Saturday, February 15, 2025

There's No Time for Love, Charlie Brown (1973)

I've tried in the past to do this one for Valentine's Day, seeing as how I've already done all of the Peanuts specials that are actually based around the holiday, as well as those with a similar theme, like You're in Love, Charlie Brown, Someday You'll Find Her, Charlie Brown, and It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown. But then, when I re-watched it, I realized that, despite the title, as well as how it does seem to take place in February, as it's mentioned that there are three more months of school left, it has nothing to do with Valentine's Day, and the subject of romance is only part of it. Thus, when you're now finally reading this review, Valentine's has already come and gone. In any case, this is another special that I knew nothing about when I first saw it on the Peanuts 1970's Collection Volume One DVD set, and could only guess at the plot. Upon seeing it, I was surprised to find it was mostly about the pressures of school, even for elementary students, with the main plot being about how Charlie Brown and some of his friends end up in a supermarket when they're supposed to be on a field trip to an art museum. It also focuses on Peppermint Patty's relationship with him, and notably introduces the character of Marcie to animation. And even though the special does focus mainly on the three of them, a fair number of the other Peanuts characters do also get the opportunity to shine, even if in brief moments. Overall, while not laugh out loud funny (though it does have its fair share of chuckle-worthy moments, to be sure), it is kind of unique and well-written, and it is nice to see something go right for Charlie Brown, for a change by the end.

There are three months left in the school year and everybody, both at Charlie Brown's and Peppermint Patty's school, is feeling the pressure, as they're swamped with homework assignments and various tests. While Peppermint Patty complains that, with all this work, there's no time for her to find any romance, Charlie Brown worries about salvaging his grades, which have dropped down to all C's. He then learns that his class is taking a field trip to an art museum, which they then have to write a report on; in order to keep from failing completely, he must get an A on this report. It turns out that Peppermint Patty and Marcie's class are going on the same field trip, and the night before, Marcie, worried that something will go wrong with ir, shows up at Patty's house early in the morning, as in 4:00 AM, so they can walk to school together. This causes Patty to get no sleep whatsoever and walk around in a daze. When they arrive at the museum, they meet up with Charlie Brown, Sally, and Snoopy, the latter of whom simply came along for the ride. They're so busy talking that they don't realize that everyone else has gone inside and they themselves end up going into the supermarket, which is right next door to the museum. Save for Marcie and Snoopy, none of them realize the mistake they've made. Meanwhile, in the museum, Linus and Lucy wonder what became of Charlie Brown as they roam about the building. Eventually, Patty's drowsiness gets the best of her and she and Charlie Brown sit down in an aisle, where she continually hints at her crush on him by insinuating that he likes her. At one point, he walks off, and Marcie and Sally find Patty sleeping by herself. Upon waking her up, Marcie suggests that Patty is in love with Charlie Brown, which she vehemently denies... within earshot of Charlie Brown himself. Now, not only is he depressed about his grades, especially when he learns that he wasn't in a museum, but Patty has to try to make up for insulting him.

Having directed not only the previous Peanuts special, You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown, but also the second feature film, Snoopy Come Home, both in 1972, Bill Melendez would naturally return to direct There's No Time for Love. However, the next special, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, would prove to be something of a turning point, as he would co-direct it with Phil Roman, and after that, Roman would be the sole director on a number of the specials leading into the 80's. In fact, save for 1978's What a Nightmare, Charlie Brown!, which he, again, co-directed with Roman, Melendez wouldn't be the sole director on another special until 1982's A Charlie Brown Celebration. He wasn't completely removed from the franchise during this time, though, as he was still acting as a producer on them and would direct some small shorts featuring the characters, as well as the later feature films, Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don't Come Back!!), before going back to directing many of the specials himself in the later years. However, in a way, There's No Time for Love is the end of an era, as it's the last one in the initial run beginning with A Charlie Brown Christmas where Melendez was himself the one and only director.

Like the other members of the Peanuts gang during the first act, Charlie Brown (voiced by Chad Webber) is really suffering from the pressures of school and is especially down when he learns that he got a C in everything, commenting, "I'm a straight 'blah' student." He also completely fumbles when he attempts to give a report, clumsily admitting that he never got around to doing it and finally yelling, "I throw myself upon the mercy of the court!" Following that, he confesses to Linus, "I worry about school a lot. I also worry about my worrying so much about school. My anxieties have anxieties." And then, he learns about the field trip to the art museum and how he must get an A on the report he's to write about it in order to keep from failing the entire course. Come the day of the field trip, he has to first deal with Sally complaining about having to go on one in the first place, then Peppermint Patty not so subtly hitting on him through reverse psychology, which distracts everyone and causes them to go into the supermarket instead of the museum. Never picking up on how they're in the wrong place, he gets stuck with Peppermint Patty, as she keeps inferring that he likes her. When she falls asleep in an aisle, he wanders away, still worrying about his grades, and is within earshot when Marcie asks Patty if she's in love with him and she denies it, calling him "boring," "dull," and "wishy-washy." Depressed, he walks out of the building and gets back on the bus, ignoring Patty when she runs after him, trying to apologize. Things get a little better when she invites him to come over and write his report along with her and Marcie, saying that if they work together, they might get a good grade on it. When Charlie Brown walks Marcie home afterward, she tells him that Patty actually does like him and what she said at the museum was a slip of the tongue, which only annoys him. But then, Marcie kisses him on the cheek on her doorstep, sending him in a blushing daze (and causing him to commit a major faux pas by calling up Patty and thanking her for the kiss). Once he sees Linus' photos from the art museum, he realizes that he was in the wrong place, but this is after he's already handed in his report. He's convinced that this will lead to him failing for sure, only for him to get the report back with an A, as well as a note from the teacher complimenting him on describing the museum through the "metaphor" of a supermarket.

