Hey Arnold! - "Helga's Love Potion"

To love, or not to love, that is the question for Helga G. Pataki in our next review. I know it's super bowl night, but I'm more focused on this, okay? This episode was directed by Dan Povenmire with storyboards done by Dan and Sherm Cohen, the storyboard supervisor for SpongeBob.

Helga gets tired of her love for Arnold making her feel mad and mixed up all the time. After considering it, she goes in to a "gypsies" store, asking her for a potion that will make her fall out of love. Out of her sight, the gypsy gives her a "potion" that would erase Helga's feelings  After drinking that "potion." Upon waking, Helga feels unusually bland. Know how I know? Because she acts more like a civilized person more than a bully with a passion for love. She moves quietly about the day, not responding to any aggression. This doesn't feel like her at all if you ask me. Can she get out of this blandness? Well, just watch and yourself.

This is a pretty weird episode, but in a good way. It has a lot of good laughs, for example, Brainy beating the heck out of himself since Helga was under the "spell." And I say all of this with air-quotes because the twist is that the potion is actually grape juice, boy did Helga get ripped off by a con person? Probably the weirdest part of the episode is that by the time Helga drinks the "potion," she goes through a extremely upside-down dream sequence! Which has her breaking the locket, her sinking into ice cream, and landing flat onto her bed, and it's not mentioned again! It's definitely a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment! Also, this is one of the few episodes where Helga uses the word "crap." I wonder why they got away with that in a cartoon like this. If I didn't know better, Francesca Marie Smith probably ad-libbed that line unscripted without Nickelodeon even noticing, either that, or she just says that by herself whenever she gets frustrated in real life, but that's just me.

So, the moral of the story is never trust a gypsy who want your money, second, don't drink any sort of love potion made out of grape juice, otherwise, you'll end up having weird dream sequences. Also, you can't escape your obsession no matter what you do. You are who you are and you can't change that. And Helga had to learn that out the hard way.

Overall, this episode is pretty weird, but funny, and good, funny and good. Yep, those are the three words I can describe this episode, folks.

Rugrats - "Hiccups"

Now let's review the season five episode, "Hiccups," which was written by Bill Braunstein. I looked him up and he also worked on Aaahh!!! Real Monsters and Pinky and the Brain. But we're not here to talk about his writing, we're here to review cartoons! Let's go!

After eating some popcorn that Stu dropped, Tommy gets a pretty bad case of the hiccups. Angelica tries scaring Tommy to get rid of his hiccups, but he doesn't scare easily. Good for him, but not good for Chuckie.

Will Angelica, Phil, and Lil scare away Tommy's hiccups? Or will Tommy be sacrificed to the Hiccup gods?

Well, I'm not telling! (raspberry noise) Because you've got to watch and see for yourself!

This episode is pretty funny. With Angelica appearing, you'd think I would hate this episode. Well, nope! She acts in character, and she even lets Phil and Lil in on her curing hiccups game. The problem is the only grown-up who appeared in this episode, doesn't do a whole lot of screen-time. He only appears at the very beginning getting rid of the spider Angelica sees when she was trying to get her cookies. You would think that Stu would hear Tommy's hiccups and try to help him cure them. But nope, he just disappears the rest of the episode! What a waste of a Jack Riley character appearance.

In the end, all nitpicking aside, it doesn't matter if Stu didn't appear in this episode that much, because it's focused on Tommy and Angelica. And in the end, the guilty got what was coming to her, by having her get the hiccups as seen in this picture here. And here's a not-so-fun fact for ya. There is no medically known cure for hiccups. That is ENTIRELY untrue. There are several remedies. For example, drink some water, hold your breath, or for that matter, drink the water upside down. Believe me, I've had the hiccups once in a while. Besides, hiccups are no biggie, it's just an air bubble that has landed into your air lungs.

Cow and Chicken - "Confused"

Yep, I'm going to review a Cow and Chicken episode. Haven't done that before, but let's go anyway. This episode is Confused.

