Arnold's Christmas

     If there is one show on Nickelodeon I respect, it is Hey Arnold. While people on TVTropes complain about Arnold was flanderized until he was basically Kid Jesus, I do prefer the later seasons. While Arnold was flattened, others expanded, and he became the foil to everyone else, allowing him to mesh with any character or situation thrown at him, whether it be a bird-man, kid obsessed with chocolate, or a 30 year old man who doesn't know how to read. Hey Arnold doesn't look down on kids (too much) and is fairly enjoyable.

     The Hey Arnold Christmas special came out in the first season as the last episode (if the show gets canceled, end on a good note, as they say), and is one of the most memorable for me.

To start out, let me just say the first thing that popped into my head upon watching the special:

"Wow, this show has atmosphere."

Nowadays, shows are normally made with bright, pastel colors, with little variance in terms of lighting or camera angles. This is abundantly clear in the 3D shows based on movies, where the textures on the characters become smooth and plastic, and the time of day is always triple suns to make no shadows appear ever. But in the 1990's... People actually put a large amount of work into making the shows look good. They all had their styles, a special look to their animation... Now, we just have flash animation, and the only people really doing it right are the My Little Pony animation team.

But, now to summarize Arnold's Christmas:

Summary; skip if no care. 

A TL;DR will be at the bottom, but the insights gathered will not be repeated.

     The special begins with the fourth graders getting out of school for Christmas vacation (may have to do that one if I run out before December 24th...) and Helga is talking to Phoebe (Helga has a massive lisp for some reason...) about getting a lot of presents, while Phoebe gives the generic "It's about giving!" speech. (Yes it is about giving... but when you only get an allowance, you can't actually give. If you have some way of making money, THEN it is about giving. Unless you can't buy bread, in which case it is about being sent canned foods and turkeys by Student unions and National Honors Societies.)

     Helga then spots a flashy pair of boots made of leather and gold (You fools! It's silver and gold! Only the BDSM people like Leather and gold!) that apparently everygirl wants. No idea why, though Helga says that she has been dropping hints that she wants them to her parents (considering her personality, those hints might've been in the form of Anvils).

     We then cut to Arnold and Gerald, talking about presents, and pass by Helga, who goes into lyrical poetry about how she loves Arnold, and how she's going to profess that love through a flashy gift. (Talk to the boy; he's Jesus, he'll forgive the sin of stalking.)

     We then cut to the boarding house that Arnold lives at, and everyone is picking a secret Santa. Arnold gets Mr. Hyunn (pronounced Win, with a breathy W) who is from Vietnam... You can guess what the man's been through.

Arnold finds out that Mr. Hyunn tried to leave Vietnam during the war, but was unable to. A copter was taking refugees away from Vietnam and to America, but only one seat was left. So, Mr. Hyunn had them take his daughter Mai. The Solider told him where she would be, so that he may one day find her again. 20 Years later, he came to Arnold's city looking for her, to no avail.

     So, Arnold sets out to find his daughter for him, on Christmas eve. (Why the secret Santa went into effect on Christmas eve, I do not know.) So he goes to a local government information building to ask for help in looking her up (legality of looking up such information, I will not question at this time). To accomplish this, Arnold picks up the next quest in the chain, and does the shopping for a Department Supervisor, in exchange for his assistance. Unfortunately, he fails the quest, because of the boots Helga desires (dun dun dun).

     Helga ends up getting the boots from her parents, but she overheard Arnold talking about how he needed those boots to complete the quest and find Mai. She decides to give them to the Department Supervisor, and he does a search for Mai.

    Come Christmas Day, Mr. Hyunn is reunited with Mai, and all is good and joyous.

TL;DR

Arnold sets out to find a missing girl for his friend. he is on a time limit, and doesn't manage to accomplish it in time; but someone else intervenes with good will and everything is happy.

    This is probably one of the best TV Christmas specials I have seen. It isn't about Santa, and gifts actually play a relatively minor part, serving only to control the main plot. The focus is on reuniting a father and daughter separated by war. It isn't an original story, but it is a lot more powerful than the usual Christmas fare.

     Compare this to the SpongeBob special from yesterday; while that was fairly mean and too sugary, this is a lot more light hearted and sober, and has far more soul behind it.

     This story isn't perfect (nothing ever is) but I don't see anything that needs fixing in this special. It shall instead reside as a marker for quality Christmas specials.

    I've been focusing on Nickelodeon for a bit too long now me-thinks, time to move onto one of their rivals... Cartoon Network.