Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales - 'Toon Reviews Shorty

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We’re still in December, and there’s more Christmas material for me to look into.  For this shorty, I’m covering another special from the Peanuts franchise.  Like another special I covered, I feel that this one also is not up to the greatness of the iconic Christmas special from 1965.  It’s especially felt since this one frequently airs after "A Charlie Brown Christmas" to fill up the hour-long timeslot.  Nevertheless, I still find it quite enjoyable by Peanuts standards. This is:

Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales

(December 8, 2002)

In many respects, it would be appropriate to also refer to this special as “It’s Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown 2.”  Like the former special, there’s no specific story.  It’s just its own set of short vignettes about different Peanuts characters doing something Christmas-related.  However, I feel like the setup is done better here because you already know that it’s what you’re going to get going in.  Not only is it given away by the emphasis on Christmas tales in the title, but each segment is introduced by a Christmas card opening.  This way, each segment is able to exist as its own story and flow at its own pace.  It still has the issue of going against the original classic’s message against commercialism which severely holds it back from greatness.  I can’t be too hard on that since really that should be expected going into a special marketing Peanuts characters doing popular Christmas activities. 

In addition to this, the special also has a few drawbacks inherent with Peanuts specials released at this time, in the early 2000s.  It was just in the advent of the death of the original creator, Charles Schultz.  A lot of the creative punch and enthusiasm going into the specials had been phased out.  The characters seemed to fall flat a bit through struggling to get mileage out of their one dominant trait.  The same could be said for much of the stories through stretching out common plot threads of the franchise for much longer than necessary.  Maybe it’s just me through being thrown off by weaker vocal performances than the old days and an art style feeling a bit too modern for the tone of the franchise.  I guess these feelings will be clearer if I were to look at other specials from this era. 

The question for here is, does this setup work better for when a special consists of many short segments as opposed to one long story?  Let’s find out by looking at each individual Christmas tale:

The first tale is in all honesty, among the more directionless ones in this special.  It’s just 2-3 minutes of Snoopy just goofing around, but set to a Christmas theme.  He starts off ice skating while trying to convince Lucy to make him her partner.  Then he’s suddenly posing as a salvation Santa where he’s met up by the Van Pelt kids and plays accordion.  Finally, he appears back home where through trying to be friendly with the cat next door, he ends up getting a Christmas tree cutout in his doghouse.  It’s all right for a decent laugh, but for how thrown together this segment seems, it’s far from Snoopy at his best.

Linus’ segment fares a little better.  It too consists of radically different subjects, but they both make up for that for being very humorous and have a common theme of writing letters.  It starts with him writing a letter to Santa Claus while trying to sound polite. Humor consists of admirable objections from Lucy and a punchline about deciding to ask for Santa’s catalogue. 

The rest of the segment has an interesting setup.  He meets a girl in class who has a strange fascination with changing her name everyday.  This makes a normally simple task of sending her a Christmas card very difficult.  It too comes with a funny punchline where Linus sends the girl her card which is returned to him because the name and address don’t exist.  When asked the reasonable question why she even bothers with this difficult person, he flatly responds that she fascinates him. 

It’s funny for boiling down to the basics of why kids keep up with crushes, but it’s a little disappointing that the segment just stops instead of ends.  It would’ve been great to hear exactly what that girl’s deal is.

This leads us to what Sally gets up to in her segment.  I often get some decent enjoyment from her mixed up approaches to certain things, and that continues to be the case here.  It’s shown right at the start when she writes a letter in complete belief that the famous Christmas gift-giver is Samantha Claus.  Charlie Brown humors her a bit to get her to come up with oddball reasons why Samantha has a red suit and white beard.  Also hilarious is Sally’s mood swings through going from having a tirade of making a fool of herself to calm and happy when she sees Charlie Brown wrapping her Christmas present. 

We once again hop from topic to topic without proper transitions, but it’s all made good through how enjoyable Sally makes everything we get.  There’s a short scene of her attempts at being religious. She draws stamps of shepherd bunnies for Christmas cards, and wants to know the name of the star the wise men followed to Bethlehem. 

