Cruisin' (Rocko's Modern Life Season 2 Episdoe 8) - 'Toon Reviews 24

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Cruisin’

I know from experience that when you’re around the elderly, many of them can get pretty difficult.  At times, it’s easy to forget that most likely, younger people will live similarly to them.  This cartoon shows younger characters realize what older people go through.  At the same time, there’s a balanced perspective showing older people have lots to learn too. 

This is another one of Season 2’s full half-hour specials that develops supporting characters.  One of the interesting things about Heffer’s background is that he’s a cow raised by wolves.  This cartoon is about Grandpa Wolfe.  He’s not the ideal pick for a headlining character being your average grumpy old man and any background of him we get isn’t followed up on.  Still, what we get from Grandpa in the spotlight is fine. 

At the start though, he doesn’t make the viewing experience very pleasant as Rocko and Heffer drop him off at a senior cruise.  Worse, Grandpa’s bad attitude and Heffer’s poor cognition get Rocko and Heffer trapped on that cruise against their will.  From there, the younger passengers are forced to do harsh physical labor and put up with Grandpa’s unruliness. 

The start of the cartoon may seem harsh, a few things lessen the toll.  Throughout Rocko and Heffer’s servitude, there are interesting ways to flesh the elderly out.  Despite a few visual gags of mountains of false dentures for Heffer to brush and wheelchairs rolling around on deck, others show they’re quite active.  They include chasing Heffer who scratches their walkers and rebelling against their pureed dinners with a food fight.  As for Grandpa, while pretty unenjoyable with his treatment of Rocko, there’s legit background on him.  When he was young he was in love with a wolf named Winifred.  Apparently, his attitude was even present back then as Winifred points. 

Then in the cartoon’s second half, things get more interesting.  Rocko diverts the cruise ship from ramming ducks, sending everyone into the Bermuda Triangle.  At the mercy of animation, all sorts of inventive antics happen there like a random gremlin floating around and Heffer getting abducted by aliens for a minute.  The biggest feature is a strange clock that turns the young passengers old and the old passengers young.  There’s a fair share of interesting pointers to this turn of events.  Rocko and Heffer turned old get an understanding of what Grandpa and the other old people put up with as the youthful elderly mess around with them. 

Speaking of which, it’s an amusing occurrence to see the old people turned young, but still show awareness that they’re older than they look.  It’s for that reason Winifred still refuses to be won over by Grandpa’s flirting even if it doesn’t do justice for his character.  Even with his attitude, Grandpa does prove to have a heart after all.  For all his belittling of Rocko, he dives into the ocean to save him when he’s blown overboard being young and strong enough to do so.  He needs to be rescued himself later, but making the effort still counts a lot.  I believe that this is the perfect moment that gets the cruise out of the Bermuda Triangle with different generations showing consideration for each other. 

I’m always up for creative occurrences even if they do get strange or ridiculous, but applying virtues to live by is a welcome practice to have them leave an impact.  This may not be the show at its best nor does it have the most interesting character moments, but creative occurrences teaching an often overlooked life lesson make it stand out.

A

The Ranking

1. Rocko’s Modern Christmas
2. Tickled Pinky
3. Boob Tubed
4. Kiss Me I’m Foreign
5. The Lounge Singer
6. Road Rash
7. I Have No Son
8. Commuted Sentence
9. Cruisin’
10. Down the Hatch
11. Pipe Dreams
12. She’s the Toad
13. Hut Sut Raw

The next Rocko's Modern Life review covers Filburt migrating to his birthplace, almost, and Heffer brings an interesting approach to being a security guard.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews, almost a year after the last time I looked into that show, I start a new review set on the third DVD volume of Disney's DuckTales.

If you would like to check out other Rocko's Modern Life reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

'Toon Reviews 16: Hey Arnold Season 3 Episode 20: Parents Day + Final Thoughts

Parents Day

Some people may wonder why there was so much demand for The Jungle Movie to be made.  One reason ties into a huge mystery of what happened to Arnold’s parents.  This special observes this mystery and the emotional toll of their absence, so when the movie finally aired in 2017, it would give a powerful sense of closure for longtime fans.  The mystery’s reveal makes what we would get as big as it is as well as serve as an amazing tribute to what makes this show so great. 

