What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown?

 Premiered May 30, 1983.

Charlie Brown (Brad Kesten) is adding new pictures to his photo album, including photos from his time as an exchange student in France (as seen in the movie Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (And Don't Come Back!)).  His sister Sally (Stacy Heather Tolkin) mentions that he never told her what happened after he and his friends left the chateau.  Chuck decides it's time to tell Sally about the last part of the trip:

After leaving the chateau, their rental car is involved in a collision and the car falls apart when it reaches the next town.

Snoopy (Bill Melendez) is able to trade it for another car because Marcie tells the rental agent (Monica Parker) that Snoopy is a World War I Flying Ace.  

Unfortunately, the only car available is an old one with a crank-starter.  This leads to Charlie Brown getting injured every time he has to crank the starter.

After a few miles, the gang checks their roadmap and realizes they've taken a wrong turn somewhere.  At nighttime, they stop and camp by the side of the road.  Linus (Jeremy Schoenenberg) feels that there's something familiar about the place and walks down to a nearby beach.  

He realizes it's Omaha Beach in Normandy, site of the famous D-Day allied invasion during World War II!  Linus imagines that he's watching soldiers and planes fight on the beach.

Later on, Linus brings his friends to the beach and tells them of its historical significance.  He leads them to the American cemetery and recalls comments by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.  The general stated that the soldiers who stormed the beach did so "not to gain anything for ourselves, not to fulfill any ambitions that America had for conquest, but just to preserve freedom, systems of self-government in the world."  

The gang sees white crosses for miles around them, each cross marking the resting place of someone who died during the invasion.  Since it starts to rain, Linus says they should return to their car.

Sometime later, they are lost again and ask a boy for directions.  He says they're on "the road to Ypres." Linus says that Ypres, Belgium is the site of a famous World War I battle.  They drive to a field of poppy flowers and Linus talks about their significance.  A legend says that when battles are fought, all white poppies turn red, and a white cross can be found at the center of every poppy.

They wander through the field and see WWI-era trenches and the British field dressing station, where Lt. Col. J.M. McCrae wrote the famous war poem "In Flanders Field."   Linus then recites the poem, which begins with these lines:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

When Charlie Brown has finished recounting this story to Sally, he says Linus asked "what have we learned, Charlie Brown?"  

Review:
Charles Schulz and his collaborators Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez were particularly proud of What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown, since it paid tribute to fallen soldiers and because it's so beautifully animated.  The special won a Peabody award for "distinguished achievement and meritorious public service."  If it's not obvious from my summary, the question "what have we learned" is also asking all of human kind what it has learned from fighting two world wars.  

It's worth noting that this is the only true sequel to any Peanuts animated film or TV special.  There is very little "continuity" from one special to the next, but What Have We Learned picks up right where Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (And Don't Come Back!) left off.  

I should mention that I had not seen What Have We Learned until a few years ago, so I bring no nostalgia to this review.  I have a degree in history and I've been interested in events that shape the world and boundaries of nations for my whole life.

Marcie (Michael Docker) translates a French inscription at the D-Day memorial.

As a Peanuts fan and a historian, I consider this a good introduction for children of a very serious topic.  I can imagine children watching this special and asking their parents and grandparents about D-Day and the Battle Of Ypres.  If I'd seen this special as a kid, I definitely would've hit the library in search of more information. 

This special contains very serious subject matter for a special aimed at kids.  Schulz and company show that they were up to the task, since the discussion of war never gets heavy-handed and strikes all the right tones.

It's appropriate that Linus is the kid who tells his friends about the battlefields.  He's always been the "emotional center" of animated Peanuts specials, ever since A Charlie Brown Christmas.  When Linus quotes Eisenhower's comments about D-Day, we hear audio of the real Eisenhower's voice (recorded during a 1964 CBS News interview at Normandy).  This adds more weight and depth to the special than simply having Linus speak the words.    

On a lighter note, there's a running gag involving a gaggle of ducks that swarms their car, much to Snoopy's consternation.  The ducks are funny (and funny looking) and provide a nice contrast to the more serious material.  The ducks also don't stick around long enough to wear out their welcome.

