'Toon Reviews 1: Hey Arnold Season 1 Episode 23

Coach Wittenberg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First of all, it’s strange that this cartoon acts as an introduction to Coach Wittenberg even though we’ve seen him in a previous cartoon which we get an acknowledgement of here.  Other than that, what we get here is still very enjoyable.  Much of the enjoyment comes from what we learn about what Coach Wittenberg got up to after being a basketball coach.  That job ended for him when he got a lot of complaints about being a harsh coach that resulted in not only him getting fired, but also getting kicked out of his house since he’s lost jobs so many times already.  Now, the only thing he can get for a job is a janitor at the local bowling alley.  However, when Arnold’s bowling team needs a coach, he gets a chance to get back to the job he originally had.  With this interesting information about him out of the way, we witness the behavior that got him fired on display as the first day with him as bowling coach is filled with moments of him being a tough jerk who overworks the team every time they fail to get a strike.  Thankfully, unlike in “Benchwarmer” where Coach Wittenberg’s flaws were so overbearing that they made him unlikable, this cartoon shows that despite resorting to teaching all there is to know by being mean, he does have a sense of morality.  When Arnold comes to give him advice on how to be a better coach, he’s open to learning it.  As a result, thanks to a lesson in “psycho-cology” he earns the team’s respect as a coach as shown when they start to have fun with what they’re practicing, and even do a lot better.  This shows that Coach Wittenberg has improved a lot, but in a smart move of humanization, we see that this lesson has not completely changed him.  When the bowling match arrives, he realizes that the team he’s coaching is playing against a team coached by his wife.  The following sequence of the match going on ties into Coach Wittenberg’s desire to win.  He starts to lose his cool and become an unlikable coach again when his wife’s team starts winning, and in that case, it’s believable that he’d lose his act.  In the end though, he’s able to put the thoughts of the team ahead of his personal desires, and goes on to emphasize the kids having fun instead of winning…even though this tactic has them win anyway, not that I see a problem with that.  What’s important though is that what goes on here help make the title character a flawed, yet believable character who is fully capable of learning what’s right.  He may be a tough coach, but he’s worth spending a cartoon with.  In his honor, I end this review with his two words on getting through life: strained beets. 9/10

Four-Eyed Jack

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For this cartoon, we’ve got another urban legend-focused story and those are always fun.  They’ve got creative premises, make for some interesting character interactions, and take every opportunity to build a scary atmosphere which most people associated with family shows rarely do.  Anyway, in the case of this cartoon, it features Arnold and Gerald coming across an old pair of glasses.  Grandpa tells them that they belonged to an old boarder nicknamed Four-Eyed Jack.  Jack’s story is that he spent all his time in the boarding house basement coming up with bean experiments.  One night, he got caught in an explosion of one of his experiments, and ever since then, his spirit has haunted the boarding house and continues to do so until he finds his glasses.  That, to say the least, is an interesting backstory for this ghostly figure, so it’s easy to get behind the ultimate decision to try and track down Four-Eyed Jack to learn more about him.  During Arnold and Gerald’s pursuit of the ghost, the rest of the boarders join in and they add their own charm to the pursuit.  We have Oskar being superstitious of the ghost as he holds onto a horseshoe all throughout, Ernie messing with the boys’ beliefs in the spirits, and Mr. Hyunh just happily going along for the hunt while pointing out how ghosts are “very creepy” in his own foreign way.  These character moments are highly enjoyable, as is the greatly crafted spooky atmosphere, particularly with how the halls in the boarding house in the dark are drawn, not to mention one moment where papers start blowing around for no plausible reason.  That moment is really the only time Four-Eyed Jack’s presence is believable because most of the ghost hunt consists of Arnold hearing noises only for them to turn out to be something else.  The atmosphere makes his belief in it being the ghost understandable, but since the noises constantly turn out to be something else, it’s easy to predict that the ghost hunt will lead to nothing of substance.  Sure enough, the only thing everyone learns in the end of the hunt is that the boarding house has another bathroom.  However, the cartoon is nice enough not to make the ghost story pointless by throwing in an obligatory ending that suggests that maybe Four-Eyed Jack isn’t as fake as he seems which in turn further shows off the atmosphere.  Ultimately, this may not be the best urban legend-centered cartoon, but there’s a lot of memorable moments from the characters and the dark atmosphere that make it well worth a watch. 9.5/10

The Rankings

1.      Pigeon Man

2.      Arnold’s Christmas

3.      Harold’s Bar Mitzvah

4.      Haunted Train

5.      Stoop Kid

6.      Arnold’s Hat

7.      Wheezin’ Ed

8.      Spelling Bee

9.      Helga’s Makeover

10.  Mugged

11.  False Alarm

12.  Magic Show

13.  Tutoring Torvald

14.  The Baseball

15.  Olga Comes Home

16.  Four-Eyed Jack

17.  The List

18.  Das Subway

19.  The Vacant Lot

20.  Downtown as Fruits

21.  The Old Building

22.  Field Trip

23.  The Sewer King

24.  Coach Wittenberg

25.  Hall Monitor

26.  Sally’s Comet

27.  Roughin’ It

28.  Gerald Comes Over

29.  Crush on Teacher

30.  6^th Grade Girls

31.  The Little Pink Book

32.  24 Hours to Live

33.  Abner Come Home

34.  Arnold as Cupid

35.  Snow

36.  Eugene’s Bike

37.  Biosquare

38.  Door #16

39.  Heat

40.  Helga’s Boyfriend

41.  Part Time Friends

42.  Benchwarmer

43.  Operation Ruthless

44.  World Records

45.  Cool Jerk

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the 24th episode of the season: "Tour de Pond/Teacher's Strike."

