Television Review
Title: A Charlie Brown Christmas
Director: Bill Melendez
Television Network: CBS

Genre: Animation

Voiced by: Peter Robbins, Tracy Stratford, Christopher Shea, Sally Dryer
Running Time: 30 minutes
Rating: NR
Original airing: 9 December 1965

By Jared Hunt

GOOD GRIEF CHARLIE BROWN…CHEER UP!! IT’S CHRISTMAS!! Long before the immortalization of A Charlie Brown Christmas, Charles Shultz’s Peanuts only existed in comic strips of the black and white newspaper pages. Life for Charlie and gang would never be the same with the eventual transition to live action. What has become known as one of television’s longest annual running holiday specials, A Charlie Brown Christmas has remained part of the viewer’s consciousness and has found a sustainable relevancy since its debut in 1965.

Charlie Brown (humorously wise beyond his years) has had an

increasingly difficult time understanding his own pessimistic attitudes towards Christmas, making him one of the most

melancholic kids ever associated to childhood existence. The Christmas season has come once again and as usual, proves an ever depressing time for young Charlie Brown. With the help of his schoolmates he sets out in search of a definitive answer to his annual holiday woes. As a way to shake off his troubles his friend Lucy suggests involvement as a cure and invites him to be the director of their Christmas play. However it is Linus, Charlie’s blanket-toting confidant, who brightly diagnoses his adolescent angst by reminding him and the rest of the gang the true meaning of Christmas. Charlie realizes that his long lasting unhappiness for the holiday season has been subconsciously linked to the over commercialization of Christmas.

The Peanuts gang puts the most ordinary children to shame with their grownup mannerisms and superior speaking skills. Honestly, what normal kid can talk like this? I suppose blowing spit bubbles and playing in sandboxes has become passé for a group of over achieving kids that consist of a talented piano player who plays Beethoven and another who effectually provides psychiatric help. But don't get me wrong, these are the precise traits that make the Peanuts gang enjoyable to watch.

Charlie Brown and company have had a long lasting impact on pop culture selling everything from Ford automobiles to peanut butter to Coca-Cola soft drinks. Charlie Brown himself has been indelibly linked to any and all yellow shirt with a singular horizontal black zigzag. Peanuts as a whole has enjoyed a long lasting existence thanks in part to the supportive characters of Snoopy, Pig-Pen, Linus, Lucy, Violet, Schroeder, Peppermint Patty, and Franklin--the first African-American character to be introduced to the show. In a Peanuts world dominated by adolescents, adults, like the beloved Miss Othmar, have served only as minor characters and whose limited involvement is portrayed only through the incomprehensible trombone vocalizations "woh-woh-woh".

The Peanuts gang has remained relevant and sustainable throughout the decades because of its light hearted charm and unique refined essence. The animation is simplistic yet full of life. In today’s day and age where foul mouthed, disrespectful, self-serving cartoon characters abound, Charlie Brown and company is a refreshing reminder of a bygone era full of clever narratives and original animation which stands for everything decent and right in this world.

Written by :

jrhunt

 

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written by Kindah Mardam Bey, December 20, 2009

Great review Jared! I still use Miss. Othmar's "woh woh woh"! It has become a part of my own film reference dictionary. I don't think it is exactly Christmas until you see Charlie Brown's declaration about commercialization, the Snoopy dance and the Linus speech. :-)

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