The voice actors are all well-cast and "sound like" their characters.  Linus carries the special, so his portrayer Jeremy Schoenenberg has to work harder than any other voice actor in What Have We Learned.  Schoenenberg is great here and he would play Linus in three other specials, plus The Charlie Brown And Snoopy Show.  

I mentioned animation above and it's absolutely gorgeous.  Mendelson, Melendez and their team give us beautiful drawings of cemeteries, beaches and small European towns.  For the depictions of war, Melendez and his animators mix actual rotoscoped WWII combat footage with traditional animation and it looks stunning.  Here's one example

And here's another:

However, What Have We Learned is not without flaws.  Like Bon Voyage, this special includes adults.  Once again, the adults featured here add nothing and they took me out of the special and brought me back to reality whenever they appeared onscreen.  

The other problem is a running gag involving the rental car's crank-starter.  Three times, when the car is started, Charlie Brown injures his hand while cranking the starter.  He doesn't just say "AAUGH!," he screams and writhes in agony, while Peppermint Patty (Victoria Vargas) mocks him.  The crank-related injuries feel extremely out of place in an otherwise great special.  I guess they were going for physical comedy, but it falls flat all three times.  

Music:
The soundtrack of What Have We Learned features music by Judy Munsen (who also worked on Bon Voyage) arranged by Dawn Atkinson.  It mostly consists of flute, piano and synthesizer tunes.  All of the music provides an excellent accompaniment to the special's subject matter.

Availability:
This special has been released on a DVD called Peanuts:Emmy Honored Collection.

I enjoyed What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown for all the reasons stated above Charlie and I recommend it to Peanuts fans of all ages.  It's a wonderful tribute to those who fought and died during the world wars.  Linus' lessons about the wars and the amazing rotoscoped scenes are impressive.  But the appearance of adults and the unfunny crank-starter scenes prevent me from giving it my highest rating.  

J.A. Morris' rating:

3 Sparkys.  

Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (And Don't Come Back!)

Premiered May 30, 1980.

Summary:
Charlie Brown (Arrin Skelly) and Linus Van Pelt (Daniel Anderson) are selected to be foreign exchange students and attend a school in France. Chuck's friends Peppermint Patty (Patricia Patts) and Marcie (Casey Carlson) are also sent to France to represent their school.  Chuck also invites Snoopy and Woodstock (both voiced by Bill Melendez).

That same day he's selected to be an exchange student, Charlie Brown receives a letter written in a foreign language he cannot read.  

When Marcie translates it for him, they learn it's from a girl named Violette Honfleur (Roseline Reubens), who invites Chuck to stay with her in France at her home in the Château du Mal Voisin, which means "Chateau Of The Bad Neighbor" in English.  Violette says she's known about Chuck for most of her life, but he's never heard of her. 

The gang flies into London, which gives Snoopy an opportunity to play tennis at Wimbledon. 

They travel by train to Dover where they take a hovercraft ride to France.  

The gang rents a car so Snoopy can drive them to their destination. 

Marcie and Peppermint Patty are dropped off at the home their their host Pierre (Pascale de Barolet), while Linus and Chuck head to the chateau.  Pierre worries that the boys will encounter danger at the Chateau of the Bad Neighbor, because no outsiders ever visit the chateau. 

Charlie Brown, Linus, Snoopy and Woodstock locate the chateau.  It's a very dark and creepy house and no one answers when Chuck knocks on the door.  They're forced to sleep in a stable on a cold, rainy night.  Snoopy and Woodstock sneak off to a nearby pub.

When the boys wake up, they find that someone has left them food and blankets. 

Chuck and friends attend school the next day.  Pierre informs his new friends them that Violette is the ward of a baron (Scott Beach) who never allows guest into his chateau.  Pierre worries that the boys could be in great danger.

Several days pass and Charlie Brown and Linus are still not allowed into the chateau.  When the baron is out, Linus notices a light in a room and decides to investigate.  