By now, Arnold has a good-hearted, optimistic kid.  However, with missing pieces of his family, even the most basic nice characters have hidden depths as shown right at the beginning when he hears a story about one of his parents’ exciting jungle adventures from Grandpa.  In addition to wanting to know what they were like, the story also reveals the problems of being without parents for Arnold when his class’ annual family-style field day event called Parents Tournament Weekend arrives. 

Arnold, who only has grandparents, isn’t too keen on going knowing that everyone else has regular parents.  He’s both relatable to anyone feeling left out for any reason, yet still greatly respects his grandparents and the great things they can do for their ages.  For the most part, this is apparent when Arnold and his grandparents attend the first day of the tournament consisting of a fun collection of scenes of families of many kids in the cast taking part in various extracurricular activities.  Then during one of the games, Helga’s dad, Big Bob, who’s only in this for the trophy, goes way too far by relentlessly calling Arnold an “orphan boy”.  Through great characterization, Arnold doesn’t flat out say that he’s hurt, but his sad expressions and lack of motivation to do the next day of the tournament sell how lost he is without his actual parents. 

It even works on his grandparents who put aside their eccentricities and show sincere concern.  Grandpa tells him what he needs to hear, the true story of how his parents met and what they were like.  Through interactions, sharing interests, and even saving each other, you easily get the appeal of Arnold’s parents as a couple.  The story ends with them giving a heartfelt farewell to their infant son as they leave for another jungle mission.  The sad part is that they seem so confident in returning, but as we know they never come back to him.  The emotional weight doesn’t even stop there. The story makes Arnold dream about how lost and scared he was as a baby without his parents.  However, the sadness is lightened when he soon dreams about Grandpa and Grandma comforting him and joining him for their own adventures. Even if he still feels left out without his mom and dad, he truly is happy to have two grandparents who love him. 

So the next day of the Parents Day tournament, featuring even more exciting activities, goes a lot better for Arnold.  As for Big Bob, his mean words to Arnold grants him what he has coming for him when Grandpa ultimately beats him in the final challenge, with the help of Helga too just to make things even more awesome and fun.  The special ends with a scene of Arnold dreaming of flying a plane like the one his parents flew which combines his continuous optimism alongside his still apparent wonders of if he’ll ever find his parents. 

Right there that’s the shows greatest strengths.  It shows just how complex even the most seemingly basic characters are and the internal conflicts they face feel so genuine.  Yet, there’s also hope to find true happiness which can inspire many things worth reaching the sky for.  Along with fun moments during the tournament and interesting and endearing new information on Arnold’s family, I call this special one of the show’s absolute best works. 10/10

The Ranking

1. Parents Day
2. School Play
3. Helga Blabs it All
4. Harold the Butcher
5. Cool Party
6. Grandpa’s Birthday
7. Crabby Author
8. The Flood
9. Mr. Hyunh Goes Country
10. Road Trip
11. Helga Vs. Big Patty
12. Arnold’s Thanksgiving
13. Hey Harold!
14. Curly Snaps
15. The Aptitude Test
16. Pre-Teen Scream
17. The Pig War
18. Olga Gets Engaged
19. Oskar Gets a Job
20. Arnold and Lila
21. Phoebe Takes the Fall
22. Best Man
23. Career Day
24. Helga’s Show
25. Gerald’s Tonsils
26. Grand Prix
27. Rich Kid
28. Dangerous Lumber
29. Casa Paradiso
30. Arnold’s Room
31. Helga and the Nanny
32. Roller Coaster
33. Stinky Goes Hollywood
34. School Dance
35. Sid’s Revenge
36. Girl Trouble
37. Arnold Betrays Iggy

Final Thoughts

As another look at a Hey Arnold season comes to a close, I’m astounded by how many cartoons and specials left such a huge impression.  It continues the show’s prominent strengths of telling stories with mature themes designed for anyone to understand and offering lots of layers and depth to nearly everyone in the huge cast, proving that the show has found its niche and is on fire with proving just how great it can be.  In fact, Season 3 demonstrates what this show is good at so well, I’m inclined to call it my favorite one for this show.

