Happy New Year, Charlie Brown (1986)

I've intended to do this one for a couple of years now but I could never find a place to watch it online and it's not part of any of the Peanuts collections I own. (In fact, because the only streams of it seem to have been taken from a VHS rip, I thought it was never released outside of that format but, no, it has been put on both DVD and Blu-Ray as supplementary features.) When I finally did watch it, I realized that I'd seen a little bit of it in an advertisement for various Peanuts videotapes on the VHS of Donkey Kong Country: Legend of the Crystal Coconut, which I got for Christmas in 1999; I specifically remembered clips of Charlie Brown sitting next to Peppermint Patty, who asks him, "What do you think, Chuck?", him tripping over a book while Patty appeared to be rushing towards him (turns out, they were taking dancing lessons), and Lucy not being at all happy when Snoopy sniffed her glass of root-beer when she wasn't looking. Other than that, didn't have any true gateway into it, as this is one of the least talked about Peanuts specials, even though it was among those that was aired annually, but upon watching it, I think it's pretty decent. It's nothing amazing but it's enjoyable to watch, has some pretty entertaining moments and catchy songs, and while Charlie Brown, as usual, gets the short end of the stick and is screwed out of a chance of happiness, it's not in a manner that's mean-spirited or depressing. What's more, this special can sort of be seen as another Christmas-related Peanuts cartoon, as the story takes place across the span of the kids' Christmas break (although, the holiday itself is glossed over).

Charlie Brown is looking forward to a nice Christmas break, but his hopes are all but dashed when he gets assigned the unenviable task of reading and doing a book report on War and Peace. Not only is it slow-going in his reading of the massive book, he's further distracted by Peppermint Patty and Marcie's putting together a New Year's Eve party that the former continually presses him to attend. Try as he might, Charlie Brown is unable to balance his assignment with the upcoming shindig, and gets dragged into dance class by Patty, where he badly embarrasses himself. He attempts to create something of a silver lining for himself by inviting the Little Red-Haired Girl, Heather, to the party, but even doing that proves to be a massive pain and disappointment. Come the night of the party, he brings his book with him and tries to get some reading done but, of course, there's little chance of that happening, as he plays musical chairs with the others and is pestered by Peppermint Patty, who really wanted him to be there, a fact he's completely oblivious of. Moreover, he's so focused on his assignment that he may end up missing his chance to dance with the Little Red-Haired Girl altogether.

This is one of a handful of Peanuts specials directed in some measure by Sam Jaimes. Here, he's a co-director with Bill Melendez, but before this, he'd acted as a sequence director on It's an Adventure, Charlie Brown, and had directed some segments of The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show, as well as directed the animation sequences for the 1985 documentary, It's Your 20th Television Anniversary, Charlie Brown. The first Peanuts cartoon he directed in full was 1984's It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown, and that set something of a precedent for Jaimes, as he directed some of the more eyebrow-raising specials, like You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Snoopy: The Musical, both of which feature a number of songs, and Why, Charlie Brown, Why?, the special that tackles the subject of cancer. But, the final special he directed was definitely the most unorthodox: It's Spring Training, Charlie Brown, i.e. the one with a lot of grunge music on the soundtrack that features Franklin rapping. Look up my review of that one if you want to know more.

Assigning elementary school kids to read and write about an enormous book like War and Peace is cruel and unusual in and of itself, but here, it seems as though Charlie Brown (voiced by Chad Allen) is the only one in his class who has to do it, as none of the other kids mention it. It's as if his teacher deliberately went out of her way to ensure that his Christmas break would be absolutely miserable and, if so, she gets her wish, as he struggles to even read the writing on the inside of the dust jacket. When he ends up at dance class some time later, he tells Peppermint Patty he's only made it to page five! Speaking of which, because of this B.S. assignment, Charlie Brown can't get excited about or enjoy the New Year festivities Peppermint Patty and Marcie put on, which are compounded by the former ignoring his grievances and dragging him into them. Not only is he a complete klutz at dance class, but when he goes to the New Year's Eve party, he brings along the book but gets little reading done. He also loses at a game of musical chairs (which especially sucks, as it eventually came down to just him and Peppermint Patty), Lucy tells him there's no point in his New Year's resolution of trying to be a changed person, and he falls asleep outside on the porch while reading. Worst of all, after going through the ordeal of inviting the Little Red-Haired Girl, Heather, to the party, which involved him getting his hand stuck in her mail slot, his falling asleep causes him to miss the opportunity to dance with her when she actually shows up, a fact that devastates him when he learns about it. When he does wake up after midnight, he receives a verbal lashing from both Peppermint Patty, who's mad about his leaving her with no one to be with come, and Sally because Linus was the one who danced with Heather. And to top it all off, when it comes time to go back to school, Charlie Brown only managed to finish reading the book and write his report the night before, receiving the lousy grade of a D- as a result... and then, he learns he next has to read Crime and Punishment.

