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Hey Arnold! just redeemed itself

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My real name is Arnold...so growing up when the cartoon was popular was rather annoying at times.

HEY ARNOLD!
OMG LOL Move it football head!

I hear it 'till this day. But it was a good cartoon.
 
Hey Arnold! for me was Will Eisner's work in the animated form. The characters, emotions, city, and detail all brimmed with the same eloquence that the Contract With God trilogy did. The creators clearly had a very good understanding of and a deep passion for the city life.
 
AlphaSnake said:
My real name is Arnold...so growing up when the cartoon was popular was rather annoying at times.

HEY ARNOLD!
OMG LOL Move it football head!

I hear it 'till this day. But it was a good cartoon.
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That happens to a lot of people though. As a kid I was teased(if you can even call it that) for having the same name as a certain cereal pitching tiger. I just brushed it off.
 
Dishwalla said:
That happens to a lot of people though. As a kid I was teased(if you can even call it that) for having the same name as a certain cereal pitching tiger. I just brushed it off.
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Tony's a pretty common name. And he didn't have any annoying features or habits.

Arnold on the other hand is extremely uncommon these days, had a big head, had a weird grandfather, weird cousin, had a crazy chick with a unibrow who was in love with him, etc. etc.

*shakes fist at Nickelodeon*
 
AlphaSnake said:
Tony's a pretty common name. And he didn't have any annoying features or habits.

Arnold on the other hand is extremely uncommon these days, had a big head, had a weird grandfather, weird cousin, had a crazy chick with a unibrow who was in love with him, etc. etc.

*shakes fist at Nickelodeon*
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I think you mean amazing grandfather...
 
I've just realized, Arnold probably grew up to become this guy...

original


Dyed his hair obviously.
 
Thinking about what was discussed in this thread reminds me of how much of a mystical figure Arnold is when viewing him from a perspective other than his own.
 
KittenMaster said:
Thinking about what was discussed in this thread reminds me of how much of a mystical figure Arnold is when viewing him from a perspective other than his own.
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Again, it was more that the show was from the perspective of a child, which makes things seem more magical and fantastical than they really are.
Had the show been from the perspective of an adult, it would have been a much darker and gritty show.
 
Richie said:
  • Let's finish this post by showcasing something else the show was masterful at....THE MUSIC. Jim Lang, composer of the series, is an underrated genius. Here you go, NeoGAF
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I was reading this post about the kind of atmosphere and world-building Hey Arnold did and I was hoping you mention the music, and you didn't let me down! I love the icey mysterious wonderland music from the beginning of the episode "Snow". It immediately grabs you and pulls you into the feeling of the episode and the situations the characters are gonna find themselves in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9hqU6j0lP4 (ignore those backwards credits please!)
 
My problem with Hey Arnold is that Arnold was too perfect. He was always right and everyone liked him. He was impossible to relate to.

There was a bunch of great writing and a really good supporting cast in there, but that always bothered me. The Patakis spinoff, had it ever happened, probably would have been a lot more interesting for me.
 
I loved Hey Arnold! My friends and I watched a few episodes over the summer, and it's still hilarious.

Seriously a a great show. It's up there with Animaniacs, Freakazoid, and Batman.
 
AceBandage said:
Agreed.
The music in the show was magnificent.
You so rarely hear good jazz music these days, but Jim hit it out of the park.
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Definitely. TV Shows with quality jazz music are a rarity, let alone cartoons. It played a vital role on giving the series an identity of its own.

AceBandage said:
Again, it was more that the show was from the perspective of a child, which makes things seem more magical and fantastical than they really are.
Had the show been from the perspective of an adult, it would have been a much darker and gritty show.
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I agree to an extent. While the show never really lost touch with its philosophy, I'd argue that earlier seasons were much more mythical and surrealist than latter efforts. Then again, humor early on was more subtle, while later episodes had a more direct approach to the laughs. The way you wouldn't have seen that hilarious Hitler scene in Season 1 or the incredibly-wacky-for-the-show "April Fools' Day", you'd never find anything as atmospheric as "Snow" or "Pigeon Man" in Season 5.

Plus, there were a bunch of episodes where things didn't end all smiles and roses for the protagonists, "Arnold Betrays Iggy" being a major example. Sort of a messed up episode.

