Happiness Is A Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown

 Premiered March 29, 2011.

"I can't get rid of this blanket!  It's the only thing that keeps me going!
 -Linus Van Pelt
(Note from J.A. Morris:The Peanuts comic strip debuted 65 years ago today.  The special reviewed here today has a connection to that first strip, as you will see below)

Linus Van Pelt (Austin Lux) is very attached to his security blanket and never lets it out of his grasp.  His sister Lucy (Grace Rolek) is fed up with the blanket and tells Linus he needs to give it up.

Lucy has some bad news for Linus:Their grandmother is coming to visit and she is determined to rid Linus of his blanket.  He has seven days to break his "addiction" to the blanket.

At the same time, Snoopy (Andrew Beall) is determined to steal the blanket for himself and drags Linus around the neighborhood several times. 

Linus gives the blanket to Charlie Brown (Trenton Rogers) and asks that he keep it, no matter how desperate he becomes.  This lasts for several seconds, before Linus takes back the blanket.  When Linus goes to his sister's psychiatric clinic for help, Lucy yells at him and tells him to "grow up!"

Lucy reaches her limit and takes the blanket away, telling Linus he can have it back after dinner.  Within a little while, his "whole nervous system" is shot.

Lucy catches her brother using Snoopy's ear and other objects as a substitute for the blanket.  She then tells Linus that "no substitutes" are allowed either.

Will Linus give up the blanket?  Will his grandmother force him to get rid of it?

Review:

Happiness Is A Warm Blanket was the first Peanuts special produced without the involvement of Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez.  The five years between this and the previous special also mark the longest time between specials.

Charles Schulz' son Craig served as a writer and executive producer on Happiness, with some story assistance from Stephan Pastis (creator of the comic strip Pearls Before Swine).  But most of the story and dialogue are taken directly from Peanuts comic strips.

This new creative team made a conscious effort to make the characters act and look like they did in the late 50s and early 60s.  They also used the cast from the earlier era as well, so we get to appearances from Patty (Ciara Bravo), Shermy (Andy Pessoa) and Violet (Blesst Bowden) plus cameos from 3, 4 and 5.

We get a "Snoopy's-eye view" of 5 and his twin siblings 3 and 4.

When Linus asks Chuck if he has fears and frustrations, Chuck flashes back to unpleasant moments in his past.  This includes a scene where Shermy says "Good ol' Charlie Brown.  How I hate him!" This is a reenactment of the very first Peanuts comic strip, which is another nice touch.  So Pastis and Schulz bring lots of nostalgia to this special.

Lucy mellowed over time in both the specials and comic strip.  But the Lucy we see in Happiness is her earlier, meaner self.  Throughout this special she takes pleasure at threatening to take away Linus' blanket and actually punches Charlie Brown when he calls her "crabby."

This might surprise some views, so consider yourself warned.  I won't spoil the ending, but at the end, Lucy shows that she's not quite as cruel as she seems.

Even Sally (Amanda Pace) get's tired of her Sweet Baboo's blanket & tosses it into a tree.

 On a lighter note, we get a touching scene where Charlie Brown sits up all night to help Linus deal with the loss of his blanket.  We often see these two ostracized by the other kids, so it's nice to see that they're not "alone" in the world.

In between the scenes about the blanket, we get short vignettes that deal with Chuck's attempt to fly a kite, Violet critiquing Pigpen's cleanliness and Lucy vying for Schroeder's attention.

The only problem with taking an "oldschool" approach is that we don't get to see characters that were introduced later like Peppermint Patty, Franklin and Marcie.  Charles Schulz said he stopped including Violet and Patty in the strip because they were less interesting than Pepperment Patty, so I'm not sure why this was done.  Otherwise, Happiness Is A Warm Blanket is lots of fun.

The actors in this special all do a good job voicing their characters.  Happiness centers on Linus and Austin Lux does a nice job carrying the story.  Grace Rolek is very convincing when she delivers Lucy's hostile dialogue.  Trenton Rogers does double-duty voicing Charlie Brown and Schoeder.  It's a credit to Rogers that I didn't notice this until I read the credits.