As per usual, Peppermint Patty (voiced by Kristie Baker) unintentionally causes Charlie Brown nothing but grief, as she ropes him into taking part in her and Marcie's New Year's Eve party, totally ignoring him when he tries to tell her of his personal dilemma. This is an instance where she has a very obvious crush on him, as she tells him the party is his chance to invite the girl of his choice, adding, "And I guess we know who that will be!", happily pulls him into learning to do the foxtrot at dance class, and is really irked when, while trying to not so subtly suggest that he pick her as his date, he mentions he'd like to go with the Little Red-Haired Girl. Though she then says that she couldn't care less if he comes to the party or not, when he does, she says he clearly wants to begin the New Year with her... only to become angry again when he says he was hoping the Little Red-Haired Girl would show up. Despite this, she begrudgingly allows him to play musical chairs with them and later, joins him outside on the porch, acting flirtatious with him about his possibly being with her when midnight strikes. After he rattles off some weird "rules" about living in the New Year, she goes back inside with Snoopy to watch the countdown on TV and ends up being by herself when the New Year begins, which she gives Charlie Brown an earful over.

As usual with Peppermint Patty, Marcie (voiced by Jason Mendelson) is here as well, although her role is fairly limited. She's first seen dancing with Snoopy during the foxtrot lesson and, at the party, shows some regret that Charlie Brown doesn't appear to be coming. When they play musical chairs, she's the second one out, though she's not as embarrassed about it as the others, who all blush. And after midnight strikes and Charlie Brown is left feeling down following his missing out on dancing with the Little Red-Haired Girl and getting a verbal lashing by both Peppermint Patty and Sally, Marcie is the one who kisses him on the cheek, telling him, "Happy New Year, Charles."

As is often the case, Linus' (voiced by Jeremy Miller) attempts to encourage and brighten Charlie Brown's spirits over his predicament ultimately make him feel worse. When he complains about the length of War and Peace, Linus feels the need to tell him how Leo Tolstoy's wife had to copy it seven times by candlelight and with a dip pen, trying to say that his being unable to read it one time is nothing in comparison, but that does nothing to make him feel better. When Charlie Brown attempts to find an easier way to read the book, be it a comic or an audio recording, Linus suggests he ask for a film strip but he strikes out there as well. And when he wants to give the Little Red-Haired Girl an invitation but is afraid his hand will get caught in the mail slot, Linus tells him it's a ridiculous thing to worry about... and when he does it, that's exactly what happens to him. Linus also deals with Sally's usual unwanted advances, including her calling him her "sweet babboo" and hoping he'll invite her to the party as her date. Each time, Linus proclaims that he's not her sweet babboo, that he wouldn't take her to a chicken race or a garage sale, and that he couldn't care less if she went with someone else. At the New Year's Eve party, Linus is the one who dances with the Little Red-Haired Girl when she arrives, unbeknownst to Charlie Brown, who dozed off on the porch. Again, Linus is rather clueless and adds to his grief, remarking on what a good dancer Heather is. Finally, he closes the special by telling Charlie Brown, who's already down because of the bad grade he got on his War and Peace paper, that their next book is going to be Crime and Punishment, which causes him to collapse to the floor.