ViewtifulJC said:
I was reading this post about the kind of atmosphere and world-building Hey Arnold did and I was hoping you mention the music, and you didn't let me down! I love the icey mysterious wonderland music from the beginning of the episode "Snow". It immediately grabs you and pulls you into the feeling of the episode and the situations the characters are gonna find themselves in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9hqU6j0lP4 (ignore those backwards credits please!)
Click to expand...

HIGH-FIVE! It's such a warm and cozy episode, accompanied by such a nostalgic melody, and I really wish I had better knowledge of the English vocabulary to express how it makes me feel.
 
AceBandage said:
Again, it was more that the show was from the perspective of a child, which makes things seem more magical and fantastical than they really are.
Had the show been from the perspective of an adult, it would have been a much darker and gritty show.
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I'm not disagreeing? I was just talking about an observation I made.
 
Aw man, I love Mr. Lin, and English's inflections are all wrong and shit. I'm remembering an episode where he had to find his daughter or something, what was the name of that one...
 
And along with the Sesame Street claymation shorts, Arnold also appeared in a few issues of Simpsons Illustrated back in the early 90s(Craig Bartlett is married to Lisa Groening, Matt Groening's sister).

Simpsons_Illustrated_08._Arnold_Has_a_Treehouse.png
 
Loved this show + the other nick shows including rocket power, and i i still remember watching the 1st episode while having tomato soup with fish crackers ...is that odd?
 
FloppyDelux said:
i still remember watching the 1st episode while having tomato soup with fish crackers ...is that odd?
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Not so much. Important (to us) events are remembered much more clearly.
I remember eating a Flamethrower Burger the first time I played FF9.

icarus-daedelus said:
I really want to rewatch this on Netflix to see if it holds up to my memories of it.

Because I think it's the best show Nick ever aired, but I want to be sure.
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I watched the first two seasons on Netflix last year. Still easily holds up.
 
icarus-daedelus said:
I really want to rewatch this on Netflix to see if it holds up to my memories of it.

Because I think it's the best show Nick ever aired, but I want to be sure.
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It still holds up.

To be honest, to me, it's better now since I understand more of the issues that couldn't be stated upfront due to it being a Nickelodeon show (like Helga's mom being an Alcoholic and how it played a role in their relationship).
 
Willy105 said:
Guh? Rocket Power was very popular. It was great too, although it certainly aged a lot.
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It had already aged when it aired.
It was basically a show that was ripped right out of the 80s style... playing in 2000, and trying to be "cool and hip". I still don't know who it was trying to appeal to.
 
I loved this show. I really hated that main girl that loved Arnold but was a dick to him though. That is not how you get a boyfriend...
 
Willy105 said:
Guh? Rocket Power was very popular. It was great too, although it certainly aged a lot.
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Rocket Power was always cheesy to me. It did have some funny moments though.

And Tito's ancient Hawaiian sayings always cracked me up.

"Never count your pineapples before they hatch." lol

But yeah, the show was trying to cash in on the Tony Hawk/X Games popularity at the time.
 
AceBandage said:
It had already aged when it aired.
It was basically a show that was ripped right out of the 80s style... playing in 2000, and trying to be "cool and hip". I still don't know who it was trying to appeal to.
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It wasn't really 80's, it was straight-up radical, gnarly, Tony Hawk 90's.
 
I never really watched Rocket Power because by then I was tired of the Klasky-Csupo style. It was alright on Rugrats, but The Wild Thornberries turned me off of the style.

And I was even into skateboarding and Tony Hawk and The X-Games when this aired, so it should've been right up my alley.

Add to that the fact that after Hey Arnold Nick's programming took a turn for the worse(see Catdog), and really the only Nicktoons I liked past that was The Angry Beavers, Spongebob, and Invader Zim.
 
Bgamer90 said:
Rocket Power was always cheesy to me. It did have some funny moments though.

And Tito's ancient Hawaiian saying always cracked me up.

"Never count your pineapples before they hatch." lol

But yeah, the show was trying to cash in on the Tony Hawk/X Games popularity at the time.
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Yeah. I thought there was a good show hidden in there. I think would've been better if it was about life in a costal city or hawaii than trying to play off of what they thought of extreme sports dudes of the time.
 
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