Unlike Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty's (voiced by Christopher DeFaria) biggest concern over the influx of schoolwork is whether she'll have time to find a boyfriend. It's also obvious, especially to Marcie, that she has a crush on good old "Chuck," and is always inferring as much by suggesting that he likes her, which only puts Charlie Brown off. Speaking of Marcie, Patty is sure that the two of them will end up as buddies on the field trip and suggests she show up at her house that morning so they can walk to school together, only for her to show up at 4:00 AM. She tells Marcie to go home and come back a few hours later, but when she doesn't leave, as she says she can't go back to bed, Patty opts to let her stay over until it's time to go to school. As a result, Patty is drowsy and half-asleep throughout the field trip, and doesn't realize it when she, Marcie, Charlie Brown, Sally, and Snoopy end up in the supermarket instead of the museum. Eventually, it catches up with her and she sits down next to Charlie Brown in an aisle, continuing to infer that she likes him by insinuating that he's the one who has a crush on her. She dozes off and Charlie Brown goes elsewhere. She doesn't wake up until Marcie and Sally find her, and she wonders what happened to Charlie Brown. That's when Marcie asks if she's in love with him and Patty immediately exclaims, "Me? Me in love with Chuck? How could anybody ever be in love with boring, dull, wishy-washy old Chuck?" She then sees Charlie Brown wandering away, looking really sad, and realizes that he heard what she said. Desperate to salvage their friendship, she runs after him, yelling that she didn't mean it, but he gets on the bus and rides off, not paying attention to her. 

To try and smooth things over, she calls up Charlie Brown and has him come over so the two of them and Marcie can compare notes and do good on their reports. She continues to not so subtly flirt with him while they're doing so, having him hand her an eraser and then saying, "You touched my hand, Chuck." But later, after he's walked Marcie home and she's kissed him, Patty is indignant when Charlie Brown calls her up and thanks her for the kiss, prompting her to yell, "What goodnight kiss?!" She slams the phone down

and growls, "That Chuck! He's finally flipped!" At the end, as they're sitting under the same tree that they were at the beginning, she tells him, "Chuck, I want to apologize for saying that you're stupid and wishy-washy and everything. It's not easy for a girl to talk like this to a boy, you know." Charlie Brown responds, "I know. But I always used to think how nice it would be if that little red-haired girl would just come up to me and...", and that's all Patty can take, as she yells, strong enough to literally blow him away, "I can't stand you, Chuck!"

Marcie (voiced by James Ahrens) had only just recently been introduced in the comic strip when she made her first animated appearance here, and she immediately establishes her personality: a bit shy, very awkward, and not understanding a number of basic, everyday things, along with her habit of calling Peppermint Patty "sir," much to her annoyance. Like Charlie Brown, she dreads the field trip, but more because she's worried about everything that could possibly go wrong: "What if I get sick? What if I get lost? I hear you have to bring your lunch on a field trip. What about that, sir? What if I get out there and discover I left my lunch on the bus? What if I get on the wrong bus, and I end up downtown or something?" To calm her nerves, Peppermint Patty tells her about how the buddy-system is used on field trips and that she'll probably be her buddy. She also tells Marcie to come by her home that morning so they can walk to school together. That proves to be a big mistake, as when Marcie wakes up in the middle of the night, she thinks she overslept and runs over to Peppermint Patty's house, where it turns out to be 4:00 in the morning. Though Patty tells her to go home and come back later, Marcie opts to just stay with her, saying she can't go back to bed. During the "field trip," she's the only one who suspects they're in a supermarket (the one hint here of her true intelligence). When they come upon a big stack of tomato cans, which everyone else thinks is a sculpture, and describes it as such, Peppermint Patty admonishes her, saying, "What do you mean supermarket? That's pop art. What's the matter with you, Marcie? Don't you know pop art when you see it?" And when she and Sally are in the meat section, which the latter thinks is a display of dinosaur bones, Marcie, again, calls it out for what it really is. 

More than anything else, Marcie sees how Peppermint Patty likes Charlie Brown, and when she ends up insulting him, Marcie offers to come up with something to help. Notably, that night, when the three of them get together to compare notes and write their reports, Marcie, as Charlie Brown is walking her home, tells him that Patty really does like him. And when she kisses him goodnight, she tells him, "If you don't want that to be from me, Chuck, think of it as being a goodnight kiss from Peppermint Patty,
because I think she likes you." That leads him into mistakenly thanking Patty for the kiss. And at the end, when Patty blows up at Charlie Brown and sends him flying, Marcie shows up and says, "Well, sir, you said the wrong thing again, didn't you?" Patty then asks, "Kid, I want to ask you something. How come you're always calling me 'sir' when I keep asking you not to? Don't you realize how annoying that can be?", and Marcie, after thinking for a second, responds, "No, ma'am," which Patty doesn't seem to like the sound of, either.

Linus (voiced by Stephen Shea) and Lucy (voiced by Robin Kohn) spend nearly all of their scenes together (Schroeder, for the first time in any of these specials, isn't here, so Lucy likely doesn't have anywhere else to go). Their first scene is one of the special's funniest moments, where Linus lays out this problem, "A man has a daughter and a son. The son is three years older than the daughter. In one year, the man will be six times as old as the daughter is now; and in ten years, he'll be fourteen years older than the combined ages of his children. What is the man's present age?", and Lucy just stares at him and says, "I'm sorry. We are unable to complete your call. Please check the number and dial again." Shortly afterward, as Linus is doing his homework, he complains, "New math is too much for me." Lucy tells him, "You'll get on to it. It just takes time," and he responds, "Not me. I'll never get on to it. How can you do new math problems with an old math mind?" Notably, unlike Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty, Marcie, and Snoopy, Linus and Lucy manage to go into the art museum and often wonder where the former is. At one point, Lucy thinks she sees Charlie Brown, but it turns out to be a sculpture with a big, round sphere that looks a lot like his head. Lucy also complains about how the pictures, "Don't move," adding, "I'm not used to looking at pictures that don't move or have commercials." She then expects to see "Ramona Lisa" and tells Linus not to have any fun, as the trip is supposed to be "educational." Afterward, when the two of them and Charlie Brown are going over the pictures that Linus took at the museum, the latter realizes he was at the wrong place the whole time and feels he's doomed. But when he learns he got an A, and was actially the only one in his class who got one on his report, Linus is more than happy for him.

