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

Some HUGE Peanuts news!

There is some exciting news this week about Charlie Brown's past and future animated adventures.  

But first, let me go back to last month.  Reddit hosted a chat with Jeannie Schulz, the widow of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz.  I asked her if there were any plans to release Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown or Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (And Don't Come Back) on dvd.  These theatrical movies were released on VHS in the 1990s but have now been out of print for years.  Here's Jeannie's response:

"You know, I don't know any plans, and it's terrible, because I have a distant relative in France who LOVES that movie. The rights to them are owned by - and now my mind is going blank... it's the company that we did them with originally... and they don't, I guess, have any interest in exploiting them? And i suppose from their point of view, it's too small a market, so they might sell 1,000 or 5,000 but in their world, you need to sell 10,000. I don't know. I can't think of the company that owns the rights to that, I'm sorry. So it's a shame, because I think they are fun, and even though the animation is old-fashioned, and people would say they are slow-moving compared to today, I still think there are people who would enjoy them."

This was very disappointing news to a fan like myself.  But the other day, I learned that Jeannie Schulz was mistaken.  Paramount is releasing both films on dvd next year!  Race For Your Life comes out on dvd on February 10, here's the cover art:

 

Bon Voyage celebrates its 35th anniversary next year and will be released on dvd in October 2015.  

Original 1980 movie poster for Bon Voyage.

But that's not the only news.  We are now less than a year removd from the release date (November 6) for the new Peanuts movie.  Yesterday, some new images from the film were released.

It's too soon to tell if the story will be good. But producer Paul Feig says that Charlie Brown goes "on a quest to get something he's sure he needs, even though he discovers he's pretty OK just as he is." Director Steve Martini stated that Snoopy will be putting on his old World War I Flying Ace helmet and going behind enemy lines.    

As I was getting ready to publish this, I learned that another trailer for the movie has been released, so here it is:

I'm not crazy about the song in the middle (I doubt it will be there when the movie is released), but the animation looks great!  2015 is shaping up to be a great year for fans of Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the gang.

J.A.


 

He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown

Premiered February 14, 1968.

"That dog is gonna drive us crazy!"
-Lucy Van Pelt.

Snoopy (Bill Melendez) is annoying all the kids and driving them crazy.

He's been playing pranks and sneaking up on kids and assaulting them.

Charlie Brown  (Peter Robbins) decides to send the beagle back to the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm for "a refresher course in obedience and the social graces."

Charlie Brown writes a letter to the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm, Snoopy doesn't approve of its content!

Since it's a long walk to the puppy farm, Snoopy will stop on the way and spend the night at the home of Peppermint Patty (Gail DeFaria).

But things don't go according to plan.  Peppermint Patty is glad to have Snoopy as her guest.  But he tries her patience, demanding root beer, demanding service, treating her house as a resort, making a big mess and eating Peppermint Patty's family out of house and home.

At the same time, Charlie Brown and Linus (Christopher Shea) start to miss Snoopy.  They talk about how quiet it is without the beagle around.

Charlie Brown receives a call from Daisy Hill and learns Snoopy never showed up for training.  He calls Peppermint Patty and discovers Snoopy spent a week at her house.  Peppermint Patty is happy to see Chuck, who is forced to put Snoopy on a leash.  But Snoopy turns the tables on his "owner" and escapes to Schroeder's house, then back to Peppermint Patty's place.

Peppermint Patty says he can stay, but mentions that everyone in the house pulls their own weight.  Snoopy is put to work washing dishes, mowing the lawn, sweeping and vacuuming the floors.

No one can eat dinner until Snoopy finishes his chores.  The beagle gets frustrated and breaks a bunch of dishes.  After this tantrum, Peppermint Patty forces Snoopy to spend the night in the garage.

Snoopy ran back to Peppermint Patty because he didn't want to kept on a leash.  But he starts to think life was better with Charlie Brown.

Will Snoopy return to Charlie Brown?  Will he be taught to curb his bad behavior?

Review:
While I had the children's book that adapted He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown, this is another special that wasn't aired very often when I was a kid.

It's an enjoyable special, even if Snoopy is more of a jerk than usual.  We're used to him stealing Linus' blanket, but assaulting Charlie Brown, Schroeder and Linus crosses the line.

I won't spoil the whole ending, but I don't get the impression that Snoopy learned a lot or paid for any of his transgressions.  But that's okay, Peanuts storylines (in animation and the comic strip) often didn't have resolutions or happy endings.

Most of the special takes place at Peppermint Patty's house.  Usually, the specials take place at school, Chuck or Linus' house, I appreciated the "change of venue."  Hardcore Peanuts experts will appreciate the appearance of Roy, an obscure character from the strip, in a non-speaking role.

Peppermint Patty & Roy watch Snoopy eat.

We also get a fantasy sequence that features Snoopy battling the Red Baron.  This is the last "air war" featured in a Charlie Brown special.

"Curse you, Red Baron!"

The animation is great here.  Lots of fun action scenes, and I love Snoopy's expressions when he attacks the kids. 

Peter Robbins, Gail DeFaria, Christopher Shea and Sally Dryer all do a nice job as Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty Linus and Lucy.  It should be noted that this is the last special produced that features the same voice actors who appeared in A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Speaking of voices, this is the closest Snoopy comes to speaking onscreen.  When he pretends to shoot Patty and Violet, he makes a sound that sounds very much like the word "bang."

Music:
We get a nice new piece composed by Vince Guaraldi  that serves as theme music (called "New Snoopy Theme" and "It's Your Dog, Charlie Brown", depending on the source) for the opening and closing credits.  It's an uptempo tune that always brings a smile to my face.

There's a nice montage of Snoopy performing household chores, accompanied by Guaraldi's bossa nova-influenced composition "Pebble Beach."  John Scott Trotter arranged Guaraldi's music and it's all very good.

Availability:
This special is available on 2 different dvds.  One is simply titled (appropriately enough) He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown, and it's also part of the Peanuts 1960s Collection.  It can also be streamed on Amazon.

He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown is a very good if lesser-known special from the classic era of Charlie Brown specials.  It's recommended for all Peanuts fans and everyone who has owned a dog who needs obedience training.  

My rating:

4 Sparkys!