'Toon Reviews 16: Hey Arnold Season 3 Episode 9: Career Day/Hey Harold

Career Day

A show with a huge cast has the opportunity to give good development to any of them.  This cartoon, which has Arnold’s class join some of the adults to join them for their jobs for career day, fits the bill. 

For most kids, we only get short scenes of them working certain jobs chosen at random.  Some of them are fitting for their characters like Helga as a cop, while others are unusual like Gerald as a firefighter and to a larger extent, Phoebe working in demolition with Ernie.  However, they all adjust to working these careers very well.  Because this only takes up a small part of the cartoon, this isn’t where the character development is. 

These moments contrast how hard a time Arnold has with his assigned career, assistant to the neighborhood’s ice cream man, the Jolly Olly Man.  Before, the Jolly Olly Man has had little scenes of delivering ice cream, and being a totally rude cheapskate trying to raise his ice cream to unreasonable prices in his rare big roles.  Arnold states that the Jolly Olly Man hates kids and is on the brink of insanity.  It feels that way at first with much unpleasantness that comes from Arnold having to work with the Jolly Olly Man.  He forces Arnold to ride in the freezer, refuses to let him help with handing out ice cream, and takes the money from his customers, but rarely gives them the ice cream they want.  Basically, the Jolly Olly Man can really try your patience for how unbelievably unlikable he is all throughout. 

Even if his unlikable moments aren’t enjoyable, they work thanks to the direction the story takes that brings on his development.  For how harsh he is, the Jolly Olly Man is nothing compared to his boss.  He belittles him with harsh insults, threatens to terminate his only job if he doesn’t empty his freezer, and is continuously eying him just waiting for him to fail.  He’s not shown as much as the Jolly Olly Man, but the boss’ brief moments leave an impression far nastier than anything we’ve seen of the other guy.  If that’s not enough, the boss is actually the Jolly Olly Man’s dad, giving the impression that the ice cream man had an abusive childhood, a believable cause for his mean behavior.  That combined with being stuck with a job he doesn’t like flesh the Jolly Olly Man out not as a heartless monster, but as someone far more relatable.  He may hate his job, but knows he has to deal with it after being fired from over 50 jobs before.  It’s all that he has for income and he knows better than to let it go which is something I feel makes sense for most people when it comes to jobs, though normally with the first jobs they ever have. 

From here, with selling all the ice cream as a motivation, he starts coming around through accepting Arnold’s help.  It takes a while to grasp things, which include some slightly disturbing moments, but how well the Jolly Olly Man ends up because of Arnold’s teaching is truly impressive.  By the end of the day, he becomes much friendlier with his customers culminating with him happily giving away the rest of the ice cream to Arnold’s classmates and the people they worked with that day.  Him laughing maniacally when his dad reluctantly says he can keep his job does still give an unsettling vibe from his weak points, but it doesn’t indicate that he lost what he learned. 

As a result, this cartoon comes off as a relatable take on careers with a heck of a character to follow through it.  9/10

Hey Harold!

At this point, it’s clear that Harold has more depth than it may appear.  Whenever there’s a cartoon about him, chances are it’s going to be a high-tier work.  Such is the case with this cartoon that’s all about him going through a relatable phase of life, as well as get through it on his own. 

Nearly all of PS 118 is invited to a party said to include dancing, and Harold continuously shoots down the idea of dancing with a girl and even going to the party.  This starts us off with Harold’s immature and sensitive flaws with the idea constantly hammered in by Sid and Stinky, and even his parents.  Harold gives into the pressure and goes to the party, and while he doesn’t socialize at first, he meets someone who happens to be a lot like him. 

In a remarkable turn of events, this episode gives us another cartoon to develop Big Patty.  Just as before, she’s presented as a bully character with believable reasons for her behavior.  In fact, most are similar to the reasons why Harold is sometimes a bully.  They’re insecure about their appearances and intellects both on their own accord and from what others say, which makes them act out or isolate themselves.  They both find each other when they walk away from the party, and despite starting off rough, mostly fueled by Harold’s constant insistence on not dancing with a girl, they slowly warm up to each other after Harold proves that he can dance with a girl.  Then they bond as the night goes on talking about what they typically get up to in life, and even personal information, right down to doing so long after the party ends.  It may not feel like much, but just the simple moments of two social outcasts who look intimidating finding common ground and bonding over it naturally is impactful in its own right.  They’re shining moments for them to get past their own weaknesses and further prove that even if people have faults, they’re human beings getting through life when all is said and done, one of the most important things for people to learn. 