Lucy (voiced by Melissa Guzzi) only has a couple of noteworthy scenes in this special, the first of which is when she retaliates against Linus throwing a snowball at her by bowling over both him and Charlie Brown with an enormous one she creates. As you'd expect, as Sally does with Linus, she bugs Schroeder about asking her to the party, only to be turned down when he says that musicians don't dance and that he'll be playing his piano at the party regardless. Later, as midnight approaches, Lucy nicely pours Charlie Brown a root beer, but when he declares his New Year's resolution to change his ways and become "strong and firm," she tells him there's no point and that he'll always be wishy-washy. Before the conversation can go any further, Lucy realizes that Snoopy was sniffing in the glass of root beer she was holding off to the side and goes on a tirade, ranting about how it's now probably full of dog germs. She even goes as far as to pour the root beer into a small dish and look at it with binoculars, declaring that she can see the dog germs with them.

Sally (voiced by Elizabeth Lyn Fraser) spends all of her screentime pining for Linus to ask her to the New Year's Eve party, responding to his exclaims that he's not her sweet babboo with, "Isn't he the cutest thing?" Later, when the party draws near, she actually "threatens" to go with someone else if he doesn't ask her soon, an opportunity he's more than willing to give her. Despite his hostility towards her, the two of them are shown clinking their glasses of root beer together and drinking a toast when it gets close to midnight, only for Linus to walk away and end up dancing with the Little Red-Haired Girl when she arrives. This does not sit well with Sally, who admonishes Charlie Brown for allowing Linus to dance with Heather rather than her.

For the most part, Snoopy and Woodstock are both relegated to little more than cameo appearances here. Narrative-wise, they're both seen taking part in the dance lesson, with Snoopy dancing with Marcie while Woodstock does so with another of his species. The night before New Year's Eve, they're seen getting ready, putting on tuxedos and top hats, playing with party favors, and then trading in their top hats for party hats. As Charlie Brown lies in bed, lamenting how the Little Red-Haired Girl never answered his letter and how much fun people will be having the following night, he sees Snoopy and Woodstock looking through the window at him before going on their way, noting how some are ready to party a day ahead of time. At the party, Snoopy, after acting as part of a small band, gets into some mischief, namely when he sniffs Lucy's glass of root beer when she's not looking, something Charlie Brown tells him he should never do, gives Peppermint Patty a congratulations kiss when she wins at musical chairs, and later invites her to watch the countdown to midnight on TV. After the clock has struck twelve and just about everyone is celebrating, Snoopy notes how Woodstock and two of his bird friends are carrying around signs that each have one of the words for "Happy New Year" written on them, except they're holding them in the wrong order. A snarl from Snoopy makes them line up correctly.

Other members of the Peanuts gang who appear include Schroeder (voiced by Aron Mandelbaum), who acts as part of a small band at the party, with Snoopy on trumpet, Franklin on guitar, and Pig-Pen on the bass, and Violet and Patty can be seen at the party as well, although they don't have any lines. Notably, this is a rare instance where you actually see the Little Red-Haired Girl, Heather, who was first seen and named in 1977's It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown. Although she doesn't

answer Charlie Brown's invitation to the party, she does show up, but because he had the bad luck of falling asleep outside on the porch, she ended up dancing with Linus instead, something that devastates Charlie Brown when he learns about it. And finally, Rerun appears in one scene, when Linus and Lucy are blowing up balloons for the party. He decides to help them but, for some reason, whenever he inflates a balloon, it becomes square in shape. Linus tries to teach him how to blow them up so they become circular but nothing works, even when he has Rerun blow up a balloon that's divided into segments.

