'Toon Reviews 7: Hey Arnold Season 2 Episode 13

Eugene Goes Bad

It’s astounding how much this season has expanded on many of the supporting characters even going as far as giving cartoons to characters who never took the spotlight before.  This cartoon continues the trend of expanding on side characters by giving an interesting direction for a usually good-natured kid like Eugene to take.  At the start, he’s shown to be a huge fan of a TV show called The Abdicator and is very influenced by and admirable of the titular superhero, making it seem like he thinks the Abdicator is really real.  However, when he goes to see the shooting of an episode that takes place in the neighborhood, he’s abhorred to see that the Abdicator is just an immature, rude, and whiny Hollywood actor who can’t do his own stunts, nothing like he is on the show.  On one hand, it’s kind of silly for Eugene to be this deeply affected by this because everything he’s seen of the Abdicator was just part of a show that isn’t even real.  On the other hand, the way he reacts to the actor’s behavior really shows how much Eugene has valued his work and how he always looked up to the Abdicator to do good.  To see that the Abdicator is nothing like he appears to be is clearly not what he would want to discover.  Even if Eugene’s change of heart isn’t perfectly understandable, it makes enough sense.  Plus, the scenes of Eugene going bad offer an interesting change of pace.  We’re so used to seeing him being so positive and chipper even when constantly hurting himself, so seeing him go through life as a bad kid spices his scenes a lot, including one of him deliberately pulling the fire alarm without a probable cause, a twist to the events of Season 1’s “False Alarm.”  However, through being a bad kid, it becomes clear that Eugene really has become a reflection of the Abdicator, acting nice and happy while watching his show only to go bad after discovering that his hero is not what he seems.  The latter point is especially reflective of him when a random little kid who conveniently has always looked up to Eugene despite us never knowing him before this cartoon decides to go bad just like him.  However, as soon as the little kid goes bad by going out past his bedtime, the influential cycle is brought to an end where even in his bad streak, Eugene is far from heartless.  He rushes to action when he finds the little kid hanging from a fire escape in danger.  It’s here where the real Eugene shines again where he rushes to do right only to get in danger himself.  Then, it’s the Abdicator actor, who amazingly decides to better himself after Eugene’s rant and saves him and the kid deciding that everyone really does need a hero.  Ultimately, despite its questionable motives and plot conveniences that don’t affect much later on, this is a solid story of what it’s like to have idols and interesting new directions for the characters involved. 9/10

What’s Opera Arnold?

When it comes to entries in this series that break from the slice of life norm, this cartoon is really the only one of that kind.  As a result, it takes the time to put the characters in something creative and show off some impressive music and visuals in the process, and the final result is an amazing experience.  In terms of story, there’s not exactly much to it.  Arnold and his class go on a field trip to the opera, and Arnold and Helga daydream while listening to it.  The same can be said for the dreams themselves which involve both of them trying to impress their love interests which by the way show that Arnold still has some hots for Ruth McDougal even after learning she’s really not what she seems back in “Arnold’s Valentine.”  However, the lack of weight to the story doesn’t matter because, as is customary for the animation medium, it takes the barebones concept and mines it for many grand, creative, and memorable sequences.  A lot of the appeal of what goes on has to do with how well the opera concept is initialized in the dreams that take up the majority of the cartoon.  Largely revolving around the opera, Carmen, we have the kid cast of the show from the main players to the background characters populating the scenes of the show.  They revel in the opera environment by singing all their lines to the tune of famous pieces not just from Carmen, but also other famous operas like Pagliacci and Ride of the Valkyries.  Moments like these are easily the cartoon’s highlight with the kids’ vocal performances as well as the speed and timing of the animation on them matching the music pieces perfectly and getting across their emotional tone.  Some memorable ones include the sorrow of Harold dressed as a clown singing from Pagliacci when Arnold first finds himself in the opera dream, the fury of Helga as she rages at Arnold crushing on Ruth instead of her to Ride of the Valkyries, and the excitement when Curly appears to propose himself to Helga and later duel Arnold for her.  There’s also a charm to these operatic performances with the many visual cues on how all that’s happening is a stage production.  It’s felt through Arnold suddenly changing clothes to fit the Carmen scene, Ruth being thrown down a trap door to below stage giving Helga a chance to fill the leading lady role, the action stopping for Helga to don the Carmen costume, a shot of the actual orchestra at one point, and the scene and props coming down as the show, and Helga’s dream end.  All these elements of the opera dreams put together give the cartoon the status of a big event making it seem almost like a real opera and one to inspire you to look into operas.  In fact, the cartoon is so impressive in that regard that you wish that the show would step out of its comfort zone more often.  However, that just makes this amazing animated work truly special. 10/10

The Ranking

1. What’s Opera Arnold?
2. Rhonda’s Glasses
3. Harold’s Kitty
4. Helga’s Love Potion
5. Monkey Business
6. Eugene’s Pet
7. Freeze Frame
8. Steely Phil
9. Gerald’s Secret
10. Save the Tree
11. Phoebe Cheats
12. Gerald Moves Out
13. New Teacher
14. Eugene Goes Bad
15. Eating Contest
16. Mudbowl
17. Quantity Time
18. Ms. Perfect
19. Big Caesar
20. Ransom
21. The Big Scoop
22. Best Friends
23. The High Life
24. Hooky
25. Arnold Saves Sid
26. Longest Monday

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the last episode of the season, the creatively structured and truly frightening Halloween special, "Arnold's Halloween."