One thing that sets Season 3 apart from the others is the amount of particularly creative ideas for the stories.  Rather than mostly focusing on the characters doing a simple activity, much of what we get center on unconventional ideas the crew has in mind and through the great characterizations and storytelling, they all come together as highly entertaining and impactful.  There’s personality changes from an aptitude test mix-up, Curly going mad while hitting everyone with kickballs, Arnold dealing with a crabby author, Mr. Hyunh astounding everyone as a talented country singer, Grandpa spending his birthday week preparing for his death, Helga stuck with her dead-beat mom in the middle of nowhere, and more.  This is the kind of imaginative set-up that is totally tailored to the medium of animation in which anything can happen, and the writing never has anything get too ridiculous to not fit within the show’s world. 

The stories aren’t just creative idea-wise.  Some also provide an interesting behind-the-scenes basis such as a whole cartoon based on Gerald getting his tonsils removed to tie into his voice actor hitting puberty.  This can also apply to cartoons that teach messages about the truth of show business such as how our idols aren’t always as great as their material, the importance of playing to your strengths and avoiding selling out to stay relevant, and trying to understand why a style of humor you don’t like can be considered funny.  As it stands, the stories of this season are some of the absolute best of the show filled with value, entertainment, and especially great imagination.

The thing that makes the stories as great as they are is the cast of characters.  It’s true that we’ve seen a lot of them and their personalities for two seasons now, but as the storytelling grows accustomed to playing to the show’s strengths, the characters stand out better than they ever did before each one bringing a special flare to different cartoons.  There’s Curly showing how far the absolute lengths his psychotic mindset can go, Rhonda’s judgmental habits giving her appropriate consequences to her social life, Grandpa feeling the stress of housing eccentric boarders while also remaining positive and caring of his grandson, Mr. Simmons striving to stay positive when teaching even in difficult times, the list goes on. 

Even minor characters have brief, yet memorable escapades that develop their characters throughout the season.  They include Coach Wittenberg learning to choose his wife over trying to be the best, the Jolly Olly Man struggling to be friendly with his customers while being prone to disturbing outbursts, and the boarders like Mr. Hyunh and his aforementioned singing talents and Oskar learning the burdens of a job, as well as the family dynamic of them together.  There are also many cartoons with some of the most solid portrayals of bully characters that show that they aren’t mean for the sake of it and are more complex than they let on which is a more believable scenario. There are several plays on Harold’s soft side whether he goes along with a test erroneously saying he’s a genius, discovering a possible career path after stealing a non-kosher ham out of mindless hunger, and forming a strong bond with Big Patty.  Speaking of her, it’s astounding that two of the strongest cartoons go to great lengths to show her social awkwardness and anxieties that believably fuel her not so pleasing demeanor around others. 

Of course, Helga is the bully character who simply shines throughout the season, further showcasing herself as the most complex member of the cast.  Her usual shtick of acting mean around Arnold only to dramatically express her huge crush on him in private continues this season.  In fact, it makes for some very memorable cartoons such as hiding in the boarding house walls to get a tape with her confession on it, and unintentionally starting a trend of Arnold crushing on perfect little Lila out of panic.  However, many strong entries in the season show her as the prime example of bullies not being as mean as they seem with her bonding with Arnold over bad Thanksgivings, going to great lengths to be by his side, even if it is in a play, and even finding the strength to help him and his family over winning something for her blowhard dad.  In a way, Helga’s monumental moments of Season 3 also have the benefit of strengthening a central element of the series, her relationship with Arnold with him even suggesting that she’s not as bad as she seems at one point, which make them stand out even more.  Helga’s good side is even strong enough to go beyond her crush with her finding the strength to be helpful towards her mother and sister despite the burdens they have on her, and several moments of being a very good friend to Phoebe.  With the ingenious story ideas brought to life combined with characters major and minor being fleshed out better than ever, it’s no wonder I’ve ended up loving this season as much as I do.