In the same vein as the Christmas-related Peanuts special, Happy New Year, Charlie Brown has plenty of lovely, snow-covered exterior scenes, with a definite feeling that it's rather chilly out, and there are also some of those always welcome, lovely shots of purplish wintertime evenings and early mornings. In addition, there are plenty of colorful interior scenes, specifically the inside of Peppermint Patty's house where the New Year's Eve party is held, which is full of hordes of dancing kids, as well as brightly-colored balloons in the scene with Rerun. The most

memorable interior in the special, however, is the dance studio, with its baby-blue walls, drawings of people dancing, and the dance steps on the floor, looking like the type of a place you don't usually see in a Peanuts cartoon (whenever I would see the clip of it in that advertisement, I always though they were in some kind of fun-house; of course, when I first saw that clip, I was twelve years old and stupid). As for the animation, it's fine and par for the course for these cartoons, although the animation of the

kids when they're dancing is a definite highlight. One technical aspect where the special sporadically falters, however, is in the audio, as there are instances where, when someone's talking, it will go from crystal clear to sounding a bit muffled and garbled. A prime example of this is in the scene where Charlie Brown and Linus go to a media store and the former tries to find a faster way of reading through War and Peace; Charlie Brown's dialogue literally goes back and forth in terms of the audio quality when he speaks with the person who runs the store.

Speaking of which, that scene in the story serves as a moment where this special makes it far more clear what time period it was made in than these cartoons typically do, as Charlie Brown asks the store-owner if there's a computer game of War and Peace. Granted, it's not as glaring in that respect as something like It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown or It's Spring Training, Charlie Brown, probably because Bill Melendez was partly in charge of this one, but it's still something that plants it rather firmly in the 80's, as you'd expect to hear a kid from that time period mention a computer game specifically (especially given how home video game consoles weren't as commonplace in the mid-80's as they would become). It's just weird to me how this kind of thing seems to happen whenever Sam Jaimes is involved, making me wonder if it's more than a coincidence.

When the special begins, Charlie Brown is in class, with Linus sitting behind him, thinking about how there's one minute left until school lets out for Christmas vacation and the teacher hasn't given them any assignments to do over the break. Of course, he screws himself over with that line of thinking, as we hear the tell-tale warbling of the teacher speaking and Charlie Brown loudly groans, "Oh, no!", before slumping back in his seat and then leaning forward onto his desk, covering his

with his hands, intoning, "I can't believe it!" Later, as he and Linus walk home, he tells him his entire Christmas vacation has been spoiled, as he has to read War and Peace and then do a book report on it (he says "we have to" but, again, it seems like he's the only one who was given this punishing assignment). The two of them stop, as Linus spies Lucy talking with Patty nearby, and he gets the idea to roll up a snowball and toss it. He misses his sister, instead hitting the tree behind Patty, but Lucy decides to get even and proceeds to

roll up a bowling ball-sized snowball and fling it at them. It hits both Charlie Brown and Linus, knocking them up into the air and causing them to land on their backs, leading into the opening credits, which feature Snoopy playing with party favors (the credits also feature a dedication to Bernie Gruver, who worked on many Peanuts specials in various capacities since their inception and died in June of 1985 at just 61).

Following that, we see Charlie Brown reading War and Peace, telling Linus that he just finished reading the dust jacket, to which he comments, "Many is the book report that has been written by just reading the dust jacket." He goes onto complain about its length of 1,136 pages and its heavy weight, but Linus, unhelpfully, tells him, "When Leo Tolstoy was writing War and Peace, his wife, Sonya, copied it for him seven times. And she did it by candlelight, and with a dip pen. And

sometimes, she had to use a magnifying glass to make out what he had written... She had to do it after their child had been put to bed, and the servants had gone to their garrets, and it was quiet in the house. Just think, Charlie Brown: she wrote the book seven times with a dip pen. And you're telling me you can't even read it once?" The phone then rings and Charlie Brown answers it to find it's Peppermint Patty. She tells him she and Marcie are going to throw a New Year's Eve party, ignoring his saying he can't dance and telling

her of his school assignment, and instead telling him it's his chance to ask the girl of his choice and that it would be his first real date. She then hangs up, and Lucy and Sally walk in, both of them mentioning the upcoming party. Sally mentions how she knows her "sweet babboo" will ask her to accompany him (cue Linus yelling, " I am not your sweet baboo, and I wouldn't invite you to a chicken race!"), while Lucy says that she hopes Schroeder will take her. Like Peppermint Patty, Lucy also ignores Charlie Brown's mentioning his book report, saying she's enrolled them in a dance class.