Music:
The music of Happiness Is A Warm Blanket was composed by Mark Mothersbaugh. He's composed music for dozens of films and TV shows and won awards, including an Oscar nomination last year for The Lego Movie soundtrack.  Mothersbaugh first gained fame as the lead singer and songwriter of the band Devo. 

Mark Mothersbaugh, at the 2015 Oscars, wearing a "Devo" hat made of Legos!

His music pays homage to Vince Guaraldi's tunes without ripping off Guaraldi.  While most of the music is piano-based, Pigpen's (Shane Baumel) scenes are accompanied by music that puts the harmonica at the forefront.

Availability:
 This special is available on blu-ray, dvd.  It also may be streamed on iTunes and Amazon Instant Video.

Happiness Is A Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown is a very good special with nice music and good voice actors.  It's too bad that the personnel involved with its production didn't make any more TV specials, since this one should lots of promise.

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5

3 and a half Sparkys.

It Was A Short Summer, Charlie Brown.

Premiered September 27, 1969.

Lucy:I've signed everyone up for Summer camp!

Boys:Camp?  Everyone?
Lucy:There's to be no discussion and no need to thank me.

Charlie Brown: I feel like I've been drafted.

Charlie Brown (Peter Robbins) and his classmates are assigned an essay.  Their teacher Miss Halverson says must write a 500-word theme about how they spent their Summer vacation.  Chuck and Linus flash back to how it began:

School has just ended, Charlie Brown, Linus (Glenn Gilger), Schroeder (John Daschback) and Shermy (David Carey) are discussing how they plan to spend their Summer reading comics, watching TV and playing piano.  

The kids rush out on the last day of school.

But Lucy (Pamelyn Ferdin) arrives and announces she has enrolled all of them in Summer Camp!  No one is happy about this, especially Linus.  Lucy's brother is terrified he'll be attacked by queen snakes. 

The boys react (poorly) when Lucy tells them she signed them up for camp.

When the kids arrive at camp, they are separated by gender.  Charlie Brown is the leader of his team.  They compete with a team of girls in various games and contests.  The girls team is led by Lucy, with Peppermint Patty (Christopher DeFaria) serving as her lieutenant.    

Charlie Brown's team challenges the girls to a swimming race.  But the boys are is easily defeated. 

Charlie Brown is undaunted and challenges the girls to a game of softball.  This results in the boys losing 43-1.  

Peppermint Patty wins her team the first at-bat by using "eagle claws!"

   After more losses, Charlie Brown and his team are despondent. 

But Chuck gets an idea for a final challenge:wrist wrestling.  The boys' team selects the Masked Marvel, who is actually Snoopy in disguise, as their wrist wrestler.  The beagle begins a strict training regimen.  When the girls are challenged, Lucy selects herself to represent her team.  

The two wrestlers have an intense wrist duel.  They're evenly matched, but one has a secret weapon that will decide the match.

The Masked Marvel vs. Lucy!

 Can the Masked Marvel finally win a contest for the boys?  Will Linus be eaten by a queen snake?   Will Charlie Brown be able to complete the 500-word assignment?  

Review:

It Was A Short Summer, Charlie Brown is not up there with the best Peanuts specials, but it's solid fun the whole time.  Most of the original voice cast had aged out of their roles, with the exception of Peter Robbins as Charlie Brown.  But the new voice actors do a fine job.  

The boys aren't impressed with the camp food...

...but Snoopy has alternate sources of nourishment!

There are two lines of dialogue that mark this special as a product of the 1960s.  Sally (Hilary Momberger) says she wants "a deferment" from Kindergarten and Chuck says he feels like he's been drafted when Lucy signs him up for Summer Camp.  The Vietnam War and the draft were still part of every day life when It Was A Short Summer first aired, so "drafted" and "deferment" were household words. 

