- In "Pick a Car, Any Car", how in the world did the rattle get under the tailpipe? We never see how it got there nor were we given any explanation for how it fell under there.
- Maybe Kate stuck it there? D.W. was playing around?
- In the first season (at least), Muffy had these odd front teeth (kind of like a hippo). Where'd they gone? I guess they thought she looked better without them (which, in all honesty, she does).
- This was an animation error. They also had white-colored tongues. Both of which were fixed after season one.
- I wouldn't say it was an animation error. Muffy had those teeth in the Arthur storybooks, from 1982 (Muffy's first appearance "The True Francine") until around the time the show first premiered. She even has them in some of the early Arthur-related merchandise and toys as well. Despite this, there were some season one episodes where Muffy's teeth didn't show. For example, in "Meek For a Week", Muffy looked as she does in the later seasons, but in the very next episode "Arthur, World's Greatest Gleeper", she had her front teeth again.
- They decided it looked smoother without them. Or they nixed them because the animators were too lazy to draw two little bumps.
- I just always assumed that those were her baby teeth. Either that or InvisAlign works wonders.
- In Season 19, Muffy says she didn't win a children's beauty pageant in preschool/kindergarten because it was "during [her] gap-tooth years". But that doesn't explain why they were absent in her 1st grade and 2nd-grade beauty pageant flashbacks.
- Maybe the animators thought she was a hippo, then when they found out she was a monkey, they nixed the teeth to make her look less hippo-ish.
- Same place Arthur's huge nose went.
- Season 1 had a lot of weird animations that were fixed in later seasons.
- This was an animation error. They also had white-colored tongues. Both of which were fixed after season one.
- In "Spoiled Rotten", Muffy sneaks back into the school to recover the jacket she put into the donations bin. When she reenters the school, it is completely dark in the hallways, as all the lights are out. Normal schools leave their lights on after-hours, and it is revealed that Francine turned the lights out. Why is that necessary?
- Most schools, at least all the ones I went to, have these weird light switches that need a special key to turn them on or off, to prevent students from playing with the lights. I guess Francine somehow had access to one of the keys, or maybe their school is cheap and just has ordinary switches. But yeah, most schools leave their lights on at all hours. That whole scene was a set up to show how smart and clever Francine is.
- Some lights are tied into the security system in case of an emergency. That's why Muffy had to be extra careful.
- In "Revenge of the Chip", Jane publishes the green potato chip incident in the newspaper, even though D.W. flat out told her family at the dinner table that she didn't want the story repeated back to her. Then, after she is discovered and promises not to tell the story to anyone else, she later goes behind her daughter's back and tells someone again (she was warning Mrs. McGrady not to bring the story up, but still). Was Jane not paying attention that time, or did she just not care about D.W.'s feelings?
- That's just how some parents are. They think everything their children say and do is cute and want to share those moments with friends and family, and often don't consider their kids' feelings.
- She probably thought D.W. was just being salty over nothing at first and didn't know until D.W. came forward about it that it hurt her feelings. Maybe Jane was also too amused by the story to think ahead about whether or not anyone would tease D.W. over it afterwards.
- How come all the anthropomorphic animal characters are tailless except Nadine?
- Obviously tail-docking has become the norm, not unlike circumcision and shaving.
- Because Nadine is an imaginary friend that D.W. made up. If D.W. wanted Nadine to have a tail, she will.
- And because she's imaginary, no one with the ability to dock tails can get to her.
- Obviously tail-docking has become the norm, not unlike circumcision and shaving.
- This has to do with their Medium Awareness, but how do their ears work? When DW went to the doctor for her ears, they checked her actual ears. In another episode from the same season or so, when they wanted to block out their hearing they put their hands on the sides of their heads...where there are no ears.
- It's possible that in that example, they were holding her head as opposed to her ears, much like you would hold your forehead with both hands when dealing with a headache or something similar. That, or maybe the writers/animators forgot?
- If I remember right when talking to his mother (who was losing her hearing), Alexander Graham Bell would say the words into her forehead so she would understand him better, so it's possible, with the shape of their skulls, that the sound on the outside echoes towards their ears——bone conduction (which would be why they wear their headphones on the sides of their heads, not on their ears). In the DW's Ears episode, they check her ear canals because that's where most of her problem was.
- It's possible that in that example, they were holding her head as opposed to her ears, much like you would hold your forehead with both hands when dealing with a headache or something similar. That, or maybe the writers/animators forgot?
- I just noticed this: Why is it that Arthur can't close his eyes, only his pupils?
- Well, that is kind of typical of cartoony characters with glasses.
- Arthur has taken his glasses off occasionally, so he may close his eyes when he's going to bed.
- His eyes are animated within his glasses frames.
- Why do the kids keep believing Prunella and Rubella no matter how many times they're proven wrong? This is especially idiotic with Prunella since she uses the same tricks as Rubella and always believes her.
- I think that it has something to do with the fact that they're both older (yet still relatable), so the kids probably think that it's easier to go to them with their problems rather than ask their parents about what's bothering them. Especially since most of the time, they go to Prunella because she's been in similar situations before (like when they were all worried about having Mr. Ratburn as a teacher). I think that the basics of it are simply, in their minds, older=wiser.
- This thing bothers me: In "Is That Kosher?", whose idea was it to throw a pizza party on Yom Kippur? I mean, didn't it cross their mind that maybe the winner celebrated that holiday?
- Sounds realistic to me. Maybe I'm just cynical about things like that.
- It's possible they didn't know that it was Yom Kippur, or that they were using "half-pints don't fast" logic, or pizza was only part of the party.
- We've established that most of Elwood City is Christian, and the restaurant didn't know enough about Arthur to account for his having a Jewish friend (how would they have?). Besides, Arthur tried to move the date of the party, but he had to settle the details as soon as he learned he'd won it. The dots weren't connected in time.
- Normally, Jewish people don't fast during Yom Kippur until around or after their bar or bat mitzvah. Francine is only 8 years old, so she has at least 4-5 years until she has to start taking her faith and culture more seriously. Her fasting on Yom Kippur this early was completely voluntary. Why would Arthur and his friends push to move the party to another day when Francine didn't tell them she wanted to try fasting?
- Why is Nadine so much smarter than D.W. when she's a product of her mind?
- I don't think that it's a matter of "smarter", but what course of actions and decisions D.W. wants to make. I think that when D.W.'s talking to Nadine, it's just a way of weighing the pros and cons of what she can do and contemplating the situations at hand, and D.W.'s just too impulsive to go for the more sound ideas. Also, notice how Nadine is naturally quiet and meek against D.W.'s loud and brash personality. It's not that Nadine is smarter, it's that D.W. doesn't want to listen to that part of her psyche at the moment. She knows that the Nadine part of herself is right, but she's too stubborn to admit it.
- Nadine, to my understanding, was meant to be her conscience and the embodiment thereof, hence why Nadine appears to be smarter.
- I don't think that it's a matter of "smarter", but what course of actions and decisions D.W. wants to make. I think that when D.W.'s talking to Nadine, it's just a way of weighing the pros and cons of what she can do and contemplating the situations at hand, and D.W.'s just too impulsive to go for the more sound ideas. Also, notice how Nadine is naturally quiet and meek against D.W.'s loud and brash personality. It's not that Nadine is smarter, it's that D.W. doesn't want to listen to that part of her psyche at the moment. She knows that the Nadine part of herself is right, but she's too stubborn to admit it.
- Why does Elwood City, which has a population of nearly 80,000 people, have a volunteer fire department? Volunteer fire departments are more common in rural, unincorporated areas, and not within larger towns. It's not like Elwood is strapped for a revenue either, as evidenced by the top-notch school system and other amenities.
- Indeed, VFDs are more common in rural areas, but they are not unheard of in larger towns and cities. I grew up in a town of 50,000 people, and we operated a VFD as well as a paid one.
- Small cities and towns need VF Ds because the local fire department doesn't have enough resources for multiple fires.
- This has bugged me for a while now... Why is it the Frenskys live in such a small apartment? What job does her mom have? Is she a homemaker?
- Yes, she's a homemaker. They probably could live in a house, but the show tries to have kids in lots of different situations to show realism. They go from a "mom+dad-Christian-household" family to a "single-parent-apartment" family.
