A Charlie Brown Christmas
While this generation of interweb users will certainly associate A Charlie Brown Christmas with Andre 3000’s video produced a few years ago, this editor will certainly remember the joy of seeing this special for the first time. If there is any Charlie Brown cartoon that could unseat It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown from being my favorite special from the Peanuts it would be this one.
Basically, the special revolves around Charlie Brown trying to be joyous about Christmas time. He starts with trying to direct a Christmas play, which goes bad for him. On top of this bad direction, he is asked to pick a tree for the Christmas play and it ends up being a twig. All of these bad things mixed with his attitude that Christmas pretty much is a farce, equals out to a fun, emotional adventure that becomes a wonderful classic.
Charming and quick, A Charlie Brown Christmas is a fun time, if not only to feel bad when you see the single red ornament hanging on the single limb tree that Charlie Brown purchases. What’s neat about this is that it really does address one of the more ‘real’ issues with the Christmas season; namely, ‘What’s the point of it?’ As we all know today the Christmas season has become more and more commercialized and Schulz and Bill Melendez portrayed this in the most innocent of ways, but powerful nonetheless.
Anyway, it’s good stuff and probably tied or a close second for my favorite special in the bunch.
As for the Blu-ray portion of A Charlie Brown Christmas, it’s pretty good, but not great. The footage is a bit dark in some areas, dirty in others, but for the most part it shines when it needs to. I think the darker tone of the look really does hurt the HD upscale a bit, but it’s still a lot cleaner and prettier than the DVD. The audio is darn good, though. When you hear the frustrating music that Schroeder plays for Lucy you’ll understand how good this sounds in DTS-HD 5.1.
As for features, you get a great ‘making of’ featurette about how Melendez and Schulz put together the Christmas special. It’s interesting, especially when you find out how much time it took to put together. Striking a deal before you have a product is sometimes a tough decision, but as you find out in this special it panned out okay. Good stuff, though for anyone looking for a bit extra with an already great Christmas special.
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is the first television special I saw related to the Peanuts series. It got everyone in the mood for Halloween and it started a trend of other television specials that tried to steal some of the success this particular television special created. If you ask anyone around you today what television special gets them in the mood for Halloween I would bet money they would honestly tell you that it’s this one.
So what made this special so good? I’m not quite sure what the formula is with it, but for me it boils down to a few moments:
1. Lucy being cruel to Charlie Brown (but making up for it at the end with Linus).
2. Charlie Brown wearing a ghost costume with multiple holes in it.
3. Charlie Brown receiving dozens of rocks instead of candy during trick or treat (just cruel).
4. Snoopy’s famous, misplaced — but still neat, Red Baron skit.
5. Linus’ undying, unwavering obsession with ‘The Great Pumpkin’.
All of these moments make up what is good about this television special. When my kids watched this they kept coming back to moments two, three, four and five. They couldn’t understand the purpose of the rocks or the holes in the costume, but they thought they were funny anyway. These are the reasons we love it (us old kids) and the fact that young kids see these moments as valuable really speaks volumes on how well the series has survived since its introduction in 1966. Seriously, anyone that can say with a straight face that they don’t have some sort of hope to see ‘The Great Pumpkin’ visit Linus is just lying their arse off.
Anyway, this classic truly does deserve attention year after year and it belongs in your library of movies to pull out during fall.
BUT! Warner Home Video has given you another reason to smile at that notion. This particular release is done on Blu-ray. Seeing this in HD and seeing it cleaned up is nothing short of eye-popping amazing. Folks, this doesn’t look like it was done in 1966; rather it looks like it was done in 1995. It’s clean, it’s sharp and you can actually see the pencil marks on the characters. It’s freakin’ nice!
I’m not quite sure if I can watch the television version now after watching the Blu-ray.
If there is a downside to this it is the audio. While the video has certainly been cleaned and upgraded to Blu-ray quality, I’m not sure that Warner Home Video could have done much to the mono audio. How it was originally recorded is beyond me, but it wasn’t done cleanly. It does come in remastered in DTS-HD 5.1, but it still sounds very dry and mono. The music is good though, as you’ll enjoy Vince Guaraldi’s timeless pieces.
Anyway, it’s really impressive to see so much care given to a classic like It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. It certainly deserves this sort of love an attention, especially if it hopes to keep thriving to the next generation of viewers.
Finally, the special features are actually very impressive. You get an additional story with It’s Magic, Charlie Brown. It’s amusing, but not even close to the entertainment level as the Great Pumpkin. You also get a very interesting featurette that brings this Blu-ray together called We Need a Blockbuster, Charlie Brown! You’ll delve into the rhyme and reason behind the television special’s creation and how well the special did once it was aired. You’ll also get a very neat story about where ‘The Great Pumpkin’ originally came from (as it didn’t come from Charles M. Shulz).
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving surrounds the peanut gang and their preparation for the Thanksgiving. Sort of suckered into a Thanksgiving with his friends, Charlie Brown and Snoopy do their best to have a fun Thanksgiving before their own Thanksgiving with their family. The only problem is that there isn’t turkey, dressing, mash potatoes and all the other goodies that come with the holiday. Much like the Pilgrims, Charlie Brown and company do their best to celebrate with what food they do have. Regretfully, ‘good enough’ isn’t good enough for Peppermint Patty, who throws a huge fit once dinner begins. Like any good television special, Patty realizes she was wrong and sets things right, just in time for a Thanksgiving invite from Chuck’s grandma.
Out of all the specials I think this is certainly the weakest of the bunch. Something about it seems like they tried too hard. I’m not sure what it was, but it certainly seemed a little bit flat compared to the Christmas and Halloween specials. The humor was there and the interaction between Snoopy and Woodstock certainly added some charm to it (regardless of the questionable cannibalism at the end — okay, it was just Woodstock eating turkey), but it seemed unspectacular in comparison to the others.
With that said, the Blu-ray got good when the explanation of the Pilgrims’ journey from England to the west was shown. I felt maybe that was the strongest part of this Blu-ray and one I thoroughly enjoyed. It has such strong educational value and it’s entertaining. If they had shown that and only that then I think it would have worked better. It offered up some humor just like the original television special, so there was little need for both.
Anyway, still good overall, but not as great as the other holidays.
As for the Blu-ray portion of the review, you’ll still be impressed on how well the 1973 television special cleaned up. It’s just as good as It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and the audio actually sounds a bit better in the Thanksgiving one.
Much like the feature in It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, you get a nice HD featurette on how the Thanksgiving special was created. You get some info from the producers and animators involved, as well as the two voice actors behind Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty (both dudes). You also get a nice explanation, even though it was a bit short, of what they were thinking when Woodstock ate turkey. Not a big deal, but it was the first thing that went through my mind when I saw that scene.
So is it worth it on Blu-ray?
For me the extra $6 (or so) is worth having a bit cleaner picture and definitely upgrades on audio (despite my complaint on the Halloween special). While I don’t love the Thanksgiving special, I think that the two others certainly deserve the best possible format to be displayed on; which is Blu-ray. Having the collection in HD and readily available for this fall season is worth the extra $6 as well.