After a small incident in the house where a part of the pork chip falls onto the floor, Cow and Chicken's parents send them to Military School. WHY ON EARTH WOULD A PARENT SEND THEIR KID TO MILITARY SCHOOL?! That's cruel and unusual punishment! But now, here's where it gets really exciting. The funny is that The Red Guy is running the Military School, that's weird, in a good way. When Cow and Chicken's strict attitude goes too far, Mom and Dad send them to a sensitivity center, but after all that, it was all a dream. Yep, I spoiled the ending, sorry about that.

Now, let's talk about how I enjoyed the episode.

I like how strict and over-the-top The Red Guy is when it comes to being a drill sergeant. And amazing in the barber's room, he acts as two characters where the barber's all calm and collected while the sergeant is so over-the top and angry. I especially like how he sings "Five and five and five is ten, I'm gonna make you mainly man, company halt!" And I like how the Red Guy says "I want you gals to run through these tires." And they do that while it was on fire, and The Red Guy puts on his firefighter gear and cools Cow and Chicken once they've run through the tires. This is just crazy, ladies and gentlemen.

So, bottom line, this episode is crazy and funny at the same time, I still don't like the fact that Cow and Chicken's parents sent them to Military School, as I've said before, that's cruel and unusual punishment. After all, it was just a pork chip, it wasn't much of mess. You know, they're parents overreact over every little mishap.

Did I mention that the creator of Family Guy, Seth MacFarlane wrote this episode?

In conclusion, go find this episode if you haven't already, you might find it on Hulu by now.

Dexter's Laboratory - "Sister's Got a Brand New Bag"

Uh, look guys, I don't have a lot of time, I'm kind of in the middle of something and I really can't explain, so, I'll try to do this review of "Sister's Got a Brand New Bag" real quick alike.

Dee-Dee learns a brand new dance from Groove Train, a spoof of Soul Train, and it's been well choreographed that Dee-Dee wants to show Dexter her new dance, but no matter what Dexter does, he literally cannot avoid it.

How will Dexter get out of this? Or will he give in to her sister's instincts?

Well, I'm not telling! Because you've got to watch and figure it out for yourself.

Next, the jokes and humor.

This episode is a lot of fun, and the dances are well done, I mean take a look at Big Daddy Fat, he really knows how to groove unlike all the other dancers Dee-Dee has seen before.

I also like the humor of Dexter accidentally turning his lab into an icy environment.

And I even like Dee-Dee's slow mo dancing while underwater.

Also, Dexter does like the dance, and there's no music playing in the background. That's kind of odd, isn't it?

All in all, this episode is a heck of a lot of fun. It's visually interesting, it's funny, it's musically interesting, and even Dee-Dee's dance takes up most of the episode in a good way.

The dance by the way is called the Moonwalk.

All I can say here is that Dee-Dee's got a  new way to walk, song reference intended.

Anyways, this is my last review for now. Hopefully, by the time my computer gets moved to another location in to the dining room, hopefully, I'll get a new review out by Friday. That is, if I don't go through limited time using the computer, because for some reason, my Mom and Dad don't trust me using this computer in my room anymore.

Dexter's Laboratory - "Don't Be a Baby"

Now, I'm not much of a baby person, but I know there's an episode out there that my Mom likes, like this one "Don't Be a Baby," which was paired with Peltra and GIRL Squad. Let's see if I can agree on some of her opinions.

After asking nicely to their parents to see if whether or not they can go see an R rated movie, and getting a "no," which I won't blame their Mom and Dad because R rated movies are unacceptable for kids, Dexter and Dee-Dee create an aging device that could make them 18 or older to see the movie, you know, because it worked better the first time in "Old Man Dexter." But it backfires when Dee-Dee accidentally switches the cords and she and Dexter mix up their parents age and turn them into babies, what a twist! While Dexter works on an antidote, Dee-Dee has to take care of the babies by herself. How will this end? Watch and see, okay?

I can see why my mom, Victoria gave this episode a full five-wow rating. It got everything right. The comedy is spot-on, I like how Dexter's dad adds emphasis on the word "violence," and I kind of like how Dee-Dee stands up to Dexter for once, blaming him for the mistake, even though, SHE was the one who mixed up the cords, but that's besides the point, and I also like how Dee-Dee takes care of the babies like a motherly figure, which was a nice change of pace from her usual energetic and ditsy personality. You have to see it to understand, the only thing I didn't like was that Dexter just bonks Dee-Dee on the head for losing the babies, come on, man, she fell asleep! It was an accident!