Sally (voiced by Hilary Momberger) is especially suffering from her school workload during the first act. The special starts with her waking up in the morning, realizing her alarm clock didn't go off, and as she and Charlie Brown walk to school afterward, he, of all people, talks about how she's so uptight and asks her why she doesn't just relax. Cut to her classroom, and she's literally standing up in her seat, asking, "Who can relax?" Throughout the first act, you see her, among other things, writing a report on agriculture, specifically on melon farming (she writes, "Melons have to be planted between May 15th and June 5th. I don't know what to do if you happen to be out of town. I'm glad I'm not a melon farmer,"), making a number of random guesses as to the answer to a problem (after spitting out various numbers between "2" and "12," she comes out and asks the teacher, "Do you have the feeling that I'm guessing?"), and, when asked by the teacher, "Who was the father of Henry IV?", getting so aggravated that she blurts out, "I could not possibly care less!" She then realizes what she just said and quickly apologizes, telling the teacher, "That was just a gut reaction." Like Charlie Brown, she's not thrilled about the field trip, but for very different reasons. As the two of them walk out of the house and to the bus stop, she rants, "I don't know why we have to go on field trips. Why can't we stay in school? Why should we bother the outside world? I think field trips are invented by school custodians to get us out of the building so they can clean it. Do you know what going on a field trip means? It means we ride about 10,000 miles on a bus and we all get sick." Once they're on the bus, she thinks to herself, "So, here I am, on a school bus with the whole class, going on a field trip. I'll probably get sick. I shoulda stayed home! That's what I shoulda done! I can see the headlines now: 'FIVE-YEAR OLD GIRL HIJACKS SCHOOL BUS!.'" She then actually yells aloud, "'Take me home!', she shouted," and then thinks back to herself, "Rats." When they finally get to the museum, Sally is unwilling to go in, but Charlie Brown, not wanting her to get lost, drags her inside and they wind up in the supermarket. In there, she mistakes a pile of tomato cans for a sculpture and the meat section for a display of dinosaur bones. After she and Marcie find Peppermint Patty snoozing in the aisle, Sally disappears until the penultimate scene, when she's walking home with Charlie Brown, Linus, and Lucy.

While he's not along for the field trip, Franklin (voiced by Todd Barbee) appears early on, sitting in front of Peppermint Patty in class, and the two of them have some nice back-and-forth about their assignments. When Patty gripes about having to do a science project, Franklin says, "I'm going to do mine on the various kinds of metals in the earth and how each has affected the progress of mankind." Patty retorts, "Maybe I'll do one on stomachaches." The second time we see them, Franklin is reading a book and tells Patty, "It's a book on psychology. From what I understand, it seems to be pretty good." However, Patty tells him, "Forget it, Franklin. No book on psychology can be any good if you can understand it." In their third scene, there's a switch, as Patty tells Franklin, "We're going to have to learn the metric system, Franklin. By the time we grow up, the metric system will probably be official. One inch is 2.54 centimeters, one foot is 0.3048 meters, and one mile is 1.609 kilometers," and he responds, "I'll never measure anything again, as long as I live." And in their final scene, Franklin complains about a problem he can't understand and Patty tells him, "Just put down 'eleven,' Franklin, and don't worry about it. That's what I did. X is almost always eleven, and Y is almost always nine. One thing I've learned about algebra: don't take it too seriously."

Snoopy (voiced by Bill Melendez) appears briefly during the first act, having sneaked into school using his Joe Cool persona. He lifts his sunglasses and winks at Violet, who promptly slaps the crap out of him and goes back to her work. He comes along with Charlie Brown and Sally on the field trip, and goes into the supermarket with them. Since they pass by a "NO DOGS ALLOWED" sign, you expect him to immediately get thrown out, but that never happens. Instead, he puts on an apron and starts checking out some customers, as well as inspects some of the fruits and vegetables, as one of Vince Guaraldi's "Joe Cool" songs plays on the soundtrack. Snoopy throws a tantrum when a tomato is easily squashed in his hand, is disgusted when he finds a can of cat-food among a bunch of groceries, and laughs while reading a magazine that's about housebreaking a pet. At one point, he pushes a shopping cart full of groceries (the bag he tried to put in it burst) into a line of them, only to get his foot stuck and then get knocked out the door. That's how Linus and Lucy find him when they come out of the museum, though neither of them seem to realize he's stuck. So, when they board the bus, he just drags the cart with him and takes it home.

In terms of animation, while There's No Time for Love doesn't have any real stand-out moments, you can still see, like in scenes where Charlie Brown freaks out in class, Marcie runs out of her room and house, and Snoopy complains while "working" at the supermarket, how the movements of the characters are much more fluid than they were when the specials began. But what really caught my eye was the technical sophistication of the moving background in some shots, specifically the exterior nighttime scenes. When the characters are walking to and from school
during the day, the entire background moves along with them, as per usual, as do objects in the foreground, like trees. But when Marcie rushes to Peppermint Patty's house in the middle of the night and when Charlie Brown walks her home following their studying together, the immediate background of the houses behind them moves, but the stars, clouds, and moon up in the sky remain still, as they would in real life. It may not seem like much to get excited about as I'm describing it, or from these static screenshots, but it's a very sophisticated technique that I don't remember seeing in the previous Peanuts cartoons or, if it was, it didn't stand out as much. 