Producer-Director Bill Melendez began his career as an animator for the Disney, UPA and Warner Brothers studios.  I felt like this special had more classic "cartoony" images than other Charlie Brown outings, perhaps influenced by Melendez' past.  For instance, Chuck says Sally will jump 30 feet in the air if anyone mentions Kindergarten.  Lucy tests that theory, which results in this odd-looking image of a stretched-out Sally:

And we get a humorous reaction from Charlie Brown when he accidentally burns his marshmellow:

Speaking of animation, Schulz said his favorite animation of all time was Snoopy and Lucy's wrist wrestling match.  This scene still looks great today, 46 years after the special first aired.  

Snoopy's bus driving fantasy sequence includes some hidden jokes.  We see a map that includes place names like Schulz City...

and La Ciudad De Melendez: 

These are obvious (but cool) references to Peanuts creator Charles Schulz and the aforementioned Melendez.  I also think it's funny that Snoopy imagines other vehicles he passes are being driven by dogs!

Linus & Chuck play Hangman.  Check out the detail in the pictures on the classroom wall!

 Vince Guaraldi's music is great as usual.  His trio had expanded by this point and includes saxophones, flutes and horns.  The new theme music Guaraldi wrote for the special is very catchy and will be stuck in your head for a while.   

As part of his training, Snoopy wrist-wrestles a bird that looks like it could be Woodstock's tougher brother!

One of the unusual things about this special is that the girls' team includes both Peppermint Patty...and Patty (Lisa DeFaria).  Confused?  Patty was featured in the very first Peanuts comic strip and was often featured in the cast into the 1960s.  

Something rarely seen:Patty (left) and Peppermint Patty on screen at the same time, with Violet (Ann Altieri) in the middle.

Schulz later said he grew bored with Patty, which explains why she could be replaced by a character with a similar name.  There's a scene here where Lucy calls Peppermint Patty "Patty," which adds to the confusion.  It's also worth noting that Patty is voiced by Lisa DeFaria, while Peppermint Patty is voiced by Lisa's brother Christopher.    

The girls attempt to cheer up the boys by singing campfire songs.

If I have any criticism of the special, it's the way the camp contests are presented.  The girls beat the boys in swimming and then softball.  But we don't see the softball game.  The kids talk about the game...and the next thing we see is the boys mourning their loss.  It doesn't ruin the special, but it violates the "show don't tell" rule of visual media and it's disappointing.  

 

The girls march onto the bus with military-style precision...

...while the boys are a bit less organized.

 Music:

 Vince Guaraldi's music is great as usual.  His trio had expanded by this point and includes saxophones, flutes and horns.  The new theme music Guaraldi wrote for the special is very catchy and will be stuck in your head for a while.   

As part of his training, Snoopy wrist-wrestles a bird that could be Woodstock's tougher brother!

 Availability:

This special is available on dvd as part of Peanuts 1960s collection and also streams on Amazon and iTunes. 

It Was A Short Summer, Charlie Brown is a fun special from the "classic" era of Peanuts specials and it serves as nice "end of summer" entertainment.  

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5

3 and a half Sparkys

Charlie Brown's All Stars

Premiered June 8, 1966.
Charlie Brown: I really thought we were going to win this one.  For one brief moment victory was within our grasp. 
Linus: And then the game started.

Charlie Brown gets nailed by a comebacker!

Baseball season has arrived, and pitcher/manager Charlie Brown (Peter Robbins) is very confident about his team's chances.  But his teammates are not optimistic.  Last season they lost every game.

Charlie Brown's teammates react to their latest loss.

When the first game arrives, Charlie Brown drops a fly ball late in the game and they lose again.  The rest of the kids are despondent and decide they've had enough.  Lucy (Sally Dryer) leads the chorus of those calling Charlie Brown a blockhead.

All of Chuck's players quit the team and decide to spend the rest of their Summer partaking in activities like skateboarding, jump-rope and swimming.  Charlie Brown is depressed by this development.

But not for long!  Linus (Christopher Shea) talks to Mr. Hennessy, proprietor of Hennessy's Hardware about sponsoring the team.  Mr. Hennessy will pay for new team uniforms and they will play in a real league.