- And I imagine a garbageman's salary isn't exactly luxurious.
- Actually, garbagemen don't pull in half bad of a salary, especially for a job that doesn't require post-secondary. Maybe not enough to move into a larger apartment with two kids and a spouse who doesn't work, but still not half bad.
- turns out that Francine's mother does have a paying job outside the home, it's the reason why she and Francine's Dad are not able to take her to the stables in "Francine Frensky: Olympic Rider"; we don't know what it is. That said, Francine's parents both pull in a decent household budget.
- Perhaps it's a simple matter of pragmatism and humble contentment. Why pay more and move into a house, when you're happy in a simpler apartment?
- Another thing adding to this is that Francine's apartment is closer to the school.
- In the episode about cell phones: WHERE DID MUFFY'S BIG BROTHER COME FROM?
- I watched this episode with the very well-off kid I babysit and asked the same question. The five-year-old matter-of-factly replied that Muffy's brother went to boarding school, just like her older brother and sister did. Makes sense to me.
- In the Christmas special from back in 2000, right next to Muffy's oversized stocking was one that said 'Chip.' I guess the writers finally put him in after so many seasons...
- He's been acknowledged since the book series, he appeared in Muffy's family portrait in Arthur goes to Camp. This means he's been around just as long as the Brain had since that was also his first appearance.
- Muffy's big brother is a college student.
- Mr. and Mrs. Crosswire, one would assume.
- Chip is so much older than Muffy and has appeared so infrequently that at one point I believed him to be Ed's child from a previous relationship.
- From "The Play's the Thing": what kind of smartphone has such a wavy, lumpy shape and thick shell, even with a case on it? It seems more like one of those kid-safe fake smartphones than a real one, meaning it shouldn't have been able to do half of the things Muffy used it for (like sniffing a pizza box?).
- The third episode ("Arthur and the Real Mr. Ratburn") show them going into 3rd Grade. What grade were they in in "Francine's Bad Hair Day", the episode before?
- The episodes are not shown in chronological order, so they were in the 3rd grade. I remember they put an episode about a blizzard, in between a swimming episode and an episode set in autumn.
- If you're talking about the ones where they have Mr. Marco instead of Mr. Ratburn, 2nd grade.
- "Arthur's Eyes". What grade was he in when he got the glasses? Mr. Morris (and Arthur and co. not looking that different) would suggest it was 2nd Grade, but... why was DW making baby sounds (the same as Kate, I might add)? She would have been about 3, meaning she should be able to talk a LITTLE BIT (and, it's DW, she talks a lot).
- There is probably a trope for this, but I don't know for certain. Sometimes when TV shows are just beginning, all the facts aren't set in stone. It would only be later when they come to definite conclusions that would remain for the rest of the series. Sue Ellen was shown in Arthur's 2nd-grade flashback because it wasn't yet decided that she would transfer to his show in the middle of the third grade.
- Early-Installment Weirdness is the trope you're looking for. Francine tends to act jarringly out of character in those early episodes as well.
- It's also a lot easier to use stock baby noises than it is to dub fairly unimportant dialogue. D.W. wasn't exactly critical to the plot in that episode. She also stays 4 in every episode after her birthday, where she turns 5, so I'd chalk it up to negative continuity if cheap isn't a satisfactory answer.
- Didn't Arthur says she was two when he got glasses? But that doesn't make sense, so he probably meant in the baby pictures.
- She was two and he was in 1st grade.
- There is probably a trope for this, but I don't know for certain. Sometimes when TV shows are just beginning, all the facts aren't set in stone. It would only be later when they come to definite conclusions that would remain for the rest of the series. Sue Ellen was shown in Arthur's 2nd-grade flashback because it wasn't yet decided that she would transfer to his show in the middle of the third grade.
- In "Arthur The Wrecker," it appears that the writers back then had no grasp on technology. Let's look at this: the computer's keyboard is wireless. The mouse is on a wire attached to the keyboard. The keyboard gets knocked off the desk, at least five feet away, and the computer turns off and they can't turn it back on. This pretty much shows that whoever thought this up has never used a computer before.
- The computer did not shut off—it went into sleep/hibernate mode and the kids didn't know this, so they thought it was broken. When the keyboard was dropped, it hit the sleep/hibernate button on the way down. This is why Arthur's mom was able to get it to work by jiggling the switch—jiggling the switch took it out of sleep/hibernate.
- Why didn't Brain, the resident nerd, catch this?
- Maybe Brain isn't all that educated when it comes to computers/electronics in general. He knows how to use one, but if nobody knows what the problem was with the computer when it shut off and crashed/broke, how would you be able to fix it?
- But Brain is shown to run a computer club in "The A-Team".
- That episode must be set after this one.
- Perhaps that incident was his impetus for joining it. Someone like Brain would no doubt find it vexing that he wasn't up to snuff on something, and would attempt to rectify that.
- Why is the Tibble Twins' grandmother such a pushover? She views the twins as if they are angels, despite their actions proving otherwise. (The episode "Attack of the Turbo Tibbles" comes to mind; on top of the twins being allowed to wear/mimic the Power Rangers knock-off, I don't recall the twins receiving any punishment whatsoever for sending D.W. to the hospital.)
- Because that's how grandparents are. Grandparents don't do any disciplining as parents do, so kids can pretty much get away with murder, and their grandparents wouldn't think anything of it... they seem to have a sense of what it's like to be kids, not only were they kids themselves, but they also raised kids, so I think they pretty much think kids are just being kids.
- Actually, I kind of figured that they are well-behaved when they're in her presence and she's generally not present when they are at their worst (i.e, they act up the most when she's in the house, busy, or when they're not at home). Now, however, she does discipline them when she's aware or, at least, she makes them see what they did (i.e, when they hurt DW in the "Attack of the Turbo Tibbles" episode, she brings them to the hospital or in "Mind Your Manners", where they make themselves learn manners so she can take them out to eat). To put it simply, she might discipline them offscreen if that's the case and they might simply hide the behavior from her (really, I've met plenty of kids like this, especially when they're this young).
- In the lice episode, why didn't they get lice in their fur?
- Fur Is Skin?
- There was a scene where the lice were shown to be in Buster's fur, but his fur was too dirty to live in (Truth in Television, as lice love clean hair; it makes it easier for them to move around) and they decide to go back to Mr. Ratburn, instead.
- Maybe the fur had to be of a certain length, as lice do prefer longer hair, so they'd probably prefer longer or otherwise thicker fur. In Buster's case, his fur so happened to be thicker but dirtier, so they went back to Ratburn's.
- In "To Eat Or Not To Eat": The Big Boss Bars were revealed to not only to have a chemical in them that makes them about as addictive as real-life drugs but to also have radioactive materials in the darn things! Why the heck would the FDA allow the bars to be sold publicly without any type of restrictions or warnings!?
- For that matter, why would the FDA allow them to be sold in the first place? If the owner of the company himself panicked and ran when asked to eat one (presumably because of the apparent toxicity of the bars) and was subsequently jailed for distributing the bars, one would think that the FDA would have intervened early on.
- The city didn't know about the toxicity or the addictiveness of the bars until they spread like wildfire.
- Likewise, there are a lot of things that slide past the FDA
- How are Binky's parents oblivious to his bullying and other bad actions? He's gotten in trouble so often that surely they must have been called at least once.
- Truth in Television - maybe his parents are simply apathetic. Or they always take his side and think he was provoked, the subject of Disproportionate Retribution, etc. Or maybe they try to call his home and leave a message saying what he did, but he gets home first and deletes the messages, allowing him to get away with everything. (Truth in Television - my sister's a teacher and she's seen all of these...even down to parents who refuse to give their cell phone numbers so the messages are on the home answering machine.)
- This doesn't seem to match with their characterization in later episodes, particularly with them adopting a young girl from China and generally seeming like very nice people and not at all irresponsible. If anything, the whole thing feels like another example of the show's Early-Installment Weirdness.
- As noted with the previous troper, it's possible that his parents were just unaware (think the Tibbles' Grandma), and, considering some of the episodes, they might have been very busy (really, considering that Binky was home alone much of the time). Parents aren't always aware of what their kids are up to and, more often than not, kids will act out of line when their parents aren't around.
