'Toon Reviews 16: Hey Arnold Season 3 Episode 18: Helga's Show/The Flood

Helga’s Show

Everyone has different tastes in entertainment.  Certain things that are hilarious to some people may do nothing good for others, but to me, the right thing to do is try and understand why a style of entertainment can be funny even if you don’t always agree with it.  For that, I admire that this cartoon portrays this very theme. 

There’s an after-school lounge called the Coco Hut in which the students of PS 118 gather to perform comedy acts for all the attendees, and Helga has her own style of comedy by doing impressions of various people she knows.  As someone who enjoys hearing, as well as doing, impressions of real-life people and TV characters, I personally enjoy Helga’s act.  However, while some enjoy their own impressions or don’t get that they’re the ones being impersonated, the rest of the kids Helga impersonates take offense for how her act capitalizes on their primary habits like Harold’s cries for his mommy, Rhonda’s sense of fashion, and Stinky’s newly revealed love for lemon pudding.  They proceed to ignore Helga, feeling hurt by her act and see no appeal in her style of comedy at all which seems believable to anyone who doesn’t agree with certain entertainment styles. 

In a pleasing turn of events, Helga, who normally would use brute force to get others to see her point of view, feels bad that some of her friends don’t get her style of entertainment so much so that she’s led to confide these feelings to her best friend.  Through doing so, she discusses her own reasons for why her comedy came out as it did, claiming that if the kids can laugh at the impressions of others, they can laugh at their own which makes sense and shows how she felt it could work.  However, Helga’s flexible enough to see how her style of comedy wouldn’t work when the kids she wronged deal with their hurt feelings by doing impressions of Helga, and she sees their point. 

What follows is a rare moment where she shows consideration for kids other than Arnold by attempting to do another act to celebrate what’s good about her friends through a poem even if she doesn’t see the comedic appeal.  That said, her feelings about how unfunny the whole thing is are justified when she goes on stage, performs the poem, and while no one’s hurt from the act, no one is moved by it either.  It’s at this moment where the kids, and to an extent Helga herself, discover the humor of watching someone impersonate their quirks after hearing an unenthused poem about how great they are.  Right then and there is the appeal of forms of entertainment they might not always agree with. 

Ultimately, the cartoon closes with Helga bouncing back from the funk and returns to her old impressions, including people she originally didn’t impersonate in full force giving the kids something truly funny especially since they can now laugh at themselves like Helga felt they would.  It does make you wonder if Helga truly learned anything through all this since she simply goes back to doing what she did in the beginning while everyone else has a change of heart, but other than that, this is highly enjoyable, especially for those who always feel the need for solid entertainment. 9/10

The Flood

Some of the best stories in my opinion are those that bring different people together during a bad situation which make for different ways of dealing with what happens.  This cartoon features one of those stories and the use of characters and moments that come from the situation make it as great as it is. 

The situation presented is one that’s hard to imagine happening everyday (depending on where you live of course), which makes what happens interesting.  Mr. Simmons’ class ends up stranded at PS 118 for the night due to a flood roaring outside all because he felt the need to keep them longer to teach them.  This is particularly concerning to the kids who just want to leave for spring break. 

From here, the cartoon shows everyone living through the flood providing a variety of experiences.  Most of the students act up for much of the ordeal with constant fighting and annoying each other.  This could make the kids unenjoyable, but since they were on the verge a whole week off from school and they probably would’ve beaten the flood if Mr. Simmons didn’t keep them longer, it’s at least believable that they’d be so stressed that they’d let it out the way they do. 

Also Mr. Simmons shows a great display of his strengths of trying to stay positive in a bad situation, but his positivity is his downfall against the angry students.  Even his attempts at being firm have no effect because he’s simply not good at acting in such a way, so when the flood gets worse with water flowing into the building, the tensions rise significantly enhanced by believable angst from the kids and desperation from the teacher. 

In the process, the intensity of the entire flood is lightened a bit by a few laughs.  The bickering from the kids has a fair share of humor, but strong laughs are also found elsewhere.  They include brief breaks from the fighting and annoying such as when Helga attempts to break out of school running into Principal Wartz in a strange dance getup which works for how random it is.  There’s also a subplot of Grandpa making a raft to rescue Arnold and his friends while Oskar schemes to make a quick buck out of the flood by charging rescues which includes many funny interactions with clashing personalities and senses of morality made more exciting as the flood gets worse. 

