She's A Good Skate, Charlie Brown (1980)

This is the third Peanuts special I've talked about which I first saw in the Peanuts Emmy Honored Collection DVD set, with the other two being Someday You'll Find Her, Charlie Brown and What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown?. Wanting to do another one that was set in the wintertime, this was an obvious choice, although I hadn't watched it since I first got that set back in 2017 and remembered crap all about it, save for it being about Peppermint Patty figure skating, with Snoopy acting as her temperamental coach. Re-watching it, I have to say that this one is pretty damn good, and has just about everything you'd want from a Peanuts cartoon: good animation, particularly in the skating scenes, well-designed, lovely backgrounds and environments, nice instances of humor, some really good music, and an ending that's actually rather touching. Also, like how What A Nightmare, Charlie Brown broke from the norm by focusing almost exclusively on Snoopy, She's A Good Skate is all about Peppermint Patty and Marcie, with Snoopy, as well as Woodstock, having notable supporting roles. Charlie Brown himself has very little screentime and only has a scant few lines, while the other Peanuts regulars who show up get even less than that, if anything at all.

Peppermint Patty is training for an upcoming figure skating competition, comprised of eight increasingly difficult tests. She's been getting up at 4:30 every morning to practice before school, with Snoopy acting as her stern, grouchy coach, and she's been doing it for so long that it's beginning to take its toll, as she's constantly falling asleep in class. One day, she and Marcie, who's been continually watching Patty practice, go over to the latter's house, and Patty spots a sewing machine. Even though Marcie explains that it belongs to her mother and she herself doesn't know how to sew, Patty tasks her with making her a skating dress for the competition. To make matters worse, when they go out and get the supplies, Patty asks for denim, despite being warned it may not stretch enough. And, as expected, when Marcie makes the dress, it's a complete disaster. Fortunately for Patty, Snoopy comes to the rescue and turns it into the exact type of lovely dress she was hoping for. The day of the competition arrives and, when it's Patty's turn, things quickly go south, as the cassette tape of the music she skates to gets completely ruined. Keeping her from being disqualified requires some quick thinking by both Snoopy and, more significantly, Woodstock, who's also been watching Patty practice and has become enamored with her music.

As with most of the Peanuts cartoons during this period, She's A Good Skate, Charlie Brown was directed by Phil Roman, making this the tenth one he had a hand in directing, either by himself or with Bill Melendez co-directing. By this point, the two of them had also co-directed the two feature films, Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don't Come Back!!), the latter of which was released three months after this special aired. Aside from its focusing on Peppermint Patty and Marcie (the former wouldn't really get another starring role until the 2022 Apple TV+ special, To Mom (and Dad), With Love), what also makes She's A Good Skate unique is that it was based on an ongoing storyline in the comic strip from back in 1974, something that itself was really unusual for this particular strip. As per usual, though, a number of changes were made in the adaptation, with various subplots getting dropped and the main story being altered. And finally, this is the first special where the adults have actual voices, something it has in common with Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (though, unlike in that movie, they don't appear onscreen).

While she has been known to be pretty unlikable in some of the past specials (There's No Time for Love, Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving being prime examples), that, thankfully, is not the case with Peppermint Patty (voiced by Patricia Patts) here. The only thing she does that's kind of crappy is when she tasks Marcie with making her a skating dress, even though Marcie flat-out tells her that she doesn't know how to sew. And while she doesn't apologize for admonishing Marcie for how badly the dress comes out, and then complains about it to Snoopy, accusing Marcie of ruining everything (even though Marcie, again, reminded her how she told her from the beginning that it would suck), it doesn't go any further than that. Other than that, she proves very easy to root for, as she practices as hard as she can for the upcoming skating competition, even getting up every day at 4:30 to do so before school. By the start of the cartoon, it's already beginning to catch up to her, as she keeps falling asleep in class (not that that's out of character for her), much to her teacher's annoyance. While it's not dwelt upon, given the pressure of the competition, which she explains consists of eight tests that get progressively harder, it's easy to understand why she's pushing herself. And she also proves to be anything but a pushover, as when a group of boys show up at the frozen lake to play hockey, threatening her if she doesn't leave immediately, she's not at all intimidated, and both she and Snoopy take care of them very easily. When the competition rolls around, things immediately seem to fall apart for Patty when the cassette tape of the song she skates to becomes a tangled mess. But, thanks to Woodstock's quick thinking and lovely whistling, she's able to skate beautifully and come out on top.