- Truth in Television - maybe his parents are simply apathetic. Or they always take his side and think he was provoked, the subject of Disproportionate Retribution, etc. Or maybe they try to call his home and leave a message saying what he did, but he gets home first and deletes the messages, allowing him to get away with everything. (Truth in Television - my sister's a teacher and she's seen all of these...even down to parents who refuse to give their cell phone numbers so the messages are on the home answering machine.)
- Why does all-dressed pizza never cross their minds in "Desert Island Dish"?
- Well, pizza isn't all that healthy for you. Maybe a salad with some sort of dressing and protein (like steak or chicken) on top would've been better.
- Whole-wheat crust, low-fat cheese, vegetables, possibly pineapple for fruit, lean meats. Sucks for you if you don't eat meat/are lactose intolerant, though.
- It's still not a food that you can sustain yourself on (you can't eat only anything).
- The question wasn't about the rest of your life, just your time on the island.
- I was thinking of a stew with milk (dairy), meat (protein), tomatoes (fruit), and carrots (vegetables) with bread chunks inside (grains).
- This thing bugs me. Even Alan/The Brain couldn't think of that! And he said it was impossible!
- For more added inanity, both my grandmother (she's 86! Silly Brain.) and I said "salad", and on subsequent viewing, I said "burger" (with tomato being the fruit).
- I found it strange not a single student thought to try "clean water," knowing they'd die in a matter of days without it. The goal was, technically, to survive as long as possible.
- They need food and water, not just water.
- Arthur, Francine, and Buster's mindset were that since picking "fun foods" didn't work, they would get a good grade if they picked healthy food. I don't know why the Brain didn't think of it, though.
- To address the point about hydration, freshwater can be filtered from saltwater, though, if memory service, one could get some form of hydration from foods that have a lot of water in them. Anyway, the solution at the end would have been pool their resources in some way, as that ensures a better chance of surviving longer. However, meta-wise, what exactly would work isn't going be as clear, as everyone's metabolism, health, and caloric intake is varied IRL.
- Well, pizza isn't all that healthy for you. Maybe a salad with some sort of dressing and protein (like steak or chicken) on top would've been better.
- In "MacFrensky", Francine and Muffy frame Brain and then almost frame Arthur and Buster because Francine can get to be Student of the Month that way and she can invite Muffy along to lunch with some famous person, which is the prize. After Muffy's callousness throughout the episode, why does Brain forgive her so fast and even invite her to go with him, once the prize is restored to him? At least Francine told Mr. Ratburn the truth.
- The Brain is a very forgiving kid.
- To be fair, his friends are extremely tolerant and forgiving of his idiosyncrasies, so he'd be a bit hypocritical to not forgive them as well.
- The Brain is a very forgiving kid.
- How are Arthur's glasses not falling off his head?
- Clearly Arthur is psychic, but his powers limited him to hovering eyewear within a few millimeters in front of his eyes.
- They're tight enough to stay on his head, either that or some adhesive.
- Clearly Arthur is psychic, but his powers limited him to hovering eyewear within a few millimeters in front of his eyes.
- There's an episode where Arthur gets overweight from eating too many snacks and not exercising enough. He, like most of the other kids in his class, regularly plays on a soccer team, and a baseball team, as well as ride their bikes around town, have PE lessons at school, and more, so how and when did he get overweight? Did he stop doing all his sports teams? It's never mentioned and the sports/exercise he is shown to get regularly is completely forgotten about.
- A lot of kids have good metabolisms and can eat anything and stay thin, but people often grow out of it as they get older. Maybe he's just getting older and beginning to go through puberty? I know I started puberty when I was eight, but I'm female, and they often start growing earlier... Let's just chalk this one up to studio mandate for a healthy eating plot.
- Actually, he might have been intended to be more of a Hollywood Pudgy, as, while Arthur is kind of big for his age, he's by no real means overweight (not any more than the other kids), except for what it says on the scale. However, it's possible that the point of the episode was to remind kids to take care of themselves, even if they seem "healthy". In terms of the sports teams and such that Arthur's on, I think those episodes came after this one.
- This is a season 9 episode, ‘Arthur Weighs In’. I’ve been rewatching the show and he’s been shown to be playing soccer since at least season 2, and softball before season 9, as there’s an episode where Ed Crosswire takes over coaching.
- A lot of kids have good metabolisms and can eat anything and stay thin, but people often grow out of it as they get older. Maybe he's just getting older and beginning to go through puberty? I know I started puberty when I was eight, but I'm female, and they often start growing earlier... Let's just chalk this one up to studio mandate for a healthy eating plot.
- Why haven't they tackled racism yet? It is a bit dark, yes, but racism is still a huge problem, and they've covered other potentially depressing topics (death, cancer, 9/11, etc.). There was a Bernstein Bears book about racism, and other shows (That's So Raven, The Proud Family, etc.) have covered it. They could do something with actual race (The Brain is black, after all) or the lack of non-mammal characters or even a specific type of mammal characters being discriminated against.
- Sesame Street did it so...
- As everyone is a different "race" or species, this would not exactly play out the same as with humans. The closest idea seems to be a rejective attitude to new people or ideas.
- Actually, they could pull this off. While it wouldn't be racism as we humans understand it, I could see maybe the 'bunny species' of Buster Baxter being racist/segregationist toward the 'wolf-dog' characters. Imagine a future episode where Buster begins to act like a jerk toward a new kid in his class because the kid was of the canine species.
- I don't know about having an established character doing that, especially since he doesn't seem to be that way toward, say, Fern. I think it'd have to be a new character. Perhaps a transfer student, or some random stranger on the street.
- Except that they already have a "canine species" in their class (Fern).
- Given that the series pretty much runs on Denial of Animality and even Furry Lens, I doubt they're ever going to do a plot that revolves around the characters acknowledging their non-human status. It's also the reason we've never gotten an episode based on the book Arthur's Nose.
- They have covered a milder level of racism on "In My Africa" when D.W. shows Cheikh (Brain's cousin) what she perceived Africa to be like. Racism doesn't just have to involve insults, it can also be unintentional.
- "Citizen Cheikh" also has some examples, like an Imagine Spot where the kids tsk tsk Cheikh for not giving up his Senegalese food and clothes after becoming an American citizen.
- Actually, "In My Africa" was probably meant to be taken as a lesson of "ignorance" than "racism", as DW was welcoming to Cheikh but didn't go about it in the most correct way, as she made assumptions based on the media she saw. Usually, when that subject is taught, the character would be either afraid of or malicious to another character and making assumptions based in said fear or prejudice because of their ethnicity. The closest the series did address a topic ending in "-ism", was Arthur's Perfect Christmas with Francine and Muffy's subplot, however, subtle. In Arthur Takes a Stand, they did acknowledge the Civil Rights movement, again, in a subtle but more indirect way.
- Why is Arthur the only person in his class wearing glasses?
- Why shouldn't he be? Not everyone wears glasses from when they are quite young, some kids I know didn't wear them until we were in middle school, and I was 12 before I started wearing glasses. Plus, there's only, what, 10-12 kids in Arthur's class? Wearing glasses now is fairly common, but it's not as if every other person wears them.
- I'm well aware that not everyone wears glasses at an early age, it's just that in a classroom full of kids, there's usually more than one kid with glasses.
- From a character standpoint, it could be to help him stand out more among other characters. In fiction, producers or whoever will look for ways to distinguish to help them stand out, and be easy to identify at a glance.
- If more than one kid in Arthur's class wore glasses, the first episode couldn't be about everyone making fun of him for wearing glasses.
- The episode where Francine wants to skip a pizza party to stick to her fast. The pizza was pepperoni, making it doubly non-Kosher, so she shouldn't be eating it anyway.
- In the spinoff series "Postcards from Buster", she stated that her family wasn't orthodox which is why she's allowed to eat non-Kosher foods.
- If that's the case, why did Mr. Frensky awkwardly thank the Crosswires when they gave them a ham as a Hanukkah present in the Christmas special? He stared at the ham like he was holding a dead cat.
- Perhaps it's more a matter of tastefulness. They may still be okay with eating it, but giving a Jewish family a ham, on Hanukkah, is still a case of superb obliviousness. One you'd think that SOMEBODY in the Crosswire family would at least consider making sure to NOT do.
- Also there is turkey pepperoni.