These many moments from the flood build up to an exciting climax when the kids, for all their rowdiness, show that they do have hearts when after breaking from Mr. Simmons, they fear for his safety when he’s gone for a long time.  They find him dangling on a broken ladder above the raging floodwaters while he was trying to signal for help.  It’s the sense of danger that gets the kids to work together to save their teacher.  The speed of them tossing him a weight to reel him in, the strain as they pull, and the basic intensity is perfectly felt and tie into the music and visuals of the moment especially when Helga falls in and needs to be rescued too.  Then everything in the scene ties into a relieving finish with both Helga and Mr. Simmons dragged to safety and everyone finally able to leave the school on Grandpa’s raft. 

As it stands, the whole flood experience is easily one of the best entries for the season with a wide range of moments being funny, relatable, and especially intense stemming from a natural disaster. 10/10

The Ranking

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

The next Hey Arnold review is on a full-length special covering the kids performing a school play of Romeo and Juliet.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the Steven Universe Season 2 finale "Log Date 7 15 2."

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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 1: The Aptitude Test/Oskar Gets a Job

This time, we’re taking another trip to the city of mad crushes, crazy boarders and football heads among other things for a season’s worth of adventures:

Hey Arnold (Season 3)

BASIC PREMISE

The animated shows of Nickelodeon are among some of the most nostalgic for me, and Hey Arnold is the one that’s easily held up the best.  As the first animated series I reviewed for this blog, I consider this show to be a mainstay, one I’m more than willing to share with anyone who loves reading animation reviews, at least until the day I review everything there is to the show.  It’s a slice-of-life show that focuses on the day-to-day lives of the many characters who live in a neighborhood of a single city.  It doesn’t sound like much, but as looks into the first two seasons have shown, it’s practically masterful as a slice-of-life show delving into subjects relatable to adults as well as kids, and making good use of its huge cast by giving interesting traits to almost all of them.  Along with a wholesome urban setting, smooth jazzy and character-driven music cues, and every story in general getting deeper and more mature as the show goes on, you’re almost always in for a positive experience with this series.  Now, we’ll be looking into the third season to see how well it builds upon the strengths of the show and what it ultimately does for the characters and their world.

Just like with the other looks at the seasons, the order of the reviews will be based off the official order found on the Hey Arnold wiki for a better flow of show events and to factor in cartoons truly created for the season and not held back to air in the middle of other seasons.  If you look to that site, you’ll most likely get a good idea of what will be covered and when.  With all this said, let’s not waste any more time and get ready for more adventures with Arnold Shortman (thanks Jungle Movie) and company.

Now on with the reviews:

The Aptitude Test

One of the most challenging parts of anyone’s life is finding a suitable career.  From my experience, some might know what they want to do but have a hard time breaking in (like me) and some don’t know what they want to make of themselves.  The plot of this cartoon relates those in the latter category, and brings a lot of crazy outcomes as a result. 

Arnold’s class is assigned an aptitude test to find possible career paths to take.  The most focus is on two kids at opposite ends of the knowledge spectrum.  There’s Helga, an incredibly talented kid with a lot of potential in life, and Harold, an unintelligent student who can never pay attention in class.  These traits of theirs is easy to see as you watch them take the aptitude test with Helga studiously answering the questions and Harold giving the same answer without care. 

The whole thing really gets interesting when Eugene fumbles collecting the tests and accidentally switches two of them.  As a result, they make it seem like Harold’s smart and can be anything, while Helga is only good enough for the lowest type of career, a woodsperson.  We then see different effects on Helga and Harold’s lifestyles as a result of the test score mix-up. 

With Helga, there’s a lot to her apparent calling as a nature girl.  As someone who’s thrived on exquisite poetry, there’s a sympathetic layer of her feeling that her talents were never good enough and that she should abandon her passion, not to mention her parents, as you’d expect, don’t care about this serious academic blunder.  There’s also solid comedy from her attempts at being rural such as her making the same pinecone sculpture, struggling to live off the land, and believing all country people talk in a southern drawl and are inherently dumb. 

As for Harold, his score leads to a much different experience.  He’s pushed to do more intellectual things since he’s apparently a genius. Since his score was mixed up, you’d think he wouldn’t be able to do it.  However, he puts in genuine effort into the brainy stuff, and he latches onto it fairly well opening up a different side we haven’t really seen from him before. It’s a very nice change of pace. 

Regarding how we know that what Helga and Harold think about themselves isn’t true, while this messes with the surprise factor of the mysteries of the scores, it works due to a variety of tones.  Along with her feeble attempts at being simple, the truth of the matter makes Helga’s moments a comedic highlight.  With Harold, the truth makes the moments of him being smart kind of sad since he has a good grasp on what he tackles, but it’s all built on a fallacy.  The audience knowing the truth also works for how other characters point out how strange Harold and Helga are acting, culminating with Mr. Simmons studying their test scores and discovering the mix-up. 