Charlie Brown believes these changes will encourage the other kids to return to his team.  He tells Lucy and the rest about it and they rejoin the team.

Snoopy and Linus turn a double play.

But then "tragedy" strikes.  Charlie Brown learns that the league will NOT allow his team to join because they have girls and a dog on their roster!  He won't kick Snoopy (Bill Melendez), Violet (Karen Mendelson), Frieda (Ann Altieri) and Lucy off his team, so his loyalty costs him the uniforms.

Charlie Brown gets some bad news about the team uniforms.

However, Charlie Brown decides to keep this a secret from his team until AFTER his next game, believing they won't care about uniforms if they win.

Linus goes tries to field a ground ball & gets tied up in his blanket.

Will Charlie Brown's team finally win a game?  And if not, will his teammates finally quit for good!


J.A. Morris says:

Charlie Brown's All-Stars did not air very often on television and is somewhat forgotten today.  I recall seeing watching it 2, maybe 3 times when I was a kid.

Snoopy steals 3rd base!

This special is somewhat historically important, since it's the 2nd Charlie Brown special ever produced. It premiered 6 months after A Charlie Brown Christmas, but it's never been as famous as its predecessor.  This special also features the same (original) voice cast who appeared in the Christmas special.

Pigpen's (Geoffry Ornstein) cloud of dust messes up Frieda's naturally curly hair.

It's a great story that focuses on Charlie Brown being the eternal optimist.  Every game COULD be the game where he's the hero, pitching a great game or getting the big hit.  But he usually winds up being (in his words) Charlie "The Goat" Brown.  His attitude is admirable, even when his team is down by dozens of runs in the 9th inning.

Charlie Brown tells Lucy to grit her teeth "and bear down" if she wants to get a hit...

...but he fails to grit his teeth when he gets his chance to bat.

One thing that stands out is that Lucy is slightly nicer than usual.  Sure, she calls Charlie Brown a blockhead more than once, but she also gives Chuck some encouragement while he's pitching.  Lucy also gets the other girls to help her do something nice for Charlie Brown at the end of the special.

Charlie Brown slides into 2nd base.

Charlie Brown's All Stars gives just about every character at least one humorous line of dialogue. Shermy, a fairly obscure character today, gets one of the best lines of the special, when he suggests Charlie Brown gets "neurotic pleasure" from losing!

Shermy quits the team & says Chuck actually enjoys losing games.

Charlie Brown's All Stars is slightly more "action oriented" than most specials.  The baseball game features plenty of base running, hitting and fielding.  We also see the kids skateboarding and jumping rope.

Charlie Brown jumps rope held by Violet and Patty (Lynn Vanderlip)

I mentioned Shermy, another somewhat forgotten character that appears in the special is 5, who is best remembered for his dancing in A Charlie Brown Christmas.  These lesser-known characters, along with Patty and Violet would gradually fade into the background, replaced by Peppermint Patty, Franklin and Marcie. 

5 relaxes on his skateboard.

Vince Guaraldi composed the music for Charlie Brown All Stars and it's great as usual.  It opens with Charlie Brown chasing down accompanied by a simple but great bass and drum tune.  Guaraldi's most famous composition "Linus And Lucy" here gets a new arrangement with some horns added.

Snoopy surfs in Linus' pool.

Some aspects of the special clearly place it in 1966.  Surfing and skateboarding first gained major popularity in the 60s, they're both featured here.

And there's a scene where Charlie Brown runs through a house in pursuit of a fly ball.  The furniture he passes would fit in nicely in the Mad Men offices.

Check out the orange couch & lamp.

Availability:
There are currently several ways you can watch Charlie Brown's All Stars.  It's available on a dvd set called Peanuts 1960s Collection.  It also can also be streamed on Amazon Instant Video.

Charlie Brown's All Stars is lots of fun and it's a great way to celebrate the return of baseball season.  And since it only aired sporadically on TV, it might be new to folks in my demographic who grew up watching Charlie Brown specials.

J.A. Morris' rating:

4 Sparkys!