Marcie (voiced by Casey Carlson) mainly acts as a bystander and observer to Peppermint Patty's skating practice, telling her that she admires her skills but can't skate herself because she has "weak ankles." She tries to help Patty whenever and however she can, like when she wakes her up in class, then has to push her head up off of her desk, as Patty says she can't move it herself, and later whacks her on the head with a book in order to fully wake her up. She also suggests Patty eat a couple of eggs for breakfast, saying, "You've never seen a chicken fall asleep in class, have you?" (she admits that was a bad attempt at a joke), and then, "Maybe you fall asleep in class because of uncorrected astigmatism," a notion that Patty immediately dismisses. And even though she tries to tell Patty that she can't sew, when Marcie gets roped into making a skating dress for her, she does the best she can, despite her lack of skill, and even if the idea gives her a really bad stomachache. Of course, the dress comes out bad, and Patty gives her grief over it, but Marcie calmly reminds that she said she couldn't sew, and the issue is dropped almost immediately. Naturally, Marcie is present at the competition, watching and cheering Patty on from the bleachers, along with Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, and Schroeder.

Snoopy's (voiced by Bill Melendez) main role here is to act as Peppermint Patty's skating coach, and in this capacity, he proves to be rather gruff and hard to please. During the opening, after she completes a nicely done set, she asks him what he thinks and his response is to simply go, "Bleh," and walk away; Patty then comments, "There's no one harder to please than a skating coach." When she shows up at Charlie Brown's house at 4:30 to fetch her coach, Snoopy sleepily walks through the woods leading to the lake ahead of her, managing to avoid every single tree. However, he then walks out onto the center of the ice, not realizing what he's done until he's fully awake. Once he does, he panics and tries to run back, but slips and falls on his back. Throughout Patty's training, Snoopy doesn't do much beside growl out a bunch of critical gibberish and act grumpy, though he also helps her deal with the bullying hockey players who show up and threaten her to get off the ice. Where he really comes to the rescue is when Marcie bungles the job of making Patty's skating dress. He takes the botched dress, does some measurements on Patty, and uses the sewing machine and a pair of scissors to create the one she wanted. But he's less helpful when Patty complains about her hair, saying it's "mousey blah," as he gives her a big, red, curly wig that doesn't work at all. During the skating competition, Snoopy both operates the Zamboni to clear the ice and the tape deck for the individual skaters' music. But, when it's Patty's turn, the tape messes up and becomes a big, tangled mess in the player. Snoopy tries to fix it, getting into a fight with the player itself on the ice, but it seems as though Patty is heading towards disqualification...

...until Woodstock intervenes. Having joined Patty and Snoopy out on the ice, he heard the music that the former skated to, O mio babbino caro (Oh My Beloved Father), on the player and was really taken with it. Thus, when the tape messes up, he sees how desperate Patty is, prompting him to step up to the microphone and whistle a very lovely rendition of the song (instead of Bill Melendez, as per usual, Woodstock's whistling is provided by Jason Victor Serinus). It not only saves Snoopy's skin, as he breathes a sigh of relief after sitting back down, but also enables Patty to skate flawlessly and take home the gold. On the way home afterward, Snoopy continually grumbles whenever Patty asks him about her routine, but when she finally asks if he has anything nice to say, he kisses her on the cheek, much to her delight. Meanwhile, Woodstock, bringing up the rear, whistles the song again.

Save for when he answers his front door at 4:30 AM, half-asleep, Charlie Brown (voiced by Arrin Skelley) really only appears at the skating competition, cheering Patty on, along with Marcie, Linus (voiced by Daniel Anderson), Lucy (voiced by Laura Planting), and Schroeder. Out of the whole group, Charlie Brown gets the most lines, i.e. three: when he comments, "There are three things in life that people like to stare at: a flowing stream, a crackling fire, and a Zamboni clearing the ice," and another two where he laments that Patty seems to be on the verge of being disqualified from the competition. Linus and Lucy only get one line each, with Linus asking, when the tape screws up, if Patty will be disqualified, and Lucy confirming that she will without music, but Schroeder says absolutely nothing (that said, I'm sure one of the skaters doing her routine to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony met with his approval).

