Turning Back The Clock: Hey Arnold!

                Growing Up seems too fast--everything seems to flash before your eyes. I thought it was a good idea to relive the past with episodes from one of my favorite cartoons: Hey Arnold! It’s lucky that I stumbled upon some episodes while browsing through Youtube. I remember watching this when I was in 3^rd grade, thinking how it was so cool to be in 4^th grade instead and couldn’t wait to go up a grade. Back then I liked the adventures, the animation, some of the characters, Arnold’s room—things that a young kid will obviously appreciate. Watching this as an adult, I realize this cartoon is deeper than it seems. I got to appreciate some of the themes presented here now as I relive the past.

Some things that I overlooked before:

Helga

Helga: Wow. I thought she was just some meanie that had an obsession problem over Arnold. As I watched the episodes again, I really got to appreciate Helga’s character (especially in the episode Helga on the Couch). What she has to deal with: an absent-minded mom who gets drunk on her “smoothies”, an overbearing jerk of a dad who doesn’t pay attention to her let alone remember her name, an overly perfect sister that overshadows her—no wonder Helga has a rough exterior to get people to notice her while disguising her true sensitive and poetic side!

Arnold

Arnold: In the show, he’s always the voice of reason giving advice to kids and adults alike. For a kid, it’s impressive to see how wise he is since he usually gives quality advice all the time. However, he can become a bit of a busybody sometimes always correcting others and not minding his business. And he can get a tad too idealistic and inflexible about what he thinks is right (see episode Full Moon). But overall, he’s a neat kid, pretty mature and presents a lot of character and ideals for his age.

Mr. Simmons

Mr. Simmons: Now that I look at him, he seems to be weak-willed, idealistic teacher more suited for teaching in a preschool rather than an elementary school. His lack of a backbone, seeing things as ever sunny, colorful and nice—these qualities don’t really help kids learn what life is really like. They’ll have this warped perception of the world when they should be facing situations in reality. Oh and not to mention, some people claim that he is gay—a fact that I can now easily notice than when I was younger. Still, he's one of the nicest teachers around, a nice guy overall.

Themes: The themes of this cartoon show situations that people face in real life. It 

shows problems like insecurity, peer pressure, parent-child communication, dysfunctional family problems, unreasonable characters, school misconduct, and so much more. These problems show how real people handle them by having flawed characters in the show.

Hey Arnold! and the 4th graders

      I think Hey Arnold! is great and kids actually learn real life lessons whilst enjoying the cartoon. It’s a nicely animated, funny cartoon—it’s a shame that episodes like this are not aired on TV anymore. Kids just don’t know what they’re missing. It’s actually great to relive the past now that I get the full context of the situations in the cartoon. Are there other things that remind you of your childhood? Let me know what you think! :)