- But pizza would still be non-kosher because it has cheese, and kosher foods can't have both meat and dairy products in them.
- Francine's family isn't orthodox though.
- While her family may not be Orthodox, they might adhere to some of the dietary rules (i.e the Mr. Frensky's awkwardness about the ham). On another note, the pizza could have had pepperoni made from another type of meat and the cheese could have been a vegan substitute for all we know.
- In the spinoff series "Postcards from Buster", she stated that her family wasn't orthodox which is why she's allowed to eat non-Kosher foods.
- If they are animals do they have fur?
- Buster mentions having fur in "My Club Rules".
- Apparently, they do, though that was more or less obvious in the earlier eps. In another ep, the one where Mei-Lin debuted, they said "human", so, perhaps, animal and human mean different things. The final ep lampshaded this.
- Buster mentions having fur in "My Club Rules".
- "Arthur's Almost Live Not Real Music Festival". Does Ray Bradbury rhyme with "hurry"?
- Yes?
- Painful Rhyme
- In the episode with the sleepover at the science museum (forgetting the name), Binky doesn't like mac & cheese. In "Francine Redecorates", he likes it. How?
- Kids' tastes change. Haven't you ever tried something you thought you didn't like and went, "Hey, not so bad"?
- I tried Turkish cuisine once. Looks bizarre, but tastes delicious.
- He might not like the Mac and cheese at the museum, they might put something different in, use a different type of cheese, make it fresh rather than from a packet etc.
- The episode "April 9th", while a great episode, brings up a pretty significant plot hole: When Buster goes to visit Mr. Morris, he first says to him, "Hello Mr. Morris. My name is Buster Baxter, and I'm here to see how you're doing!" as if they've never met each other. Not only does it seem like the first time they met, but at the end of the episode, Mr. Morris retires and moves to New Mexico. However, in "Arthur Accused!", he recognizes Buster with a mop on his head and gets questioned by him as well, and I'm sure they had interaction in the following episodes. Why does Mr. Morris not know who Buster is? Did he suffer from memory loss when injured?
- That always bothered me too! Not just "Arthur Accused!", but don't forget, in "Binky Rules", Mr. Morris was one of Buster's main witnesses/suspects in Binky's mystery, so he was among those that he questions. At the end of "April 9th", we also have this exchange between Arthur and Buster that further confuses things:
Buster: I was just thinking about Mr. Morris, I miss him. You know, he'd still be here if it wasn't for that stupid fire.
Arthur: Yeah, but you two might not be friends, you only met because of that stupid fire.
Buster: That's true.- So, yeah, doesn't make a whole lot of sense either way.
- Buster doesn't have the best memory, so he probably forgot. Or, he knew they had a Mr. Morris but he didn't really meet Mr. Morris until then.
- Something else about this episode that baffled me-how did Bitzi not know that Buster wasn't at school? Wouldn't she have made sure Buster had breakfast before she left for work? It just does not make sense.
- In "Big Brother Binky", what Chinese dialect was Binky speaking at the Chinese restaurant? He did correctly say "little sister" and "big brother" in Mandarin/Putonghua, but what dialect has "shay shay" mean "thank you"? For that matter was it a mispronunciation, both, or neither?
- I fussed about this as well. Mind you, my experience is with Mandarin, and I don't even come close to saying I speak it. But what I heard from an actual Chinese speaker was "shi shien". "Shay" could be a mispronunciation of "shi", but "shway", I have no idea. I seem to recall that he was supposed to be speaking Mandarin, but my memory may be faulty.
- I've studied Mandarin/Putonghua and was taught that "Xie Xie" （谢谢） is how you say thank you. Maybe "shi shien" is used in a regional dialect?
- It seems to me to be a case of mispronunciation. Binky essentially had a huge American accent when pronouncing those words.
- The good behavior award in "My Fair Tommy". What if more than one student was especially well-behaved?
- It's just a little incentive given out for good behavior, like how a lot of Preschool and Elementary School classes give out various incentives for good behavior, good grades, etc. which usually happen once a week, or once a month. This is very, very common. It's merely up to the teacher to decide who to give it to. Also, it was pretty much gathered that the Tibbles were the only ones to have never gotten the award.
- "To Eat, or Not to Eat?" - How would the Big Boss bar ever get sold, much less made? I'm not the most knowledgeable at chemistry, but I imagine that not only would such a bar be difficult to mass-produce, but wouldn't someone die after eating them, let alone a whole lot of them as Fern and George did?
- The Big Boss bar seems to be the food equivalent of energy drinks, giving one a sugar-caffeine high for a few hours. Eating too much would make you sick, but wouldn't kill you.
- Caffeinated energy bars are a real thing; the Big Boss bars seem to be one aimed specifically at children.
- Why do Arthur's parents punish Arthur when he does something wrong but not D.W? Like in the Christmas special when D.W. threw a freakin' tantrum over a stuffed animal and they sided with her! And in "Arthur's Big Hit" when she wrecked the model plane (by deliberately throwing it out a window) that Arthur spent months making and Arthur punched her, they treat Arthur like he's the bad guy! And when Binky punches him, his parents are like "well that's what you get for hurting precious little D.W.!" Well, they don't say that but it feels like it. Are Arthur's parents that dumb?
- Yes.
- More specifically, PBS has a veeeeery strict "No Hitting, Ever" policy for their programming, but D.W acting out is treated as annoying... And yet, since she's not being part of any of PBS's Aesops at the time, her parents are inevitably going to coddle the tyke. "Arthur's Big Hit" was meant as a particularly Anvilicious episode to begin with, as stated elsewhere, but it comes down to this. Bad/rude behavior is tolerable. Hitting isn't, in any context, for PBS.
- They didn't side with her over the duck/tabby, either. Jane rubs her back when she's tantruming, but then D.W. snaps herself out of it. Just terrible for a mother to comfort her upset child on Christmas, it is.
- The problem wasn't that her mom was comforting her, it's the fact that she threw a screaming fit at a family Christmas party because she got a doll that was different than the one she wanted (which was sold out, if I remember correctly).
- Kids have tantrums on Christmas. It's realistic. Jane chose to comfort her at the moment rather than try to punish her (on Christmas) when very likely it wouldn't have sunk in anyways.
- Also, to her credit, Jane actually tried to tell D.W. that she might not get exactly what she wants for Christmas in an earlier scene. D.W. didn't listen at that point, thus she found that out the hard way when she didn't receive the doll she wanted.
- The special also mentions Arthur and Jane didn't begin their gift shopping until two days before Christmas, which is why Jane couldn't get the talking tabby for D.W. Maybe she focused on comforting her daughter during her tantrum because she felt bad for postponing their holiday shopping when they could've gotten D.W.'s toy earlier and caused less stress for everyone.
- Arthur's parents have shown themselves to be rather incompetent over the show's run. For example, in one episode, they grounded Arthur for getting a cut on his knee from the dump even though he already learned his lesson in advance, and in another episode, they dragged him (but not D.W., for some reason) to a party full of grown-ups simply because they wanted him to learn that "sometimes, we all have to do to things we don't want to do" when it was already shown that he helps his parents do chores (things that most people, if not all people, don't want to do) regularly. It doesn't help that whenever D.W. is being rude to Arthur, the parents don't do anything, but when she's being rude to them or Kate, they don't hesitate to punish her.
- Honestly, from experience, I kinda figured that they put more behavior emphasis on the older child. Arthur is older than DW and is the oldest, thus, they're willing to step in when he gets out of line, while the latter is older than Kate, who's a baby (and, therefore, doesn't know any better), they'll step in when she gets out of line. As noted on the Headbanger page (when there was one), this sort of thing is Truth in Television, as, basically, by being older, the parents expect more from the older kid and so will deal with his actions, while being comparatively lax to the younger child (they get a pass on Kate's end, as, well, she's a baby, though). I mean, whose younger siblings didn't get away with murder while they got the maximum when they were kids?
- Where did Emily's obsession with France come from?
- From... the beginning? If you remember from the first episode where she's formally introduced to the audience, "D.W. Flips", she bids farewell to her nanny in French. Her nanny is French, and there's probably a significant amount of French culture in her home.
- In keeping with the above, Emily may be part French, so it would be normal for her.
