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Cyrus Present's Beau's Review of "It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown"
The Great Pumpkin. Just those three words fill my heart with a warm nostalgic glow and my senses with the memories of hot cider, sweet candy, and big mom hugs....
Waaaahhhhh, I changed my mind, I don't wanna be a grownup!
*sigh*
ANYways, seperated from the fuzzy childhood bits associated with it, as an adult I look at this as a treatise on atheism for kids (yay!) but maybe that's just my embittered, candy-deprived adult mind.
You know what? Frak it, this year I'm going whole-hog, getting dressed up in some ridiculous outfit and watching this again. Halloween IS my mid-life crisis red sports car and I'm gonna suit up for all it's worth! Hopefully the neighbors won't get too weirded out by me coming and asking for candy. Because if they do...there's always the tricks...
*post-script*
A 38 year old man who responded only to his costume character's name, "The Bride", was arrested Halloween night after using a homemade "egg-gun" on his neighbor's homes which shattered windows up and down the block. The man's identity is at present unknown, but a group of protestors outside the police station where he is being presently held holding placards reading "Free Cyrus!" might be connected.
Here's Beau's review...
Charles M. Schulz is probably not spinning in his grave. For one thing Sparky probably was a tad too like his protagonist, Charlie Brown, to get up the gumption for post-mortem circumambulation. For another, any energy he might have had must have burnt off long ago in the wake of United Features Syndicates decision to rerun Peanuts “classic” strips after his death. (I don’t know why UFS insists on the “classic” label-especially given that none of the strips from the strips 1965-80 heyday-inarguably the best era of the series).
No, the reissue of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown Deluxe Edition certainly isn’t exploitative enough to invoke the dreaded Charles “Sparky” Schulz Zombie Apocalypse we’ve all lived in fear of for so long. It ain’t all that bad either considering the quality of the transfer has been admirably updated. But with a price tag of twenty smackers for a whopping 49 minutes of material I wish some blockhead at Warner Bros. would experience the icy cold hands of Zombie Schulz around his scrawny money-grubbing neck. Good Grief.
Still there are benefits to owning this for the hardcore animation fan/snob. As I stated before the transfer is gorgeous-less starker and richer in palette than the previously released version available from Paramount. You certainly can’t fault the production itself. Debuting at a now unheard of 50% share (that’s half the television sets in America) in 1966, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and it’s predecessors (A Charlie Brown Christmas and Charlie Brown’s All-Stars) pretty much set the mold for the half-hour animated holiday special and its success has rarely been duplicated. The Great Pumpkin is as familiar a term in the vernacular as Santa Claus now. The story has been seen countless times by nearly every American out there who has ever owned or known someone who owns a TV and is absolutely a classic of animation. Linus spends Halloween night in the pumpkin patch in a fervent, faithful and fruitless attempt to spot a glimpse of The Great Pumpkin much to the chagrin of his sister Lucy and friend Charlie Brown. It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown may be the very best of the Peanuts animated specials with onlyA Charlie Brown Christmas beating it out. More than any other it echoes “Sparky”’s themes of faith and hope.
Unfortunately, It, like its previous companion pieces and its successors is only a bare twenty-six minutes long. So, barring storyboards being done by Vincent Van Gogh, the price-tag here could only be justified by some very tasty extras and this disc just doesn’t deliver. The menus are boring, a quarter of the “extras” are trailers for other Warner products and the extra included feature presentation is “It’s Magic Charlie Brown”, a Peanuts special from the eighties. “It’s magic…” is easily one of the weakest specials in the five decade history and it’s so lacking in the winsome charm inherent in the earlier specials I almost refused to believe it was actually written by Schulz. Maybe he was experiencing some sort of system shock attributable to the new-fledged Reagan administration. At any rate there’s something a wee bit off about “It’s Magic…” and what few charms it has will probably be lost on adults. It’s strictly for the kiddies.
Conversely, the showpiece extra, a new documentary entitled "We Need a Blockbuster, Charlie Brown" will appeal almost solely to television and animation buffs. The featurette includes in-depths with producers Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelson as well as interviews with Schulz’ widow Jeannia and son Monte.
Two features, one a classic and one a dud, and a thirteen minute documentary don’t exactly rate a “deluxe” edition in my book. Warners could have easily appended one of the better though lesser known specials here (You’re in Love Charlie Brown, You’re a Good Sport Charlie Brown or Charlie Brown’s All-Stars). Better yet, they could have tacked on several and maybe a still gallery of the strips that inspired the special or the many great pumpkin strips that followed it. Instead we get a quickie package with a metal foil sleeve and a “Deluxe” stamp on it.