So, bottom line, it shows us the idea of taking care of babies properly and it has a nice moral, don't go for something you're not ready for.

Did I mention that I think Dee-Dee's voice actress, Kat Cressida might've wrote this episode or something?

By the way, the only R rated movie I have is actually The Blues Brothers movie, but the only reason I go to that one is for the musical numbers. That's why.

If you're 18 or older, then go watch The Blues Brothers movie, or if you are younger than 18, go watch this episode and see what I mean.

Dexter's Laboratory - "GIRL Squad."

Once upon a time, there were three little girls who went to school, and they each were assigned very hazardous duties, but I took them away from all that, my name is Veston. That's right, we're reviewing my favorite episode of Dexter's Laboratory, and perhaps my personal favorite in the entire series, "GIRL Squad!"

After learning some lessons about neighborhood criminals from McBark the Crime Hound, a parody of McGruff the Crime Dog, Dee-Dee, and her friends, Mee-Mee and Lee-Lee, decide to form their own neighborhood criminal spy team! Simply known, as Johnny Bravo puts it, G - Glamorous, I - Investigators, R- Ready to, L, Lick Crime, GIRL Squad! Following a brief lesson from Dexter on "licking" crime, Dee-Dee and her friends come across a criminal in silhouette lurking around the neighborhood. Who are you gonna call? The GIRL Squad!

Will these girls stop this mad man? Stay tuned to find out!

Now, this episode is a clever set-up to Charlie's Angels and it sets up who the girls would be, Dee-Dee for example would be Farrah Fawcett, Mee-Mee would be Kate Jackson, and Lee-Lee would be Cheryl Ladd, and if you want to technically add Dexter into the mix, he would have to be David Doyle. Except, Dexter's appearance was quite brief and temporary, so I consider it its own separate category, it's fine if you do though. Even their chances to catch the crook are so silly it's hilarious! Like tying shoes to the truck and tail the bad, and apparently, Coca-Cola is a thing in this universe. That's interesting.

So, overall, aside from the fact that the crook was actually just the gardener, sorry, but I had to spoil the twist ending, the episode gets pretty much everything right. It's got a decent parody, a decent plot, and a weird twist, so overall, in between those scenes and the interesting character of McBark the Crime Hound, this episode is definitely a good one.

Also, as for the GIRL Squad, this crimes been licked.

Dexter's Laboratory - "Rude Removal"

In 1998, there was word that there was an episode of Dexter's Lab that had Dexter and Dee-Dee create evil versions of themselves, the kicker, this episode had a lot of Bob Saget levels! For years, the reason for it's creation has been sketchy. Some say it was made as a joke and never intended to air, others said it was meant to air and Cartoon Network banned it for its harshness, however, the main rumor is that it was made only for select people to see, as it have been may have been shown at Genndy Tartakovsky's home for cocktail parties and whatnot. But that's just a hypothesis. For years, we were all curious about the episode and hope we would find some answers soon, and we did in 2013, thanks to Adult Swim. They once uploaded on YouTube on their channel to widespread appeal, but then they switched it to private, forcing fans to find other sources to be the only way to see it. But after all the wait, was it worth it? Let's find out.

So, we see the basic norm of the show, Dexter working on his latest creation and Dee-Dee coming in to wreck it all. Dexter tells Dee-Dee that he invented the Rude Removal System, a device made to take the rudeness out of one person, during the discussion they argue over who's the rude one, which quickly results in a sibling fight which causes them to accidentally work the Rude Removal System. On the upside, it works! On the downside, the rudeness has to go somewhere. At least all the curse words are censored in this one, I assume Adult Swim censored it themselves So anyways, Dexter and Dee-Dee have to deal with evil clones of themselves who shout their mouths off faster than the comedy sty-lings of Andrew Dice Clay.

