'Toon Reviews 16: Hey Arnold Season 3 Episode 15: Arnold and Lila/Grand Prix

Arnold and Lila

It’s hard to believe how long a time has passed between Lila’s major appearances.  She first appeared as a seemingly perfect, but troubled character given her poor lifestyle.  Starting with this cartoon, her lifestyle, her most interesting trait, is no longer discussed, and she acts perfect and overly kind with no trouble at all.  Not only that, she molds into a role of a potential love interest for literally all her other appearances which not just keeps her from being as interesting as she could’ve been, but more annoying than ever for a severe lack of relatable flaws.  To be fair, the way she fits into such a role is well-executed. 

It happens when Helga, while privately expressing her love for Arnold, is led to do capitalize on her feelings by writing “Arnold loves Helga” on a nearby wall.  However, since other people can clearly see the wall, she erases her name and just happens to replace it with Lila’s before anyone comes by.  Everyone believes Arnold like-likes Lila and push for the apparent romance of the sight despite Arnold only liking Lila as a friend.  From here, Arnold finds himself spending a lot of time with Lila, and she just can’t get enough of him all while Helga is forced to deal with the fact that the boy she loves getting attached to someone else was brought on by herself.  The latter point is especially interesting for Helga dwelling on her own faults instead of blaming someone else which makes it easy to take the conflict seriously. 

As for Arnold, it becomes difficult for him to keep living the misunderstanding, though I don’t get why he’s also teased for being together with Lila, especially by kids who liked the idea of getting together with her earlier.  It would make more sense for them to be jealous of Arnold.  Arnold finally ends the whole thing through honesty by telling Lila that he never wrote the message while admirably being gentle with letting her down, and Lila seems to take it well despite apparent disappointment.  Still, even with him explaining the truth, everyone calls him a “fickle” through saying he loved Lila (which he never did) and now denying it.  The strangest thing is, Arnold actually grows to like-like Lila after all through thinking hard about their time together which appears to be a combination of admiring the appearance of a cute girl and the peer pressure of everyone witnessing him live a lie. 

From here, this starts a reoccurring trend of plots in which Arnold expresses to Lila that he like-likes her and she keeps telling him that she only likes him as a friend since she only like-liked him because she thought he felt the same about her .  It’s not exactly the best route for the series to take for making Arnold look very closed-minded and making it seem like Lila is only good for being a love interest.  At least Arnold’s come a long way with expressing his true feelings to crushes.  Also, we end with a nice moment on a couple worth supporting when Helga appears and actually lets up on bullying Arnold, shows concern for his feelings, and is touched when Arnold talks about the pains of unrequited love.  This brief ending scene lays the foundation of truly healthy couples to get behind, and shows that it could work if Arnold was aware of the true Helga. 

In the end, while it does rob Lila of anything potentially interesting for the rest of the series and Arnold is put down for something he didn’t even say, this cartoon shines for the great way it handles the subject of what makes a healthy romance. 9/10

Grand Prix

So far, this season has prided itself on giving strong development to side characters and interesting story ideas, but there’s still room for cartoons on Arnold and the gang doing basic activities popular with kids, the activity here being about go-cart racing.  As a result, it’s not one of the more interesting cartoons, but it’s no doubt charming and fun thanks to the strengths of the characters. 

The main racing teams are Arnold, Stinky, and Sid with their cart called the Dark Avenger, and Eugene with his cart called the Mauve Storm.  Now, at this point in the series, it’s a given that if Eugene is involved, there’s going to be some major obstacle to work through.  Sure enough, his known status as a jinx and overconfidence of his cart during the first race causes both the Mauve Storm and the Dark Avenger to crash, yet they somehow qualify to be well enough to compete in the grand prix if the teams can get the carts fixed.  It’s at least good that the crews of both carts have a chance to keep on fighting especially since this race features a one-dimensional bully like Wolfgang never allowing them to live it down. 