Rats.
I’m glad to have this in my collection for the time being and it’ll definitely get played at the annual LEOG lair’s Halloween animation party but I sure wouldn’t have wanted to spend any green on it. Consumers would be better off waiting for the holiday collection box set Warners will release later this year
combining Pumpkin along with A Charlie Brown Christmas and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. This is typical of Warner’s-putting out snippets here and there before they finally deliver the goods (anybody remember how long it took them to put together a decent Batman: The Animated Series box set?). Hopefully a some point in the future someone will treat all of the Peanut’s specials and movies with the same amount of care Fantagraphics books has treated the original strips with.
Until that point I’d be as thrifty as possible.
Edit:
Famed Peanuts animator Bill Melendez passed away Tuesday of natural causes. He was the only person Charles Schulz ever authorized to animate his beloved creations. No amount of praise can really live up to the incredible task Bill accomplished animating the beloved Peanuts characters and truly bringing them to life. It was a feat few could do and one Bill was wonderfully and perfectly suited for. He was one of the greats and we are the less for his passing. Adios Bill. Thanks for forty years and more of laughs and love.
CNN obit:
CLICK HERE TO BUY "IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN CHARLIE BROWN"
Views: 121
Comment
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Comment by Roofus on September 9, 2008 at 10:59pm -
Yes, Schulz never let him kick the ball in the strip, but he allowed it this one time in this special. He did write and oversee the production of these shows, after all. I accept your review, good sir. We agree to disagree. However, I do agree with your preference of You're a Good Sport, CB. That one is in my top 5 of CB specials. Good review.
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Comment by Beau on September 9, 2008 at 2:00pm -
Google Image search man.
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Comment by Alicia Marie on September 8, 2008 at 10:28am -
fuzzy, warm, happy, feelings is what this blog is all about. I really want to go watch this now!
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Comment by Zero on September 8, 2008 at 12:55am -
(Zero lights fireworks fill the sky that make a giant Beau)
Beau that was treated with professionalism and style! In all absolution, your reviews are solid.
Now let's go bail out Cyrus...
LEOG 12 coming next week listen to it people.
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Comment by Beau on September 8, 2008 at 12:53am
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Actually Roofus that was major buzzkill for me. Schulz stated repeatedly that he would never let Charlie Brown kick the ball and yet...No, sir. I don't like it.
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Comment by Roofus on September 7, 2008 at 10:29pm
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Ah, Great Pumpkin...a classic. I watch it every year. I'll wait for the Holiday Collection box. Also, Warner Brothers plans to release box sets collecting all of the non-holiday themed specials, in the vein of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection sets. Beau, I have to disagree with your review of "It's Magic, CB." It's one of my all time favorites. It's very noteworthy that "Magic" features Charlie Brown FINALLY kicking the football from Lucy's hands. (He's invisible when he does it...BUT TECHNICALLY HE DID IT!)
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Comment by The Machine on September 7, 2008 at 8:27pm -
This was exellent I got a rock HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
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Comment by ghostwriter on September 7, 2008 at 7:23pm -
Oh Nick Miracle...the reason there is not a live action Peanuts movie is because in Charles Shultz's will it states that there cannot be anymore new Peanuts specials, movies or strips after his death. It was HIS baby and no one else can touch it...well not for, what is it 100 years then it becomes Eminent Domain, which means it's public property...someone please correct me if I'm wrong here, ok but that's the story I heard on the news when he died.
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Comment by ghostwriter on September 7, 2008 at 7:20pm
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I lLOVE Halloween! It's MY Christmas and it just isn't the same without The Great Pumpkin, I recorded it on DVD from the TV broadcast last year so I think I'll skip the 20.00 price tag. If I had to pay that you'd see me grabbing the nearest WalMart clerk and screaming
YOU OWE ME RESTITUTION!!!!!!!!
Can't wait to get my tons of Halloween decorations out of the shed and back on my porch and hand out candy...unless I'm one of those poor souls going to Austin to bail Cyrus out of jail.
Really though, that is alot of money for just one half hour show....even if it is the greatest Halloween special...of all time!
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Comment by Burn Victim on September 7, 2008 at 5:46pm -
i want to know why they haven't made a peanuts movie yet- not live action.
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