After that comes another prominent subplot of her “falling down” a Christmas tree instead of cutting one down.  The funny thing about this move is that her practice of just staring at a tree really hard to make it fall down actually works.  It also shows for all her quirks, she’s capable of being reasonable.  The deal was that she could take the tree from the yard of the kid it belonged to if it really fell down.  Even though it does, Sally does feel bad for how upset the kid is about her taking the tree.  It all works out though when he lets her have it anyway. 

Then in one of the smoother topic transitions, a scene of Charlie Brown and Sally decorating the tree leads to a talk about fruit in stockings.  This is followed by a cute ending gag where Sally ensures to get lots of fruit by nailing many little stockings to the wall.  It’s all fun stuff from her for sure.

Of all the segments here, this one seems to be the most focused.  It may seem like a random scene collection, but they work for covering one certain theme.  Lucy has the reputation for being the bossiest of the group with a lot of attitude issues.  As the first moments of this segment show, she’s setting out to make better attempts at being good at Christmas. 

Of course that’s easier said than done with her trademark attitude being as strong as ever regardless.  She calls foul at Charlie Brown’s suggestion of being nice all year round instead of just at Christmas.  She goes through her usual shtick of leaning around while Schroeder plays piano and bugs him about buying her stuff.  Lucy’s biggest role in this segment is constantly trying to coax Linus into doing what she wants.  There’s humorous banter as she has him write an overly formal letter to Santa, and has nonsensical logic for how the Bible says Linus absolutely must get her a gift.  Apparently the single mention of the word “sister” is the deciding factor. 

While it’s not decided how she feels about her attempts at being good for Christmas, the audience can see that Lucy has a peculiar way of appeasing.

Now for the last segment of the special from the usual titular character of the franchise, Charlie Brown.  In a way, it works as a segment to end the special, through leading up to Christmas morning.  The beginning doesn’t seem like the best fit for that though with Charlie Brown writing a Christmas card for the Little Red-Haired Girl which is never brought up again.  I do give it credit for revealing the name “sweet baboo” as something exclusive to his whole family and not just Sally. 

The rest of the segment is just of simple preparations for Christmas Day on the night before.  There’s leaving something for Santa, Sally asking about sugar plums, and her comedic way of waking her big brother up for the big day.  Now, Christmas Day itself isn’t all that triumphant here.  It just serves as a basis for a sight gag of Snoopy in a weird Christmas sweater and Woodstock ending up with a toy bike that was meant for Sally.  Still, all this is very funny even if it’s nothing too special and that Charlie Brown is outclassed entertainment-wise in his own segment.

There’s no denying that special exists for no other reason than to give people more Peanuts Christmas scenes after A Charlie Brown Christmas ends.  While it’s no secret that it falls flat compared to that classic work, it becomes much more enjoyable if you go in knowing what to expect.  While the production values with bland visuals and less passionate than average voice actors prevent it from being one of the best specials, it’s fine seeing them in short segments.  Each is their own little story that doesn’t go longer than it needs to.  Furthermore, even if just seeing Peanuts characters enjoy Christmas isn’t poignant without a big lesson to take from it, it’s plenty enjoyable anyway.  Plus, making its vignette driven setup better known puts it over “It’s Christmastime Again” at least.  There’s really no need to watch it when the more iconic Peanuts Christmas special is over, but if you choose to, you’ll get the right amount of Christmas cheer out of it.

Recommended

That’s it for this ‘Toon Reviews Shorty. Until the next one:

Stay Animated Folks,

And Merry CHRISTMAS!

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

If you like this review and want to stay updated for what else I have in store, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter. Now on with today's review:

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!

'Toon Reviews Shorty: What Have We Learned Charlie Brown?