It’s after this when there’s a lot of discomfort.  Stinky and Sid never stop badgering Harold about the absurdity of hanging out with Big Patty while his parents are keen to rush his relationship with her.  After seeing a lot of them together, it’s impossible not to feel annoyed by how others feel about the idea of the pairing.  Sid and Stinky are especially problematic for how condescending they are about Big Patty.  It makes me wonder why he even considers them his friends.  Along with Stinky’s lack of interesting traits and Sid’s annoying obsessing, together they’re quite the detractor.  In the end, Harold makes up for their insensitivities when after thinking about it, he decides to make his true feelings clear by yelling at Stinky and Sid that he likes Big Patty and doesn’t care what they think.  Is it socially appropriate? No, but what he says still has truth to it, and him finally sitting with Big Patty at lunch is an adorable finish to his arc for the cartoon. 

It closes everything with a moment to sell the appeal of these social outcasts, reminding that at the end of the day, no one should pressure you into thinking a certain way.  As a reviewer, the latter message is especially meaningful, as should be the case with any aspiring reviewers out there. 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. Olga Gets Engaged
11. Oskar Gets a Job
12. Career Day
13. Rich Kid
14. Dangerous Lumber
15. Arnold’s Room
16. Helga and the Nanny
17. Stinky Goes Hollywood
18. Arnold Betrays Iggy

The next Hey Arnold review features the residents of Arnold's boarding house try to act as a family when Grandpa threatens to sell the place, and there's an interesting play on voice actors getting replaced when they hit puberty in a cartoon about Gerald getting his tonsils taken out.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews, it's another galactic adventure of Voltron: Legendary Defender taking us to "The Ark of Taujeer."

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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 12: DuckTales Vol. 2 Part 10: Catch as Cash Can Part 2: A Whale of a Bad Time

Catch as Cash Can Part 2: A Whale of a Bad Time

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Given all the exciting and creative moments that happened in the previous part of this story arc, this part more than continues to build upon what was set up.  It all happens when Scrooge is still worried about Flintheart getting to his fortune, so he comes up with a plan to move it out to sea to keep it out of reach with the aid of trucks carrying it disguised as ice cream trucks.  While this move does sound smart, circumstances don’t turn out as planned when a sea monster is reported to have eaten half of Scrooge’s money thought to be ice cream, which by the way, results in a comedic highlight of Scrooge throwing a violent temper tantrum over the news.  The episode then shifts its focus to a deep-sea adventure to track down the reported sea monster and retrieve Scrooge’s fortune.  While that goes on, the navy has a problem of their own when their top-secret submarine shaped like a whale goes missing, and become suspicious of Scrooge coming across it while he’s out in the ocean.  That’s where Donald Duck enters the episode as he goes along with Scrooge’s search while also making sure his uncle doesn’t find the submarine, and throughout the adventure, they both continue to come off as an entertaining pairing.  Scrooge is knowledgeable and level-headed when working through the task at hand while Donald is easily ticked off by whoever they come across which leads to his classic tempers including pushing various buttons without knowing what they do.  This pairing is eventually dragged into the sea-monster conflict when they, along with Scrooge’s other money ships, are swallowed by the whale sub.  It turns out that Flintheart has staged a deal with the sub’s inventor, Dr. Bluebottle, to use it to steal Scrooge’s money which will apparently get Dr. Bluebottle the fame and fortune he’s always dreamed of.  To say the least about him, it’s interesting that a short squeaky-sounding old man would turn out this diabolically evil, and he even fights back the navy really well when they start attacking with death charges making for an awesome action scene.  Also in this whole plot is an interesting moment where Scrooge, in the heat of the Firefly Fruit challenge, decides to just let his fortune reside in a really deep trench when the steering is shot and the sub is sinking.  The surprising thing about Scrooge needing to let his money go is that he’s not only willing to do it, but confident to just go get it back from the trench which is the focus of the arc’s next part, especially after how determined he was to keep it safe in the first part, not to mention the earlier temper tantrum.  Still, it does its part to get you excited to see what comes next, and the episode as a whole still ends up as one of the best of the show with strong comedy, great use of characters, and demonstrations of the show’s imaginative sense of adventure. 10/10

The Ranking:

1.      The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 5: Too Much of a Gold Thing

2.      Catch as Cash Can Part 2: A Whale of a Bad Time

3.      Catch as Cash Can Part 1: A Drain on the Economy

4.      Back to the Klondike

5.      The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 2: Wronguay in Ronguay

6.      The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 4: Cold Duck

7.      The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 1: Don’t Give up the Ship

8.      The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 3: Three Ducks of the Condor

9.      Scrooge’s Pet

10.  Horse Scents

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where we see Disney's interpretation of Atlantis long before Atlantis: The Last Empire in "Aqua Ducks."