With all these strengths though, there are a couple of weak points.  While practically all the characters are fleshed out, that doesn’t mean that all the characters turn out good.  What I mean is that some characters are fleshed out to be major hindrances on the show’s entertainment, so when there’s a cartoon focusing on them, it’s not particularly strong.  For example, Sid and Stinky were never that strong before, but through expanding on the very minimal interesting traits they have, they don’t come off as very likable.  Sid has lots of hyperactivity that can be funny, but many of his starring roles make him so crazy and irrational for how much he jumps to conclusions that it’s hard to really enjoy them.  Stinky, on the other hand, tries to show some interesting traits in his starring roles such as trying to find something he’s good at, but as usual, nothing much stands out from him apart from his dialect, so while he’s not bad, he’s not too interesting either.  However, both he and Sid tend to get some pretty despicable moments when they’re together starring alongside another character through threatening the appeal of Harold’s new friendship with Big Patty and initiating the frustrating conflict of the notorious “Arnold Betrays Iggy.”  I’m sure the crew sees some appeal in these characters and they’re far from the worst characters I’ve seen, but on the whole, this season proves that cartoons with major focus on Stinky and/or Sid are not ones to look forward to at least to me. 

Other characters that prove problematic in their appearances are Eugene, especially when he’s blind to how honestly bad certain situations are, and Lila who gets particularly cloying as an overly-nice character devoid of the depth of her debut appearance and only existing to be Arnold’s crush for the rest of the show’s run.  These weak points could ruin the experience, but I only bring them up for the purposes of dissecting the season as a whole, and they’re only a few weak characters in a cast of predominantly strong and interesting ones, and any weak cartoons are grossly outnumbered by an abundance of strong ones.  In fact, the cartoons that are strong are so strong that they pretty much rule out any weak ones.  After all, a great show isn’t one without flaws, but one that can still largely impress regardless of any flaws.  As a result, while I acknowledge that there are some rough patches in the long line of cartoons, because so much of it ranges from very good to amazing, I can forgive those patches.

Whenever I think of Hey Arnold, the works of Season 3 stand out the most with creative story ideas and the characters being more fleshed out than ever before.  This is all I need to say to entice you to look into this season too, so check it out on your preferred form of media be it physical, digital, or on the air, and see what greatness you get out of it, Football Heads.

Highly Recommended

Now that all three of the originally scheduled review sets are completed, here's the schedule for three newly planned ones appearing on this blog for the time being:

• Rocko's Modern Life Season 1: Saturdays and Sundays
• OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1: Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays
• Star vs the Forces of Evil Season 2: Wednesdays and Fridays

So tomorrow, stay tuned for the next Rocko's Modern Life review.  Until then:

Stay Animated Folks!

'Toon Reviews 16: Hey Arnold Season 3 Episode 14: Grandpa's Birthday/Road Trip

Grandpa’s Birthday

This cartoon has a pretty interesting premise given the title.  Rather than focusing on a mere birthday, more emphasis is put on what the birthday means for the person in question, and it really pays off as funny and heartfelt watch. 

With his birthday coming up, Grandpa is in a particularly bad mood, getting tense with every little thing that happens.  I find these moments enjoyable for how exaggerated they are, not to mention when Arnold investigates Grandpa’s behavior, it turns out that there’s a legitimate reason for it.  His upcoming birthday is his 81^st, and no one in his family has ever lived past 81 creating a family curse, so he’s preparing to “buy the farm.”  He may not seem sickly, but considering how old he already is and his background, it does make some sense for Grandpa to feel the way he does.  He has a lot of energy when he’s berating others, and does incredibly well at his physical, but even this isn't enough to convince Grandpa to not worry so much.  To him, age 81 is when his time is done, and no amount of good strength is enough to change that. 