Before these guys could mess up the now nicer duo, they hear their mother call them up for lunch, and that was where things get interesting. You just have to watch and see how it turns out for yourself. Anyway, before the now nicer duo can clean-up their mess, they hear their rude duplicates messing around in their laboratory But the weirdest part of this episode is Dexter and Dee-Dee having British mannerisms, that's just weird! Anyways, they go down to the lab to stop them once and for all in something I would like to call, "reverse psychology." Bugs Bunny-isms, works every time. Well, all's well that ends well.

Well, it's great to see something like this existed, Rude Removal feels like a typical episode. I can understand the reason for the ban, but if Rugrats, SpongeBob, The Powerpuff Girls, and Arthur can get away with teaching the moral of swearing, I can see this is getting by.


Well, except for the title card, but there's a nice nostalgic vibe that makes it worth seeing.

Just don't be that hyped.

Besides, if they had change the title card and made it a bit more kid friendly, then it would've been a cartoon to put on the show itself. Maybe it could've replaced the banned Dial M for Monkey cartoon "Barbequor," which actually HAD an excuse for removing it.

I rest my case.

That's all for now.

Hey Arnold - "Ransom"

Let's take a look at sibling rivalry with a season two episode of Hey Arnold, "Ransom"

The story centers around Gerald's little sister, Timberly, voiced by Avriel Epps, whose very annoyed by the fact that Gerald doesn't want her to join him and Arnold into a board game on detective, but Gerald's more annoyed by having her as a sister. I have problems with my brother Victor too, but I digress. Anyways, Gerald thinks Arnold is lucky not to have a sibling, because Gerald is always annoyed by Timberly, when all of a sudden, Timberly's stuffed alligator, goes missing! And with that, Arnold and Gerald are forced to play detective to find her dolly. How will this follow up, well I'm not telling. Because you've got to watch it for yourself.

The thing about Gerald being annoyed with Timberly is that it's pretty relate-able to most kids who have older brothers and/or sisters Sometimes the bigger sibling would get annoyed by their younger sibling, and believe me I've gotten annoyed by Victor constantly telling me to set the table whenever he's around. He's too strong for me to stop. But now for the reason why you came here, the review. This episode is pretty decent in most cases, I like Gerald's rant on Timberly, Harold's sensitive side and the fact he doesn't like to be called slim, and trust me, you wouldn't like him when he's angry. I also like Curly, voiced by Adam Wylie as usual, showing off his ballet stuff. That's Curly for you.

So, bottom line, this episode is pretty relate able and it can help some other siblings in the future settle their differences. I just wish there was a way Victor and I could settle our difference, but I don't know how. Maybe someday, but not for a while. I never want to get even with Victor, ever. Did I mention that the writer of Pickles vs. Pickles, Jonathan Greenberg did this? It's not a surprise considering most crew members who worked on Rugrats worked on this show with a mix of Rocko crew in between.

Sometimes, siblings can be pretty hard to understand.

Hey Arnold! - "Ms. Perfect"

That's enough Angelica for a while, let's go for something Helga related. How about, hmm.......I know, "Ms. Perfect."

This episode gives the debut appearance of the secondary character, :Lila Sawyer. She's just as cute as Nermal from Garfield and Friends. Helga, Rhonda, and Phoebe do their best to make her fit in, but then they become jealous when Lila has almost about every bit of their personality on her personality check. They're so jealous that they decide to pull some pranks on her, rotten pranks if you ask me. And this is just so mean of these characters to do to a poor innocent little girl.

Okay, what do I like about this episode? Well, Arnold's not in it, it's more focused on Helga and her friends Rhonda and Phoebe. Phoebe's jealous of her knowledge, Rhonda's jealous of Lila's wardrobe, and she even becomes friends with the lunch lady. Do I think Lila's character got a bit Mary Sue at times? Yeah, sure, but not all the way Mary Sue like. And that's what I like about the character, she's not all that perfect, not like Chloe from the Fairly OddParents whose character in the show is very, very forced. Almost as much as changing their animation to Flash Animation is SO forced! Okay, back on track. It's also another one of those Helga Karma Trips. The parts where Helga got beaten up by Big Patty are justified because Helga was acting like a jerk, and it was satisfying to see her get comeuppance for her sour attitude.