Speaking of the backgrounds and the design of the environments, while there are the usual simplistic ones with little to no detail (like the various classrooms you see during the first seven or so minutes), some are actually quite well-designed. Besides the lovely backgrounds for the exterior daytime scenes and the tree that Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty sit under a couple of times (I would complain that the grass and leaves are too green for the time of year this is supposed to be, but whatever), the nighttime ones are, in my opinion, some of the
best seen in any of these specials since It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, with the look of the surrounding neighborhood and the full moon in the background when Charlie Brown is walking Marcie home. Interior-wise, the most elaborately designed are the art museum and the supermarket. The former, naturally, has all of its paintings and unique sculptures, as well as one shot of a bunch of kids gathered around the piece of art that Lucy initially mistakes for Charlie Brown. The supermarket,
meanwhile, is much more colorful than you might expect, with the fruits and vegetables section and the banners hanging from the ceiling, and there are a couple of detailed overhead shots showing the big stacks of cans and the aisles with banners that read "Sale" over them. Other interiors, like those of Marcie and Peppermint Patty's homes, give a hint of what their respective home-lives are like. While we never get a good look at the outside of Marcie's home, and don't see much when she gets up and runs out that

night, it's clear from the big staircase she runs down and the bookcase we partially see to its left that her house is quite large and her family is fairly well-to-do. Peppermint Patty's house, which we do see the outside of, is obviously more of a standard, middle-class home, and her bedroom is decorated with football team flags, an actual football, and so on, indicating how much she's into sports.

It goes without saying that, both in terms of drama and comedy, the Peanuts always work best when they're dealing with real-life issues that anyone can relate to, and that's certainly true of There's No Time for Love, which deals with the pressure and anxiety that comes with being in school. The first eight or so minutes alone get into it perfectly, with Sally waking up to find her alarm clock didn't go off, then fretting about school to the point where she's literally standing in her seat in class, Peppermint Patty complaining that she doesn't have any time for romance (that was
definitely true of the private high school I went to), and the kids each dealing with their own, individual schoolwork and anxieties, with Charlie Brown himself worrying about how he's gotten nothing but C's. Besides the moments I've already mentioned, you have scenes at school like Sally attempting to do show-and-tell, only for her buildup to take too long and the teacher to send her back to her desk, as she grumbles, "All the life has gone out of show-and-tell,"; Sally later reading her schoolwork, "Sets. One to one matching. Equivalent sets. Non-equivalent sets.

Sets of one. Sets of two. Renaming two. Subjects. Joining sets. Number. Sentences. Placeholders," until she finally breaks and yells, "All I wanna know is how much is two and two!"; Peppermint Patty, like Sally before her, confidently answering a question, only to get it wrong and comment, "The jury will please disregard that last statement,"; and Peppermint Patty, after reading a math problem just as tough as Sally's, commenting, "Well, I knew it would happen

sooner or later... My education has ground to a halt." And I, for one, can definitely relate to Charlie Brown fretting about having to do a report following a field trip, as I was never good at that kind of thing and wanted to die every time it came up.

In the midst of this, when Charlie Brown asks him, Linus sums up school in about the best way possible: "I think that the purpose of going to school is to get good grades, so then you can go on to high school; where the purpose is to study hard, so you can get good grades, so you can go to college. And the purpose of going to college is so you can get good grades, so you can go on to graduate school; and the purpose of that is to work hard and get good grades, so we can get a job and be successful, so we can get married and have kids, so we can send them to grammar school, to get good grades, so they can go to high school, to get good grades, so they can go to college and work hard..." Charlie Brown then lets out an exasperated, "Good grief!"

While it is similar to Play It Again, Charlie Brown, in that it starts out with a bunch of randomness before getting into an actual plot, I think There's No Time for Love does it better, in that the plot actually comes around while we're still in the first act, and the aforementioned randomness is better connected and builds up to it. However, in terms of humor, I think the section at the museum and supermarket is kind of lacking. While it is funny that they think they're in the museum, are shocked that it seems to be selling off part of its collection so it can stay in business (Charlie
Brown says, "They must be desperate. They're practically giving this stuff away!"), and think that stacks of cans and the meat market are exhibits, it starts to run of steam; fortunately, though, they don't spend much more time there than necessary. And, while certainly harmless, the sequence with Snoopy working in the store and getting his foot caught in the shopping cart feels like it was put in to pad out the runtime just a little bit, as it serves no purpose besides giving him at least one stand out scene. I wish they

instead devoted more time to Linus and Lucy wandering around the actual museum, as I thought the little bit of that we do get was rather funny in and of itself. But once that section is gone by, I feel that the rest of it runs smoothly, as I like the comedy with Peppermint Patty trying to flirt with Charlie Brown, only for him to drive her up the wall with his obliviousness, and I think it's both funny and nice that Charlie Brown ends up getting the only A in the whole class on his report, with his dumb luck being something that the teacher thought was a brilliantly unique way of looking at things.

