'Toon Reviews 8: Peanuts 1970s Specials Part 9

It’s Arbor Day Charlie Brown

Everyone knows that Peanuts has a lot of holiday specials in their repertoire, but it’s pretty interesting to note that they have one for a holiday as obscure as Arbor Day.  It’s a holiday that very few people talk about, it’s barely commercialized, and there aren’t any widely known ways to celebrate the day.  It’s basically one of those holidays that people treat like an ordinary day, so the thought of making a TV special on it feels like the crew of these specials were desperate to come up with a holiday they could make a special out of that they hadn’t tackled yet.  Still, this is a good special, but not one that will most likely be looked at as one of the stronger ones.  The major premise of the special exemplifies how much of an obscure holiday Arbor Day is.  It features Sally needing to do a report on the holiday, and it’s presented in a manner that doesn’t make it different from her needing to do a report on an ordinary day of the year.  That said, we do get into more of the spirit of the day when Sally becomes inspired by her research to plant trees and other plants in any available field.  Ultimately, she gets most of the gang to plant a whole garden of crops.  The only catch is that they plant them all over Charlie Brown’s baseball field.  For this part of the special, I’m kind of mixed regarding how to feel.  Most of my apprehension comes from how absolutely no one thinks it’s a bad idea to plant crops on a field made especially for baseball games.  It’s pretty idiotic for them to not realize that crops can easily get in the way of games.  While we do have Linus be the only one to have doubts about the plan, the doubts just get shot down every time.  The idiotic tone carries into the actual baseball game portion of the special when the team actually gets a major advantage at victory because of the crops making the game difficult for the opposing team.  It really gets you to beg the question why the opposing team never demands the plants to be taken down or that the game be played at a different field.  Not to mention, the game gets so much focus in the second half, it’s easy forget that this is an Arbor Day special.  Now, even with the idiotic tone of the story, what we see is still pretty enjoyable.  Charlie Brown gives an appropriate reaction to the plants all over the baseball field, the gags that get his team points are fun to watch, there’s some amusing character dynamics throughout, and it’s great to watch Charlie Brown’s team have a good chance at victory since they’re known to always lose.  It makes you feel bad for them when the game is ultimately rained out when they’re so close to securing the win, and one against a team led by Peppermint Patty at that.  Well, at least the mention of the plants still being there prevents the end from being a total downer, even if it was stupid to plant them on the field in the first place.  While the stupid plot-driving decisions to this story are hard to ignore and Arbor Day is shown as prominently as it is in real life, the charm of Peanuts with the character interactions, comedy, and unique childlike approaches to life make it a fine viewing experience, even if it’s not one of the best.

Recommended

The Ranking

1. There’s No Time for Love Charlie Brown
2. It’s the Easter Beagle Charlie Brown
3. You’re Not Elected Charlie Brown
4. You’re a Good Sport Charlie Brown
5. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
6. Be My Valentine Charlie Brown
7. Play it Again Charlie Brown
8. It’s a Mystery Charlie Brown
9. It’s Arbor Day Charlie Brown

As I close this review, I should point out that this special is the last one to feature original music from Vince Guaraldi.  In a shocking turn of events, he died of a heart attack just hours after completing the score for this special.  I bring this up because, as I stated in the post on the 1960s Peanuts specials, his music was a major driving force in the Peanuts specials being as great as they are.  The smooth, easy-going jazz compositions just seemed to fit perfectly with the down-to-earth writing, the simple animation, and the fact that kids were the core cast of characters thus creating an atmosphere that helped the Peanuts specials stand out from other forms of media, and it was true for the specials of this decade too.  Once he was gone however, new musicians were brought in to work for specials to come.  While their music was very good for the most part, it wasn’t as memorable or fitting to Peanuts as what was offered before.  Plus, considering that “It’s Arbor Day” was really not as well-written as previous ones, this is a good sign that the specials were about to become unsure of their identity with many stories varying in quality.  Some were as good as the older specials, some were decent but not very memorable, and others…well you’ll find out soon in the review of the next 1970s special.

If you would like to check out other Peanuts special reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.