Thursday, December 13, 2018

It's Christmastime Again Charlie Brown - 'Toon Reviews Shorty


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It’s been a while since I talked about a Peanuts special, and that can be seen as problematic since I have a long ways to go in covering them.  I guess I’ve just lost sight of viewing them through devoting time to many other shows.  Thankfully, there are specials appropriate for certain times of the year to look into.  This includes Christmastime.  “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is a very popular special, especially since it’s the one that put Peanuts on the TV animation map.  However, that is not the only Peanuts Christmas special.  There are a few other specials devoted to that holiday despite none of them being nearly as iconic.  At this time of year, I’m now motivated to look into one of those other Peanuts Christmas special.  For this Shorty:
It’s Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown
(November 27, 1992)
Going into the special, you might think that it’s a normal standalone story.  However, that expectation is sure to catch you off guard.  The special isn’t one story; it’s several vignettes of different Peanuts characters doing something Christmas-related.  I can see a possible meaning for its direction.  For the longest time, the Peanuts specials appeared to stray away a bit from the simple childlike tone that gave them a special identity.  Some ideas were either too ridiculous or too intense and heavy particularly through how they were approached.  Moreover, the childlike perspective was more or less compromised by showing adults and allowing them to talk in audible English.  That just robbed the franchise of its uniqueness in my opinion.  The most noticeable thing that caused many Peanuts specials at the time to not feel like Peanuts was the complete change in music.  With the death of Vince Guaraldi in 1976, new composers were brought in.  While their music was certainly not bad, it mostly felt a little too hip or too dramatic for what Peanuts was meant to stand for.  With all these factors, specials of the mid-90s going into the 2000s can be seen as ways to get back to Peanuts’ roots.  The vignette-driven setup and the simplicity of the stories bring to mind the original Charles Schultz comic strips.  They even us a jazzier soundtrack to make the specials feel as wholesome as the older specials.  It’s not the same as hearing something performed by Vince Guaraldi himself, but David Benoit puts a pretty good spin on his covers of the old compositions.  When you look at “It’s Christmastime Again” that way, you can easily like it for what it is.
Even if there is merit to this setup, it’s still not the best route to take with an actual TV special.  I can picture a bunch of little stories working fine in a compilation of Peanuts Christmas comic strips.  Heck, it can even work as an episode of The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show whose segments were direct adaptations of the original strips.  The fact is this special doesn’t have the same structure that made those mediums work.  It just jumps from one Christmas activity to another without proper transitions as if to say we’re supposed to look at this as one cohesive story.  However, each segment is so different it’s impossible to view the special as that.  We could start with characters playing in the snow and then suddenly shift to segments about selling wreaths, writing to Santa Claus, buying gifts, and a Christmas play.  One segment near the beginning even covers all of Christmas vacation, ending with the kids back in school in the New Year after the holiday.  Some could argue Peanuts specials have always had random moments haphazardly spread throughout the runtime.  In actuality, from my experience, while the moments were random, all standalone specials had one specific plot point for all of them to revolve around.  True there were times when certain moments went nowhere, but since every special’s story left an impact in some way, they hardly mattered.  For “It’s Christmastime Again,” there is no central plot point.  Each segment exists as its own thing and no attempt is made to make them come together as a cohesive special.  Maybe if there was a framing device or title cards signaling each different part it would work better, but it’s sadly not the case.  On another note, remember how the message of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was to spread love and goodness through simple means instead of overt commercialism?  Well, that message seems to be contradicted with a special of nothing but Peanuts characters in scenes the general public associates with Christmas.  It’s like the special is going the commercial route instead of telling a wholesome story.  This wouldn’t be such an issue if the push for love and simplicity wasn’t vital to not just an earlier special in this franchise but one of the most iconic Christmas specials ever.  For these reasons, I’m sorry to say this, but it makes too much sense that “It’s Christmastime Again” isn’t as valued as what came before it.
With all this said, are the segments themselves weak?  Well, for the most part, they’re not weak at all.  They still feature the same iconic Peanuts characters known the world over. Their approaches to what Christmas has to offer are interesting, entertaining, or both.  Most of the entertainment comes from certain antics in certain activities.  Some of them come in short gag scenes of Linus trying to sled down a hill in a box or Snoopy snagging candy canes off a tree and getting attention as a salvation Santa. 
Other segments have a lot of fun interactions between characters.  We have moments like Sally writing a report on Christmas and a letter to Santa and his wife “Mary Christmas” with humorous results despite Charlie Brown’s assistance. 
They also have distinctive approaches to selling Christmas wreaths with Charlie Brown being honest and upfront and Sally spouting wild claims with every sale.  Working in antics from Snoopy is a plus too as uses a more active sales approach. 
Peppermint Patty and Marcie work off each other well in a segment involving approaches to their Christmas vacation book report.  If you know they’re dynamic, you shouldn’t be surprised that Peppermint Patty constantly trying to work around it is funnier. 
The last segment is also a strong one to go out on with many antics occurring during a Christmas play.  There’s hilarious banter of Peppermint Patty complaining about Marcie playing Mary instead of her while in a silly-looking sheep costume.  It builds to a grand finale where she flubs her one line of “baa” with any random sound or line on her mind.  Sally also has a humorous bit of making a note to say her one line, “Hark” as effectively as possible.  This also has a grand punchline where she instead says something completely unprecedented, “hockey stick.”  Despite her embarrassment, the payoff doesn’t stop there when her claims of someone called Harold Angel appearing leads to something.  After the play, he shows up at her doorstep much to the shock of Charlie Brown as well as the audience who should be used to Sally constantly getting facts mixed up.  This whole segment comes out the strongest for its use of characters and many of their special approaches to the Christmas play.  It’s a great one to save for last. 
Now, not all segments are as strong as others.  The wreath sales, while featuring a fun dynamic does get repetitive with Charlie Brown getting the same response to his sales with every house he tries.  It gets to the point where you question why he’s even selling wreaths if it’s not even Thanksgiving.  There’s also a particularly long segment of Charlie Brown trying to raise enough money to buy gloves as a gift to a girl he met at camp.  It’s fine on its own, but nothing really stands out about it, and it doesn’t even feel like it needs to be a Christmas story.  Also, what about his interest in the Little Red-Haired Girl?  Still they’re not bad.  Other segments just leave a better impression as Peanuts Christmas tales.  As long as the majority is good, that’s what matters.
This special doesn’t have the best setup to be a highly regarded Christmas work, and that’s disappointing since this franchise has brought one of the best ones ever.  However, if you’re in the right mood and want to really see a Peanuts comic strip come to life, this special will turn out enjoyable.  They still star the iconic Peanuts characters and you still get a lot of what make them so fun to watch.  It may not be one worth making a tradition of watching, but it’s solid Peanuts entertainment to see if you’re interested.


Recommended
That’s it for this ‘Toon Reviews Shorty. Until the next one:
Stay Animated Folks,
And Merry CHRISTMAS!

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