and hits Helga with a powerful prank from Grandpa.  Out of a simple gift box is a blinding light, emphasis on blinding as Helga actually goes blind because of it.  This proves my point of how pranking can get out of control, which is probably why I don’t really see that in real life. It is concerning that it only happen when straight man Arnold gets involved, but thankfully Helga’s vision restores quickly. 

In the spirit of April Fool’s Day, she keeps this a secret for the intent of guilt tripping Arnold into being her slave/seeing eye dog.  It’s a lot like how she got him to serve her in “Beaned” only without any sort of charm.  Because it’s made clear that she’s faking being blind, how Helga deliberately makes Arnold tending to her difficult feels very discomforting and wrong.  Their relationship is supposed to be much stronger than this.  Worst of all, she shows delight in torturing him when she’s all by herself.  It’s like the fact that she’s rude to him a lot means she’s a standard bully to him without regard to any sort of depth to her behavior the series has continuously shown.  Disregard for development is something I find very hard to accept, especially from a show as strong as this. 

For that, when an intimate moment is set up for Arnold and Helga, it’s hard to feel happy for them like it usually is. You just feel nothing because of how Helga’s doing all this for tortures sake instead of love. It’s much more satisfying when it’s discovered that Helga was faking blindness the whole time and Arnold prepares the ultimate retaliation.  Almost as if it’s a way to turn Helga’s infatuations against her, he holds her captive in an intense tango.  Then with the aid of Sid and Stinky’s April Fools prank gone wrong, the climax stands out a lot staging wise with a pool opening up for everyone to fall into.  It’s a mildly humorous end to a prank-fueled special, even if it is at the cost of many of the series strengths.

Despite a few solid comedic moments from the April Fools’ pranks, it feels off that a show as mature as this would make a huge deal out of a holiday like this.  Going against the depth of major characters only makes the experience worse and gives a desperate impression of looking for ideas.  Still, I’m not dense enough to overlook the few fun moments from the pranks, so this isn’t exactly one of the worst works of the show, but definitely one of the most mixed.

C-

The Ranking

1.      Arnold Visits Arnie

2.      Married

3.      Chocolate Boy

4.      Beaned

5.      Helga’s Locket

6.      The Racing Mule

7.      Eugene, Eugene!

8.      On the Lam

9.      Ghost Bride

10.  Grandpa’s Packard

11.  Ernie in Love

12.  Rhonda Goes Broke

13.  Big Bob’s Crisis

14.  Timberly Loves Arnold

15.  Sid and Germs

16.  Family Man

17.  Phoebe Breaks a Leg

18.  Rich Guy

19.  Principal Simmons

20.  Harold vs Patty

21.  Fishing Trip

22.  Sid the Vampire Slayer

23.  Old Iron Man

24.  Gerald’s Game

25.  A Day in the Life of a Classroom

26.  Suspended

27.  Stuck in a Tree

28.  Big Sis

29.  April Fool’s Day

30.  Gerald vs Jamie O

31.  New Bully on the Block

32.  Phoebe’s Little Problem

33.  Curly’s Girl

34.  Bag of Money

 

 

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the last episode of Season 5, a major episode looking into the full background of Arnold's parents, their marriage, their birth of Arnold, and exactly why they left him.

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

'Toon Reviews 13: The Loud House Season 2 Episode 16: Fool's Paradise/Job Insecurity