With the truth exposed comes more variations on how to feel, both of which are positive.  Helga’s outcome is relieving and humorous when she’s quick to write more poems after her mom nonchalantly burns her collection fitting to a prior request.  Harold’s outcome is much more impactful when he’s upset that his score was very low at first, but through being reminded of his great performance this past week, he learns that no one is truly stupid.  He really can be smart if he believes in himself, which in turn is encouraging advice for anyone in real life. 

The cartoon succeeds in many ways with a relatable center, strong entertainment and sentiment, and relatable life advice that help make this show as great as it is. 9.5/10

Oskar Gets a Job

Despite not being a good person, Oskar Kokoshka is one of the funniest characters on the show, and the resident of Arnold’s boarding house I enjoy the most.  This is a guy who doesn’t want to work for what he needs, so he never takes the necessary initiatives for success and opts to take the easy way out, coming off as lazy and untrustworthy.  The thing that keeps Oskar enjoyable though is how it never feels like he’s trying to be bad, and only does unethical acts to get by because he’s naïve and doesn’t get why it’s bad.  In addition, his mooching ways are seen as a problem that everyone is wise enough not to buy into as the opening of this cartoon shows. 

When Oskar needs to pay off a loan shark, he goes to the other boarders to try and coax them into giving him the money, and they bluntly refuse in hilarious ways.  It’s certainly great to see others not encourage this behavior, but Oskar is still likable enough to hope he gets the money he needs through trying to be nice to get his way and never intending any sort of harm.  He's a character who is fun to watch, while also one we should strive to never be like. 

Aiding in Oskar working as his true self is the main plot of the cartoon.  When he begs for Arnold's help to get money, Oskar learns that the logical way around his problem is to get a job, so he can make his own money and not have to mooch off other people.  It’s a good step towards character development for Oskar, but the fact that he’s a 38-year-old man who never worked in his life makes it very difficult for him to apply for jobs. This is a believable drawback in job hunting, especially since I know it can be difficult to get a job in general, even if you’re not a lazy bum like Oskar. 

Speaking of a lazy bum, Oskar’s bad habits are still prominent when he finally gets a job as a paperboy, which is usually reserved for young boys.  Even after learning how helpful having a job can be, Oskar simply doesn’t want to do the hard work that comes with it, so he works around the issue by faking ailments so Arnold can deliver the newspapers for him.  These moments are some of the more problematic approaches to Oskar’s habits since Arnold buys into Oskar’s two lies despite being aware of what he typically does.  At least he’s quick to uncover the lies when he notices Oskar eating pancakes after claiming to have the Chinese stomach flu and dancing after saying he had a bad back. 

When confronted, Oskar remains likable by simply not understanding that it’s wrong to get other people to do hard work meant for him and doesn’t sound like he wants to make Arnold suffer.  Still, it’s great that Arnold breaks from his typical nice guy routine and is firm about how unappreciative he is of Oskar not actually doing his own job.  Along with subsequent moments of the boarders talking about how much of a loser he is, Oskar’s good side is finally made clear when he vows to deliver the newspapers the next morning, and he sticks to that vow. 

After so many scenes of him loafing about and trying to avoid actually working, Oskar gets that doing your own work is a necessary evil to get by in life, and through going through the hardships young Arnold faced and successfully delivering the papers, he brings the cartoon to a grand end.  He may still be a lazy moocher in future appearances, but moments like this prove that Oskar truly isn’t as bad as he lets on, which is always a great payoff to his big display of flaws, and make him worth watching. 

It’s truly an impressive feat to get a lot of endearment and strong comedy from a lazy jerk, and what Oskar gets up to here is no exception. 9/10

The Ranking

1. The Aptitude Test
2. Oskar Gets a Job

The next Hey Arnold review looks into the psychotic mindset of Curly when he goes on a relentless rage when he doesn't get the position of ball monitor, and Phoebe learns the hard truth of life that sometimes your idols are not the passionate artists they appear to be.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the start of another review set which covers Season 2 of the popular Netflix series, Voltron: Legendary Defender.