Some other miscellaneous characters include the kids who show up on the lake to try to force Peppermint Patty and Snoopy to get lost so they can play hockey, with two of them (both voiced by Tim Hall) not only demeaning her, repeatedly calling her "Beautiful" in an obviously degrading manner, but flat-out threatening her with violence. One asks, "You wouldn't like to get with a hockey stick, would ya, beautiful?", while the other tells her that she's vastly outnumbered. However, both she and Snoopy easily,

and literally, knock them on their asses. You also see several of the other girls who are participating in the skating competition, though the first two, a brunette named Sandy and a blonde named Mora, both end up falling on the ice in the middle of their routines. However, a redhead named Evelyn comes out and proves to be quite a talented skater in her own right (and yet, at the end, while Patty gets the gold medal, Mora gets the silver, while Evelyn is saddled with the bronze, which should not be the case at all). And like I said, even though you don't ever see them, 

the adult characters, in a rare occurrence, do have actual voices, such as Patty and Marcie's teacher, the fabric storekeeper (both voiced by Debbie Muller), and the competition announcer (voiced by Scott Beach).

As I said when we looked at What A Nightmare, Charlie Brown, the use of snow in the Peanuts cartoons always makes for some very picturesque visuals, which this one establishes from the outset. It opens on a lovely scene akin to that of A Charlie Brown Christmas: the snow-covered woods outside the neighborhood, with the camera panning over to the frozen lake, where Peppermint Patty is practicing her routine, in the midst of a light snowfall. This beautiful imagery continues throughout the special, with Patty and Marcie walking home from school

through the snowy neighborhood, passing by snowdrifts and even a random snowman, while the sky in the background has that lovely purple, wintertime sunset color to it. During this sequence, it briefly switches to a shot with a totally red sun high in the sky, while Patty and Marcie appear as virtual silhouettes on the ground below. Some similarly lovely visuals come when Patty wakes up at 4:30 the following morning, walks to Charlie Brown's house, and then she and the half-asleep Snoopy walk to the 

lake. As they do, there's a shot of the horizon with a hint of the coming sunrise, while the characters and the trees are, again, in silhouette. While some of the interior scenes, like when you see Patty and Marcie in class at the beginning, and when they deal with how the skating dress came out, have that sparse detail in the backgrounds and environments that you expect from Peanuts, others, like the one room in Marcie's house when Patty spots the sewing machine and the

fabric store, have a lot more than you typically get. Needless to say, the most notable interior is the stadium housing the ice rink where the skating competition is held during the climax, which they clearly put quite a bit of work and detail into drawing.

Animation-wise, this one is very notable in that it makes use of rotoscoping for the skating scenes, with Charles Schulz's own daughter, Jill (credited here as Amy), being the model for Peppermint Patty. When you watch it, you can see this major upgrade, as Patty's movements are not only very smooth but also realistic, as she pulls off a number of true-to-life skating moves, including spins, jumps, and various poses. And even though the first two of them suffer embarrassing wipe-outs, the animation on the other skaters in the competition is really good too, with

special mention going to Evelyn, who, again, proves to be quite a match for Patty's already considerable skills. (Some still frames from the skating footage used in the rotoscoping can be seen during the ending credits.) The rest of the animation is also quite good and on brand with how well it had gotten with these specials by this point, with some standouts including Woodstock being absolutely taken with the cassette tape of O mio babbino caro, as well as when he whistles it during the competition; Patty and Snoopy

dealing with the bullying hockey players by shoving them over; Snoopy turning Marcie's disastrous attempt at a skating dress into what Patty was hoping for; him driving the Zamboni before the competition; the judges repeatedly skating out onto the ice in order to score the individual performances; and Snoopy fighting with the continuously unraveling cassette tape during the climax.