Charlie Brown and Linus are seen walking through town, the former lamenting that he won't be able to completely read War and Peace, when they come upon a media store. They walk inside and Charlie Brown asks the owner if he has a comic book adaptation of it. When that doesn't work, he asks if he has a record of it, or a tape or cassette. None of those work out, and after he, in desperation, inquires about a possible computer game, he gives up and the two of them leave the store. Outside, Linus tells him he

didn't ask if there were any film strips, and so, Charlie Brown walks back in, only to immediately come back out, dejected, as they didn't have any of those either. He then walks home, hangs up his coat and hat, and gets back to reading it the old-fashioned way, struggling to even lift the heavy book up when he climbs into his chair. He reads a little bit, before commenting, "Well, here I am, reading War and Peace, and everybody else is at dance class, having fun. Maybe I should go over to the class and just look in, see what they're all doing." With that, he climbs

down from his chair and puts the book in his backpack, only to then find that it's so heavy, he can't walk with it, as it drags him down to the floor. He then leaves the house, pulling the book along on a small luggage cart, and heads downtown. When he reaches the dance studio, he has to pull the thing up a flight of stairs.

Once he reaches the top, he puts away his hat and coat and finds all the kids in the middle of their lesson. He heads over to a bench in the back of the room and starts to read again, when Peppermint Patty comes over and tells him to join them as they learn to do the foxtrot. Marcie then puts on a new record as Peppermint Patty, after having again ignored Charlie Brown insisting that he has to read his book, takes his hand and forces him to dance with her. While a song called Slow, Slow, Quick,

Quick plays, she leads him onto the dance floor and they start doing the moves. Pausing for a moment so he can comment that he's only on page five, they start again, only for him to step on her foot when she pulls him into her. After grimacing about that, she swings him around, but he lands on his knee and she has to pull him back up on his feet. But, despite looking despondent when she leads him back across the floor, he manages to do okay this time. Meanwhile, Linus is shown having to be Sally's partner, as is Schroeder with Lucy (both of

them are clearly not thrilled about this), but Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty start to get more mutually into it, while Marcie dances with Snoopy and Woodstock does the same with another bird friend of his. Patty continues to show off how good of a dancer she is, and Charlie Brown also continues to do okay, but when the song speeds up, he starts to sweat profusely, and is then pulled around and brought to his knees by Patty. She pulls him back up and pushes him onto his feet, before forcing him to backwards. In doing so, he trips over his copy of War and Peace and falls on his back, prompting him to groan, "Good grief."

Back at home, Charlie Brown continues reading, when Sally walks up and interrupts him, asking, "I wonder when my sweet babboo is going to ask me to the party?" Cut to outside on their doorstep, where Linus exclaims, "I am not your sweet babboo, and I wouldn't invite you to a garage sale!" Sally, as usual, just gushes about Linus being cute when he does that. Afterward, Linus and Lucy are seen blowing up balloons for the party, with Rerun sitting next to the box full of them. He

decides to join in and takes out a blue balloon, only for it turn square when he blows it up. Linus and Lucy stop what they're doing and look at him in a befuddled manner, as he grabs a green balloon and blows it up, with the same thing happening. Figuring he must be doing something wrong, Linus deflates that balloon and has Rerun try it again. He does, but it turns square once more. Again, Linus deflates it and blows it up himself. This time, it turns round and he then deflates it, telling Rerun to blow into it slowly. Rerun does, and it initially

seems to be working, but at the last minute, it turns square again. Linus tosses the balloon away and takes out another, a segmented one that creates a whole line of circles when inflated. Showing him how it should look and then deflating it, he has Rerun try to inflate it. When he does, all he manages to create is a very long square. Linus gives up and walks away. It then cuts to Lucy leaning on Schroeder's piano as he plays. She asks him if he's taking her to the party and he tells her that, one, musicians don't dance, and two,

he's going to be playing his piano at the party. She responds, "I don't mind the rejection. It's the smile that bugs me." And then, Sally is seen talking with Linus on the phone, telling him, "If you don't ask me to the party, I'll just go with someone else." He tells her, "Good! Go with someone else!", and she hangs up the phone. 