- In the teaser for "Sue Ellen Gets Her Goose Cooked", what was the Chinese gamer yelling out? I think she said "mei Guo Hui Zi Ji", American Devil? Can someone provide a translation?
- In the episode featuring the horror movie "The Squirrels", everyone in Arthur's class/group of friends saves Binky spend the entire segment being so afraid of squirrels they don't want to go outside...except one of those kids is Fern who is repeatedly shown to LOVE scary stuff, the scarier the better. Why wasn't she talking sense into the others?
- Either she wanted to play along with the others, or figured that it was useless to talk sense into them. That or maybe she was secretly enjoying the fact they were all afraid and didn't want to ruin the fun for herself.
- I know I personally as a horror fan have vastly enjoyed seeing others get scared by some of my favorite stuff for sure, and it's even more fun to play along.
- Not exactly looking for an answer here, just putting it out there: It always seemed to me like the characters were always more mature than their age; their behavior, the way they conducted themselves, the way they spoke; it never really seemed third-grader to me. I know third-graders and they seldom act the way they do in the show. Does anybody else feel this way?
- What must be understood is that kid's shows like Arthur tend to have their kid protagonists be wise beyond their years so that the creators can impart a lesson through their characters and set up a good role model for the kids. Who would you want your kids to mimic? Arthur and Buster? Or Muffy? If I had kids, I'd want them to be like Arthur and Buster.
- In "Arthur's Big Hit", Arthur was punished for hitting D.W.; his punishment was no TV for a whole week. Contrast that to "Arthur's Treasure Hunt" where he was grounded for two whole weeks for digging up his backyard. Why is wrecking the backyard considered more serious than hitting your little sister?
- Broken Aesop. Keep in mind that in the episode where Arthur hits D.W., his parents don't even react when he gets punched by a third party for seemingly no reason, only telling him, "Now you know how she feels."
- Probably because a punch will leave a bruise for a few days but digging up the backyard will take way longer to "fix".
- Believe it or not, some parents (at least this editor speaking from their experience) would prioritize property damage over violent sibling squabbles. They might think a fight amongst their children will eventually sort itself out and dismiss it as no big deal but their house, garden, or personal belongings getting destroyed is Serious Business. They kind of have a point, though, considering how costly (time, effort and money) it is to repair or even replace broken stuff.
- Why do Brain's parents have seafood as ice cream toppings in their shop?
- It's their shop, they can do whatever they want.
- Buster, and people that have similar appetites. Also, the family are bears, sort of, so they like seafood?
- There's one episode where Muffy orders HAM-flavored ice cream at an ice cream shop, and in another Mr. Crosswire mentions that he has hasenpfeffer ice cream at home (which Muffy ate all of). The citizens of Elwood City have very weird tastes in ice cream.
- A stealth Furry Reminder?
- So, in-universe, is Mary Moo-Cow a local show in Elwood City, or not? The show seems to go back and forth on that... on the one hand, apparently, Mary Moo-Cow is known worldwide, Adil's little sister sent D.W. a CD of the show's soundtrack in Turkish, and the show obviously seems to have a lot of fully-licensed merchandise that D.W. has collected (plush toys, CDs, VHSs/DVDs, tea set, etc.) but in, "The Last of Mary Moo-Cow," the studio where they produce the show is in Elwood City, and it appears to be just an ordinary public-access/news studio... granted, Mary Moo-Cow certainly doesn't look like an expensive show to make, but I find it a little far-fetched that an internationally-known and loved(?) show is made in a small town that wouldn't normally have a studio lot big enough that's capable of producing mass entertainment.
- If it helps, the case with the Turkish CD could be that Mary Moo Cow was locally adapted for Turkish TV. Sesame Street has had foreign adaptations done in various countries and Barney & Friends has even had a remake done in Israel, to name a few examples. If Mary Moo Cow was popular in what is America, an adaptation being made in another country (or simply a dub) would sound logical.
- Mary Moo-Cow might be a franchised show like Romper Room and The Bozo Show, where local stations have the option of making their own version instead of just showing the nationally syndicated one.
- Perhaps a production company from another state outsourced Mary Moo Cow to Elwood City to lower production costs.
- Why haven't Arthur and his friends moved on to the 4th grade yet? It wouldn't change anything and they could still find a way to keep Ratburn as their teacher or something. I just don't see the point in keeping them in the 3rd grade forever.
- It would probably confuse the little kids watching, God forbid. That's probably why we never see the older episodes in reruns anymore: it might throw kids in a tizzy to hear the characters with different voices, see Binky as a bully instead of one of the gang, see Francine act like a Jerkass, see Muffy as a less flanderized version of herself, among other things.
- It's just a cartoon thing. It's why the Peanuts kids never age. It's why Ash Ketchum in Pokémon: The Series is still ten years old. It's why everyone in The Simpsons is all still the ages they were when the show first began in 1989.
- Not just that, it's basically to save writing and money by keeping the characters the same age, as the younger they are, the more range for stories.
- As of Season 19's the Last Day, the gang has moved into 4th grade...
- ...but that was reverted by the next episode, at the beginning of the following season.
- A way of rectifying this is to think of their 3rd grade eps as being before the 4th grade one.
- It would probably confuse the little kids watching, God forbid. That's probably why we never see the older episodes in reruns anymore: it might throw kids in a tizzy to hear the characters with different voices, see Binky as a bully instead of one of the gang, see Francine act like a Jerkass, see Muffy as a less flanderized version of herself, among other things.
- In "Just Desserts", Arthur wanted to try the amazing cake that his dad made, but it was for a wedding. So, after dinner, he left a few pieces of the cake behind for the kids to eat as a surprise… so, David just delivered that whole cake with three big pieces missing? The heck?
- He may have just made extra pieces with the leftover batter and icing.
- Wouldn't Ladonna Compson's Southern accent make her a teasing target and even bully bait?! I talk from experience; when someone from another part of the USA goes to another region (the South to the Northeast, the Northeast to the Upper and Deep South, the Midwest to Southern California, etc), their accent and vocabulary will make them stick out from everyone else; a Southern-fried child in the Northeast would be teased and bullied because they're immediately considered an "outsider". (FYI, Arthur is heavily implied as being set in the Northeastern USA.)
- Well, the U.S. has kind of adopted that whole Anti-Bullying campaign in the last few years, so that probably has something to do with it. And you're right though, realistically, it seems like Ladonna would get teased about her accent, especially southerners in particular always have these stereotypical stigmas put on them over the way they talk, ranging from them talking slow (I'm actually from the south, but my best friend is Canadian, and she thinks I stretch my vowels when I talk) to talking like simple backwoods rednecks. I remember Billy Bob Thornton once said on a talk show that he always gets a little annoyed how southerners are always portrayed as talking like Foghorn Leghorn. Ladonna's accent is an exaggerated one (though admittedly, since she's voiced by a Canadian, she pronounces certain words more like a northerner would).
- Also, Ladonna is a couple of inches taller than most of her classmates, so that would rule out Francine of Muffy.
- Probably because some kids don't think too much about accents. I mean, I having been living in the Midwest since I was well, an embryo. I've heard Southern accents and other similar ones and wouldn't have thought much of it. Granted, I do have relatives from the South, but still. Also, her accent isn't too exaggerated, not the way I'm hearing it, she just has a higher voice.
- Also, Arthur & company are fairly young. Prejudice and teasing about accents are something that would be learned. To them, Ladonna's accent might just be "cool" and "different", which makes it interesting
- And speaking of Ladonna, in "When Duty Calls" she moves from Elwood City and throughout the episode, she's worried that her current friends won't be in touch with her anymore after she moves, after a friend from Guam did the same to her. So her friends make a plan and decide to make a whole website to keep in touch with her, but before making the plan we see Fern calling Arthur with her phone, which brings the question: why didn't she just give her number (and the rest of her friends, for that matter, assuming they have phones as well) to Ladonna? (Although the whole plot could have been resolved earlier or even avoided completely, still.)
- Because her phone number might change or not be in service when she goes to the next state or country (and it doesn't seem like she has a phone anyway), so a website would be more reliable. It's why people keep up with each other through social media.