Now while Grandpa’s beliefs in the family curse mostly consist of comedic outbursts towards difficult people, there’s also time for heartfelt moments.  One of them is one of the quieter moments of the cartoon where Grandpa discusses to Arnold some of his most pleasing memories in which he sounds like he’s talking from the heart to someone he has a good relationship with while still holding onto the death anxieties that drive his angst.  His memories come into play when Arnold tries to take Grandpa’s mind off of the family curse by taking him on a day of fun to give Grandpa a chance to relive his glory days.  It’s a very pleasing montage of any fun thing imaginable set to an old-time music piece that instantly makes you think of being with a grandparent.  It could be said that this turns out to be a great way for Grandpa to spend what’s apparently his last day on Earth, especially since despite having a good time, he hasn’t forgotten that he’s supposed to croak in accordance with the family curse. 

So, you can imagine the mood whiplash when after such a nice montage, we cut to the whole boarding house come to watch Grandpa pass at the stroke of midnight.  The eerie mood of everyone watching with an organ playing and a storm outside is perfectly fitting for the drama of the moment capped off with a bell tolling for every individual reaction just as a bedside candle blows out with Grandpa’s last breath.  It’s a chilling yet greatly constructed way to bring about a death…at least until Grandpa suddenly gets up, hilariously shocked that he’s still in the boarding house.  It turns out there was a simple mathematical error in the family curse (he was 10 years off in fact) which leads to a great cause for celebration and annoyances from the boarders who stayed up so late for nothing. 

It does leave a mystery if the family curse is real and if Grandpa will buy the farm at age 91, but through his range of feelings on the matter and resulting memorable moments, what we have is a great way for him to appreciate the good health he has at such an old age.  With all this said, we’re left with a birthday cartoon unlike any other. 10/10

Road Trip

Cartoons focusing on Helga’s family life are worth looking forward towards.  They give interesting background on Helga’s mean behavior, and show potential for development from her parents beyond just being neglectful, and in this regard, this cartoon is no exception. 

Helga is roped into going on a cross-country road trip with her mother, Miriam.  Now, Miriam’s usual neglect is being driven to make and drink “smoothies” which make her lackadaisical resulting in her being anti-social, passing out a lot, and especially not providing her own daughter the care she needs.  It’s no wonder why Helga has many problems with Miriam and is not pleased with being trapped in a car with her. 

During the road trip however, Miriam does prove to have some likable qualities.  She makes genuine attempts to socialize with her daughter such as recounting stories of her past, and attempting to show she enjoys being with Helga.  These moments show that even if Helga’s parents are bad at being parents, they’re not neglectful on purpose and can show effort at being good parents, and this is easily seen in Miriam.  Still her faults are on full display as Miriam is very careless through dropping and spilling things, leaving her purse on top of the car causing it to fall off and get run over, and losing the directions.  To top it all, Miriam fails to pay attention to the road, and through veering out of the way of a huge truck, she drives off the road, through a field, into mud, and what an awesome crash scene it is.  Even if she means well, it’s clear that Miriam’s neglect is very prominent in everything she does, allowing the cartoon to be blunt about how unqualified she is to be a parent. 

At the same time, Helga is presented very well.  She’s clearly annoyed by everything her mom does which understandably prevents her from seeing Miriam’s attempts to bond with her, yet doesn’t go too far with her angst.  Even when they’re at their lowest point with a broken down car, no money to fix it, and being stranded in the middle of nowhere, she restrains herself from getting too mad or hurtful and is simply blunt with the hard truth that Miriam is a lousy mom.  However, because of her earlier good efforts, it’s easy to care when Miriam finds a way to redeem herself.  In an interesting turn of events, she finds an ad for a mechanical bull riding contest and enters it to get the money needed to fix the car.  It makes sense that Helga wouldn’t think her mom could do it after all the trouble she caused and can’t bring herself to watch Miriam.  The scene of Helga walking out on the competition is particularly touching, with no dialog and only a simple music piece to take in the lonely and hopeless feel of what’s happened and how she has to take on the responsibilities her mother can’t.  It’s truly one of Helga’s most sympathetic moments.  Then comes a surprise when Miriam ends up with the best mechanical bull riding time and wins the cash, proving she CAN do something right after all, and it even makes for a nice ending as she and Helga have a nice civil conversation all the way home. 