Charlie Brown keeps reading, when the phone rings. He answers it, and it's Peppermint Patty again. The two of them then have this exchange, where they're both clearly not hearing what each other is saying. "Have you thought any more about who you're inviting to the party, Chuck?" "No, I haven't thought about that. I'm reading War and Peace." "Aha, I knew it would be me!" "Well, as a matter of fact, I'm only on page five of my book." "Come on Chuck, remember: you have to invite

somebody." Having heard that last sentence, Charlie Brown says that he wonders if the Little Red-Haired Girl would go with him, much to Patty's irritation. When he then asks if she thinks the girl would accept his invitation, Patty angrily says, "So long forever, Chuck!", and hangs up. After that, Charlie Brown and Linus are walking down the street, the former saying he's written an invitation for the Little Red-Haired Girl. He adds that, as he was afraid to call her, and it's now too late to mail it, he's thinking about taking it to her

house, but is worried that his hand will get caught in the slot and that someone will answer the door at the same time. As they walk up to the girls' house, Linus tells him, "Charlie Brown, you worry about the most impossible things," and motions for him to go ahead and slip the invite through the slot. He walks up to the door and does so, only for his hand to, indeed, get caught in the slot. He tries and strains to yank it out, when the door does come open and he's left hanging there. Hopelessly and nervously, he exclaims, "Heather, are you home?

I've come to invite you to a New Year's party! I mean... I mean if you don't have anything else to do. Would you... would you like to come? I can either pick you up or, or meet you there... if I ever get my hand out of this mailbox." He then moans, "I can't stand it. I just can't stand it." 

That night, Snoopy and Woodstock are dressing up, the former donning a tuxedo and a top hat before giving an appropriately-sized one to Woodstock, who looks at himself in the mirror after putting it on. They pull some party favors out of a drawer, with Woodstock blowing a party tooter, only for its ribbon to come back around and wrap around him, causing him to fall into the drawer. Snoopy pulls him out and removes him from the ribbon, before grabbing some party hats for them. Meanwhile, Charlie Brown is lying in bed, thinking to himself,

"Tomorrow night's the party. The Little Red-Haired Girl never answered my letter." He turns over on his side and looks as if he's about to go to sleep as he closes his eyes, but they snap open again and he thinks, "What a way to start a new year. Tomorrow night, millions of people will be going to parties and dressing up." Snoopy and Woodstock then show up at the window and tip their hats to him before going on, as he thinks, "Some are even ready a day ahead of time." The special then switches to the night of the party,

where just about everyone is shown to be present at Peppermint Patty's home, with Snoopy, Schroeder, Franklin, and Pig-Pen playing various instruments, while the other kids are dancing. Marcie mentions how it's a shame that Charlie Brown couldn't come but Peppermint Patty says she couldn't care less. She then announces that it's time to play musical chairs, when Charlie Brown shows up, nervously peeking through the front door and asking if he can come in. Peppermint Patty walks

up to him, saying she thought he had to read his book, and he says he thought he could read some more of War and Peace there. She assumes he really wanted to be with her, but when he says he was hoping the Little Red-Haired Girl would show up, she exclaims, "Chuck, you drive me crazy!" Marcie tells her that everyone's ready for the game of musical chairs, and when he asks, Peppermint Patty reluctantly tells Charlie Brown that he can play as well.

Their game of musical chairs is set to an energetic song sung by Peppermint Patty, as she, Charlie Brown, Schroeder, Sally, Lucy, Linus, and Marcie push six chairs together, before circling them. Patty (the other Patty, mind you), who's working the record player, stops it and Sally ends up being the first one unable to grab a chair in time. She blushes and walks away in defeat, as they then get rid of one of the chairs and start circling them again. When the music stops the second time, Marcie is the one who loses and has to walk away. They then

repeat the game and circle the chairs again, and this time, Lucy gets caught out, mainly because she got caught up in the music and is too busy dancing to actually grab a chair. After that, a dissolve shows that only Peppermint Patty and Charlie Brown are left, dancing exuberantly around the chairs, when the music stops. Like Lucy, Charlie Brown gets too caught up in his dancing and Patty sits down in the chair before he can. In his haste to make up for it, he ends up sitting in her lap but ultimately has to concede and walks away with red cheeks. Snoopy then walks up and gives Patty a #1 ribbon, as well as a smooch on the cheek, as she ends the song and celebrates her victory.