You know, it's interesting to note that I've been posting reviews on this blog for a whole year now.  It's really immersed me in a field I've been interested in for a long time, and I'm impressed with how far I've come since I've started. I've organized the reviews of different shows better than ever, and I've even gathered a lot of followers through a Facebook page and Twitter account.  So, to mark this occasion, I'm going to break from the currently scheduled review sets and look into something very special considering what day this one-year anniversary happens to fall on.  In other words, it's time for another MC Toon Reviews Shorty.

This shorty is the very first one to focus on an individual Peanuts special.  You might be wondering why I’m looking at an individual special and not making a full set of reviews on a certain decade like I did with the 60s and 70s specials.  As a reviewer, I need to have easy access to all the specials of a decade so I can record my thoughts on them, especially those I never grew up with.  They can be on DVD, websites like YouTube and Dailymotion, and even VHS.  Even if I didn’t have good access to one, I would be unable to do a true cover of the decade.  Regarding the specials of the following decade, the 1980s, that’s the case. 

I grew up with a few specials from the decade and any special I didn’t grow up with can easily be seen on Dailymotion as of this year.  However, there is at least one special from the 1980s I never owned or grew up with and can’t find on any safe and trustworthy video website.  Not to mention, it never got a DVD release.  I could buy the VHS through online retail, but it’s too expensive and it's not worth putting in a lot of money for one home media format I and many others have long moved on from.  However, since I reviewed all the specials from the previous two decades, I’m basically committed to reviewing Peanuts now, so I have to find a way around this.  All the other Peanuts specials I can get access to viewing will be reviewed as an MC Toon Reviews Shorty no matter what decade they’re from.

On this day, Memorial Day, as we honor the Americans who gave their lives for a noble cause during the two World Wars, this Peanuts special will be on:

What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown?

(May 30, 1983)

 

At the tail-end of my look at the 1970s Peanuts specials, I mentioned how the specials started becoming more hit-or-miss from the second half of that decade onward.  Some stories wouldn’t be as interesting, certain tropes of the franchise would go too far, there would be less appealing music (which is still fine), and the unique childlike tone of Peanuts would start becoming unrecognizable, mainly due to the odd decision of having adults be seen and heard.  We’d still get strong specials during this era, and this special is one of them for how it does tap into the distinguishable tone of the franchise (despite the presence of adults) while also combining it with heavy subject matter not often seen in family material.

The special is a companion to the 1980 feature film Bon Voyage Charlie Brown (And Don’t Come Back) which was about Charlie Brown and his friends going to France as exchange students.  The film is both ambitious and a bit misguided (mostly as a Peanuts film), but that’s another topic.  While it simply ended with Charlie Brown, Linus, Peppermint Patty, Marcie, Snoopy, and Woodstock driving off into the distance without a mention of how they got home, this special sets out to answer the question while highlighting the sights they saw along the way. 

Told in flashback and picking up almost exactly where the film left off, it starts off feeling like a simple travelogue mostly fueled by antics of their car breaking down, starting the replacement car through a repeated animation of Charlie Brown getting shocked by the spark plug, and constantly losing their way.  It’s a classic case of things continuously going wrong while on a road trip that very few people can see coming which we can all relate to.  There’s also minimal dialog in these moments which makes the travel hassles easier to stand out than they would if there was constant talking.  Huge spaces between character lines simply give a better sense of atmosphere of the moment, and happening during more light-hearted moments of the trip home foreshadows for how the atmosphere is utilized in the heavier moments.

Since it’s not always certain of what one may run into while travelling, especially to kids, the childlike tone of Peanuts is on great display when the gang discovers the background of the beach they spend the night at.  It’s a beach of major American significance, Omaha Beach in which allied soldiers, including American ones, fought to liberate Western Europe from Nazi rule on D-Day during World War 2.  Normally, characters just being at the battle sight wouldn’t sell how huge the place is.  However, through atmosphere-crafting, there’s plenty of silence to take in the emotional weight of the battles fought and the lives lost at Omaha Beach, especially through the visual composition of actual footage and photographs of the battles superimposed onto the beach’s backdrop.  The dark shots of mine fields, fighter jets dropping bombs, and destructive shots and explosions from tanks and battleships give a somber mood fitting for a setting of war right down to a sad music piece to mark the devastation of the fact that lives were lost.  The addition of shots of Linus, a philosophical child, looking around the beach as the footage plays adds to the emotional weight with the mere fact that someone so young and innocent is standing among the sight of all too real tragedies, perfectly representing the heartbreaking effects of war. 