He meets Violette, who tells Linus that Chuck's grandfather Silas Brown stayed at the chateau during World War I.  In the middle of Violette's story, the baron suddenly returns and Violette accidently sets the chateau on fire, which endangers her, Linus and everyone nearby!  

Can Linus and Violette be saved?  Will the baron change his un-neighborly ways?  

Review:
First off, Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown has a lot of sentimental value to me.  When my family first got cable TV, this movie was shown over and over again on HBO and I watched it many times.  Which means Bon Voyage was a big part of my childhood. 

Snoopy overpacks for the Transatlantic flight!

It's generally a fun movie that gives all the main characters at least one chance to shine.  Snoopy gets to play tennis and drive around Europe, Marcie gets to show off her French language skills, Peppermint Patty flirts with Pierre, and Linus and Charlie Brown get to save the day at the end when disaster strikes. 

There's a scene (taken straight from the Sunday strip) where Peppermint Patty and Charlie Brown share a desk at school.  This scene also appears in the first episode of The Charlie Brown And Snoopy Show.

It's worth noting that the look of the Chateau of the Bad Neighbor was based on a chateau Charles Schulz stayed in while he was stationed in France during World War II.  

Lucy (Laura Planting) doesn't get much screen time, since she doesn't travel with the others to France.  But she gets to deliver the movie's signature "don't come back" line.

It's also nice to see how beautifully Lee Mendelson, Bill Melendez and company animate European buildings and landscapes. 

Here's how the white cliffs of Dover look in Bon Voyage:

The voice actors are all well-cast and do a nice job portraying their characters.  The actors who play the principal characters also voiced them in You're The Greatest, Charlie Brown and She's A Good Skate, Charlie Brown.  

However, watching this as an adult, I had some problems with Bon Voyage.

Why are there so many adults in this film?  This is something that bothered me when I was a kid.  They don't add anything to the story and as Charles Schulz once said, adults "bring everything back to reality" and take viewers out of the world of the Peanuts characters.  Even the baron, who is always shown in shadow, didn't need to be seen onscreen at all.  In fact, he may have been even more menacing if he was only spoken of.  

Speaking of the baron, the movie never provides any real answers to why he is so hostile.  Why does he want to take "drastic action" to force Linus and Chuck to leave the chateau?  Are we meant to think he is inhospitable to visitors because Charlie Brown's grandfather stopped writing letters?  Are we supposed to forget that Snoopy overhears that the baron plans to do terrible things to Linus and Chuck shortly before events force him to change his wicked ways?  Was he just "born evil?"  

Maybe more detail was cut from the script that would've shown why the baron is a misanthropic recluse.  The film could have devoted more time towards explaining the baron's attitude instead of giving us the Chuck and Peppermint Patty desk scene, which doesn't add a lot.   

Music:
Like most of the animated specials produced around this time, Bon Voyage features music by Ed Bogas and Judy Munsen.  It's solid music, we get a nice combination of funk, jazz and lush orchestral string arrangements.  Chuck and Linus' arrival at the chateau is accompanied by menacing music that's reminiscent of the James Bond theme.  

When Charlie Brown is looking out the window of a train that's travelling across England, we hear a song called "I Want To Remember This."  It's a nice song (performed by the Munsen and Bogas) that expresses the importance of "taking in" your surroundings when visiting new places, something I try to do whenever I travel.  

While Snoopy is drinking root beer at the pub, he plays a selection of WWII-era pop songs on the jukebox, which include "Sentimental Journey" and "I'll Be Seeing You."  I'm guessing these were songs Schulz enjoyed during the war.  

Snoopy dances to popular songs from the 1940s.

Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (And Don't Come Back!) is beautifully animated and has some fun moments, plus it's always interesting to see Charlie Brown and friends in an unusual environment.  I will always enjoy it since it was part of my childhood, and every Peanuts fan should watch it at least once, but the inclusion of adults and weak motivation for the baron prevents me from giving it a higher rating.

Availability:
This movie is available on Blu-Ray and DVD and is available to stream on multiple sites.

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5

2 and a half Sparkys.

Next up:Did you know Bon Voyage had a sequel?  Check back tomorrow for my review of What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown!