Hey Arnold! - "Helga Sleepwalks"

Once upon a midnight dreary, I woke up running out of ideas weak and weary until I realized, now is the perfect time to get back into the reviewing community. And tonight, we're reviewing "Helga Sleepwalks."

The story is that Helga Pataki, still on her love for Arnold frenzies, is starting to sleepwalk all over the city. Know why? Must have something to do with her dad's pork rinds. How can she get out of this? Watch to find out. But first, let me explain what are pork rinds, Pork rind is the culinary term for the skin of a pig. They could be confused to be potato chips if you ask me. And sleepwalking is something that happens when while you are asleep, your body loses complete control and you walk in your sleep, It is classified as a sleep disorder. And take it from me, I never sleepwalked ever.

This episode is pretty interesting. There are several episodes that had cartoon characters sleepwalking that I'll review in the future. I sympathize with Helga as usual, she's too nervous to confess her love as usual. It's pretty funny when Gertrude, Arnold's grandmother, mistakes her for some old childhood friend of hers. And yet again, Miriam lost the purse on the top of the car, again, like in "Road Trip." I also like the minor reference to William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. But anyway, Helga is just so scared and trembling with fear that she may never be able to sleep ever again. But the thing is sleep is important.

One more thing, don't eat too much pork rinds, otherwise you'll end up in sleepwalk mode like Helga did. I do have one burning question. How, and I do mean HOW on Earth did Helga end up in the boarding house shower?! That came totally out of nowhere, ladies and gentleman. That's just crazy. And worse than that. THAT'S JUST.............weird. But overall, I thought the episode was okay, it didn't blow my mind or anything but it wasn't that bad.

Oh yeah, there's a Quick Draw McGraw reference in this episode, please, PLEASE, look for it.

CatDog - "Dem Bones"

Your neck bones connected to your knee bones. Dem bones, dem bones and dry bones now they're the working the lord. Now, let's review "Dem Bones," from CatDog.

While visiting the Nearburg Museum, Dog stumbles upon the Tyrannosaurus Rex statue, and as usual, it was made entirely out of bones. The security guard warns them not to touch the statue, otherwise, they'll end up in Museum Jail. Once they leave, Cat has a dream about Dog stealing all the bones from the museum and they must return them before the museum opens.

Will they get that fixed in their own dream? Or will they face the consequences? Well, I'm not telling, because you just have to watch and see for yourself.

I think Steven Banks is my favorite television writer, even if his time on SpongeBob had it's ups and downs. I even like the episodes he writes for CatDog like for example, "The Lady is a Shriek," "The Cat Club," and of course, "CatDog Divided." I also like the episode of Jimmy Neutron he wrote called "Sleepless in Retroville." He also wrote one episode for the Fairly OddParents, being "Hail to the Chief," and yes, I'll review that episode on Presidents' Day. I even like how Jim Cummings deepens his voice a bit for Cat as the voice of the T-Rex to scare away the security guard. I knew it was a dream all along? Didn't you?

For all those dinosaurs out there, you have to see it to understand it. And for all of you humans, this episode, much like "Winslow's Home Videos," this is a go-to episode. But don't take it from me, take it from my friend, the T-Rex Skeleton.

"It is I, T-Rex, rawr, King of Dinosaurs, you must leave this museum at once puny human! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

I'm just kidding, did I scare you? Well I hope not.

SpongeBob - "Home Sweet Pineapple"

Home sweet home, the old saying, or how about Home Sweet Pineapple, a better saying according to SpongeBob. Yep, "Home Sweet Pineapple" is the next SpongeBob episode I'm reviewing, folks. Let's not waste any time, let's begin.

The episode begins with a herd of nematodes messing around and eating anything and everything they would want, usually as said by their leader. And when they get thirsty, they bring out bendy straws and suck out all the juice form a how that's made out of a fruit. And unfortunately, SpongeBob's house has to be the one they choose. Once SpongeBob's house disappears completely, SpongeBob decides he should just move back with her parents, but his friends suggest they sleep with him. Will he stay in Bikini Bottom? Stay tuned to find out.

I have a lot of mixed feelings towards this episode. I mean, Squidward is just too happy for SpongeBob's house to be drunken off the face of the earth. I mean, if nematodes drank down on his house, would he never mind this? Oh, heavens no! He would just be disappointed as SpongeBob was. Squidward, just have some sympathy for crying out loud. And another thing, SpongeBob's only choice is moving back with his mom and dad? I mean come on, you guys could've made him think of other places other than Squidward or Patrick's. Like how about Sandy's or any other citizen of Bikini Bottom. Whether they were originally going for that or not, I'll never know.

Okay, all nitpicking aside, this episode has a lot of laughs despite those problems I mentioned. For example, Fred's boatmobile getting eaten and he says "Oh, dang nematodes!" And Squidward's dead-pan reaction when SpongeBob yells "Oh, no!" on the phone, Patrick falling down from his sleeping position, Patrick giving a reaction to SpongeBob's house gone, the building montage, and of course, Patrick being afraid of spiders and constantly smashing his rock onto SpongeBob accidentally in a comedic fashion. I even like how karma comes to Squidward for not being sympathetic on SpongeBob when the house lands onto him, he deserved it, folks. All in all, this is pretty much an okay episode.

Rugrats - "Music"

Bring up the orchestra, put on your singing voice, and get ready to sing-along with the Rugrats gang in the ever popular episode, "Music."

While listening to the radio, Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil and Angelica perform music videos in order to teach Dil about music. Musical numbers include "Tricycle Not for You," "Pack Up Your Troubles," "Toyland," "You Make Me Love You," and "Beautiful Dreamer."

They try so desperately to get Dil to imagine the visuals like how the other kids would. Can they get Dil to imagine the visuals, or will they just follow Angelica's advice that he's not ready to learn yet?

Just watch and find out.

What I admire about this story is that it's a musical episode, kind of like SpongeBob's Jellyfish Jam, and I like Phil and Lil's "Tricycle Not for You" musical number, it has a sort of rock and roll feel to it, and Tommy's "You Made Me Love You," has a lounge feel to it, George Burns, eat your heart out. And even Didi is pretty good at singing Dil to sleep. At the end of the episode, one can realize that Dil really loves Tommy, because he dreams of him (Tommy) as he falls asleep. I think I like the "Beautiful Dreamer" rendition as much as Garfield's Garbage Can and Tin Pan Alley Revue version that was performed by Odie.

In conclusion, even though PIEGUYRULZ has says that the Tales From the Crib movies that got a lot mixed reviews because it breaks the rule that a Rugrat should never sing. I'm afraid I have to disagree. I don't mind the characters singing that much.

And since this aired before "Jellyfish Jam" did, I can safely say this is a pre-"Jellyfish Jam" episode. By the way fans, you make me love you! Really, I do.

CatDog - "Hail the Great Meow Woof"

All the great me! All hail the great cartoon reviewer! That's right, I'm reviewing "Hail the Great Meow Woof."

While playing with a kite, Cat and Dog chase it through the outskirts of Nearburg, where they come across a tribe worshiping Rancid Rabbit as the Great Rancid. After accidentally knocking down Rancid's statue, the tribe to worship CatDog, also referring to them as the Great Meow Woof. And with that, the formerly great Rancid decides to seek vengeance.

Will CatDog win? Or will Rancid win? Well, I'm not telling! Because you've got to watch and see for yourself.

This episode is filled with a lot of stuff that made me laugh from beginning to end. Not just that, this is a sure sign this episode was originally written for the first season, since Gary Goldstein was credited and this was his last episode he storyboarded. That being said, I can see why it was never in the first season. It was also the last episode where Derek Drymon was the supervising director and where Erik Wiese served as a storyboard artist, after this episode, they both went on to work on SpongeBob. These are the reasons why I think this was originally for the first season. Anyways, I also like the fact that "Abra-Cadabra" are the magic words for the magic stuff Rancid puts onto CatDog.

Overall, this episode has a little bit of something for CatDog fans. You get CatDog fighting off Rancid Rabbit, ultimately winning, and the Greasers (sigh), unfairly beating up Cat and Dog.

I also like the fourth wall break they did at the very end where Cat says "Iris out!" in which the episode actually does.

All I can say is, "ALL HAIL THE GREAT EPISODE! ALL HAIL THE GREAT EPISODE!" Okay, okay, enough of that. thank you.

SpongeBob - "Employee of the Month"

I thought the episode that aired with this, "The Chaperone," was okay, but it wasn't good enough for me to watch it more than twice. Luckily, Paul Tibbitt and his team of storyboard artists were able to bring us back up with the following episode, "Employee of the Month."

Today is judging for Employee of the Month, but Squidward on the other hand finds this a scam. Mr. Krabs warns SpongeBob about Squidward being on the while, hence the phrase, "I might sneak up on you." SpongeBob, thanks to his soldier portrait, spies on Squidward, and Squidward, now following what's going on, decides to prove to SpongeBob he's better than him by trying to get awarded Employee of the Month that he is better. How will this end? Well, just watch and find out, okay?

This episode really made up for the blandness that "The Chaperone" had. It had more comedy than it's predecessor, and it even has a good plot, Squidward and SpongeBob competing against each other for the aforementioned Employee of the Month. I like the running gags of the krabby patties being spit at Squidward by a fan, as well as him stubbing his foot when trying to step on SpongeBob's hat. They even go so far as to carry anchors on foot.

This plot's just all over the place. But in a good way.


I should also mention that this episode had four storyboard artists!

You see that? FOUR STORYBOARD ARTISTS! And only one of them wrote the script, that one was Paul Tibbitt. Ennio Torresan and Erik Wiese previously worked as a duo writing various episodes for SpongeBob during the first half of the first season, and Mark O'Hare, he only wrote three episodes with Paul so, I guess he wasn't quite ready to be an official writer or something until late season 2.

Overall, you have to watch this episode to understand the humor they were going for.

I mean I like it when Squidward and SpongeBob showing Mr. Krabs what they can do even goes out of hand and after making too many krabby patties, the Krusty Krab explodes! Leaving the citizens of Bikini Bottom free krabby patties.

This episode is a heck of a lot of fun, and it's much better than "The Chaperone." Just watch out for that laughing Squidward hallucination.

CatDog - "Winslow's Home Videos."

Now I'm going to review something that was on a certain Nickelodeon tape before a popular 1998 movie came along. I'm of course talking about the CatDog short episode, "Winslow's Home Videos."

What's the story? There isn't one. It's pretty much just Winslow showing the viewers about all the crazy stuff that Cat and Dog have done together like breakfast for example, putting in too much hot sauce onto a taco, causing Cat to breath fire, their quiet bike ride in the park being ruined by those greasers, and of course, Dog's game of Sailor Dog getting a bit out of hand. Although, it wasn't previously recorded. It was actually recording already in Cat and Dog's own bathroom. It's like as if there was a title card that said, meanwhile or something. Anyways, a giant wave hits the house and Winslow ends up stuck upside down and the episode ends.

Much like the Krusty Krab Training Video, this episode didn't need a plot to be funny, it needed to be funny to be funny. Thanks to Dean Stefan and Dan Povenmire, this episode pulls out all the stops, like putting on too much hot sauce on a taco, Cat burning Dog to a crisp accidentally, the TV jumping up and down during the greasers' attack, and of course, Dog's pretend squid attack that is accidentally making Cat a bit wet. Dog's not being mean he just doesn't know any better. It doesn't help either that Dog decides to bring up a tidal wave and ride it all across the house! HOW DOES HE DO THAT?! And for that matter, how can they surf inside?!

Even on the Rugrats Movie DVD and VHS without the title card, this episode in my opinion was pretty funny, and it was the last of the three three-minute shorts that aired during the second season, Much like "Dog the Mighty" however, I thought this was from the first season.

All in all, Winslow was a great host for his home videos, and Carlos Alazraqui has a lot of charm portraying the role making sound an awful lot like Rocko from Rocko's Modern Life. As a matter of fact, a lot of people who worked on Rocko's Modern Life worked on this show.

In conclusion, this episode is a short but funny comedy fest.

Blue's Clues - "What is Blue Trying to Do?"

Okay, let's review another Season 2 episode of Blue's Clues that aired around early 1999. This one's called, "What is Blue Trying to Do?"

The story is that Steve is trying to put together a puzzle that looks like the actual house they live in, but that's not the important part, the important part here is that Blue is trying to do something with her picture of she and Steve, and we play Blue's Clues to figure out what she's doing. Along the way, we help Slippery Soap make very big bubbles with a lot of encouragement, as well as clean-up Baby Bear's room to find her picture of a castle.

In the end, the answer to all of this is that Blue was writing her name.

What I admire about this episode was that it was the first episode to use the stock audio opening from "Blue's Birthday," as a permanent piece of the show, also, this was the very last episode to use the original "Pawprint!" and "Clue" cheers from the audience, it had been used since Magenta Comes Over! Also, much like "What Does Blue Want to Do on a Rainy Day?" The hair stylists really made Steve's hair look quite similar to his early season 2 look, in fact, in the shot where Steve gets the notebook, his hair was noticeably longer unlike the other shots in the episodes. If I didn't know better, I might think that part was taped much earlier in the season.