It’s a very deep and respectful tribute to the historic sight and the lives lost there, and it continues with most of the special consisting of the group simply walking through the sites and their cemeteries holding those who were killed in battle.  There’s no quirks from the featured characters, just silent and tactful moments of the kids observing their surroundings of the beautiful and historic landmarks and the men who gave up their lives in the name of freedom.  It doesn’t just apply to Omaha Beach. Other times when details of the battles are brought up feature a lot of silence and respect from the characters further enhancing the emotional effects of the War.  

In addition to learning about World War 2, the group later explores the battle site of Ypres, where the allies fought during World War 1.  Speaking of Ypres, the moments of everyone exploring its poppies of Flanders Fields and battle trenches are also among the special’s most effective where they take in the hard effects of war following the mention of a legend that the poppies are said to be white flowers turned red with a cross in the center, representing even more casualties of war.  The emotional toll is completely sold with Linus, who’s famous for delivering milestone passages, recites the renowned war poem, “In Flanders Fields” accompanied by visuals of the poem’s lines, selling its message of all the importance of carrying out the legacy of those who died for our freedom.  This moment marking the end of the flashback sells this special’s great strength of paying respect for the sacrifices of the defenders of freedom throughout the World Wars, and all other wars actually, through silence and restraining, and effective deliveries from the mouths of children.

If there is one weak point to this special, it would have to be with the handling of the light-hearted moments.  For so much emphasis on heavy war-related history and how well the special pays tribute to it, comedic antics of the group advancing in their return trip feel really out of place.  It’s fine at the start since we’re just easing into the heavy stuff, but from the moment the gang recognizes they’re at Omaha Beach, there really is no room for comedic stuff.  Right after a heavy historic anecdote, we instantly cut to an inappropriate light-hearted scene of either of Snoopy messing around or a repetitive instant of Charlie Brown getting shocked by the car’s spark while everyone glosses over his pain. 

These moments are fine on their own, but in a special focusing on honoring the lives lost during some of the biggest battles in American history, these are not good fits whatsoever.  We even end the special with this flaw when, in the present, after Charlie Brown finishes recounting his return trip to Sally, instead of them discussing something meaningful like what exactly was learned from the experiences, Sally just points out that her big brother is gluing in his photos upside down.  That’s not even mentioning the fact that we still don’t see how Charlie Brown and his friends got home, technically meaning that the special failed at what it was meant to do as a continuation to Bon Voyage.  Maybe if there were better transitions from the serious to the light-hearted this wouldn’t be an issue, but to me, the tonal difference sticks out far too much.  While the jarring shift in tone is noticeable, nothing about the strengths are really destroyed, so the respectful stuff is still powerful.

From my experience, not a lot of people take Memorial Day very seriously, mostly seeing it as a day off from school or work to hang out at home and celebrate the coming of summer.  For that, it’s great that there are works out there like this special to show what it’s all about and go above and beyond with attributing to the thousands of devoted Americans who gave everything, including their lives, to secure freedom for all.  Standing out with great atmosphere crafting and genuinely innocent deliveries of the tragic information from child characters, it’s an impactful Peanuts special utilizing the franchise’s strengths for an effective cause.

Highly Recommended

That’s it for this ‘Toon Reviews Shorty, and my heart goes out to all the people we’ve lost in all the big wars throughout history.  They will be forever remembered in securing our freedom. 

We’ll return to our currently scheduled reviews next time, and after posting reviews here for a year, I look forward to continue to do so hopefully for years to come.  As always:

Stay Animated Folks.

If you want to stay updated for more reviews, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter.

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

'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!