'Toon Reviews 1: Hey Arnold Season 1 Episode 11

Benchwarmer

 

 

 

 

 

Here we see more of how skilled Arnold is at sports, in this case basketball.  In fact, he knows so much about it that he’s got it down to an art if you can believe it.  This is why it’s very unfortunate that he’s placed in such a mean and unforgiving environment of a basketball team.  All the meanness comes from the man in charge, Coach Wittenberg who’s mostly completely unaware that he’s teaching the team poor basketball tactics, namely always passing the ball to his son, Tucker.  Now, Tucker isn’t exactly the best basketball player out there, especially when making foul shots.  Basically, this whole thing is a case of favoritism, and Coach Wittenberg doesn’t grasp how wrong this is.  His real jerky moment comes in when Arnold doesn’t pass the ball to Tucker, despite being for good reason, and he blows up at Arnold for not following the “rules” and makes him sit out of the game as a benchwarmer.  It’s really annoying as to how dense Coach Wittenberg is in this scene.  If he wants to win so badly, he should get in his head that there are times when his son just won’t be able to get the ball.  Some may see it as him loving his son too much, but to me, he’s hard to get behind if these flaws are going to make him disrespectful to the other players.  Anyway, regarding Tucker’s inability to make foul shots, he learns the way to do it from Arnold, and like I said earlier, he has the sport down to an art.  He actually gives Tucker Zen advice about the ball, which includes meditations while standing on top of the ball.  This may seem crazy, but knowing me, I admire a unique perspective of a common element of life.  The training gets Tucker to “trust the ball” and he’s able to do foul shots a lot better during a game.  However, the poor treatment of Arnold still doesn’t stop when Tucker flat out says to Coach Wittenberg that he taught himself to get better at basketball without giving Arnold credit.  It’s bad enough that Arnold was unfairly banned from playing, but him not getting the credit he deserves is really unwarranted.  I get that Tucker wants to impress his father, but from what we saw of him to this point, he seemed too moral to do something like this.  Thankfully, things work out for Arnold in the end when Tucker fakes a sprain, and Arnold wins the game for his team and Tucker gives him credit for helping him leading to a change in heart for Coach Wittenberg.  Still, the unfair punishment Arnold endures bring the enjoyment down, and this cartoon as a whole becomes pointless because we never see Tucker again after this, but he honestly wasn’t very interesting anyway.  So, there’s some glaring issues with the entertainment of this cartoon, but it’s still decent for what it is. 7/10

Cool Jerk

 

 

 

 

 

 

You know how people always say that you shouldn’t talk to strangers and that some people aren’t always what they seem?  That’s an important thing to remember in life, and this cartoon demonstrates that lesson greatly, but they also seem to enforce a stereotype that anyone who acts cool and is popular is a bad guy.  The story features Arnold getting the attention of a guy said to be the coolest person in town, Frankie G.  He acts all friendly to Arnold and even takes him for a ride on his motorcycle.  He also takes him out of school for a day of fun, shows him his home, and even considers him to be a part of his group.  Everyone at school only cares about how Arnold hanging out with the cool kid makes him cool while only Gerald actually learns more about Frankie to get the hint that Arnold shouldn’t be trusting him.  This is where we get to the biggest problem of the cartoon.  Frankie’s moments with Arnold really seem genuinely nice and it really feels like he considers him to be his friend, but at the same time, he’s a guy Arnold doesn’t even know, yet he sticks by him over everyone else he knows in his life.  Now with the reveal that he’s bad news, he still sticks with Frankie, believing that there’s some good in him.  It just seems so unlike Arnold to not listen to reason and trust people he actually knows as opposed to this dude who’s a total stranger to him.  Honestly though, his behavior would be tolerable if Frankie really does consider Arnold a friend.  Like I said, their moments together really are nice, and Arnold even says that Frankie is like the big brother he never had.  Instead, we find out that Frankie really is scum when he and his gang reveal that they befriended Arnold to steal a tweeter on account that he has the right head to fit through the window.  This moment just destroys everything that could’ve been great about this friendship between Arnold and Frankie.  I must ask, why spend so much time with these guys acting like the best of buds if you’re just going to make him the bad guy?  Now, we’re left with Frankie as a one-dimensional bad guy with nothing about him to like, and any depth he could’ve had is now gone.  Yes, Arnold goes back with his old friends and we’re left to learn to be careful of who to trust, but Frankie and his gang never get the comeuppance they deserve, so the conclusion is not as satisfying as it could be.  With all this in mind, despite some nice and fun moments, for mostly being built on non-existent character depth, I have to name this as one of the show’s weakest entries.  5/10

The Rankings

1.      Haunted Train

2.      Stoop Kid

3.      Arnold’s Hat

4.      Helga’s Makeover

5.      Mugged

6.      The Baseball

7.      The List

8.      The Vacant Lot

9.      Downtown as Fruits

10.  The Old Building

11.  Field Trip

12.  Roughin’ It

13.  6^th Grade Girls

14.  The Little Pink Book

15.  Arnold as Cupid

16.  Snow

17.  Eugene’s Bike

18.  Door #16

19.  Heat

20.  Benchwarmer

21.  Operation Ruthless

22.  Cool Jerk

 

Be sure to stay tune for the review of the 12th episode of this season: "Das Subway/Wheezin' Ed."