The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Thread!

[Drtooth]

The Peanuts specials of the 90s were not quite as sharp as the previous ones, save perhaps for "Why, Charlie Brown, Why?"

Oh, yeah. They got extremely experimental, then Schulz died and they became extremely safe. And focused on Rerun for some reason. I've never seen Pied Piper, but have heard bad things. I think that was intentionally supposed to be juvenile.

But the ones I really dislike (and someone's gonna chew me out for this) are the "This is America" series. Except the one about NASA. That one's actually pretty good. But that they have completely watered down schtick to "accurately" portray historical events takes away the appeal of the Peanuts characters. They're brand of somehow hilarious and adorable neuroticism just doesn't fit with historical content. The Thanksgiving one, especially. Seems like they're either yelling at each other in a way that's played for drama or infodumping what's going on.

 

[minor muppetz]

It seems like the recent Metlife commercials with the Peanuts characters aren't that funny, either (I can't remember if the older ones from Schultz's lifetime were, but at least the ones I can remember were enjoyable). Like one where Lucy suggests that insurance be 5 cents, and Charlie Brown agrees.... It is interesting that those two are agreeing, but I think most children (and adults) would want something expensive to cost that low. Somehow I think that commercial would have been funnier if it was adults wanting it to cost 5 cents (ironically, it seems a lot of Peanuts humor comes from the kids acting a bit adult).

So Met Life is something important and many of their commercials aren't exactly humorous. I think there are some commercials that are supposed to be to the point, with Snoopy showing up at the end (when the announcer talks about it) and the Linus and Lucy theme plays.... But sadly, it sounds like a more "serious" rendition of the song, not the great bouncy tune it is.

 

[Drtooth]

It seems like the recent Metlife commercials with the Peanuts characters aren't that funny, either (I can't remember if the older ones from Schultz's lifetime were, but at least the ones I can remember were enjoyable). Like one where Lucy suggests that insurance be 5 cents, and Charlie Brown agrees.... It is interesting that those two are agreeing, but I think most children (and adults) would want something expensive to cost that low. Somehow I think that commercial would have been funnier if it was adults wanting it to cost 5 cents (ironically, it seems a lot of Peanuts humor comes from the kids acting a bit adult).

That seems to be more of a shallow attempt at The Office style humor, actually. I dig it, myself. Better than most of these "I saw the Office, once" type office humor commercials.

What I want to know is what the heck happened to the Met Life commercial with all those cartoon characters in it? It had Voltron and Fat Albert, among others. That was epic.

 

[minor muppetz]

But the ones I really dislike (and someone's gonna chew me out for this) are the "This is America" series. Except the one about NASA. That one's actually pretty good. But that they have completely watered down schtick to "accurately" portray historical events takes away the appeal of the Peanuts characters. They're brand of somehow hilarious and adorable neuroticism just doesn't fit with historical content. The Thanksgiving one, especially. Seems like they're either yelling at each other in a way that's played for drama or infodumping what's going on.

I don't care much for This is America, either. I like the ones involving NASA, the Smithsonian, and music (those last two feature some funny inside jokes about the strip).

Speaking of This is America Charlie Brown, Warner Home Video is finally releasing the whole series on DVD. I assume it'll get a retail release. And it's unfair, This is America gets two DVD releases, but The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show only gets released on DVD via Warner Archives (as well as individual episodes on those single-disc releases pairing them with specials that are available on other DVDs). That was a better show. In fact I'm puzzled that any Peanuts release would be released by Warner Archives. I'd think Peanuts was a well-known-enough brand for any release (whether the production is good or bad) to be available at retail.

 

[Drtooth]

Any company that isn't Shout or Mill Creek just hates the heck out of releasing stuff on DVD. Especially box sets. Paramount, when it had the license, would release any and everything the Peanuts did. WB just wanted to release the Christmas special several times. We never got a set of 80's TV specials, we never got rereleases of the movies... they just dumped some episodes on kiddy disks (because they think flooding the market with not that cheap 15 dollar 3 episode disks won't kill the DVD market).

I can't say I'm not completely disappointed in how they released those. At least when Fox released the Garfield and Friends show, they were completely committed to it. The WHOLE series, minus a couple Binky shorts.

