Usually, I don’t find stories that revolve around a character
falling for someone based on appearance very interesting since it makes their
love feel cheap and somewhat unnatural.
However, I do find it more accepting if the character developing these
feelings is just a kid, because in my eyes, kids seem to be easily
impressionable when it comes to things like cute appearances. This is why I get a lot of enjoyment out of
this special which is the first animated depiction of the trope involving
Charlie Brown falling for a character simply known as The Little Red-Haired
Girl but being too timid to talk to her.
The fact that The Little Red-Haired Girl is never actually shown allows
us to greatly connect with Charlie Brown and his nervous feelings he gets in regards
to actually going up to talk to her and share a scene together. It’s a clever way of depicting the unrequited
love concept that you can really only experience here and in the comic strips
since future specials, as well as the recent computer-animated Peanuts movie,
give her a visual form whenever she's spotted. Anyway, the
special mostly consists of little scenes of Charlie Brown’s attempts to do
something about his crush and actually befriend The Little Red-Haired Girl with
the added challenge of there being only a few days left of the school year,
meaning that if he doesn’t meet her now, he’ll have to wait until September. Since it’s established that things very
rarely go right for Charlie Brown, coupled with how nervous he is to just simply
go up and talk to the girl, he ends up with a lot of failure. His attempts mostly result in
him embarrassing himself in class as well as getting put down by Lucy who’s
dealing with her own romance problems with Schroeder. My personal favorite attempt to meet The
Little Red-Haired Girl involves the animated debut of who would become one of
the most principal members of the Peanuts gang, Peppermint Patty. It demonstrates her great appeal as a
character of being willing to help Charlie Brown, or in her case “Chuck”, with his
problem, but also her humorous side of being too absent-minded to successfully
pull it off as her plan only leads to Charlie Brown meeting up with Lucy. Now, that’s a pairing I’m sure many a Peanuts
fan would find hard to fathom. Anyway,
all of Charlie Brown’s failed attempts are fairly entertaining and even get
some laughs, but I’m still able to feel for him and wish for him to
succeed. Ultimately, we end up with a
respectable payoff at the end of the special, where even though Charlie Brown
doesn’t get to talk to The Little Red-Haired Girl before school is out for
summer, he gets a note from her saying that she likes him. The scene of Charlie Brown happy and full of
hope because of this that plays through the end credits is just as satisfying
as it needs to be. This special is a
very good outing for Charlie Brown; what he goes through can greatly resonate
with anyone who’s had a crush on someone when they were young and even at an older age and they can see
something worthwhile through the entertainment and the sympathy
in all of Charlie Brown's attempts to talk to The Little Red-Haired Girl. Even if you’re not really into love in
general, I’d say that, at least for the Peanuts-style charm, it’s really worth
your time.
Highly Recommended
Ranking
1) A Charlie Brown Christmas
2) It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown
3) You’re in Love Charlie Brown
4) Charlie Brown’s All-Stars
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next Peanuts special of this decade, "He's Your Dog Charlie Brown."
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