I also like the fact that Lila isn't entirely perfect. She doesn't have a mother, and she and her father only have a limited supply of food until her dad can find a steady, well-paying job. Helga and her friends regret all of their actions and apologize to her in the end, and the best news of all, Lila's dad gets a job!

So, the moral of the story is, don't be jealous of your new friends just because they might have the same traits as you, and don't prank them into being miserable. This is a pretty well thought out dramatic episode. Take it from me and watch it. I really felt bad for Lila and Helga when they cried. Well, that's all for now. See you Sunday when I review "Ransom."

Hey Arnold! - "Olga Comes Home"

I don't usually watch the first season episodes because, the animation's not as good as the episodes that Sae Rom animated a season later. But, this is a good episode I liked from the first season. Here, let me give you the basic plot.

The episode centers around Helga who has to deal with her big sister, Olga, who's coming home from college to spend spring break with the other Pataki's. Helga gets so jealous, when suddenly, the doorbell rings, mail comes on, and it turns out to be Olga's grades from the college she attends. And Helga discovers that Olga as usual, has gotten straight A's in all of her classes. So, with an evil smirk on her face, she decides to change one of the grades to a B+! When Olga sees the B+, she goes into a deep, deep depression, much to the chagrin of Bob and Miriam, but to the delight of Helga. Will Helga admit her faults? Fat chance.

What I like is how they handle Olga's depression in this episode. You see, unlike "The End of Silliness," at least Olga's depression here isn't trying to make light of the actual mental illness, and is instead more depression in the way of something really bad happen to him and he feels sad about it It's portrayed way better than in that VeggieTales episode I mentioned. It's funny too, I like Helga's William Shakespeare bit she does when she decides on whether or not to change Olga's grades. I also likes Big Bob's efforts to get Olga to snap out of it, leading up to, "BUT THESE ARE THIRD ROW CENTER SEATS, OLGA!"

So, what's the final verdict? The episode is quite good actually. For a first season and the only one that was not done by Sae Rom Animation, it manages to tell a story quite good. I still had to question Helga's character design during the first season, she looks a little bit too much like a monkey. I wouldn't be surprised. It was written by the same person who wrote "Monkey Business" a couple of months later in 1997.

The moral here is that sisters will always keep secrets even if what the other did was wrong and dumb.

Johnny Bravo - "Cookie Crisis"

Well, just like I promised, I am now reviewing my favorite Season One episode of Johnny Bravo. It's called, "Cookie Crisis," it was written and directed by Butch Hartman. Now, let's begin.

The plot centers around Little Suzy, Johnny Bravo's next door neighbor and friend trying desperately to sell her girl scout cookies, but Johnny Bravo simply just refuses. And then, hilarious hijinks ensue, with rhyming and foxes, cookies, and so much more. Little Suzy will stop at nothing to get Johnny to buy her cookies.

What I admire about this episode so much is that, it's a satire on the ever popular. Dr. Seuss classic, "Green Eggs and Ham," where Sam I Am tries desperately to get his friend to try his green eggs and ham, but his friend just simply refuses, until the very end. This episode does this kind of format, except with more than 50 words like in the original book. I especially like Johnny's self-awareness, saying things like "Man, this rhyming stuff really hurts my tongue," and "I'm a poet, and I don't know it. I'll make a rhyme every time." I should also mention that this was the first episode where Little Suzy actually cries, and Johnny takes pity on her by buying her cookies.

Okay, lets wrap things up with my final thoughts. This episode is a clever satire, it's funny, witty, self-aware, and the rhyming never gets old or feel out of place. The moral of this story is that you should please buy the cookies from your friends otherwise they might cry. This is just big-time Hanna-Barbera comedy here.

If you have the first season DVD on Johnny Bravo, you can watch it anytime.

Or if you want to see the adaptation of Green Eggs and Ham which features the voice of Paul Winchell, click here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KRkR8HaR9c

Dexter's Laboratory - "911"

Huh, I really don't have much to say about this episode. Except, it's a pretty cute episode. All right, all right, I'll give you the basic premise, my opinions, and my final thoughts. afterwards, this will be my last review until this Thursday night. So,, let's uh, let's begin.