The special is not short on comedy, which is often the case when Peppermint Patty and Marcie are involved. Right after the opening credits, we have the typical scenario of Patty snoozing away in the middle of class, and Marcie waking her up. But in this instance, it's compounded when Patty says, "I can't lift my head, Marcie. Give me a little push." Marcie proceeds to do so, causing Patty's head to fling forward, bopping her nose on her own desk. As she rubs it, she tells the teacher, "Don't call on me for a while, ma'am. I'm here, but my nose is in the recovery room." As per

usual, she doesn't do too well in school. The teacher asks if she knows the answer to this problem, "How many gallons of cream containing 25% butter fat, and milk containing 3 1/2% butter fat, must be mixed to obtain 50 gallons of cream containing 12 1/2% butter fat?, and Patty, after reading it aloud and staring at the worksheet in disbelief, asks, "Ma'am, would you settle for twenty push-ups?" The teacher doesn't respond and Patty, almost immediately, falls back asleep. The teacher wakes her up and Patty, after

apologizing, notes, "I dreamt I had just been given a scholarship to Vassar." She's told to stay awake and, as she slumps back in her chair, laments, "Well, back to reality." Despite asking Marcie to wake her up if she dozes off again, she does nothing when Patty immediately falls back asleep, leaning her head back onto Marcie's desk. The teacher, again, has to shout at her to make her wake up, and Patty leans forward, bumping her nose on her own desk again, but this time, remains half asleep. However, when the teacher 

tells her to stay awake, Marcie whacks her on the head with a book! Patty promptly yells, "I'm awake! I'm awake!", but when the teacher asks if she's aware of what's happening, she answers, "No, ma'am, I don't know what's going on... but I'm awake!"

Our one glimpse of Charlie Brown before the climax is when Patty wakes him up at 4:30 to tell him she's come to wake up her skating coach, then has the audacity to tell him to go back to sleep. She "wakes" Snoopy up by literally pulling down from atop his doghouse by his ear and dropping him into his coat and putting his hat on. As the two of them walk to the frozen lake, Patty, noting how he's asleep yet walking, feels he'll run into the trees but, amazingly, he manages to avoid every single one. But once they get to the lake, Snoopy's sleepiness gets the best of him

when he walks out onto the ice, stands there as he finally wakes up, and then, realizing where he is, panics and tries to run back, but slips and falls on his back, with his hat flying up and landing on the end of his big snout. Also, like I said, when those hockey players show up and threaten her to get off the ice, Patty is not at all intimidated. She tells the first one, "Get lost, neckhead. I was here first," and when the second threatens to hit her with his stick, she gets in his face and asks, "How would you like to be force-

fed a pair of goalie pads?" And while Snoopy, at first, doesn't seem so confident when she tells them that the two of them can take all of them on, they easily trounce them by shoving them and causing them to collapse on the ice like dominoes. Speaking of Snoopy, when Patty falls on her back while practicing, he shows her how it's done and skates, i.e. slides on his feet, flawlessly around her.

When Patty tasks Marcie with making her a skating dress, despite being warned that she doesn't know how to sew, you know the end result is not going to be pretty, and it isn't. Although Patty is initially overjoyed upon receiving it, when she puts it on, it turns out to be more like a blue poncho than a dress, as it doesn't even have sleeves. Marcie suggests, "Maybe it'll look better after I get the sequins sewed on, sir," and after admonishing her about how badly it came out, only for Marcie to remind her that she told her she couldn't sew to save her life, Patty laments, "I 

think I'm going to cry. I can feel the tears forming in my stomach." She then goes to Snoopy and pours her heart out about to him, saying, "When a skater is feeling low, she should be able to cry on a pro's shoulder. I can't even do that! You don't have any shoulders!" That's when Snoopy takes her back to Marcie's house and manages to turn it into the dress that she wants. But, as much as she likes it, Patty now complains about her hair, saying it's "mousey blah," and Snoopy brings out a present containing a big, 

red, curly wig that, when she wears it, makes her look like Little Orphan Annie (an in-joke, as Patricia Patts was actually Annie in a theater production at that time). Not satisfied, she puts it on Snoopy's head and then walks out with Marcie, leaving Snoopy there dumbfounded with this thing on his head, which covers his eyes.

But, despite all of the expected laughs and hi-jinks, there's a real beauty and grace to this particular special, which is best summed up in the climax. While the skating animation throughout is top notch, the competition finale, where Patty, dressed in that lovely dress, skates flawlessly to Woodstock's genuinely beautiful whistling of O mio babbino caro, is one of the most heartwarming and lovely scenes you'll ever see, not only in the entire Peanuts franchise but in animation, period. In addition to the awesome animation, the only thing you hear on the 

soundtrack is literally Woodstock's whistling and some soft music playing in the background, and when it's all put together, it's so awe-inspiring that everyone in the audience, including the other members of the Peanuts gang, can't help but just sit there in silent reverence. In fact, it's so lovely that Snoopy is moved to tears, and it's small wonder why Patty ends up winning the gold medal.