After that, Lucy pours both her and Charlie Brown some root beer, and as he declares he's going to be a changed person in the New Year. Lucy, naturally, doesn't put any stock in it, saying, "Forget it, Charlie Brown. You'll always be wishy-washy," and he, wanting to change just a little bit, proclaims, "I'll be wishy one day, washy the next." Lucy tries to tell him something else, when she then realizes that Snoopy has been sniffing her glass of root beer, which she's been holding off to the side. Aggravated, and yelling at Charlie Brown

 over what Snoopy did, she says it's probably full of dog germs and, to prove it, she pours the root beer into a small dish and looks at it through a pair of binoculars. When she does, she exclaims, "Aha! I thought so!", and stomps up to Charlie Brown with the dish, shoving it up to his face and telling him, "You see, it's filled with dog germs!" She then storms off and Charlie Brown tells Snoopy, "There's one thing you should never do. Never sniff in someone's root beer." Snoopy just kind of rolls his eyes at that. Later, Charlie Brown carries

his copy of War and Peace outside on the porch and sits down on a bench out there. However, he's followed by Peppermint Patty, who tells him, "That was a sly move on your part. You know, to get us out here alone on New Year's Eve... We might even end up ushering in the new year together. I'll bet you'd like that, eh, Chuck?" Charlie Brown, naturally, is more befuddled by her actions and statements than anything, when she asks what he thinks would be some good rules for living in the

New Year. He proceeds to rattle off this random list: "Keep the ball low, don't leave your crayons in the sun, use dental floss every day, don't spill the shoe polish, always knock before entering, don't let the ants get in the sugar, never volunteer to be a program chairman, always get your first serve in, and feed your dog whenever he's hungry." (By the way, Chad Allen said the word "sugar" in such a way there that, when I first heard it, I could have sworn he said "shitter!") After all that, Patty asks if

those rules will give him a better life, and Charlie Brown, looking at Snoopy, who's literally licking his plate clean, answers, "A better life, and a fat dog." She then asks him if he's made any New Year's resolutions and he says, "You know how I always dread the whole year? Well, this time, I'm only going to dread one day at a time." 

In the house, Snoopy turns on the TV and the kids gather around in order to watch the countdown to midnight. He then goes out on the porch and invites Peppermint Patty to go back in with him, which she accepts. She tells Charlie Brown he's weird and walks in with Snoopy, leaving him alone with his book. He starts to read again (and apparently, he switched to Arabic, as he's turning the pages from right to left), but as he does, his eyes start drooping down and his head nods back and forth. It begins to snow and he immediately

falls asleep, the massive book covering his body. Meanwhile, everyone is watching the TV and waiting for midnight to strike, when there's a knock at the door. Linus, who was having a toast of root beer with Sally, answers it and it turns out to be none other than Heather, the Little Red-Haired Girl. He happily invites her in, taking her coat, and tells her he's not sure where Charlie Brown is at the moment, before asking if she would like to dance... all while Charlie Brown is asleep out on the porch. Then, with only a few seconds left

before midnight, Peppermint Patty yells for Charlie Brown, who's still sleeping out on her porch's bench. The clock strikes twelve and everyone begins celebrating, singing Auld Lang Syne, while outside, Charlie Brown wakes up. Miraculously, he doesn't have pneumonia after sleeping out in the snow for God knows how long, and picks up and carries his book through the door. As soon as he does, he's blasted by Peppermint Patty, who berates him for leaving her completely alone at midnight,

and before he can respond, Sally comes in behind him and yells at him for Linus' not dancing with her because he was dancing with Heather. Hearing this, Charlie Brown becomes flabbergasted, yelling, "He did what?!", as Linus explains that he didn't know where he was. Linus then only adds to his misery by commenting on what a good dancer Heather is, and Charlie Brown, moaning that he missed Heather completely, walks over to the door and looks out into the night with a very sad and defeated

expression on his face. That's when Marcie walks up, kisses him on the cheek, and tells him, "Happy New Year, Charles." Inside, Woodstock and two of his bird friends happily march around, carrying signs that each read one of the words of "Happy New Year," but they're holding them in the wrong order, making it read, "New Happy Year!" An angry yell from Snoopy causes them to jump up and fall back down in the correct order. 