The moral of the story is that you should take encouragement and have some perseverance and never give up. Sorry, no Rick Astley references here, I refuse to do that. Also, one of the Sesame Street researchers also served as the content consultant for this episode, that person of course being Valeria Lovelace.

Also, I like how Mailbox was very excited to give Steve the letter before quickly calming down after Steve gets the letter and doing his usual, "You're welcome!"

Next time I review a Blue's Clues episode, I'll be reviewing "Animal Behavior," and "Pretend Time."

One more thing, don't say "CAN'T! CAN'T!" CAN'T!" Say "CAN! CAN! CAN!"

Johnny Bravo - "Johnny's Guardian Angel"

Want a funny version of It's a Wonderful Life starring Jimmy Stewart? Want a person to mistake cement as Hollywood paint? Well then, this episode is for you! "Johnny's Guardian Angel."

Johnny Bravo causes a few accidents like breaking Carl's homemade computer, destroying Mama's little garden, and letting go of Little Suzy's balloon by mistake. This goes so far that Johnny Bravo wishes he were never born. Then, his guardian angel named Maurice, rises from the sky, and takes Johnny into a world in which he was never born, where Carl is rich, Pops' place hasn't changed much, and Johnny Bravo's mother is acting like a spy, but Little Suzy hasn't changed at all. And, spoiler alert, Johnny Bravo wishes he had his life back, and the episodes ends with him getting stuck in the cement, again.

I like the comedy in this episode, like for example, when Johnny accidentally knocks down Carl's homemade computer, Carl calls Johnny a big clumsy brainless insensitive oaf, which sadly is kind of true, but then, Johnny quickly lets go of his anger asking, I'm still your best friend though, right? Someone's having mood swings. Why he bothered being angry at Johnny in the first place, I honestly have no idea. I even like how Carl acts very rich in the alternate universe, and Carl has pretty cool shades, almost as cool as Johnny Bravo's shades. Also, Pops kicking out Johnny from his diner in that universe was really uncalled for.

So, bottom line, unlike the Fairly OddParents episode, "It's a Wishful Life," this episode manages to get everything right. It's a good satire, it's got a cool alternate universe, and it's also very funny, something that "It's a Wishful Life" failed to do.

Overall, most of Johnny Bravo's second season is pretty good, with the exception of Buffoon Lagoon, and no, I won't review this episode, never!

The characters reacted according to their characters, and even Johnny Bravo's lines are pretty funny.
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This is a must watch episode.

CatDog - "It's a Jungle in Here!"

Dawn your Tarzan gear or your safari gear and let's explore the forest within CatDog's house as we review my personal favorite season two episode, "It's a Jungle in Here" from about July 1999/ Let's begin the exploring, shall we?

While preparing their house for a special visit from Cat's classmate, Sally, Dog forgot to plant up the grass floors. So, he and Cat go to the plant store to buy some grass manure to cover up the hole. Unfortunately, due to Dog's small brain, Dog puts in too much of the manure that overnight, it turned into a big, safari-like jungle, and worse than that, Sally has already, that's bad news.

Will Cat and Dog make it to the door? Or will they be sacrificed to Jungle Man? Stay tuned to find out.

This is really one of those mid-season two episodes that still feels like early season two episodes, because Ken Kessel returned after a four-episode absence to be one of the supervising producers, and Russ Mooney also helped out as the supervising director of the show with Robert Porter. I kind of like the character design of Jungle Man, he looks like a cartoon version of Animal from The Muppets or something, but that's just me. And, much like Dog the Mighty, Andy Rheingold did a fine job writing the script for this episode, seeing this was perhaps one of his last ones he did for CatDog, before leaving the writing to Jon Ross.

All in all, this is a pretty good episode. It's got clever comedy, a clever plot, and a clever twist ending where Sally decided to get in touch with her wild side since she got tired of being a neat freak. Hmm, I wonder if this is what inspired Figure it Out to make Figure it Out: Wild Style a few months later? Oh, well, I don't know, but what I do know is that CatDog appeared on Figure it Out Wild Style a few times.

You have to see it to understand it. That show was pretty fitting for that comedy duo.

Watch this episode if you come across it, folks.

SpongeBob - "Karate Choppers"

A running theme on SpongeBob is his knowledge in karate. Probably the episode where this is portrayed most creatively is "Karate Choppers," written by Aaron Springer, Erik Wiese, and Merriwether Williams, in her writing debut on the show.