Also, as basic as the following story is with the crews combining forces to fix the carts by putting whatever isn’t broken from each of them into one new cart, it’s still thoroughly entertaining with a few funny moments throughout the repair process as well as some of the better moments from problematic characters.  The season has not been very kind to Sid and Stinky as characters with their major roles making them come off as annoying and stupid, uninteresting, and at times unlikable.  This cartoon puts aside their negative traits and utilizes them for more entertaining and funny moments through putting the cart together and expressing worry if it stands a chance against the competition.  As for Eugene, there’s a lot more believable behavior from him than in most of his appearances including his previous one.  Unlike in moments from those cartoons, he’s able to see how bad the situation is with his prized go-cart destroyed, and rather than being all happy, he’s firm with saying that he wants to take part in the construction and driving of the cart, and it’s always nice to see normally friendly characters show a bit of a backbone.  It shows that there’s more to them than their basic character traits. 

Everything leads up to the titular grand prix where the broken carts are fully repurposed as the Mauve Avenger which I have no idea why they think it’s a bad name.  The race works as an exciting payoff filled with many great character moments.  Some of them offer different character perspectives on running the race either racing furiously, statistically, or even nonchalantly.  They come off as cathartic when all of Wolfgang’s bullying for the cartoon is met with humility when he wipes out, Eugene desperately trying to drive safely as the Mauve Avenger falls apart, and of all characters, Phoebe races the roughest of all taking first place.  Even one-shot characters of a French racer and an Italian racer have a few humorous moments as they take off to race, let their minds wander, and wipe out, though they may cause discomfort to some through sounding stereotypical.  It all ends well with the truly bad characters losing what they deserve, and the cartoon’s main players being happy with their position even if they lost their cart and didn’t win first place which is as good an ending you can ask for. 

Again, it’s not the most interesting or thought-provoking, but if you’re into racing, you’re in for a lot of fun with this cartoon. 9/10

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. Arnold and Lila
17. Phoebe Takes the Fall
18. Best Man
19. Career Day
20. Gerald’s Tonsils
21. Grand Prix
22. Rich Kid
23. Dangerous Lumber
24. Casa Paradiso
25. Arnold’s Room
26. Helga and the Nanny
27. Roller Coaster
28. Stinky Goes Hollywood
29. Sid’s Revenge
30. Arnold Betrays Iggy

The next Hey Arnold review will be on its Thanksgiving special, but it will be uploaded on the holiday Arnold's Grandma constantly mistakes for Thanksgiving.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews will be the penultimate episode of Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 2, "Best Laid Plans."

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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 7

Longest Monday

When you’re a kid, it’s a given that you’re going to come across bullies one way or another, and this show has proven this statement several times with characters like Helga and Harold.  However, imagine having to deal with bullies from a higher grade than you.  Encounters like that could easily turn out to be some of the scariest childhood traumas to deal with, and this cartoon puts Arnold and his class right at the mercy of the sadists of the 5^th grade.  It’s established that on the first Monday of June, the 5^th graders attack the 4^th graders by dumping them in the trash causing them great humiliation, and this year, it’s Arnold’s classes turn to endure, and it’s especially bad when their leader, Wolfgang, is the toughest 5^th grader in school.  They have a nice, inspiring plan to stick together to avoid the 5^th graders and get to safety, but that’s immediately dashed when the 5^th graders spot them and its every student for him/herself.  From here, everything we see is nothing but senseless bullying as 4^th graders are dumped into putrid trash and the 5^th graders getting senseless joy out of the humiliation they’re causing.  Even when the kids find some hope such as hiding out in a sanctuary or one 5^th grader wanting to help them, they’re always there to destroy it.  Through it all, we’re left with a lot of unfortunate implications about 5^th graders.  We’re left with the idea that all 5^th graders a sadistic bullies who want to make life miserable for anyone smaller than them.  This is far from a believable scenario because it’s easy to predict that there are 5^th graders out there who AREN’T like the ones we witness here, yet the cartoon doesn’t give a hint of that.  What’s more, Wolfgang and his cronies are so one-dimensional it’s hard to watch them torture Arnold and the gang.  There’s no reason given for why they’re doing what they’re doing let alone why it's a tradition, or in any of their future appearances, which further hinders the entertainment since no sensible human being would ever be as mean as this just because.  As a result, it’s mostly painful to watch them torture everyone and come out victorious in the end.  That’s not even counting the implication that Arnold and the others will do what they did to the next batch of 4^th graders when it’s their turn next year.  It’s not all bad since there are a few humorous moments from the bullying, and the fact that Arnold and Gerald end up enjoying getting thrown in the trash puts somewhat of a damper in the 5^th graders’ plans, even if they don’t notice it.  So with its moments, this cartoon isn’t all bad, but given its mostly painful overtones from the one-dimensional antagonists, it isn’t all that good either. 5/10