The only problem with this is that Miriam’s shining moment is hardly expanded upon after this with her going right back to her old habits in her next major appearance.  Fortunately, this cartoon by itself is a great heartfelt character-driven adventure. 9.5/10

The Ranking

1. Helga Blabs it All
2. Harold the Butcher
3. Cool Party
4. Grandpa’s Birthday
5. Crabby Author
6. Mr. Hyunh Goes Country
7. Road Trip
8. Helga Vs. Big Patty
9. Hey Harold!
10. Curly Snaps
11. The Aptitude Test
12. Pre-Teen Scream
13. The Pig War
14. Olga Gets Engaged
15. Oskar Gets a Job
16. Phoebe Takes the Fall
17. Best Man
18. Career Day
19. Gerald’s Tonsils
20. Rich Kid
21. Dangerous Lumber
22. Casa Paradiso
23. Arnold’s Room
24. Helga and the Nanny
25. Roller Coaster
26. Stinky Goes Hollywood
27. Sid’s Revenge
28. Arnold Betrays Iggy

The next Hey Arnold review covers the start of a running trope of Arnold crushing on the cute girl, Lila, along with a more slice-of-life driven cartoon about a grand prix.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the Steven Universe episode "Sadie's Song."

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 Hey Arnold reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

'Toon Reviews 16: Hey Arnold Season 3 Episode 11: Phoebe Takes the Fall/The Pig War

Phoebe Takes the Fall

While many things in life bring on Helga’s mean behavior, one of the few things that show her good side is her friendship with Phoebe.  A few cartoons have shown that there’s some good heart between these characters.  Sure, there are times where Helga would take advantage of Phoebe’s generosity, but Helga plays her part in making this friend pairing work.  Whether it’s encouragement to keep going with something new, or comfort when things go wrong, there’s a clear genuineness between them which is especially great for someone like Helga.  This cartoon continues the trend. 

Phoebe’s intellect is a main subject when she and Helga end up competing against each other in a PS 118 Academic Bowl.  Because Phoebe answers the questions better than anyone else in the first round, she’s the student who will most likely win.  That’s when Helga taking advantage of her takes over when she begs her to take the fall in the next round secluded from everyone else.  Despite her restrained tone towards Phoebe as opposed to her usual aggressive authority she gives everyone else, you may think Helga’s being inconsiderate here.  Technically she is, but when it comes to winning competitions, she has a lot of pressure to do so since her home life consists of her parents giving more attention to her older sister for being so accomplished, so Helga’s actions are at least understandable.  Even then, the Academic Bowl is a competition that even Olga couldn’t win, so her parents don’t even pressure Helga into winning, so Helga’s less justified for asking Phoebe to blow the Academic Bowl for her in this regard.  However, it’s believable that Helga’s drive for generally one-upping her perfect sister would exist anyway. 

So, Phoebe’s will to please her friend’s wishes pulls through as she lets Helga win the Academic Bowl win the competition by having her answer a question she knew, and puts herself through intense quizzing sessions to help Helga prepare for the championship although she gets extremely tired.  This combined with Arnold pointing it out to Helga brings out what makes the friendship worth getting behind.  Although Helga has become prepared enough to win the competition, she does have genuine guilt about making Phoebe lose on purpose that grows following Arnold telling her about Phoebe’s exhaustion.  There’s even a surreal dream sequence where while answering questions in front of a grey audience and Arnold suddenly appears making Helga question if she really deserves to be there. 

In the present, while it takes until the night of the championship, it’s still nice that Helga decides that her best friend is more important than boosting her ego.  This makes for a great sequence of Phoebe giving a strong performance in the championship as Helga’s alternate, winning by answering the question that blew Olga’s chances of winning, and even Arnold giving Helga subtle praise for doing the right thing to make the moment happen.  It goes to show that the character relationships present bring out the best in who’s involved. 