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

'Toon Reviews 7: Hey Arnold Season 2 Episode 10

Helga’s Love Potion

Out of all the characters in the cast, most fans of this show would tell you that Helga is the most interesting and multi-layered, and I agree with those statements.  She may seem like a typical grade-school bully at first, but through the cartoons focused on her, it’s not hard to discover that there’s a lot more to her.  This is a character who has to put up with parents who barely notice her or take proper care of her which causes her a lot of stress to get the respect in public that she can’t get at home.  Her only source of happiness is her love for Arnold as shown through many shrines, poems, and other obsessive acts dedicated to him, yet she always directs her biggest displays of stress and anger at him out of fear of humiliation and lack of respect thus preventing him from seeing the real her.  These heavy character traits of Helga’s are what make her cartoons worth looking forward to, and this cartoon is no exception.  One big strength for the plot is that it actually has Helga regret her mean demeanor she directs at Arnold as opposed to telling him how she really feels, further showing the depths of her bully nature, and her regrets are further fueled by everything reminding her of him everywhere she goes.  She gets the idea that the only way to stop her from tormenting Arnold is to fall out of love with him, and finds her chance at that by purchasing a potion for the job, which unknown to her, is just a scam.  Even if we the audience are aware of the truth, it’s a ton of fun watch her mind at work when she consumes what could allegedly rid her of her obsession.  We get a look at the inside of her mind which consists of creative images like her running through a tunnel of hearts with a vision of her heart-shaped locket at the end, and everything crumbling when she touches it sending her falling into an Arnold-themed abyss.  It’s a powerful visual cue of how huge her obsession is and how much she believes the potion is working.  As a result of taking the potion, noticeable change seems to be made with Helga acting extremely passive around Arnold which includes avoiding bullying him.  In an interesting turn though, Helga doesn’t like being without her obsession and decides she needs it to know what she wants to do with herself.  This may sound like the cartoon is encouraging obsession which is problematic, but if you think about it, what Helga concludes is ideal for being true to yourself, meaning that something that poses as a problem can have some good to it.  Plus, when she learns the potion was bogus, it’s revealed she never abandoned who she loves at all.  Even if she does go back to bullying Arnold, it’s satisfying that she’s rediscovered her identity.  With creative visuals and sequences, insightful messages, and a dynamic character at the center, you don’t need a potion to love this cartoon. 10/10

Gerald’s Secret

There are certain skills in life that appear like everyone should know at a certain age.  However, I’ve constantly been told that everyone learns things at their own pace, so even if seems embarrassing to not know skills other people your age know, there’s no shame in still needing to learn them.  This concept is what makes this cartoon relatable.  The skill in question is riding a bike, and Gerald, who’s proven to be cool and highly skilled in a lot of things at his age, can’t do it.  It’s easy to see the embarrassment in this reveal since riding a bike is something a lot of kids, especially those around Gerald’s age, are capable of, and given Gerald’s reputation among the group, him not being one of these kids makes him feel like an outsider.  Plus, the reveal goes beyond Gerald simply not knowing how to ride a bike.  There’s also a bad bike-riding experience he had when he was younger when he rode his bike down a big hill too fast, and something bad must’ve happened to him since we never see him after the bike crashed.  It gives Gerald’s inability more depth and makes it more interesting.  Now, with a bike-a-thon all the kids are taking part in coming, Arnold believes that Gerald can easily relearn bike-riding, so he puts him through a routine that starts him on a pink bike with training wheels.  This leads to a lot of ridicule from the other kids posing as something for Gerald to fight through as his training continues.  It is however, a weak point for the cartoon since it involves incessant grating taunting from Harold which doesn’t do him justice given the depth from him we’ve seen in the past.  As for the rest of Gerald’s training, while he does get good enough to ride a mountain bike and makes some notable progress, he can’t avoid crashing into things and still lacks confidence after the childhood incident.  The only time he perfects his skills is when, under his own power, he wakes up at night and faces the hill that severed his bike-riding skills in the first place.  The process of Gerald riding down the hill is especially effective through showing the power of him confronting his fears without any dialog all the way through.  Then, in the cartoon’s last minutes, we get the climactic bike-a-thon that lives up to the hype previously built-up.  It’s fast-paced, has great music to it, and displays the high point of Gerald’s bike skills.  He easily gets to the front, only stops at the hill to go down it with his friend, gets Harold back with the help of the fact that he never checked his tires, and wins the whole race.  With this climax, this cartoon effectively portrays the great journey of learning a skill, showing that even if you don’t learn it as fast as others, the results are more than worth it.  It’s a valuable entry in the series anyone can relate to. 9.5/10

The Ranking

1. Harold’s Kitty
2. Helga’s Love Potion
3. Monkey Business
4. Eugene’s Pet
5. Freeze Frame
6. Gerald’s Secret
7. Save the Tree
8. Phoebe Cheats
9. Gerald Moves Out
10. New Teacher
11. Mudbowl
12. Ms. Perfect
13. Big Caesar
14. Ransom
15. The Big Scoop
16. Best Friends
17. The High Life
18. Hooky
19. Arnold Saves Sid
20. Longest Monday

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where we learn that Grandpa was once called "Steely Phil," and Helga finds herself roped into "Quantity Time" with her dead-beat dad.