- The whole episode "So Funny I Forgot to Laugh" really got to me and not just because of Arthur's behavior; Sue Ellen's behavior is puzzling too. Why did she get so upset with Arthur's bullying behavior when she dealt with Binky way back in the season 1 episode "Bully For Binky". Sue Ellen stood up to Binky and scared him into stopping his bullying ways. How come she couldn't handle Arthur this way?
- It might be because Binky was a stranger (at the time) looking for a physical fight, and Sue Ellen wasn't intimidated because she didn't know his reputation and knows karate (?). But Arthur was a good friend that suddenly started being rude to her — she wasn't expecting the insults and they hurt more coming from someone she likes.
- Here's another nitpick about that episode: Muffy and Francine of all people called Arthur out for his teasing. This coming from the girl who teased him for his glasses and when he didn't lose any of his baby teeth yet!
- This might be an Everyone Has Standards example. While Francine and Muffy picked on him, they didn't make Arthur want to switch classes to get away from them. When Sue Ellen told them she wanted to switch classes, it told them that his teasing went too far.
- Also, this could be a sign of Francine's Character Development.
- Okay... this irks me... "D.W. the Picky Eater" is all about what a picky eater D.W. is, and she hated everything that wasn't peanut butter and jelly sandwiches... so, aside from setting up her, "I! HATE! SPINACH!" meltdown in the restaurant... why the heck did she order a salad in the first place when she doesn't even like any of that stuff?!
- It's been established that DW can't read, so most likely her dad ordered a salad for her, hoping that she could manage a few simple vegetables in comparison to the more complex dishes on the menu or she simply ordered a "salad" and the waiter went with a default. Mr. and Mrs. Read never change their meals to accommodate DW's fussiness, and it's implied that either she eats what's in front of her or pushes it away.
- That and not all salads have spinach in them.
- She also expected it to be lettuce, which I guess she would've been fine with.
- Lettuce has less flavour than spinach, which is easily a Stock "Yuck!" for someone her age.
- In "Arthur's Knee", Arthur disobeys his parents to sneak into the city dump just so that he can find a wheel for a chariot he's building. He gets caught thanks to his injured knee and the resulting tetbum shot. That leads to the inevitable question - Arthur got along well with Francine's dad as established in "Arthur Cleans Up". So how come he didn't ask Mr. Frensky to get some replacement wheels for him from the dump or at least accompany him?
- Good question. The only answer I can offer up is that Oliver doesn't seem to have any kind of steady hours as far as his job goes, he seems to collect garbage at any given time during the day; I guess since Arthur and Brain needed to get their chariot finished, Arthur decided to just take it upon himself to find a wheel, rather than try and track down Oliver wherever he may have been in the city at the time and ask for help.
- In the episode where Binky's family goes to China to adopt a baby girl, Binky sees an advertisement for a show and asks if they can go see it. Mrs. Barnes protests that the show might be too loud for the baby and sure enough, they have to leave when she starts crying due to all the loud noises. Why did they all have to attend the show together though? Couldn't the mother have taken the baby back to the hotel while Binky went to the show with his dad?
- They're in a foreign country; there would probably be a chance that something bad could happen to Mrs. Barnes and Mei Lin if they went back to the hotel alone.
- The point of this time after the adoption is to bond as a family.
- In "Arthur's Almost Boring Day", Buster wishes it would rain on a school day. In what world would school be canceled because of rain?
- It wouldn't, I think he's wishing it would rain on a school day because as opposed to the weekend, school and homework already consume much of the day, so for it to rain on a school day wouldn't affect the free time and playtime he and other kids would otherwise have on a sunny weekend. On a slightly off-topic note, schools can be canceled now if it's "too cold" or "too hot." No fooling; it's been eight years since I've been in school, and they would have never canceled school for being "too cold" or "too hot" outside.
- It's not necessarily about how hot or cold it is outside but how hot or cold it is inside. Children don't learn well if they're passing out from heat exhaustion or getting frostbite. Plus, the weather being too cold can cause the transportation to school to be dangerous.
- In "D.W. Thinks Big", the Reads sleep on the couch, in sleeping bags, etc. while their guests sleep in their beds. Wouldn't it make more sense (and be far simpler) to do the opposite?
- Two possibilities. One: the Reads wanted to be hospitable. Two: the guests feel too privileged to sleep on the floor or in cots. Cora especially.
- Why does Brain's mom keep changing designs? It's understandable in the earlier episodes if you're still getting the appearance down but her hair and skin color have changed several times throughout the series?
- An accepted theory (in terms of her hair) is that she dyes her hair. In terms of her fur/skin, maybe she uses makeup or they didn't officially settle on her design until a certain point.
- In Seasons 2-14, had a different character artist who didn't see her original design (rather her hair color and skin tone), so that was probably an error on their part.
- An accepted theory (in terms of her hair) is that she dyes her hair. In terms of her fur/skin, maybe she uses makeup or they didn't officially settle on her design until a certain point.
- The episodes "Arthur Makes a Movie" and "George Blows His Top" establish that Arthur's parents enforce bans on movies with certain ratings for Arthur (the latter has his mom bar him from seeing a PG-13 rated movie). How come there hasn't been an episode yet where Arthur tries to see a forbidden movie? Given the appeal of these films being Forbidden Fruit and the potential for an An Aesop (such as "obey your parents" or "movie ratings exist for a reason"), They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot.
- Possibly because "Arthur's Knee" already featured the "obey your parents" Aesop?
- That's completely missing the point. Banning your children from viewing certain media (books, movies, television, etc) can have the effect of making them want to see it because of the appeal of being Forbidden Fruit. You have to wonder if Arthur may want to view these off-limits movies to see what the fuss is all about or maybe to prove to himself that he's "all grown up"?
- "The Scare-Your-Pants-Off Club" episode did that. Muffy's parents banned her from reading the series, but she snuck it anyways.
- Speaking of which, why is PG-13 such a barrier for Arthur anyway? Nowadays, most movies with that rating are aimed at "family" audiences? It would be understandable if they banned him from R-rated movies, but there are plenty of PG-13 movies that are perfectly appropriate for an 8-year-old to watch. It just makes Arthur's parents seem overly strict and controlling.
- Arthur's parents forbidding him to watch PG-13 movies/shows is probably the Reads being fair; If he's not allowed to watch it, then neither is DW.
- Also, the episode didn't specify what it's rated PG-13 for. Maybe the Reads are fine with Arthur watching some action, other subjects... not so much until he's older.
- It's meant to make Arthur more relatable, as being barred from watching something of interest is something kids probably have experienced at one point or another, fairly or otherwise. This would especially have been true during the late-90's and 2000's when most of the show aired.
- Possibly because "Arthur's Knee" already featured the "obey your parents" Aesop?
- Why do most of the characters (Arthur, Sue-Ellen, Alan, George, Emily, and Fern amongst others) live in big, beautiful detached houses? It's understandable with Muffy, but other characters? Remember, most of them are only children.
- Because their parents own the homes, not the children? And the parents can afford it. We see some of them living in apartments, Buster and Francine and we know Buster just lives with his mother, and Francine's father doesn't earn much being a bin man.
- It tends to be cheaper to rent vs buy a house, if you're factoring in long term costs (upkeep, repairs, etc). With Mr. Frensky's salary likely coming between $20k-$50k per year, the Frenskys could afford a house but they're in an apartment because it's close enough to the school as to where Francine could walk there. Also, Buster lives in a condo, so his mother does own it or, at least, is responsible for the inside of it, which is more expensive.
- Because their parents own the homes, not the children? And the parents can afford it. We see some of them living in apartments, Buster and Francine and we know Buster just lives with his mother, and Francine's father doesn't earn much being a bin man.
- How do the two other 3rd grade teachers (Ms. Sweetwater and Mrs. Fink) keep their jobs? All we ever see them doing is handing out sugary treats and dancing around with their students. The substitute teacher episode even implies that Ms. Sweetwater seems to have no clue about teaching 3rd graders (her methods are compared to Mr. Ratburn's hopelessly inept sister). How come the parents don't complain about them?
- The only thing that might make sense is, we're dealing with an Unreliable Narrator. Remember, the show is from the point of view of third-graders. They might naturally focus more on the times that Sweetwater and Fink have fun with their classes while exaggerating Ratburn's strictness. For example, in real life, it is highly unlikely a third-grade teacher—or any teacher—would give some of the insanely difficult assignments Ratburn is said to. What's probably happening is that the other two teachers do their jobs, but are much more laid back than Ratburn. So, the kids have this inaccurate impression that "Our teacher makes us do work, while all these other kids get to play and sing and eat cookies."