As he often did with the music, Vince Guaraldi came up with a title theme for There's No Time for Love, Charlie Brown that you first hear when the actual title comes up and which you hear sporadically throughout the actual cartoon, in different versions. You first hear it in a sort of synthesizer version, then in a combination piano/guitar version for the scene where Charlie Brown and Linus are walking home from school; an electric keyboard version for when Peppermint Patty calls Charlie Brown up about their working together on their field trip reports and on through their working together, him walking Marcie home, and then calling Peppermint Patty up about that goodnight kiss; a brass version during the last scene under the tree; and a final, high-energy guitar version for the ending credits. Another memorable part of the score is called Pitkin County Blues, which plays during the montage of the kids dealing with the onslaught of schoolwork at the beginning, and perfectly captures the frenzied, stressed out mood they find themselves in. There's also this theme called African Sleigh Ride, which plays during the latter part of the kids wandering around both the museum and supermarket, and which has a sort of Christmas vibe to it, with the sound of sleigh bells in the background, but with a smooth, mellow jazz beat on top of it. And as he'd done for You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown, Guaraldi himself sings a "Joe Cool" song for Snoopy. It's the same melody as it was before, only the lyrics are different, talking about how he's working in a supermarket and telling him to be careful of the manager, to get the prices right, and so on. Besides using the classic Linus and Lucy theme a couple of times and Peppermint Patty's theme from before, you also hear some of the music that the combo from Play It Again, Charlie Brown played when Charlie Brown, Sally, and Snoopy go to the bus stop and arrive at their destination.

In conclusion, while There's No Time for Love, Charlie Brown may not have been appropriate for Valentine's Day, despite its title, it is very enjoyable. The humor and situations are both fairly funny and very relatable to anyone who was ever stressed out about school, the character of Marcie has a very nice first appearance, all of the major characters here manage to have their standout moments, the animation is still good, the art direction and backgrounds are nicely-detailed and even very colorful in some cases, the music score is memorable, as usual, and despite the typical hurdles he's go through, it's nice that something good happens to Charlie Brown at the end. While the humor during the sequence where the kids are at the museum/supermarket does start to wear a tad thin, it doesn't overstay its welcome, and the story structure is similar to Play It Again, Charlie Brown, only done better. Definitely a Peanuts special you may want to check out if you haven't already.

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Play It Again, Charlie Brown (1971)

I realized recently that it's nearly been three whole years since my last Peanuts review, so I figured it was about time for them to make a resurgence. Having done all of the major holiday-themed ones, as well as a number of the others either because I figured they were gold, for one reason or another, or just for the heck of it, I think I'm now going to, more or less, go in chronological order with those I haven't done yet. Thus, by process of elimination, our next one is this item, which happens to be the first Peanuts special of the 70's. Definitely one of the most least discussed, as I myself had never heard of it until I picked up that Peanuts 1970's Collection Vol 1. DVD set... and there's a fairly good reason for that. While it is significant in several other ways, in that the entire voice cast from the previous specials were replaced, having grown out of their roles (save for Bill Melendez as Snoopy, of course), and this is also the first one to focus on other characters besides Charlie Brown and Snoopy (despite what that cover may have you think, they have very minor supporting roles here), there's not much to this one. There's no semblance of an actual plot until very late within it, as it mostly focuses on Lucy annoying Schroeder while he's playing his piano, as she always does, with the other Peanuts characters getting randomly caught up in it. And then, when the actual conflict comes up, it's so late in the game and things have to be wrapped up so quickly, that it makes you wonder why they felt it was necessary to put this to animation in the first place.

While playing his beloved Beethoven on his piano, Schroeder is distracted, first by sudden and unwelcome images of Lucy in his head, and then when Snoopy walks in and not so subtly suggests his playing is boring. Next, Lucy herself comes in to flirt with and try to get him to pay attention to her, with the expected dismal results. She's so desperate that she takes advice from Sally, Charlie Brown, and even Snoopy, and, again, each attempt blows up in her face. But then, Peppermint Patty suggests that she ask Schroeder to make his first public performance and play at an upcoming PTA benefit that she's organizing entertainment for. Convinced that this will finally make him see her in a good light, Lucy does so and Schroeder, with his usual reserve, accepts and starts practicing. Lucy is over the moon about how he actually said "thank you" to her, but when she meets Peppermint Patty again, she only then breaks it to Lucy that the benefit is going to consist of rock and roll, and Beethoven simply won't do. Lucy is now crestfallen, knowing that Schroeder will never accept such conditions, and Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and Pig-Pen try to help by putting together a combo to act as back-up for Schroeder. When he learns of this, Schroeder, as expected, refuses to do it, but Charlie Brown manages to coerce him into it. However, while rehearsing, Schroeder feels that he's sold out, a feeling that's likely to doom both the benefit and everyone who's counting on him.

Though the last Peanuts special, which he, of course, directed, was 1969's It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown, Bill Melendez was far from idle during the year-and-a-half or so between it and Play It Again. The same year as Short Summer, the first feature film based on the Peanuts, A Boy Named Charlie Brown, was released and was quite successful, both critically and commercially. Also, before Play It Again, Melendez, occasionally stretching himself beyond the Peanuts, directed a short called The Rainbow Bear, although it was apparently just five minutes long and I couldn't find any other information on it. And following Play It Again, he would direct the TV movie, Babar Comes to America, having already done the 1968 film, The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant, before moving on to the second Peanuts movie, Snoopy Come Home.

Lucy (voiced by Pamelyn Ferdin) is truly the main character here, even more than Schroeder. As I've said, much of the special is made up of the usual shtick of her going over to Schroeder's house and annoying him while he's trying to play his piano. When she first walks in, she manages to make him blush by saying he has pretty eyes, but then, she sends him on a rant when she asks, "Do piano players make a lot of money?", insisting that it's all about the art for him. Her response to that? She leans across the piano and says, "You fascinate me," much to his consternation. After that, both her and Frieda annoy him together when they show up, lean on his piano, and talk about Beethoven as if it's a drink you order at a bar. That's when Lucy starts taking advice from various people about how to get his attention. First, when Sally tells her, "I've found out that the only way to attract older men is to flatter them. They really like to be flattered. They really seem to need it," she goes back to Schroeder, tells him he's cute, and that she's going to hug him and kiss him... and he doesn't respond at all, instead continuing to play, as she notes, "That's real concentration." She then asks if he knows what love is and he quotes the exact definition of it in the dictionary before, again, going right back to playing. She goes on to say, "I guess I'm the kind of person who is kind of hard to get to know, My personality doesn't lie right on the surface. The real me is deep. But I'm well worth all the time it takes to understand me. In other words, to know me is to love me." That sends Schroeder running off, leaving her alone to sigh in disappointment. 