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 6

Heat

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a cartoon that takes a common occurrence in real life and attempts to portray it in an entertaining way.  The occurrence for the cartoon is a heatwave.  I don’t even have to assume that most people in the world have been exposed to heatwaves several times in their lives usually in the summer, so that alone should aid in the relatability factor of the cartoon.  You think of things you find yourself doing whenever a heatwave hits, and you practically see it all here.  There’s residents of the city sweating up a storm, people catching a breeze near the air conditioning, some people dunking themselves in something cool, customers buying ice, Arnold and Gerald struggling to get into the movie theater or pool, and all the kids demanding the local ice cream man, the Jolly Olly Man, to give them ice cream at a decent price.  These are all believable things that anyone can find themselves facing whenever there’s a hot day, and that’s where the appeal of this cartoon lies.  Is it entertaining and enjoyable?  I’d say it is for the most part since it means a lot if you can relate to it.  However, even if it is really hot, it can sometimes get a little too mean.  Every time an attempt to keep cool fails, everyone is very bitter and hostile and we see poor Arnold getting the short end of what goes wrong.  Some of what he goes through get some laughs, but spending too much time on him suffering isn’t exactly fun.  Then there’s the climax with the Jolly Olly Man.  Arnold and Gerald come across the kids of the neighborhood demanding ice cream, but the Jolly Olly Man sells them at prices they can’t afford.  I certainly can’t side with the Jolly Olly Man because his high prices he’s given these roasting kids are all kinds of unreasonable.  As for the kids, I really don’t know how to feel about them.  I keep going from supporting their anger for their unfair treatment which includes trying to flip the ice cream truck, to finding them to be just as unlikable as the Jolly Olly Man.  Even Arnold doesn’t seem to know how to feel about this since he willingly intensifies the kids’ riot, and then regrets it.  Basically, this scene is pretty frustrating.  Fortunately, the cartoon ends on a satisfying note for all when it suddenly rains, and everyone gets some nice relief from the heat.  At least we end with a reminder that heatwaves don’t last forever.  There may be some mean moments that don’t sit well with me, but this cartoon is worth a look for its undeniable relatability. 7/10

Snow

To say the least, it’s interesting that this cartoon is teamed with the previous cartoon about heat.  Together, you get a half hour filled with views on different cases of extreme weather be it hot or cold.  In the case of this cartoon, the extreme weather is cold, and it leads to a much more pleasing experience of a snow day.  There’s a charming factor to a cartoon that revolves around a snow day which takes great advantage of showing the many different ways the characters involved spend their time.  We see characters put their spin on activities like sledding, starting snowball fights, and building snowmen, Grandma gets a humorous running gag of having a sled and the herd of animals always running out the boarding house door as a dogsled, and moments of people showing disdain towards the snow, particularly a rap called “I Hate the Snow” are fun to watch.  Amidst these short scenes of snow day fun, the main plot of the cartoon follows Arnold wanting to get in on the fun, but is constantly told to help Grandpa with doing some snow-related chores instead that take up most of the day.  All the while, he constantly is told Grandpa’s philosophy about how there’s not enough work ethic in today’s society.  As a kid, I held a strong dislike towards this cartoon because of how Arnold is forced to work all day and not join in the fun.  Looking back, that may have been my inner immature little kid talking.  While I still find myself pitying Arnold missing out on the fun more than enjoying the fun snow day moments going on, I can still admire the relatability of what he goes through especially since at my age, working is all I do when it snows.  Plus, Grandpa eventually gets a reminder that snow days are meant for fun as well as work in a nice flashback of his youth inspiring him to create an ice rink in the middle of the neighborhood.  It’s frustrating that he gets it going without telling his own grandson about it, but at least he does let him in on the fun later on.  Plus, it makes for a good message that in this life, you got to have a good balance of work and play, which are especially good words for me to live by.  Ultimately, with Arnold finally joining the snow day fun at the homemade ice rink, we’re gladly able to end the cartoon on a charming note.  Your enjoyment of this cartoon will depend on how much you can tolerate Arnold being given all these snow chores while everyone else plays, but I still say it’s a good one for its nicely built snowy atmosphere, relatability, and charm. 8/10

The Rankings

1.      Stoop Kid

2.      Arnold’s Hat

3.      Helga’s Makeover

4.      The Baseball

5.      Downtown as Fruits

6.      The Old Building

7.      Field Trip

8.      6^th Grade Girls

9.      The Little Pink Book

10.  Snow

11.  Eugene’s Bike

12.  Heat

 Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the 7th episode of this season: "Operation Ruthless/The Vacant Lot."