Wednesday, November 15, 2017

'Toon Reviews 8: Peanuts 1970s Specials Part 12 + Final Thoughts

You’re the Greatest Charlie Brown










Just to be clear, there have been a good number of post-Vince Guaraldi Peanuts specials that are very good despite some less-than-pleasing entries like the last two specials we covered, and the last Peanuts special released in this decade is one of the good ones.  It’s another sports-themed special which breaks the mold by having Charlie Brown compete in the different sport of track and field as opposed to the usual baseball or football.  Specifically, he’s signed up for the only available event in the Junior Olympics, the decathlon, where he has to compete in 10 different events.  The best part about this scenario is that even though training for the decathlon is a lot of work, Charlie Brown is determined to do what he has to for the sake of the team.  It’s this trait that brings a lot of appeal as we watch his growth as a track star.  At first, during the training scenes, he doesn’t seem to have the makings of a big decathlon winner, struggling to give a decent performance in exercises and event performances.  In fact, he seems so unlikely to win that they actually have to bring in a backup athlete in case Charlie Brown really can’t do it, and that backup is Marcie.  Admittedly, the idea of Marcie being entered in the decathlon doesn’t seem like a good fit.  Marcie has been established to not have a good grasp on sports and is more of an academic type, yet this special seems to forget that and have her not only be eligible for a backup, but also do a good job in the actual decathlon.  It brings up the point that if Marcie’s so good at decathlon work, why wasn’t she chosen from the start?  For that matter, why is it never considered that Peppermint Patty should compete as opposed to just being Charlie Brown’s coach?  These are considerable holes in the plot, but not enough to ruin what’s good about the special.  Speaking of which, while Charlie Brown starts off without much victory potential, as he continues competing, he gets a better hand at the events and slowly rises to the top, which is especially great to see given his status as a perpetual loser.  It means a whole lot more since he goes on to outshine competitors like Snoopy posing as the Masked Marvel again and an opposing athlete called Freddie Fabulous, who’s a shallow one-dimensional bully who thankfully isn’t focused on that much.  Now, since this is Charlie Brown we’re talking about, he does go on to blow the whole decathlon where he’s just one event win away from being number one, and he runs off the racetrack with his eyes closed.  Honestly, this fail is pretty funny for how out-of-the-box it is.  What’s more, unlike “It’s Your First Kiss,” where the loss there was never his fault to begin with, it doesn’t result in Charlie Brown getting chastised, with everyone knowing that he did his best, so the good stuff in the special remains good.  That’s not even counting the many cute interactions between him and Marcie all throughout the special.  If there’s one thing that makes this special as good as it is, it’s the satisfying arc and treatment that Charlie Brown gets.  It doesn’t stand out as well as the all-time great specials and some plot points aren’t well thought out, but it’s still one of the hits in what is essentially a hit-or-miss era, and a good end to the line of specials produced during the 1970s.

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. You’re the Greatest Charlie Brown
  9. It’s a Mystery Charlie Brown
  10. It’s Arbor Day Charlie Brown
  11. What a Nightmare Charlie Brown
  12. It's Your First Kiss Charlie Brown


Final Thoughts
The 1970s features part of both the best era of the Peanuts specials and the weaker era.  The best specials of the decade are among the absolute best for a start.  They successfully continue Peanuts’ trend of making simple events of life feel like big challenges to get through which is especially apparent through the kids seen going through them.  By covering different topics such as staying true to your tastes , running for president, finding love, or tackling new sports, each special stands out in a different way.  This is really a great way of showing how life is full of different moments and different things to explore and that it’s not uncommon to feel like a kid through it all.  Aiding in this feel is how many specials give a fair amount of time dedicated to certain characters.  Most of them have several characters in a lot of memorable moments that add to the tone of the respective story and they hardly ever feel out of place.  Some of the characters brought to animation for the first time in this decade even help bring out other sides of certain characters they’re teamed with.  The ones that come to mind in this case are Woodstock, whose tendency to struggle through life as a little bird bring out a friendlier side to Snoopy, and Marcie whose need for guidance in certain activities brings out a fun dynamic between her and Peppermint Patty who’s at her most helpful and open to listen around her.  The animation style from Bill Melendez continues to fit the simple childlike feel with its simply drawn characters and background objects and solid colors.  Plus, it seems to have evolved from the previous decade with the movements flowing smoother and everything being drawn in a less rigid way.  Basically, the animation has improved with the new decade, but still stays true to its unique feel which really demonstrates the respect for these iconic specials.  Of course, the biggest highlight of the specials is the music of Vince Guaraldi with each composition coming off as memorable and securing him as one of the best TV animation musicians.  The standout music work to me is best found in “You’re Not Elected,” “There’s No Time for Love,” “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving,” and “Be My Valentine.”  This isn’t even counting the working of classical pieces of famous composers like Beethoven or Bach in specials like “Play it Again,” and “It’s the Easter Beagle.”  Just as before, the great music styles bring every aspect of the specials together and sells their appeal better than anything else.  This is at least true for the specials produced while Vince was alive…

This leads me to talk about the specials released in the second half of the decade.  The specials of the first half of the decade were consistently great showing off everything great about the 1960s specials and capturing the feel of Peanuts perfectly.  However, the great consistency slowly came to a stop as the 1970s went on.  From my observation, it seemed to stop with the unbelievable and slightly unfocused writing of “It’s Arbor Day” and the specials seemed to turn for the worse from there.  We got Charlie Brown’s mistreatment going way too far with him being blamed for something that wasn’t his fault in “It’s Your First Kiss,” a scenario featuring a character who didn’t fit with “What a Nightmare,” and as good as “You’re the Greatest” is, it doesn’t stand out as well as what came before it.  As for the music, with Vince Guaraldi gone, the music used for these specials, while good in its own right, didn’t feel as good a fit for the specials with the big bombastic band music not exactly being the best match for the material’s simple tone.  Basically, this is where the specials started varying in quality with many weak entries, and the strong ones we do get rarely coming off as highly recommended continuing into the decades to come.  It’s disappointing that the quality would become so hit-or-miss given the care and respect the specials started out with.  It’s debatable if I’ll cover the specials of the following decades since it’s hard to find them all and there’s other seasons of other shows I’d rather cover, but I’d be open to the idea someday since what’s to come is still mostly good and certainly far from the worst things ever.
As for the Peanuts specials of the 1970s, even if one part of the decade is way stronger than the other, we still have a great set of specials to explore here for Peanuts fans and animation fans alike.  If you’re one, the other, or both, be sure to consider finding them on DVD.

First Half:
Highly Recommended
Second Half:
Recommended
With that, we've reached the end at our look at the Peanuts 1970's specials.  The next set of reviews will be on the first season of the popular Disney XD series, Star vs. The Forces of Evil. Until then:

Stay Animated Folks!


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