- Alternatively, Ratburn's class may be geared toward more academically gifted kids than the other teachers'. Several of Arthur's friends seem particularly gifted, such as:
- Brain (overall intellectually gifted, particularly science)
- Fern (writing and literature)
- Binky (art and especially music)
- Sue Ellen (music again; see "Bully for Binky"; she's also the resident geography expert, naturally)
- George (dyslexic, but highly artistic and creative, esp. in woodworking)
- You could argue this for Arthur himself, based on how much he reads; his grades are also usually pretty good.
- I don't think that they're incompetent at their jobs, per se, rather, it's that just that they teach differently. Likewise, we don't know exactly what kind of class their 3rd graders have, while Rodentia (Mr. Ratburn's sister) most likely was a kindergarten or preschool teacher who took on teacher a 3rd-grade class.
- Rule of Funny?
- The only thing that might make sense is, we're dealing with an Unreliable Narrator. Remember, the show is from the point of view of third-graders. They might naturally focus more on the times that Sweetwater and Fink have fun with their classes while exaggerating Ratburn's strictness. For example, in real life, it is highly unlikely a third-grade teacher—or any teacher—would give some of the insanely difficult assignments Ratburn is said to. What's probably happening is that the other two teachers do their jobs, but are much more laid back than Ratburn. So, the kids have this inaccurate impression that "Our teacher makes us do work, while all these other kids get to play and sing and eat cookies."
- It is established that Pal and Kate cannot understand the adults, except for a few significant words (like their own names, the word "bacon" for Pal, etc), and the rest of the time, they just hear blah blah blahs. So at the end of Flea to be You and Me, why did Kate smile when she heard Jane read the poster "famous fleas Pepe and Sale reunited at last" when to her, it would've sounded like "Wha? Blah-blah-blah blah-blah-blah blah-blah-blah....blah blah blah?", which wouldn't have sounded significant to Kate?
- Kate and Pal likely just heard "fleas" and "reunited" amidst "blah blah blah" and correctly assumed it referred to Pepe and Sale.
- The writers forgot, maybe?
- Species question. It seems in this world, there are both Funny Animals and regular animals. Funny Animals can keep regular animals as pets and baby Funny Animals can talk to regular animals (and toys and imaginary friends, but that's neither here nor there). Okay, got it. But my question is: do the Funny Animals know they aren't human? Mr. Ratburn calls himself a "fatty rat" in Arthur Weighs In, but Pal and Nemo call them "humans". Why?
- It seems to operate on Rule of Funny. There have been several times that Buster has been referred to as "rabbit" or "bunny" (this is probably the most common one) and you occasionally get others as well. But at other times, they will say "human." There's no clear pattern.
- In Mei Lin's debut episode, a dream sequence said "human pacifier", so, in the Arthur universe, "human" just has a different meaning.
- It seems to operate on Rule of Funny. There have been several times that Buster has been referred to as "rabbit" or "bunny" (this is probably the most common one) and you occasionally get others as well. But at other times, they will say "human." There's no clear pattern.
- In "Francine and the Feline", Pal and Nemo are friends, but then they stop being friends. Why?
- Because the writers needed an antagonist for the "Kate and Pal can talk" episodes later on and like in many cartoons, what would make a better villain than a cat? And also, if I remember the episode correctly, Arthur didn't learn to be so judgmental of cats after he found Nemo wasn't so bad and he still dislikes them after that.
- He doesn't still dislike cats, in fact, he quite likes them in "D.W.'s Furry Freakout". And I wanted a more In-Universe answer. And a mean, intimidating baby or dog would make a way better villain than a cat anyways.
- Maybe he doesn't like Nemo, specifically.
- Nemo was friendly as a kitten and willing to hang with Pal; then cat puberty hit and he became a jerk, at least when not hanging out with Francine. Truth in Television in that some sweet kittens turn into little butts after a few weeks of growth and development.
- Because the writers needed an antagonist for the "Kate and Pal can talk" episodes later on and like in many cartoons, what would make a better villain than a cat? And also, if I remember the episode correctly, Arthur didn't learn to be so judgmental of cats after he found Nemo wasn't so bad and he still dislikes them after that.
- Who is Dewey anyway?
- Melvil Dewey
, inventor of the Dewey Decimal System used by libraries.
- Melvil Dewey
- Why couldn't Kate have just told the lice from "The Lousy Week" to leave?
- Has the show established a "lower bound" on the types of animals she can communicate with? And do we think they would comply?
- Seeing as she can communicate with fleas, it's probable that Kate would be able to communicate with lice. However, noncompliance is a pretty good point. She may have tried to talk to the lice but they refused to comply or even scared her away. She might have also been scared of acquiring lice. After all, the fleas Kate talked to were quite friendly, just a bit annoying, and were willing to leave, but the lice were established as being more militaristic. I think that either the lice being stubborn or Kate being scared or both is the most logical explanation.
- The lice episode was before the fleas one.
- Has the show established a "lower bound" on the types of animals she can communicate with? And do we think they would comply?
- Two questions regarding the episode "Waiting to Go". If Binky is allergic to peanuts, then why would he be eating peanut butter crackers? And is the animation of the drawn-on cranberries saying, "We're so quenching?" meant to be a hallucination or an Imagine Spot or reality?
- Binky developed the peanut allergy later. You don't necessarily react to an allergy trigger the very first time you eat it.
- Maybe it wasn't actual peanut butter but a substitute.
- I think the talking cranberries were intended to be Binky hallucinating.
- Binky developed the peanut allergy later. You don't necessarily react to an allergy trigger the very first time you eat it.
- Arthur says "Mom! D.W. played Crazy Bus on MY C.D.!" Why would he have a C.D. of a song he hated?
- No, he's talking about his CD of songs from or based on material from the show, Arthur and Friends: The First Almost Real Not Live CD (or Tape). He phrased it oddly, but what he's saying essentially is that she added a track to his CD that he didn't want on there.
- Is Principal Haney dyslexic?
- In "D.W.'s Imaginary Friend", why was Arthur worried that if D.W. brought Nadine to the fair, other people would call him a baby? Despite imaginary friends not necessarily being babyish, Nadine is D.W.'s imaginary friend, not Arthur's.
- Well, if I'm not mistaken, two of his flaws are self-consciousness and concern about how other people will react/what they'll think of him and what consequences he could end up with (he went so far as to use a Paper-Thin Disguise in the earlier episodes "Play It Again, D.W." and "Arthur Meets Mister Rogers", which didn't work anyway). Also, he would find his little sister talking to thin air in a public place to be incredibly embarrassing for him.
- One thing about "Double Dare" bothers me. It's that near the beginning of the episode when Arthur is dared to skip school after getting jeered at by Francine, the Brain also says Arthur should go through with it, even going so far as to help them plan a way to skip school. Shouldn't a character like him know better than that? I'd expect him to either try to talk Arthur and Francine out of it or at least state that dares are just petty harassment and not rules you have to follow.
- There are a few episodes that show that while the Brain is definitely a genius in terms of schooling, he's rather lacking in social intelligence and skills. In one case, he refuses to let any of his partners on projects do any work because his extreme anxiety about his grades makes him unable to relent; in another, he gets easily sucked into becoming obsessed with a TV show, while Fern, who's usually something of a doormat, has the willpower to overcome it and set boundaries for herself. Plus, super-smart or otherwise, he's still an eight-year-old kid who's just as susceptible (if not more so) to peer pressure and the "rules" of social conventions like dares and tattling.
- Something I just wondered about Elwood City. Considering they had a blizzard powerful enough to knock out the city's power in that one episode, many thunderstorms in some episodes from earlier seasons, a drought and a hurricane, is Elwood in a part of the United States with a climate that somehow allows all those to happen (if it even exists)? Better question, is a drought in a place with a fair amount of precipitation and with access to lakes and the ocean even possible at all?
- 1) It's quite possible, depending on weather patterns. Especially in the lower NE United states/Eastern Seaboard. Hurricanes have skimmed along that region, and they can have BRUTAL winters.