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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 7: Hey Arnold Season 2 Episode 3

Save the Tree

From the title, it’s easy to get the impression that this is nothing more than a preachy environmental story existing solely to explain why trees are important and shouldn’t be cut down.  However, the actual cartoon works because of what the environmental issue means for the characters involved, which makes it easy to care for the tree needing saving.  Right at the beginning, we get a feel of what the tree, called Mighty Pete, means to Arnold and his friends mostly for how it holds their very own treehouse and its historic significance as the oldest tree in the neighborhood.  Though why they claim it to be the only one when there’s clearly other trees, I really don’t know.  Anyway, because of the kids’ attachment to the tree and their apparent care for it, their concerns of it doomed to be knocked down by Helga’s dad, Big Bob, and his assistant Nick, to make room for a new beeper store are easy to get behind.  What follows mostly consists of the kids trying to do what they can to save Mighty Pete, despite most of them feeling powerless against a rich and powerful store owner like Big Bob.  The most entertaining bits come from Arnold’s Grandma who really demonstrates her appeal as a character by showing the most passion for the cause.  She even has the gang take matters into their own hands when they can’t get help from city hall, and even when Big Bob retaliates as they all protest in front of his house in ridiculous costumes, she makes it clear that their cause isn’t over.  However, even with Grandma’s great charismatic and determined demeanor, the kids grow depressed that they can’t save their famed tree, and its especially felt when they all wake up in the middle of the night to spend time in their treehouse one last time.  However, that’s when we get an exciting climax when the bulldozer set to knock down Mighty Pete approaches.  All the kids can do is throw everything, INCLUDING the kitchen sink, to stop the bulldozer but to no avail.  At the same time, we get a great moment from Big Bob, who’s known to be very neglectful of Helga.  When he sees that she’s up in the tree, he protests Nick to stop the bulldozer, giving the impression that while he’s not a good parent, his flaws aren’t intentional.  What does succeed to stop the bulldozer is easily the high point of the climax.  Grandma, in all her versatility, shows up in a Tarzan suit, swings from the tree, and takes control of the bulldozer, driving it out of the way at the last minute.  In the end, it’s the lack of a bulldozer as well as the fact the kids risked their lives to protect the tree that gets Big Bob to decide against knocking it down.  That’s the appeal of this whole plot; the characters’ devotion to a piece of nature leading to solid comedy, tensions, and heart. 9.5/10

New Teacher

At the start of these reviews, I mentioned that there’s a game-changing element included here which causes continuity errors if you follow the airing order.  That element is introduced in this cartoon.  As the title shows, Arnold’s class gets a new teacher called Mr. Simmons.  Compared to their previous teacher, Ms. Slovak, he’s way more fleshed out.  He always has a positive demeanor and shows genuine care for who he’s teaching unlike the other who just did her job and not much else.  As a result, he’s a much more pleasing teacher to have around for the rest of the series.  In his debut, things with him start off on the wrong foot as his teaching methods such as putting the desks in a circle, getting the kids to share personal feelings on other students, which almost gets Helga to reveal her love for Arnold, and pushing sappy subjects like poetry don’t get the kids to think well of him.  They devise a plan to overwhelm him to quit.  As they drop pencils, swap names, and protest the teachings, topped with Harold eating his lunch I might add, it’s easy to feel for Mr. Simmons.  He’s easily the nicest, most caring teacher anyone could ask for, and it never feels like he deserves this treatment.  It makes it all the more concerning that all the students, including the nice, smart, and considerate ones like Arnold himself, go along with the mistreatment for no real reason.  However, the consequences to their mistreatment are both grueling and fun to watch.  They get a drill sergeant of a teacher, Lt. Major Goose, and his military mannerisms make for an interesting approach in teaching the class especially with something as simple as multiplication tables, though they clearly don’t belong in a classroom setting.  It’s too much for the kids to take, and who can blame them?  Having a literal drill sergeant for a teacher makes school worse than it is.  They may have brought Lt. Major Goose in, but it’s great that they take it upon themselves to get Mr. Simmons back.  They actually go to his house and prove that they’re open to his teachings in several nice moments where they not only prove to be teachable for him, but also befriend him which is something we hardly see in shows.  I can really relate to this based on the friendly terms I’ve been on with many of my teachers.  So, after a hilarious scene of the kids overwhelming Lt. Major Goose to quit with everything Mr. Simmons taught, classes resume with Mr. Simmons at the lead, and everyone advancing in knowledge greatly, and this is only the beginning.  Overall, even if it has to disregard the good nature of some characters to make the plot work, this is a great start to a great change to the show’s dynamic. 9/10

The Ranking

1. Harold’s Kitty
2. Save the Tree
3. New Teacher
4. The Big Scoop
5. Hooky
6. Arnold Saves Sid

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Gerald's little sister finds a way to spend time with him through a "Ransom," and we're introduced to another prominent character named Lila, a.k.a. "Ms. Perfect."

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