As you've already pegged, music plays an especially important part in this cartoon. Besides the aforementioned O mio babbino caro by Giacomo Puccini and Beethoven's 5th Symphony, there are other pieces of classical music featured, such as Dance of the Mirlitons from The Nutcracker, which plays when Sandy makes her ill-fated skating attempt, and Richard Wagner's Lohengrin: Prelude to Act III, which Evelyn skates to. As for the actual score, by Ed Bogas and Judy Munsen, they come up with a nice, quiet little song called I Thought I Saw A Shooting Star, sung by Becky Reardon, which opens the special and then becomes an instrumental leitmotif for Peppermint Patty throughout it. Like they would do throughout their long tenure scoring these cartoons, they would prove their own feel to the music but keep it in the Peanuts style. My personal favorite pieces they came up with here are the horn theme that plays when Snoopy walks through the woods, half asleep, and the piece you hear when Patty and Snoopy are faced with the bullies, as it has kind of an old-fashioned, gangster-style feel to it. And when Snoopy creates Patty's skating dress, it's scored with a quick, string theme that kind of sounds like a classical piece of music all its own.

She's A Good Skate, Charlie Brown is quite a delightful Peanuts special in just about every regard. It's an interesting change of pace to have one focused on Peppermint Patty and Marcie, and it also helps that the former is likable this time around; not only is the cartoon well-designed, with some very lovely visuals, but it boasts some very good animation, with the skating sequences being a really standout; it has plenty of funny moments but also a finale that's genuinely heartwarming and touching; and the music score is full of both bits of classical music and some very memorable original music. Honestly, other than a minor technical gripe I didn't mention, in that the characters' voices sound a little soft, which may force you to turn up the volume, this is one Peanuts cartoon that I can find no fault with, as it makes for a very pleasant way to kill half an hour. 

What A Nightmare, Charlie Brown (1978)

I've lost track of how many times I've said this but, regardless, here's another Peanuts special that I'd never seen or even heard of before I got that Peanuts 1970's Collection, Volume Two DVD set. From what I've read, this one didn't see a lot of re-airings, only occasionally popping up on Nickelodeon in the late 90's and into 2000, and after that set went out of print, it became kind of hard to find (though, it is now included in the Blu-Ray set, Peanuts: 75th Anniversary Ultimate TV Specials Collection). And when you look at it, you can kind of see why, as much of it consists of Snoopy being horribly abused, both by humans and especially other dogs, before he finally suffers a complete breakdown and, having had enough, becomes vicious and mean himself in order to survive. Granted, as the title suggests, this is all a dream, but it's still unsettling to see Snoopy go through this. But I wouldn't advise anybody to skip this one, as troubling as that may be, as it has a lot to recommend it. It's very beautifully drawn and designed, being the first special since A Charlie Brown Christmas to take advantage of the picturesque possibilities of snow, has instances of really great animation, and, while it's definitely an unusually dark Peanuts cartoon, it's not without its light-hearted, funny moments. But what really makes it unique is that it only features two of the main cast (the other being Charlie Brown, of course) and the focus is on Snoopy, so there's very little dialogue, which was unusual for television animation at the time and is where a lot of the franchise's humor comes from. So, they had to be more creative than usual and, for my money, they pulled that little challenge off nicely.

It's a snowy winter day, and Charlie Brown breaks out his sled in order to pretend to be a sled-master, with Snoopy as his sled dog. Snoopy, however, isn't having it, and thwarts both of his consecutive attempts, the second time by actually forcing him to pull the sled, while Snoopy himself rides on it. That night, in the house, Snoopy helps himself to the kitchen, preparing a massive dinner that consists of five pizzas, a milkshake, and various fruits and vegetables, much to Charlie Brown's irritation. He accuses Snoopy of being "overly civilized" and says he hopes he can digest all of that food. Snoopy, naturally, blows off his concerns and, after chowing down, goes to bed atop his doghouse. However, that big dinner does come back around on him, as he dreams that he's in the Arctic, forced to be part of a sled dog. This proves to be absolute hell for him, as the whip-cracking sled-master nearly runs him to death, and the other sled dogs are bigger and act vicious towards him, not allowing him to eat, drink water, or sleep next to them for warmth. His only respite is when the sled-master stops in a small, isolated town and he manages to sneak inside the local saloon; otherwise, he's constantly run ragged and abused, until he's finally pushed to his breaking point. Deciding that enough is enough, he opts to adapt accordingly to this new, tough lifestyle in order to survive.