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 1: Hey Arnold Season 1 Episode 7

Operation Ruthless

I’ve said before that crushing on someone older than you is a normal and somewhat charming part of life, but that doesn’t always mean a cartoon following this plot is going to turn out great.  This is the case with this particular cartoon which follows a trope that only lasted for this particular season, aside from one short appearance in a later season.  It’s all about Arnold having a crush on a particular 6^th grade girl named Ruth McDougal and for how much he says how beautiful and amazing she is, I just cannot really get behind the idea of this relationship.  There is just little to no character of Ruth.  She doesn’t even talk in most of her appearances.  Heck, she literally doesn’t even do anything.  I know that Arnold’s just a kid and he’d see everything in a girl who looks nice, but to be this smitten with a girl who clearly has nothing to her personality is not something we should be seeing a lot of, let alone be the focus of an entire cartoon.  The trope is handled better in other cartoons where it only appears in short mentions.  Meanwhile, we’re also treated to the operation portion of the cartoon where Helga notices Arnold being infatuated with Ruth and we spend much of the cartoon watching her try to keep Arnold away from Ruth during an event called the Cheese Fair.  Sadly, the cartoon isn’t particularly strong on this front either.  It’s true that Helga has firmly established herself as a bully at this point, but we’ve also seen hints of her good side, especially when her positive qualities connect to her crush on Arnold.  However, her bullying ways go too far with everything she does to deny Arnold, the boy she loves, any form of happiness he’s looking for.  I will say that while she is successful at keeping Arnold from meeting Ruth, there are some good funny moments where things still go wrong for her.  My personal favorite is her ending up in a broken bumper car she tries to place Ruth in which leads to her crashing into an inflatable hot dog.  Now, for all of Helga’s unlikable moments, I can still somehow feel sorry for her when, at the end of the cartoon, despite never actually being able to talk to Ruth, Arnold declares that he just loves her even more, leaving Helga in a speechless daze as the lights of the Cheese Fair go out.  It’s almost as if she’s getting a reminder that being mean like this isn’t going to have her do anything with her crush on Arnold, yet for her own reasons, she just can’t help but hold onto that mean demeanor.  While that moment does make you think and feel for Helga, she’s still not at her best and the other part of the story is frightfully dull, making this a weak entry for the season. 6/10

The Vacant Lot

 

 

 

At any age, whether I’m young or old, I see this as a very strong cartoon for the series as it gets the point across that in a world dominated by adults, kids deserve to be heard too.  The conflict at hand is that Arnold and the gang have no place to play baseball.  They can only settle for playing ball in the streets which is a problem since they constantly have to get out of the way when cars come.  Then, they find a solution to this problem when they come across a lot covered in garbage.  After cleaning it up, they turn it into their own personal baseball field, and watching them use it to have a nice and efficient game for once is just really pleasing after the cartoon went to such lengths to show how hard it is for them to get their games in.  However, rather than just wrapping up with the establishment of the new baseball field, the cartoon goes in an interesting direction.  The adults of the neighborhood including Arnold’s grandparents, the boarders, Mr. Green the butcher and Mrs. Vitello the florist find out about the lot that’s been all cleaned up, and they completely ignore the fact that a baseball field has been set up there, and start refurbishing it to fit their needs.  This makes it impossible for the kids to play their games now, and it’s easy to feel for them.  They suffered long by not having a good place to play, they finally put a place together, and then all the adults just up and take it away from them without consent.  What’s more, all the adults do is fight over what should go where in the lot.  Fortunately, the actions of the adults lead to an extremely satisfying resolution when Arnold and the kids shut up their arguments by dumping trash straight onto the cleaned up lot, turning it back into a dump since no one can use it properly.  This actually gets the adults to realize that they did wrong, and the next day, the kids return to the vacant lot to find that the adults have turned it into a bigger and better baseball field.  This moment makes it clear that kids really do deserve to have a say in matters and shouldn’t be taken advantage of.  The adults feeling bad for taking the lot and claiming it as their own is a pleasant addition to the story to lead into the ending bit.  There’s even more credibility when you consider how much of a huge part of the series the vacant lot becomes as more seasons come in.  With all this in mind, we have a major entry for this series that’s enjoyable, nice, and even thought-provoking. 9/10

The Rankings

1.      Stoop Kid

2.      Arnold’s Hat

3.      Helga’s Makeover

4.      The Baseball

5.      The Vacant Lot

6.      Downtown as Fruits

7.      The Old Building

8.      Field Trip

9.      6^th Grade Girls

10.  The Little Pink Book

11.  Snow

12.  Eugene’s Bike

13.  Heat

14.  Operation Ruthless

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the 8th episode of this season: "The List/Haunted Train."