Fool’s Paradise

With this cartoon, it seems to suggest that every season is going to include a cartoon about April Fool’s Day considering that Season 1 gave us “April Fool’s Rules.”  That raises a lot of questions about the timeline of this show.  Will the kids continually age with every new April Fool’s Day cartoon?  Won’t Lori have to go to college during one in the following seasons?  Do these cartoons even have a way to logically fit in the timeline?  Questions aside, the appeal of this cartoon is that it takes all the interpretations of April Fool’s Day to the apocalypse from last season and further expands on them creating an unforgettable atmospheric experience filled with hilariously imagined pranks with the perfect Loud for the day, Luan, as the mastermind.  The rest of the family believes they’re finally able to catch a break from the annual prank onslaught this year when they find a magazine ad for a clown camp they send Luan to.  However, just when they think they’re safe, those thoughts are dashed when their car breaks down and they have to spend the night at a crummy motel.  Once at the motel, a series of antics lead them to evidence that Luan set up pranks all over the facility, and it’s only a matter of time before one gets set off for each of the siblings.  The whole family is forced to make a run for it without any knowledge of when the next prank will strike and their fright is creatively staged as running from a strange monstrous force.  It also helps that what they get up to is set against a dark and threatening setting like an old motel at night.  When the pranks do get set off, they really up the creativity in execution from the last time.  There’s collapsing balconies into a big gelatin mold, trap doors that launch people up to a fly paper-laden sign, fake rooms filled with nasty obstacles like a skunk and rhubarb pies (which Lana’s allergic to), Lily getting replaced with a monkey that attacks Lynn, and a ton of bleach covering a certain sister who loves darkness.  Through it all, there’s a huge revealing twist to this prank barrage that Lincoln is quick to discover.  It turns out that Dad was in on Luan’s plans the whole time to get out of her April Fool’s Day pranks for a decade, and the explanations for how everything from the pranks to the clown camp ad that started it all are highly clever.  The best part about this reveal is that Dad feels genuine regret for helping Luan with her prankish tortures on his family, right down to questioning what kind of father he is.  Fortunately, he gets a big moment of redemption when he and Lincoln form a special prank to get back at Luan, and it’s a huge success as Luan gets flung into the air, stuck on that fly paper sign, lands in dirty laundry, and gets stuck in the sky.  This is sure to satisfy anyone who felt that her simply getting a pie in the face last April Fool’s Day wasn’t enough for her.  However, in fitting with the horror genre of the cartoon, the ending isn’t completely happy as the whole family is left running scared of the prospect of next April Fool’s Day which Luan promises to be even worse.  What she does then actually turns out to be a pretty nasty set of pranks, but that will be discussed in my eventual reviews of Season 3.  For this April Fool’s Day cartoon though, it’s easily one of the show’s most creatively structured cartoons aided by the genuine suspense, fun and insightful character moments, imaginative pranks, and some sense of victory from the victims. 10/10

Job Insecurity

If all the Loud siblings working as a team more often than in the first season wasn’t enough to prove how mature they’re becoming, perhaps this cartoon where they’re led to question how their actions impact their dad’s life can help.  With so many cartoons where the kids frequently run wild for their own amusement without much concern for others, it’s great that they turn out so thoughtful here.  They find out that Dad no longer works at his old IT job and has instead taken a dishwasher position, a job he doesn’t like, at a local fusion restaurant.  It’s here where the kids become more considerate of their actions to others, getting the idea that they got him fired from his IT job, namely for their hyperactive antics at the latest Take Your Kids to Work Day (nice to know that his old job at least became more inclusive since Season 1).  Anyway, they take a generous route of finding Dad a new job and making sure he gets it.  There’s plenty of heart in how seriously the kids take finding a new job for sure, but there’s also some humorous bits like imagination spots of Dad doing random jobs and, after they find a new IT job and get someone to pose as Dad to make sure he gets it, teaching Mr. Grouse, someone with an old world mindset, what certain computer terms mean.  Speaking of Mr. Grouse, he’s fast becoming one of the best supporting characters.  He’s still a grump and typically does things for Dad’s famous lasagna, but this is where it starts feeling like he’s putting in some effort in a bargain through actively trying to understand computer terms and getting better as time goes on, and showing happiness for the kids when he gets the job in Dad’s place.  With the job secured, the kids let Dad know what they got for him, and it’s at this point that even if the kids meant well, there’s no shaking off that this is another misunderstanding plot.  They didn’t know that Dad lost his old job for three weeks and he never told them, then when they found him washing dishes, they went with the idea that it was their fault.  However, Dad tells them that he actively quit his IT job and became a dishwasher to train to be a chef at the same restaurant which is his dream job, tying into his frequently seen talent for cooking.  Anyway, since Dad shows no hesitation in telling the kids this despite having a reason not to tell them, that means nothing was stopping the kids from just asking him why he has the new job. Granted, their beliefs seemed believable from what they saw, at the time it looked like Dad didn’t want to talk about it, and we weren’t given a scene of the truth the kids didn’t know, so the plot could’ve been executed worse.  Plus, what the kids learn leads to a very impactful ending when they push for Dad to get his restaurant job back, regretting their actions again, Dad kindly makes them feel better, and circumstances lead to him not just being allowed to work at the restaurant again, but also become a chef right then and there.  It’s all one of the most pleasing and satisfying conclusions the show has turned out.  Overall, this cartoon stands as one of this season’s strongest.  It’s not just humorous in parts, but it’s also got legitimate heart through the character bonds, opening new chapters for characters’ lives, and especially presenting the Loud siblings at their most thoughtful and mature.  9.5/10