While watching an episode of Action Hank, Dexter gets interrupted by the Emergency Broadcast System. This results into Dexter solving emergency after emergency, but the signal doesn't stop going off. By the end of the episode, it was revealed that it was just a test, and if it was an ACTUAL emergency, the signal you would have heard would've been followed by information. The test took so long, it skipped over to the end of the Action Hank episode. Poor Dexter, okay, enough with that. Let's talk about my opinions.

What I do like about this episode is that it's cute, very cute. I especially like Dee-Dee's appearance here, She has quite an overactive imagination. For example, laughing for no reason at the TV as if it were a comedy, Dee-Dee becoming scared as if she was watching a horror movie, and even getting up to the point to where Dee-Dee is offended by someone named Jeffrey doing something to Marsha. Even Dexter thinks this is just crazy. Heck, she even thinks the ending of the test of the Emergency Broadcast System was a sad ending. She's not stupid, she's just energetic and quite ditsy, for Dexter's taste at least.

Okay, let's wrap things up with my final thoughts. Even though the beeping on the Emergency Broadcast System got annoying at times, I must say, it is pretty much a good episode. The comedy is cute, especially Dexter mistaking boy babies for girls, as well as Dee-Dee's overactive imagination. It's pretty much just a cute, cute episode.

Not much else to say except, join me Thursday night when I'll review the Johnny Bravo episode, "Cookie Crisis."

Pokemon - "Tentacool and Tentacruel"

Before I begin talking about this episode I like, I must first off begin by saying that I'm not in the know about what's been going on with Pokemon lately. It's just one of those shows that pass by my radar sometimes, I don't know, it's just one of those shows that I kind of forget exist, but I use to be a fan of it, and followed it during its 4Kids Era and the Battle Frontier season. Okay, with that out of the way, let's begin.

The plot centers around Ash, Brock, and Misty stranded in Porta Vista, the only town on the island with varies to the main land. During the next three hours, Misty captures a Horsea and they ntoice that a boat has been destroyed by Tentacool and paralyzed the sailors. Nastina, voiced by Kayzie Rogers, wants to exterminate the Tentacool, but Misty is so disgusted by this that she refuses. Once the town rallies to volunteer to exterminate the Tentacool herd, Team Rocket steps in and tries their best, except, their stun sauce causes a Tentacool evolve into a giant 50-feet tall Tentacruel, and with him being giant, he sends his army of Tentacool to attack Porta Vista as revenge for the people their destroying their home, the coral reef, where the hotel is built. How will Ash and his friends handle this? Stay tuned to find out!

Before I talk about what I like about the episode, let's talk about the temporary banning of this episode in America. The reasoning behind this was mostly because of the fact that 9/11 happened back in 2001, because of this, Kids WB flatly refuse to air a rerun of this episode for their block, it was also banned for a couple of weeks due to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, due to the flood, if that was the case, then how come all The Powerpuff Girls were never banned due to 9/11? Oh, well, we'll never know. besides, if they were banned, we wouldn't have Powerpuff Girls on Cartoon Network, speaking of which, despite these disasters, Cartoon Network reran this episode a couple of times in 2002. Okay, enough of that jabber, let's say what's great about the episode.

This episode is just great, it has a lot of action and danger kind of like my previous review, the comedy was spot on, like James' line "Oh, it's a Tentacruel world." Team Rocket's lines are good, and with all that aside, it's a Misty story, It focused more on Misty more than Ash and Brock, mostly because these Pokemon are water type. I also kind of like how Tentacruel uses Meowth to speak through telepathy, but Brock prefers to it as using him as a puppet, doesn't he know the difference? Anyway, I especially like the fight where Pikachu, Pidgeotto, Butterfree, Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Starmie, Staryu, Goldeen, and Zubat do their best to out do the Tentacool, but Tentacruel stops them in their tracks because according to him, they were battling to save the "destructive" humans. Only one person can stop him. That person being Misty.

So, bottom line, this episode is great despite the temporary banning in the US for 2001 and 2005. My only complaint is the fact is that it's not on Hulu. It's not anywhere on Hulu! Mom, if you're reading this, don't look for it for me. Besides you can watch it on DVD or online. Go ahead and check the episode out if your a big fan of Pokemon.