- Apparently, they're in Pennsylvania (or, at least, most of the location seems to be based on Penn). It don't line up, considering how they needed to fly to New York, yet only needed to drive five hours to Ohio (Northern Ohio at that), but, perhaps, Arthur's Pennsylvania works in this manner?
- In one of the Arthur picture books (an open-flap book about Christmas) Arthur's envelopes had Elwood City in Maryland (MD)
- Why is Buster afraid of aliens in "Arthur's First Sleepover" and other episodes, when generally he likes them?
- Maybe he initially found aliens scary but got over his fears the more interested he became in the subject. Sometimes, a new interest or thing might seem scary at first until you get more and more into it.
- Early-Installment Weirdness? That episode was before he got into sci-fi stuff.
- He didn't say that he was scared; his mom was being overprotective and said she was worried Buster would be scared of aliens. In fact, Buster reassured her that aliens don't scare him; D.W.'s prank surprised the boys because it was at night, they were outside in the backyard, and Buster was already creeped out since Brain suggested they tell ghost stories. Buster took his nightmare well, going back to bed.
- Maybe he initially found aliens scary but got over his fears the more interested he became in the subject. Sometimes, a new interest or thing might seem scary at first until you get more and more into it.
- Why does D.W. fall for the Tibble Twins' lies when it's clearly shown she has a distrust (bordering on contempt) for them because of their naughty and boisterous nature? To name a few examples, she tried blaming baby Kate for various things in "D.W.'s Baby" at their advice, and in "Bleep", she bought into their claims that the swear word would turn adults into zombie-slaves without questioning it or even dismissing it as rubbish (made especially egregious because she learned the swear word when she witnessed the teenager's mother drop the goblet in shock and, earlier on, thought the word made people break things). She knows they're nothing but trouble, so why does she listen to them?
- Because she's still a kid and those are her friends, so she'll listen to them anyhow.
- Do Francine and Muffy argue with each other more than Arthur and Buster or are they just more hot-tempered than them so it's more noticeable when they do argue?
- I vote for the former.
- In the Episode "Desperately Seeking Stanley", why is Vicita portrayed as more irresponsible than the Tibbles?
- It has been shown in many episodes that Vicita is rather naive, given she's slightly younger than D.W. (the latter shown to be the smarter of the two when they interact). With that in mind, it's more understandable she wouldn't see her treatment of Stanley as potentially harmful given that many small children don't realize how destructive the extent of their play with toys can get. Why the Tibble Twins were "less" irresponsible is because, given that she occasionally acknowledges her grandkids' misbehavior, their grandmother knows how roughly they treat things (toys included) so one reason she kept Stanley in the attic could be to prevent him from getting destroyed.
- In "Night Fright", Arthur's family visited his aunt Lucy before picking him up from school but they had car trouble and asked Binky's parents to take him in for the night. Why Binky's parents? Arthur is closer friends with Buster and Brain, wouldn't it make more sense to ask their parents first?
- "Binky Barnes, Art Expert" showed that Binky can see Lakewood Elementary from where he lives, so it's possible that if Arthur's parents tried to call his friends' houses only to be told they couldn't accommodate a guest, they were probably informed that Binky's house was closer to the school and therefore less hassle to get to during the rainstorm.
- Whatever happened to Grandpa Dave? I know he went to a healthcare community after he got Alzheimer's but he used to be a semi-regular character. Other than a couple of cameos in flashbacks, he hasn't appeared since "Grandpa Dave's Memory Album". Do they never visit him or something? And his voice actor still does Ed Crosswire pretty regularly, so it's not like he's unavailable.
- He's probably at the senior citizen home most of the time.
- What's the deal with Miles from "The Rhythm and Roots of Arthur"? He said he's not related to any of the Reads and grew up in Cleveland, but David recognizes him from when he was a kid. Miles doesn't look much older than David (if at all) and has been on the farm so long that he's practically family. Plus, most of what he seems to do is working (minding the animals, cooking, etc.). Is he some sort of hired hand or something?
- He's a close family friend, an "honorary cousin", if memory serves.
- This kind of bugs me about where Elwood City is. How can the location be in Pennsylvania if Penn is a three-hour drive from New York, so why would they need to fly there? I know that it takes them 5 hours to drive to the Read house in Ohio (Miles says he's from Cleveland, so Northern Ohio?), which could place it in Pennsylvania but that doesn't answer why they needed to fly to New York.
- Huh, for the longest, I figured they lived somewhere like Michigan or Indiana.
- Ladonna and her family move away in "When Duty Calls". When Ladonna appears in later episodes, it's always silent cameos. Bud, on the other hand, has had somewhat significant speaking roles in a few episodes and the Thanksgiving special. Did they not have enough money in the budget to bring Ladonna's voice actor back? Since they did a formal goodbye episode, she probably left on good terms.
- The later episodes with her in them came before they moved (canonically speaking). Since Bud is the more popular of the two Compsons, especially with his dynamic with D.W. (compare how she is with Emily or the Tibbles vs. how she is with Bud—it's quite the difference), it makes more sense to have him appear more. Hell, he even shows up in the finale, while his sister, Ladonna, doesn't.
- In "Locked in the library", how come nobody noticed Arthur and Francine having fallen asleep in the library? Do they just not clean the library?
- Failed a Spot Check?
- Also in "Locked in the Library," why were there no fire exits?
- How could Mr. Ratburn still be skinny, when we saw how much he loves cakes? And he married Patrick who works in a chocolate shop.
- He may love cake, but he presumably keeps a balanced diet and gets regular exercise to balance it out. He used to be, in his own words, a "fatty rat" as a kid until he began playing ping pong, so there's no reason he wouldn't keep exercising as an adult to keep the calories at bay.
- In the episode "Tales From The Crib" how did DW "read every book on her shelf" when she can't read?
- She probably "read" them in the same way she read a book to the Tibbles in "I'd Rather Read It Myself;" making up her own story as she flips through the pages. Alternatively, since the whole episode is a story told by D.W. to Vicita to help the latter get over her fear of having to give up her crib for a big kid bed, it might be entirely made up.
- In the episode "Arthur's Toy Trouble", why did Arthur ruin his chance to earn millions from the action figure in the future, instead choosing to have a few minutes of fun with it? It's an unjustifiably stupid move and doesn't teach any sort of moral at all.
- He's 8 years old. He can't always be expected to make sensible decisions.
- "D.W.'s Baby" has Jane caution D.W. not to play with toys containing small pieces near Baby Kate (who was practically a newborn at that point) but in the episodes "Arthur's Lost Dog" and "Go To Your Room, D.W.", she didn't have any objections to Kate receiving a balloon from Pal nor D.W. playing with easily detachable dolls respectively. What gives?
- Why did Mr. Ratburn need to live with his students and their families when his roof caved in from the snow pile up? He has two sisters, albeit this was long before Patty was introduced, but still.
- In "How the Cookie Crumbles" when Muffy is unable to remember the cookie recipe her friends made, couldn't she have just gotten it from the newspaper since it had all the ingredients listed?
- Maybe she forgot where the newspaper was (if she even had a copy in her possession to begin with) because she had let success go right to her head or something.
- In the episode "Arthur Weighs In", Arthur apparently has gained weight and has become overweight. Two things strike me as odd in this episode. For one, why was he drawn the same way he always was? And two... why did nobody think he could have been starting a growth spurt? The thing with growth spurts is that they're not always even - that's one reason why a lot of kids in puberty have that "awkward" stage.
- Why is it called "Arthur vs. the Very Mean Crossing Guard" and not "Brain vs. the Very Mean Crossing Guard", considering that it's more of a Brain episode than an Arthur one?
- Brain and Arthur had to deal with the x-ing guard. Arthur even had the dream of orangoutangs coming in at night.
- Why did Arthur have to continue screaming when the film resumed in “Pets & Pests”? D.W. was the most scared.
- When the kids are remembering previous substitute teachers, Arthur refers to Ms. Blank as the best substitute and there's flashback of her unable to attend later Buster Mr. Haney if their sub this time is Ms. Blank. Why would they want a teacher they never had and don't know anything about?
- The joke is that she didn't show up to school, effectively meaning the kids didn't have to do any work. Buster's hoping that if they get her again, she also won't show up.
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Why do the Compsons still appear in Elwood despite relocating?