Lucy next "talks to" Charlie Brown but, in reality, she doesn't give him a chance to say anything, instead working through it herself and deciding to act more "reserved" about her feelings. Her idea of being reserved is to walk in on Schroeder with a feather duster, tell him, "If we were married, Schroeder, I'd come in every morning with my feather-duster and I'd dust the top of your piano, then I'd dust the keys, and then, just before I'd leave the room, I'd lean over with my feather-duster, and with a coy look on my face, I'd sort of go..." then tickle his nose with it and go, "Kitchy, kitchy, kitchy." Schroeder gives her a very
angry glare over that, and though she gets rid of the feather duster, as well as gets him to admit that he doesn't like her, that doesn't stop her from talking about the two of them getting married. Even when he says he can't conceive of that ever being the case, she tries to subtly suggest that he lean over and kiss her. She does get a kiss, but from Snoopy, who walked in while she wasn't looking and which, as always, disgusts her. Yet, in the next scene, Lucy has an interesting role reversal in that she sits on the stool outside of her own psychiatric booth (she grumbles to herself, "If the girls in Women's Lib ever found out
how I'd throw myself at that man, they'd take away my life membership,"), while Snoopy is the one who gives her advice. Said advice is to just go in and kiss him, which she does... and that sends Schroeder running off yelling about being poisoned, the same way she does when Snoopy kisses her. After that, she and Sally run into Peppermint Patty, who gives Lucy the seemingly perfect way to endear herself to Schroeder by telling him he's to play at the PTA benefit. When she does tell him, all he says is, "Well, that's very nice, Lucy. Thank you. I'd better start practicing right away," and goes back to playing like normal, but the fact that he said "thank you" is

enough to put Lucy in such a good mood that she runs out of the house, yelling happily, and hugs both Snoopy and Charlie Brown really tight. But, when she tells Peppermint Patty about it, she learns that Schroeder will have to play something other than Beethoven, namely rock. Instantly, Lucy's hopes are dashed, as she knows Schroeder will never accept this. There does seem to be some hope when she hears how nice Charlie Brown, Pig-Pen, and Snoopy sound when playing in their combo, and Schroeder does begrudgingly agree to it. But, in the end, he backs out, citing artistic integrity, and devastates everybody, especially Lucy.

As I've said, Schroeder (voiced by Danny Hjelm) is mostly a reactionary character here, dealing with Lucy and others bugging him while he's playing his piano. Up until he learns of the PTA benefit, he's not playing for any reason other than for himself. It's something he takes very seriously, as when Lucy asks him how much money piano players make, he exclaims, "Money?! Who cares about money?! This is art! This is great music I'm playing! And playing great music is an art! Do you hear me?! An art!" He then pounds his fist on his piano for emphasis and chants, "Art, art, art, art, art!" He also tries to ignore her and others who come in, like Snoopy and Frieda, concentrating on his playing, and for the most part, he's successful, although he does sometimes lose his patience, especially with Lucy. Speaking of whom, when she asks if he doesn't like her, he bluntly says, "No. I never have liked you. And I doubt very much if I ever will like you." That doesn't stop her from talking about their being married some day, to which he says, "I can't comprehend what you're saying... No. I can't comprehend that. I can't conceive of that ever happening." Still undeterred, Lucy not so subtly suggests he lean over and kiss her, which makes him give up and walk off. And when she herself leans in and kisses him on the nose, he reacts the way she does when Snoopy kisses her, yelling, "Aaugh! I've been kissed by a girl! Aaugh! I've been poisoned! Get some iodine, get some hot water!", and running off in a panic. But, when she tells him how she's arranged for him to play at the PTA benefit, Schroeder, for probably the first time ever, is grateful to Lucy and begins practicing (like he needs to).

But, as Lucy and the others fretted, when Schroeder learns that Beethoven won't be allowed at the benefit and that he'll have to play rock, he reacts with utter disdain, exclaiming, "Rock?! Me?! Play rock?! If that's the way they feel, just tell them to forget it." Charlie Brown, Pig-Pen, and Snoopy are horrified at this, and Charlie Brown tells Schroeder that he can't let down his friends, while Lucy reminds him that it's his public debut. With that, he reluctantly agrees to go through with it, and brings his piano to the spot, as the others are tuning up. His mood doesn't improve when Lucy complains about his piano having
nowhere to plug in the amplifier, and when he plays the actual music, even though he does it well, save for when he pounds the keys in frustration, he grumbles, "I've sold out. Like everybody else, I've sold out." He has a full on personal crisis over this notion, as he's then seen back in his home, lamenting to a bust of Beethoven himself about it, as well as how the others are depending on them. In the end, he decides that artistic integrity is more important, and breaks it to everybody at the benefit that he's not going to go through it, leading them all to forlornly yell, "Aaugh!" Personally, I don't see why Charlie Brown, Pig-Pen, and Snoopy couldn't just perform by
themselves, as they were doing perfectly fine without Schroeder, but, in any case, at the end of the special, he's back to playing Beethoven. However, Lucy shows up again to annoy him one last time, and this time, she goes for a fairly low blow: "Beethoven never would've made it in Nashville." That outright offends Schroeder, who stops playing and demands she clarify what she meant. She says, "Did he have the Nashville sound? Huh?! Did he?! Did he?!" Insulted, he gets up and walks away, while Lucy adds, "He probably wouldn't have made it in New Orleans, either!"