This is the first Peanuts special since A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving back in 1973 to be co-directed by both Bill Melendez and Phil Roman, as the latter had directed all of the specials made since then himself, and would go on doing so afterward, up to 1983's Is This Goodbye, Charlie Brown? (although, that said, Melendez is said to have been an uncredited co-director on a number of those as well). What's more, right before this, the two of them had co-directed the feature film, Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown, and would go on to do the same with Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown a couple of years later. But what I find especially interesting about this special's production is how it's ostensibly an adaptation of Jack London's The Call of the Wild, with Snoopy in place of Buck, the domesticated dog at the center of that story. Charles Schulz is said to have been inspired to write this after he read an article about Arctic sled dogs and wondered what would happen if a pampered house pet like Snoopy was forced to survive in that kind of harsh and unforgiving environment.

Yeah, poor Snoopy (voiced by Bill Melendez) gets put through a lot of physical and mental anguish here. However, at the start, it feels like this is something of a comeuppance. As expected when, at the start, Charlie Brown tries to act as a sled master, with Snoopy pulling the sled, he isn't too thrilled at the prospect. The first time Charlie Brown tries it, Snoopy sends him careening down a hill and crashing into a snowdrift, and the second time, after seemingly being too small and weak to pull the sled, he tricks Charlie Brown into pulling him along. After Snoopy forces him to pull him through a good chunk of the neighborhood, wearing him out, he and Charlie Brown head inside their home. That night, Snoopy heads to the kitchen and fixes himself an enormous dinner consisting of five pizzas, a milkshake, and various fruits and vegetables. He's completely dismissive of Charlie Brown repeatedly telling him that Arctic sled dogs don't have it this good, and that he's overly civilized. Once he's finished eating, he heads back outside to his doghouse, where all that food in his stomach causes him to have a nightmare in which he's in that very type of environment and situation. But, as much as it initially does feel like Snoopy is getting what he deserves after being so spoiled and indignant, the longer it goes on, the more it feels like just plain old abuse. He's worked to near exhaustion as part of the dog sled team, is constantly threatened and bullied by the other dogs, who refuse to let him eat, drink, or get warm by sleeping next to them, and is not even allowed to join them in howling back at a wolf who bays at the moon in the distance. 

Snoopy gets a bit of a respite when they stop in a small town in the middle of nowhere, and he decides to head into the local saloon. He gets tossed out when he first goes in, as he goes right to the bar and demands service, but he promptly sneaks back in, spotting a sandwich left near the piano. Though he initially seems to be caught again when the piano turns out to be self-playing, he merely pretends to be the one playing it and helps himself to the sandwich at the same time. He's also given a big mug of root 

beer, and after he drinks that down, the patrons fill it with coins as reward for his great "rendition" of The Washington Post March. He promptly decides to take advantage of that and try his hand at the poker table. He does quite well at it, but when he lays out a winning hand of five aces, a brawl breaks out and he has to run for it. Ducking through a door with a "KEEP OUT" sign, he ends up in a backstage area, and then finds himself on an actual stage, with a spotlight on him, and an audience waiting for a performance. He nervously dances (fairly well, I 

might add), but gets no applause for it, and when he then does a can-can number, he gets booed and has stuff thrown at him. With that, he's tossed back outside and back with the sled team, continuing to undergo horrible mistreatment. 