Come the first day back to school, a very tired-looking Charlie Brown joins Linus in walking down the street. After he yawns, Linus asks him if he finished War and Peace and he says he finished it at 3:00 that morning, but doesn't remember a single thing about it. Back in class, Linus asks him if he turned in his book report and he says he did, which resulted in him receiving a D-, the lowest grade possible without failing. He comments, "The teacher said it looked like the sort of report that was written after midnight on the last day of

Christmas vacation." Linus asks, "What did you say?", and he answers, "What could I say? I congratulated her on her remarkable insight." Finally, Linus drops one last bombshell: their next assignment is to read Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. Hearing that, Charlie Brown faints to the floor, and Linus can only utter, "Happy New Year, Charlie Brown," in sympathy, as steam rises from his unconscious friend's head.

This is one of a handful of Peanuts cartoons where the music was done by Ed Bogas and Desiree Goyette, the duo who are best known for the music to the Garfield cartoons (this would be the last one in which they were the actual composers, although they would act as musical directors for Snoopy: The Musical). As per usual, they manage to capture the essence of Vince Guaraldi's music, with smooth piano tunes and instances of electronic, synthesizer pieces, while giving it their own flavor. Since it's a New Year's special, Auld Lang Syne is heard in various incarnation throughout, often in a sweet saxophone version, before the kids actually sing it near the end when the clock strikes midnight (a really forlorn version is heard when Charlie Brown realizes he missed his chance to dance with the Little Red-Haired Girl), and there's a lot of genuinely festive music to go along with the theme as well. Also, more melancholy music is heard whenever the issue of Charlie Brown struggling with War and Peace comes up, like a sad, classical-sounding string piece when Linus is telling him about the trials Sonya Tolstoy went through in copying the book multiple times and when Charlie Brown is lying in bed, lamenting how everyone's going to be having fun come New Year's Eve. There's also a downbeat somber theme for other such moments, like when Charlie Brown is struggling to drag the book downtown to the dance studio (that piece is based on what is a classic composition that I've heard before, but I can't recall the name of it for the life of me). And when Rerun is inflating balloons into squares, there's a low, flat horn sound that plays whenever he blows into one.

As you've gathered, there are a couple of songs on the soundtrack. Desiree Goyette herself sings Slow, Slow, Quick, Quick, an upbeat, whimsical instructional song for learning the foxtrot that you hear when Charlie Brown dances with Peppermint Patty. It's quite a lovely song, mostly because of Goyette's absolutely beautiful voice, and it makes learning to dance come off as playful and fun, which is perfect for kids. The other song is Musical Chairs, sung by Kristie Baker as Peppermint Patty, and like Slow, Slow, Quick, Quick, is basically just instructions for how to play the game, but done in a fast-paced, speedy, and energetic manner. Baker has a pretty good singing voice too and really sounds like she's into it, with memorable lyrics, "Because when the music stops, you can't be standing there, if you want to be at musical chairs," and, "And if you're boogalooing when the music stops, sorry, you gotta move on," the latter of which happens when Lucy gets caught out dancing when she should be looking for a chair to sit on.

Despite not being one of the more popular Peanuts specials, Happy New Year, Charlie Brown is a pretty enjoyable one. While the story is, as per usual, about Charlie Brown suffering a lot of misery during his Christmas break and missing out on what he wants the most, it's not done in a way that's overly mean-spirited, allowing it to still be a fun watch. In addition, the voice acting is pretty good, there are some funny moments, it's another special that's pretty just to look at, and the songs and music score are very pleasing to the ear. All in all, it makes for a nice way to celebrate the transition from one year to the next.