This is good timing, since this year is the 50th anniversary of the Charlie Brown Christmas. It’s also bad timing because Nostalgia Critic just did an editorial on this special and said what i would have..and much better than I would have!
Anyway, moving on. Like Dr.Seuss, I never read Peanuts growing up. However, unlike The Grinch I did see the TV specials. And loved them. Ok I liked the Halloween one more, but that’s another discussion my friends. The funny thing is that this special has things in it that would never appear today. I’ll get to Linus in a second, but there are other things too like the bullying on poor Charlie Brown. Some of those kids are little rough on him. I mean it’s not hard to see why Charlie thinks everyone hates him! Nice to see that gets understated in later specials (except Lucy who gets meaner, weird). Also Snoopy is not as defined as he would later be. Yeah his lights up his doghouse and freaks out Lucy, but he still isn’t quite the Beagle the would later become.
This is a slice of life story, in fact isn’t the whole special one day? It almost feels like we are just watching a random day in the lives of these kids. But the plot, let’s be honest, isn’t very strong. It starts out good with Charlie Brown feeling sad. Then he talks to Lucy who decides she has the answer, direct the Christmas play! That’s when things get…well, draggy. We spend all this time building up this play..and then we get this story about the little tree. I mean what was the point of making Charlie the director to make him feel self confidence when it fails miserably, and then disappears from the story? Instead it becomes all about him buying a “stupid” tree? It feels like two different ideas being forced together. I would have cut the crap with the play and introduced the tree earlier. But..they didn’t ask me and it was 1965, so I can’t that hard on this.
In my opinion it was when Charles sets out to but the tree that we finally get to the real good stuff in this. We know the tree will be rejected by all since it isn’t anything special, and yet Charles sees something in it. As Nostalgia Critic said, they kind of sums up the way people feel about the special. I never understood why he is surprised at the reaction, what did he think the others would say? Someone else would have defended the choice but Charlie Brown is, well, Charlie Brown. That leads to the best scene, when Linus recites a passage from the bible! Are you kidding? Just try to do that today! It’s a beautiful scene and makes the entire special worth it. And so the special ends quietly, with not only Charlie but everyone realize how to see beauty in anything.
And that’s it, it’s really a simple story it just hits the right notes. So what else works? Do I even have to say that the music is superb? It sets the mood perfectly. How many specials use soft piano music? This one does and does it very well. I don’t think I have to describe it, we all know the fantastic Linus & Lucy that plays here. Why it is associates with Christmas in specific I’ll never know, but whatever. It’s a fantastic melody! All the songs work from the opening to the kids singing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” at the end.
The thing that bothers me about this special is the deleted scenes. Yeah, two things were deleted from the original broadcast, because in the old days sponsors became part of the show. Remember the opening when Snoopy spins Charlie and Linus? Linus originally crashed into a sign proudly announcing Coke was the sponsor. The one that really pisses me off is the ending. Know how the kids singing just kinda fades off? Originally they did get to finish the song, as another plug for Coke as the official sponsor appeared. It’s just a few seconds but it really would be nice if it was there. WHY WERE THESE CUT? WHY HAVE THEY NEVER BEEN RESTORED? Would it be so hard to keep the image but remove the Coke part?
What’s that? Want to see that to believe it? Why sure, it’s right HERE
Oh well, despite my griping it’s still the quintessential Christmas special which put Peanuts on the map, and it will be around long after the rest of us are gone. Check out Nostalgia Critic’s commentary if you haven’t, he really sums everything up nicely.
No comments:
Post a Comment