 

[minor muppetz]

Paramount, when it had the license, would release any and everything the Peanuts did. WB just wanted to release the Christmas special several times. We never got a set of 80's TV specials, we never got rereleases of the movies... they just dumped some episodes on kiddy disks (because they think flooding the market with not that cheap 15 dollar 3 episode disks won't kill the DVD market).

Yeah, Paramount even released stuff like The Big Stuffed Dog and some of the anniversary specials. The only "regular" special Paramount didn't release was You're in the Superbowl Charlie Brown (are the distribution rights owned by a different company?). Paramount also didn't release the 50th anniversary special hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, not sure if that's owned by a different company but I heard that that one won't get a video release because of certain rights issues.

It's a shame Paramount hasn't released Race for Your Life or Bon Voyage on DVD. I think Paramount still owns the distribution rights to those films. Those may be the weakest of the Peanuts movies but they should still put them all on DVD.

I can't say I'm not completely disappointed in how they released those. At least when Fox released the Garfield and Friends show, they were completely committed to it. The WHOLE series, minus a couple Binky shorts.

And except for the last season theme, though that's because they used international master tapes and the last season theme was exclusive to the US. I know that most fans as well as the crew hate that theme, but it would have been great if they'd included it as a bonus feature for completists sake.

And Fox also released almost all of the specials on DVD, except for Happy Birthday Garfield. I guess that comes from Fox deciding to include three specials per DVD and the total number of Garfield specials not being dividable by three. I know that that special was released on VHS.

 

[minor muppetz]

In It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, there's that scene where Charlie Brown tells Lucy that he's been invited to Violet's Halloween party, and she brings his spirits down by pointing out that there were two lists, one to invite and one not to invite, and that Charlie Brown must have been put on the wrong list. But then that list is never brought up again and Violet never seems to have a problem with him being at the party (maybe Violet did intend on putting him on the list after all). So what I wonder is, was that scene based on a strip?

Also, he says that it's the first time he was ever invited to a party. So Linus wouldn't have at least invited him to a party (assuming Linus had a party, at the very least a birthday party)?

 

[CensoredAlso]

In It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, there's that scene where Charlie Brown tells Lucy that he's been invited to Violet's Halloween party, and she brings his spirits down by pointing out that there were two lists, one to invite and one not to invite, and that Charlie Brown must have been put on the wrong list. But then that list is never brought up again and Violet never seems to have a problem with him being at the party (maybe Violet did intend on putting him on the list after all).

Lucy was just being cheeky, as usual.

Also, he says that it's the first time he was ever invited to a party. So Linus wouldn't have at least invited him to a party (assuming Linus had a party, at the very least a birthday party)?

Well, with Linus it's probably just understood that he's invited. But Charlie Brown's the type to only see the negative.

 

[minor muppetz]

Last night I watched I Want a Dog for Christmas Charlie Brown, and some things seem odd due to the fact that everything is based on a speciffic strip, particularly ones that might not have been meant to be seen back-to-back.

Like in one scene, Rerun tells Lucy and Linus that when other kids ask if he has the brother with the blanket and the crazy sister he claims he's an only child, then right afterwards talks about having a contest with the other kids about having crabby sisters and winning it. So he said he was an only child right before telling them that he basically bragged about having the crabbiest sister?

And later Rerun asks Charlie Brown if Snoopy can come out to play, then when Charlie comes in Snoopy runs out, they play, then Snoopy comes back in and Charlie Brown says that he couldn't find him, and then Rerun again asks if Snoopy can play, before Charlie Brown can even come back inside.

 

[minor muppetz]

I just read that Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown are both coming to DVD this year. Race for Your Life (plus rereleases of A Boy Named Charlie Brown and Snoopy Come Home) comes to DVD in February, while Bon Voyage comes later this year.

I was reading about them at TV Tropes, and it mentions that most fans consider those two to be the best Peanuts films. That might be a matter of opinion, but really? I like the first two a lot better. These two (Bon Voyage a lot more so) seem kind of dull to me.

I also read that there's a rumor that 65th anniversary DVD releases of the specials will be coming out, but as the news has only been mentioned at wikipedia with no source, it's most likely just a rumor. Too bad. The rumor was that there'd be an anniversary box set featuring every special.