Unlike his sister, Linus (voiced by Stephen Shea) only appears in a couple of scenes, the first of which is at the beginning, when he joins Snoopy in his happy dancing after listening to Schroeder play Beethoven. Lucy tries to act like a killjoy about this, telling Linus, "If you keep on hanging around with that stupid dog, Linus, you'll end up just as worthless as he is! You'll be nothing! Do you hear me? You'll be nothing!", but he just tells her, "Five hundred years from now, who'll know the difference?!" His other scene is when he comes across Sally (voiced by Hilary Momberger), who's in a lousy mood because

she couldn't jump rope successfully, and indulges her when she grumbles that she's mad at the whole world, pointing out every single thing she claims she's mad at. Unfortunately for him, she then says that she loves him, much to his embarrassment. Speaking of Sally, she has a slightly bigger role, as when Lucy shows up and complains about Schroeder, Sally suggests that she flatter him, saying it's the best way to attract older men. The whole time she's saying this, Sally is motioning towards Linus, who finally decides he can take no more and walks offscreen and out of the special. Later, Sally is walking with Lucy when they run into Peppermint Patty (voiced by Christopher DeFaria), whom she suggests Lucy talk to, saying, "She always seems to come up with answers to problems." (Sally apparently hasn't been around Peppermint Patty that much.) In any case, when Patty learns what's going on, she comes up with the idea of having Lucy tell Schroeder that he should play his piano at the PTA benefit. It seems like a good idea, and it goes well when Lucy tells him, but it's only then that Patty bothers to tell Lucy that they're expecting rock music rather than Beethoven. Lucy tries to tell her that this won't sit well with Schroeder, but she blows her off, saying he'll understand. Of course, he doesn't, and right before the benefit, Patty frets about their not having any entertainment. Lucy then comes up with an unorthodox solution: PTA programs in a spray can (I'll explain later).

Charlie Brown's (voiced by Chris Inglis) first appearance in this 24-minute special doesn't come until just after the 8-minute mark, when he's walking with Lucy as she tells him of her problems with Schroeder and what she wants out of him. She asks Charlie Brown to give her some advice but he barely gets a word out, as she herself decides what she needs to do to get Schroeder's attention, yet still acts like it's Charlie Brown's idea. Later, when Lucy, ecstatic that Schroeder actually thanked her for getting him the gig at the PTA benefit, happily hugs Charlie Brown, he says to himself, "Somehow, I never quite know what's going on." He gets the big picture when, shortly afterward, she tells him of the dilemma she now has with Schroeder and the benefit, and he comes up with the idea of getting together the combo that he, Pig-Pen, and Snoopy make up to convince Schroeder to play something other than Beethoven. His most significant moment is when he coerces Schroeder into playing the benefit for everyone else's sake, but, of course, that doesn't last too long.

Snoopy actually has a bit more to do here than Charlie Brown. Before Lucy shows up for the first time, he walks in on Schroeder, sits atop his piano, and suggests that the music is boring by yawning and snoring, before lying down on the piano like he does on his doghouse. However, after the title screen, Snoopy seems to get more into it. After kissing at Schroeder's nose, he literally floats up into the air and out the door, with Schroeder noting, "You never know how Beethoven is going to affect someone." Snoopy proceeds to get Linus to dance along with him on the sidewalk, much to Lucy's derision, although neither of them pay much attention to her. Snoopy even smooches at her as he leaves with Linus, a prelude to when, after Lucy runs Schroeder off following the moment with the feather duster, Snoopy walks in and kisses her on the ear. As usual, Lucy is initially happy about this, only to run off in disgust when she realizes it was Snoopy. Snoopy is genuinely irked by this, and in the next scene, when he and Lucy end up switching places at the latter's psychiatrist booth, he frowns again when she complains about him kissing her, saying that she hates dog germs. However, he still gives her some of his own advice concerning Schroeder, which is to just walk in and kiss him (I have a feeling he deliberately gave her a suggestion that he knew wouldn't work as payback). He also charges her a nickle for it, just like she does. Finally, in the combo, while Charlie Brown plays the guitar and Pig-Pen the drums, Snoopy strums on a big, upright bass, which he really enjoys. Notably, when Schroeder initially says he's not going to play rock at the benefit, Snoopy is not only as distraught as Charlie Brown and Pig-Pen but seems legitimately angry at Schroeder, glaring at him as Charlie Brown tries to talk him into it. And he's just as bummed as everybody else when Schroeder backs out of the benefit at the last minute.

Frieda (voiced by Lynda Mendelson) appears in one scene when she walks in and, like Lucy, leans against the back of Schroeder's piano. She comments, "Schroeder, I think it's disgraceful the way Lucy bothers you, and she's always asking everyone, 'Why does he always have to play that stupid piano?' I think that's terrible," only to then turn around and ask, " Incidentally, why do you always have to play this stupid piano?" Schroeder doesn't respond to her, when Lucy shows up and they have this exchange as she sits down beside Frieda: "What're you doing here?" "Who wants to know? Maybe I just like music." "Do

you like Beethoven?" "What?" "If you're gonna hang around here, you gotta like Beethoven." "Alright, but I'll just have a small glass." That pushes Schroeder past his limit and he pulls his piano out from under them, causing them to fall back hard on the floor. Lucy tells Frieda, "You blew it, kid." And while Pig-Pen appears here as the combo's drummer, kicking up a lot of dust when he's rocking out on them, he doesn't make a sound, save for when he yells at Schroeder refusing to do the PTA benefit, and even then, it's just a copy of Chris Inglis yelling as Charlie Brown.