Eugene’s Pet

From what I’ve read in books and seen on other TV shows, a traumatic experience can really mess up the person who went through it.  You’d think that, in the case of the jinx in the cast, Eugene, he’d be a total wreck through constantly getting hurt and having other bad things happen to him.  Amazingly enough, he’s always incredibly positive about life despite how harsh of a toll it takes on him.  However, this cartoon shows where he has to draw the line.  We open at show-and-tell where Eugene talks about how much he treasures his pet fish, Henry, and how he’s the best pet he’s ever had since he never ran away or gave him nightmares.  After that affectionate statement, when Arnold goes next to show off his yo-yo, it gets loose and kills Henry.  Instead of positive and happy-go-lucky as he usually is, Eugene’s spirit is completely shattered by this moment, and rightfully so.  His usually injuries always heal eventually, but Henry was killed and has no hope of recovering, and given how attached Eugene was to him, it’s understandable that he’s completely traumatized.  His feelings are especially felt when he shows that he doesn’t have the heart to flush the fish.  The kids decide to give him a proper burial complete with a powerful eulogy from Gerald backed up affectionately by Arnold on harmonica.  From there, we get a huge glimpse of how harsh the world is for Eugene starting with Henry’s corpse getting eaten by a cat right after the eulogy.  Then, when trying to get a new pet, none of them fit his liking as shown in scenes that are humorous, yet sympathetic for Eugene at the same time.  Finally, Eugene resorts to having and eventually losing imaginary pets that just make everyone think he’s crazy.  At the same time, him going this far to cope with losing Henry is just as sad as his reaction to the death.  He just seems so desperate to break from reality.  It’s also easy to feel for Arnold, the unintentional murderer, who tries so hard to make things up for Eugene and all his attempts go wrong.  It certainly doesn’t help that he ends up seeing fish that remind him of his misdeed frequently.  Thankfully, there’s a satisfying conclusion for both him and Eugene when Arnold gets him his own fish from the aquarium that Eugene can see anytime.  The interesting thing about this is that even when the new fish is eaten at once, Arnold, accepting that Eugene is unlucky, hides that incident for Eugene’s sake which is helped by a group of the exact same fish living in that aquarium.  It’s a unique way to keep the jinx happy to say the least.  With its genuine emotion and sympathy and believable resolutions, this easily another strong entry for the season. 10/10

The Ranking

1. Harold’s Kitty
2. Monkey Business
3. Eugene’s Pet
4. Save the Tree
5. New Teacher
6. Ms. Perfect
7. Big Caesar
8. Ransom
9. The Big Scoop
10. Best Friends
11. The High Life
12. Hooky
13. Arnold Saves Sid
14. Longest Monday

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode featuring a much better encounter with Wolfgang and the 5th graders when a game of football turns into a game of "Mudbowl," and we'll get a unique perspective of what it's like to live in Arnold's boarding house when "Gerald Moves Out."

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