The Ranking

1. 11 Louds a Leapin’
2. L is for Love
3. Pulp Friction
4. Frog Wild
5. Party Down
6. Room with a Feud
7. Lock n Loud
8. Fool’s Paradise
9. Fed Up
10. Out of the Picture
11. Job Insecurity
12. Potty Mouth
13. The Loudest Mission: Relative Chaos
14. Spell it Out
15. Baby Steps
16. Shell Shock
17. Suite and Sour
18. Back in Black
19. Patching Things Up
20. The Whole Picture
21. Back Out There
22. The Old and the Restless
23. Kick the Bucket List
24. Intern for the Worse
25. Cheater by the Dozen
26. Pets Peeved
27. Making the Grade
28. Vantastic Voyage
29. No Such Luck
30. Brawl in the Family

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode with "ARRGH! You For Real?" misunderstanding the appeal of fictional media, and Lori discovering what having your own place is really like in "Garage Banned."

If you want to stay updated for more reviews, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter.

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

'Toon Reviews 4: The Loud House Season 1 Episode 18

April Fools Rules

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the most charming elements of the show introduced to us in this season is Luan and the many ways she brings comedy into just about any situation.  You can easily tell how passionate she is about making others laugh (or at least try to).  She always knows how to work in a pun or joke to what’s going on and it never feels out of place.  True, some of her jokes don’t always work with some of them coming off as statements with certain words replaced with others that rhyme that anyone can make, but most of the time, they’re clever enough.  Now, because Luan has already shown to almost constantly be making jokes and puns in all the cartoons she’s been in so far, it shouldn’t be a surprise that she wastes no seconds when pulling pranks on the biggest day of all for them, April Fool’s Day.  On this day, she’s shown to pull off some extreme pranks all over the Loud House some of which tend to be very inconveniencing and painful, way beyond the boundaries of her typical puns.  They’re so extreme that the Loud family, parents included, treat the whole house like a war zone that they have to take shelter from that day which is another example of this show’s charming quality of offering a unique perspective of simple situations of life.  While Luan’s pranks really go too far since they cause real legitimate pain and fear in everyone, what keeps them from becoming mean-spirited is how hilarious each of the pranks turn out in execution.  Each prank suits the animation medium for how big and over-the-top they are as well as how they can really take you by surprise whether its raccoons hiding somewhere, exploding sinks and flower sacks, and very springy sofa cushions, and the puns Luan says in response to the pranks being set off only add to the hilarity.  There’s also some heart to the pranks when you consider that Lincoln purposely sets them off while his family stays safe in the name of protecting Ronnie Anne from being pranked whom he hears is coming to visit which also helps make the pranks we see work.  I have to admit that it’s nice that they managed to work in showing how much Lincoln and Ronnie Anne have grown as friends amidst this huge laugh fest with Lincoln risking everything to protect her from Luan’s pranks and Ronnie Anne rewarding Lincoln’s efforts with kindness and a pie to Luan’s face.  They really make a charming couple.  Not to mention, this cartoon really makes you appreciate how Lincoln is wise to his sisters’ antics since he can easily sense a prank to set off while the rest of the family end up walking right into certain pranks without thinking at the end of the cartoon.  For anyone who’s a fan of Luan’s love of comedy, this is a must-watch especially since it has certain factors to make everything work. 9/10

