I grew up on the Peanuts creations of Charles M. Schulz. Most of us have, in some way or another. His newspaper comic strip is one of the longest running and most successful strips of all time. The work has been translated into every language currently spoken on the planet. The images of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, and the rest of the Peanuts gang have appeared on just about any kind of product imaginable. Our pop culture contains too many references to the strip to mention briefly. For me, it was the television specials starting in the mid 1960’s that brought the gang into my life. The classics are running annually, still after nearly 50 years. A Charlie Brown Christmas, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown are the most mentioned and certainly beloved by generations of children and adults. I thought I never missed an airing.
The characters have shown up in quite a few areas over the years. There have been other specials and a couple of regular cartoon television shows. One of those was The Charlie Brown And Snoopy Show. It lasted only 18 episodes, and it’s that final episode that is featured here. In it Charlie Brown recounts a Christmas in a letter he’s writing. Lucy’s putting together another play, and Sally wants to help Linus raise money for the production.
The next feature is another one of those lesser-known specials. It’s called She’s A Good Skate, Charlie Brown. It aired in 1980 and features Peppermint Patty. She’s training for a skate competition with Snoopy as her coach.
Video
There’s good news and bad news here. The good news: It’s just like you remembered it. The bad news: It’s just like you remembered it. The print shows signs of the years of wear. Colors are still bright and true to the original presentations. The format is full screen, which must be expected for a made-for-TV cartoon.
Audio
The audio’s pretty simple here, folks. It’s 1980’s TV cartoon fare and that should tell you what to expect. We’re talking mono. There is a bit of high-end distortion.
Special Features
Nothing
Final Thoughts:
The two features are put together as a winter-themed set. The kids will find them amusing, but this isn’t the best collection of Peanuts stories to be released. The price is right, however. “Merry Christmas to all.”