It’s debatable how much tolerance you can give the catalysts of what happens, but everything still comes together as something good. 9/10

The Pig War

For any animated series, including slice of life shows like this, creative concepts are always welcome.  Animation is a where anyything can be drawn or planned out and all characters can fit the actions and emotions.  This cartoon is an example of this which also benefits from historical context. 

The historical event referenced is one most people probably don’t know in which the US and the UK were fighting over ownership of San Juan with a war breaking out after an American farmer killed a British pig who wandered into his garden.  The war brought in ships of larger armies, all over a pig mind you which resulted in the island becoming completely American owned.  That historical context is used point-for-point here except San Juan is replaced with the show’s own Elk Island, so this cartoon already gets interesting points for giving light to a not often discussed war. 

The strengths of animation come in when Grandpa announces that he signed up Arnold and his friends for a reenactment of the Pig War as well as Abner as the respective pig.  The kids in battle attire and stationing themselves on the site give a unique perspective to a reenactment of a war and are a special kind of engaging with a childlike feel.  Also captured well is the comedy of the banter between some of the characters especially Grandpa and his old British rival, Rex Smythe-Higgins, who are just as enjoyable arguing as they were in Rex’s first appearance. 

While the approach to the war reenactment is charming, it’s also impressive how there’s seriousness to the scenario with genuine worry about what this could mean for Arnold’s pet.  There’s something suspicious about Abner taking part in a reenactment of a war where a pig is killed, so it’s easy to believe something bad will happen to him even when Grandpa says that the pig will only get a little greased.  However, following a fast-paced, yet slightly sloppily animated, chase scene for Abner, the British capture him and take him back to their camp to roast him since the rules say that can be done with the pig.  It’s a bit concerning for how neglectful of the rules Grandpa was since he really should’ve paid more attention for the sake of his grandson’s pet.  At least it’s lightened by his clear regret and Arnold not holding a grudge as the gang sets out to rescue Abner. 

In their attempts, animation’s versatility is on display again. There’s a creative concept of the American team using a pig-themed Trojan Horse trick to get into the British team’s fort, humorous interactions between Rex and the kids on letting them in, and shots of an intricate device to roast Abner in use while a battle in which everyone is armed with water guns ensues.  There’s even a scene to show that not all in the opposing team is bad when Rex’s grandson, Rex Smythe-Higgins III, helps Arnold save his pet just in time giving the climax a lot of feels from laughs, to suspense, to surprise, to relief.  Everything ends with solid character-based comedy from Rex III explaining his betrayal to his grandfather and Grandpa trying to convince Arnold to do the reenactment again next year right into the credits. 

This leaves us with an interesting take on an interpretation of a lesser-known historic battle with creative and charming scenarios and humorous character interactions with enough room for suspense and heart. It’s one look at history you’ll never forget. 9.5/10

The Ranking

1. Helga Blabs it All
2. Harold the Butcher
3. Crabby Author
4. Mr. Hyunh Goes Country
5. Helga Vs. Big Patty
6. Hey Harold!
7. Curly Snaps
8. The Aptitude Test
9. Pre-Teen Scream
10. The Pig War
11. Olga Gets Engaged
12. Oskar Gets a Job
13. Phoebe Takes the Fall
14. Career Day
15. Gerald’s Tonsils
16. Rich Kid
17. Dangerous Lumber
18. Casa Paradiso
19. Arnold’s Room
20. Helga and the Nanny
21. Stinky Goes Hollywood
22. Arnold Betrays Iggy

The next Hey Arnold review features the return of Coach Wittenberg and his wife Tish as they attempt to remarry, and you're invited to a geek party which accepts everyone in Arnold's neighborhood as opposed to Rhonda's cool party which only invites "cool" kids.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is a look into a Voltron: Legendary Defender episode that introduces "The Blade of Marmora."

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 Hey Arnold reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.