The first few minutes are some rather entertaining clips of SpongeBob and Sandy trying to out due each other while sparring. In other words, kind of like boxing. Eventually, SpongeBob's constant awareness for Sandy causes trouble at the Krusty Krab, ranging from him just confusing Squidward's gender, to beating up a customer. It eventually gets to the point where Mr. Krabs threatens to fire SpongeBob if he does anymore karate. After a brief misunderstanding with Sandy and Mr. Krabs almost firing him, the two decide to go to the park to take their minds off character, but no matter what they do, though, they can't seem to take their minds off of it.

And after a really fun scene that involves some hardcore sandwich making with background music composed by The Surfdusters, they give in to their instincts and continue to spar, until Mr. Krabs shows up that is. SpongeBob confesses that they can't help it, I mean sure, before he got fired, he threw a tantrum, but that was because it was a complete misunderstanding, he didn't know what was going on and didn't deserve it. Here, he knows that he screwed up and is ready to own up to it, on the other hand, Mr. Krabs decides to forgive them after he sees how brilliantly they made their sandwiches. The episode ends with SpongeBob and Sandy making tons of Krabby Patties.

As I've said, most of the enjoyment of the episode comes from how creative it is. The karate sequences are a joy to watch and the jokes are pretty funny too. It takes a bit for the story to get going and it really doesn't have a message to it, but it's easily overlooked because of how much darn fun you have watching it.

The highlight of the episode is when Sandy and SpongeBob make their sandwiches with their karate instincts.

Rugrats - "All's Well That Pretends Well"

Yep, another Season Six episode review for Rugrats. This time, let's take a look at  "All's Well That Pretends Well"

The Cirque du Dummi Bear is in town, and everyone's getting ready to go see the live show. Angelica however, has a pretty bad cold and goes through extreme lengths to make sure that she does go despite her illness. Can she hide this fact from her parents and the rest of the grown-ups by making them think one of the other babies is sick? Or will she just admit what's going on and just face the consequences?

Well I'm not telling! PBBT! Because you've got watch and see for yourself. Okay? All right. Onto the review.

This is another one of those Angelica Karma Trips episodes. Remember, the reason I call these episodes that is because it's all justified because Angelica was acting like a jerk, and it was satisfying to see her get her comeuppance for her sour attitude. This is a much better episode than "The Big Sneeze," and I'll explain why, this one is focused on Angelica being the one who's sneezing, not Chuckie. I don't know what Cirque du Dummi Bear translates out to, but I think it's French for the Dummi Bear circus. At least, when Angelica got really sick after Spike shook the feather duster onto her, at least her parents didn't punish her, instead, they just care for her like actual parents would.

This episode was really funny. It had joke after joke, and even some of Stu Pickles' lines were funny. I would say that it was a shame that Angelica never went to that Cirque Du Dummi Bear thing, but I won't , mainly due to the fact she got what was getting to her, and the fact that Stu actually bought the entire thing on videotape, not to mention Laserdisc, DVD, HDTV, CD-ROM, Betamax and 8-track, according to Chaz, I must say, Stu Pickles really knows how to solve Angelica's problems. Also, this is one if not the only episode where Tommy tries not to give in to Angelica's antics, like the ice cream for example.

If you're an Angelica fan, or just a regular Rugrats fan and don't know which one is your favorite, go ahead and give it a watch.

CatDog - "Sneezie Dog"

Now this is a better episode about allergies than "The Big Sneeze." Yep, this one is from CatDog. Let's see if it holds up better than The Big Sneeze.

After taking Dog to doctor Rancid Rabbit after Dog sneezed Cat's statue of liberty down, Dog comes to the conclusion that he might be allergic to Cat. Throughout most of this episode, Dog and Winslow try their best to figure out how to cure the allergy.

This episode is SO much better than "The Big Sneeze." I mean, it got so many things right that "The Big Sneeze" didn't have time to develop. For example, having a character being allergic to another character is ridiculous, says Cat, and it has a better cure for the allergy. Shave Cat. And here's the twist, Dog was allergic to Winslow this whole time and with that, Winslow gets his comeuppance in the end. He deserved it. Why couldn't Angelica get any karma come to her on the Big Sneeze is beyond me.

The bottom line is that The Big Sneeze writers should've watch this episode and not make Chuckie go so far as to get away from Kimi. It's called, "TAKING NOTES!" The reason this is better than The Big Sneeze is because is funny throughout! I mean sure, there were a few funny points in "The Big Sneeze" with Phil and Lil, but those are just far and few in between. Writers, next time if your writing an episode about allergies, TAKE NOTES FROM THIS EPISODE.

But I digress. This episode is good.