Cereal Offender

 

 

 

 

 

 

As this cartoon proves, you can take the Louds out of the house, but their spirit and chaotic nature will follow them wherever they go.  This can make for something highly entertaining, but in Lincoln’s case, it’s very frustrating and challenging since all he wants to do in this cartoon is complete the grocery shopping and make sure there’s enough left over for a cereal he wants called Zombie Bran as part of a deal he makes with Mom.  While his sisters make Lincoln’s mission more challenging than it already is, they still really succeed in livening up the cartoon.  Everything they do in the supermarket may not be socially appropriate, but it’s fitting for their characters and it’s easy to see that no one has any malicious intent.  Scenes like Lynn rushing around the aisles in a shopping cart, Luan using the produce to make jokes to entertain the customers, and Leni’s naiveté leading her to free lobsters and chickens (who are already cooked) demonstrate how much mileage for entertainment the show can get out of simple story ideas.  That’s one of this its biggest strengths.  Plus, despite his sisters’ antics, Lincoln does manage to fight through them all and get his cereal, and even has a bratty kid who does have malicious intents get what he deserves.  It’s not until near the end of the cartoon when the sisters do start acting jerky when they allow the younger sisters to get the gimmies the moment they find out Lincoln’s trying to get himself a treat despite the fact that the deal with Mom only concerns Lincoln.  There, they honestly do come off as selfish and irrational, and their actions end up getting the Loud family banned from the supermarket and Lincoln getting chastised.  If you were to watch this cartoon for the first time and this scene comes on, you might get the impression that it ruins everything by making what could’ve been a fine and good cartoon a bad one.  Instead, it goes in a much more acceptable direction by having the sisters realize they did wrong, feel bad about it, and make things up to Lincoln by buying him Zombie Bran themselves further showing that despite their antics, the Loud siblings really do care for each other.  It doesn’t excuse their behavior before, but the fact that they regret what they did and that Lincoln got what he deserved has a sense of accomplishment and shows that what we saw from this cartoon was worth it.  This is good because on the whole, this cartoon shows just how entertaining and caring when the moment calls for it the Loud siblings are. 8/10

 

The Ranking

1.      For Bros About to Rock

2.      Undie Pressure

3.      Project Loud House

4.      Space Invader

5.      Driving Miss Hazy

6.      Left in the Dark

7.      Toads and Tiaras

8.      Picture Perfect

9.      House Music

10.  Save the Date

11.  Sleuth or Consequences

12.  Hand-Me-Downer

13.  No Guts No Glori

14.  Attention Deficit

15.  Changing the Baby

16.  Along Came A Sister

17.  April Fools Rules

18.  A Novel Idea

19.  Sound of Silence

20.  Butterfly Effect

21.  A Tale of Two Tables

22.  Cereal Offender

23.  Cover Girls

24.  It’s A Loud, Loud, Loud, Loud House

25.  Overnight Success

26.  In Tents Debate

27.  Out on a Limo

28.  Linc or Swim

29.  The Sweet Spot

30.  Heavy Meddle

31.  Get the Message

32.  Ties that Bind

33.  Making the Case

34.  Chore and Peace

35.  Two Boys and a Baby

36.  The Green House

 

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode which honestly includes two problematic cartoons with the stupidity-fueled "Lincoln Loud: Girl Guru," and the constantly competitive and twerking "Come Sale Away."