Netflix series ‘Hilda’ sparks child-like awe
BY: DANIEL HOYER
Staff
It’s just a show on Netflix about a girl and her fox-deer companion, so it can’t be that interesting, right?
It’s just the stereotypical “child and their pet go into the forest and go on adventures, meeting monsters along the way” trope.
These assumptions, lackluster but also kind of accurate, give the impression that “Hilda” is a low effort show with a plot that has been done hundreds of times. That’s the fun part. You go into the show not expecting much, but the theme song alone reveals what you’re really getting yourself into.
The theme song is written by Canadian artist Grimes. The beginning of the song is a build up that almost sounds like if, instead of water, rain was made up of rainbows. While that might sound weird or even ridiculous, the sound is so hard to describe that I can’t find a better analogy. Right after the rainbow rain builds up, you hear an “ahhhhh” that sounds like a sigh of relief, like sinking into a beanbag chair.
The sigh signifies that the show is going to be the kind of comfort show that you watched once as a kid and still watch it today as an adult. Which, personally, is what the show is to me now– even though I watched it for the first time as an adult. After that sigh, we get a combination of electric piano and synths that, once again, builds up to another “ahhhhh.”
Then there is a sequence of electronic drums that lead to a “hilllldaaaaa” in that same “ahhhhhh” voice. For the next few seconds, it’s a chaos of electronic drums, synths, that voice again and other indescribable sounds. Right at the end though, it dies down a bit, sounding like the kind of music that you’d hear on a dark night in the country surrounded by fireflies. Look back at that rant.
That’s just the theme song! Now let’s get into the actual show. It’s hard to cover the show without going through the entire series bit by bit, which would probably end up being a whole newspaper issue by itself. Let me just start with…it’s magical. In the literal sense that there are witches, fairies, trolls and elves but also in the more metaphorical sense that it brings back that curiosity of when you were a kid and you wanted to turn over every rock you saw. You feel like you’re on those same adventures right beside Hilda and Twig (her loyal and adorable deerfox).
When she moves to the city you feel the same amount of sorrow and sadness as she does as she leaves her childhood home behind. Now I want to talk about the constant theme of authority throughout the show. While he doesn’t show up until season two, Erik Ahlberg is the head ranger of the Trolberg Safety Patrol, the city in which Hilda now lives. At least for me, he is reminiscent of Gaston from “Beauty and the Beast” with that muscular build and an ego higher than a bird can fly.
Something about Ahlberg that you have to understand is that he lives for glory and reputation and he’ll do anything to maintain his image. This could mean spreading propaganda to children, encouraging their parents to join the Safety Patrol, or willingly doing things that will anger and hurt trolls just so they will run away and he can stay on his soapbox. The main thing that Ahlberg does is he rings bells in front of them to drive them away but, as we come to find out, the reason they run away, is because the sound is amplified for them and that sound to them is like if you were standing right under a tornado alarm as it was going off.
Hilda knows this as she’s lived next to trolls all her life. She tries to tell Ahlberg to stop, but the bell ringing drives the trolls away so Ahlberg doesn’t care about it. Now, thankfully, in the movie (yes, there’s a movie) he finally gets harshly talked to by his deputy, but this further angers Ahlberg to the point that he actually fires her. Thankfully, something happens to him in the movie that turns his entire view around. I won’t say what since it would give away the whole plot of the movie and a bit of seasons two and three. This plotline shows kids the dangers of corrupt authority, telling them they need to fight for the right thing in order to enact change.
Finally, I want to talk about the sort of “slogan” of the show: “Such is the Life of an Adventurer,” which this article’s title is based off of. This phrase gets said in several different instances throughout the show, usually when something big happens. This phrase is basically saying how hardships and difficult events will happen if you’re an adventurer (which Hilda obviously is). To me, this phrase transcends the archetype of an adventurer and bleeds into everyday life. No matter what happens, consequences are going to follow, whether good or bad. It’s all about how you deal with them. If I have to leave you with something, watch the show not as an adult trying to relive childhood, but watch it as a child with an infectious curiosity.
For all that is good and great in the world, WATCH THE GOSH DARN SHOW! (It’s also a book series).