As I've said in my reviews of past Peanuts specials, you can really see the evolution and improvement in the animation style as they went on. In fact, the previous special, It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown, made just four years after the sometimes rather rickety A Charlie Brown Christmas, had what Charles Schulz himself felt was the best animation out of any of them. Play It Again's animation isn't quite up to that level, as there are some instances of choppiness, like in some of the close-ups of Schroeder playing at the beginning, and some lingering hints of that prototypical character animation and expressions from the first few specials,
but it still has some truly fluid moments. Chief among them are when Snoopy and Linus are dancing together at the beginning, Sally is jumping rope, Schroeder runs off after Lucy kisses him on the nose, Lucy gets all excited when he actually thanks her, and when Charlie Brown, Pig-Pen, and Snoopy are playing in their combo and Lucy dances to the music. The close-ups of the boys playing, with Charlie Brown rocking out on his guitar, Snoopy climbing up and down the bass as he plays, at one point flashing a quick smile at the audience, and Pig-Pen banging those drums, are some really good stuff, as it is when you see Snoopy fooling around with his bass before

the benefit. Stylistically, while the special sticks to the expected simplicity of the backgrounds and environments, with the scenes of Lucy and Schroeder in the latter's house often looking like they're sitting in a completely red or orange void (it's sometimes so red that the piano is a bit hard to make out, as is Schroeder's blush when Lucy tells him he's cute early on), there are some scenes that have more detail to them. The one that comes to mind is when Lucy talks with Charlie Brown at that familiar stone wall, with a very lovely orange, late afternoon sky in the background, and with an appropriate color scheme to boot. Also, while it's not terribly detailed, it's still interesting when Schroeder's home actually looks like a house, especially with that shelf housing a bust of Beethoven next to his chair.

The special also gets a bit stylistic with some of its imagery and humor, like during the opening, when we first see Schroeder playing. The musical notes appear above the piano as he plays, just as both the opening and ending credits do, but then, as he continues, Lucy's face suddenly appears in the middle of them. It takes a bit but Schroeder does finally notice this and comments, "Don't tell me I've grown accustomed to that face." Later, when Lucy asks him if he knows what love is, Schroeder not only gives a dictionary perfect definition of it, but said entry appears as text above them as he says it. However, there's also a gag that, for some, is a bit too fantastical for this series.
During her and Schroeder's first scene together, Lucy suddenly pulls out a spray-can and when, she sprays, it emits the sound of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. She tells him, "Beethoven now comes in spray cans!" Schroeder isn't amused by this and gestures for her to get out. This comes back around at the end, when he backs out of performing at the PTA benefit and Peppermint Patty frets that they don't have any entertainment. Lucy brings out more of those spray-cans, which emit the sounds of an actual PTA meeting (you actually hear an adult voice, rather than the traditional "wa, wa, wa" sound, which could be the

first time that ever happened in this franchise). She says, "PTA programs also come in spray-cans," then adds, "Now, here's the entertainment," and music comes out of one can when she sprays. Again, I've seen some complain that they feel these gags hurt the grounded, relatable nature of the series but it doesn't bother me, because you'd then have to complain about Snoopy and Woodstock being as anthropomorphized as they are.

The humor is not my personal issue here; it's that, as I said in the intro, Play It Again, Charlie Brown has very little in the way of a story. You can say that about a number of Peanuts specials, as they're sometimes little more than a series of vignettes strung together, but you really feel it here. The first half or so focuses on Lucy's attempts to get Schroeder to pay attention to her, which add up to little more than a bunch of random scenes, with other characters thrown in occasionally. There are also some stretches of no dialogue, instead focusing entirely on Schroeder's playing, like at the very beginning and when Snoopy walks in on him. Notably, during the first scene with
him and Lucy, there are about thirty full seconds of her leaning on his piano as he plays. It looks as though she's going to turn around and say something to him at one point, but she turns back around, and a little more time passes before she finally does next speak to him. The same also goes for when the combo plays and Lucy finds herself dancing to the music. On the one hand, it's nice to see a cartoon that's not throwing something at you every other second, but it also feels like padding because they don't have much material to work with. Then, with only eleven minutes left in the special, we get the moment where
Peppermint Patty suggests that Lucy get Schroeder to play at the benefit, leading to the conflict of him being torn between sticking to his principles or coming through for his friends. To be fair, the notion of him hating the idea of a musician selling out is set up near the beginning, when he goes on that rant when Lucy asks him how much money there is in being a pianist, so there is some depth to it, but, again, the conflict is over about as soon as it's introduced. While the message of not compromising yourself or what you believe in is certainly not a bad one to teach kids, a lot more could've been done with it.

While it still features music by Vince Guaraldi and company (though none of the familiar Peanuts themes), much of the special's soundtrack is made up of various works by Beethoven, including eight sonatas (all of them performed by Lillian Steuber), as well as the Fifth Symphony. The rest of the music is comprised of a really rocking title theme by Guaraldi, which you first hear when Sally unsuccessfully tries to jump rope, as well as in a slow, melancholic version when Schroeder is debating about whether or not he should perform, and during the ending credits; an upbeat, jazzy piece by John Scott Trotter for when Snoopy dances with Linus; much more familiar Guaraldi-style music for the scene between Lucy and Charlie Brown, when Snoopy gives her advice (that track is officially called "Lucifer's Lady"), and when Lucy is ecstatic; an electric band version of Peppermint Patty's theme for her first appearance; and the nice rock and roll bit that the combo plays, also by Trotter, who arranged and conducted the score, and was nominated for an Emmy for his work.

Play It Again, Charlie Brown certainly isn't bad but there's a reason why you don't hear many people talking about it. There's just not much to it, with the first half comprising Lucy's repeatedly failed attempts to get Schroeder to notice her, and the third act finally having a bit of conflict and a personal dilemma on Schroeder's part, which is resolved almost immediately. There are some funny moments, as well as some good animation and style, and if you like classical music, you'll get plenty of well-played performances of Beethoven's work, along with the expected good work that Vince Guaraldi always composed, but don't go into it expecting anything truly special.