It's genuinely distressing seeing the crap that Snoopy is put through for much of this special, especially when he's shivering from the cold, clutching at his throat because he's so desperately thirsty and hungry, and being constantly terrorized by the other dogs. It's really bad when he finally breaks down crying over it one night, having been pushed to his limit. But then, when the other dogs, yet again, greedily scarf down the scraps of meat the sled master throws to them, Snoopy finally decides he's had enough and opts to 

adapt to his new life accordingly. He musses up the fur on the top of his head, bares his fangs, gets down on all fours, and then storms up to the alpha male, who's especially been giving him a hard time. He lets out a ferocious snarl right into his face, and while the alpha male initially calls his bluff, he immediately backs down when Snoopy snarls even more ferociously. Snoopy then takes the piece of fish that he was eating, and when he later goes to take a drink, he snarls at the other dogs, warning them to leave him be. He continues to assert himself, repeatedly taking 

all of the food for himself and challenging the alpha to a fight, which he wins! Now the leader of the team, Snoopy earns his position by proving to still be fit and full of energy after a long day of pulling the sled, while the other dogs are tired. He also keeps them in their place, continuing to take all the food, and just like they did with him, when he howls at the moon that night, receiving an answer from a wolf, he snarls at the others when they try to join in.

But the next day, the team runs across a big lake of cracked ice, which breaks open and pulls all the other dogs and the sled master down into the frigid water. Snoopy desperately grapples with the line, trying to keep from being dragged down with them, but gets pulled all the way to the edge of the ice and into the water, with only his head sticking out. That's when the nightmare finally ends, as it turns out that he's hanging from the edge of his doghouse's roof in his sleep, before falling to the ground and waking up. 

He's relieved to see that it was just a dream, but since it's still the middle of the night and really cold (not that he had an issue with sleeping out there earlier), he runs to the front door and "knocks" by kicking it. When Charlie Brown answers, Snoopy acts out his entire dream in pantomime and he's allowed to spend the night inside. As soon as he's inside, he heads to the kitchen again, prepares a large ice cream sundae, which he gulps down all at once. He then heads to Charlie Brown's bedroom (he leaves the ice cream out on the counter, by the way) and gets into bed with

him. He doesn't really seem to have learned anything, like appreciating what he has not being so dismissive of the plight of Arctic sled dogs, or even not to stuff himself before bedtime. But, regardless, it's nice simply to see how relieved he is over how it was just a nightmare. 

Charlie Brown's (voiced by Liam Martin) role here is very minimal, only serving to criticize Snoopy for his spoiled personality and overly comfortable, laid back lifestyle. Twice at the beginning, he tries to get him to pull his sled, only for Snoopy to outwit him both times. When he does manage to get the harness on him, only for Snoopy to struggle to budge the sled even an inch, he exclaims, "What in the world is the matter with you?! Dogs in the Arctic don't behave like you do. In the Arctic, dogs are workers. They don't lead prima donna lives. They've got a chain from their collar that extends about eight feet. And unlike you, they're tied to a post or tree unless they're going to pull a sled." He decides to show Snoopy how it's supposed to be done and puts the harness on himself, then tells Snoopy to get in the sled. And that's when Snoopy takes the chance to act as a sled master himself, forcing Charlie Brown to pull him throughout much of the neighborhood. By the time they get back to their house, he's worn out, asking Snoopy if he now understands, then, panting heavily, says, "I think that'll be enough for today." They go inside, and when he sees the large amount of food Snoopy fixes for himself, he tells him, "And furthermore, Arctic dogs are only fed once a day, like raw meat or fish or..." Snoopy lets out a disgusted "bleh" at that, and Charlie Brown groans, "Oh, brother!", before telling him that he's "overly civilized." Watching him use a toothpick while he has a big grin is on his face, he then grumbles, "Good grief! What a dog! I hope that you can digest all that food." 

Charlie Brown only shows up again at the end, after Snoopy has woken up from his nightmare and banged on the front door with his foot. After Snoopy acts out what he dreamed, Charlie Brown lets him back inside the house, remarking that the dream must've been really bad for him to be acting like this. (Despite his minuscule role here, I like that this special features Liam Martin, who voiced Charlie Brown in Race for Your Life, as I think he had one of the best voices for the character. Unfortunately, this was the only other time he did voice him.)

It's amazing to think that it took the Peanuts cartoons thirteen years to get back to a winter aesthetic (that is, if you don't count the snowy section of Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown), as it makes for some really lovely imagery. Like in A Charlie Brown Christmas, the shots of the snow-covered neighborhood and surrounding countryside are nicely picturesque, especially when the snow is continuing to fall, but the the Arctic setting in Snoopy's nightmare is even lovelier, be it during broad daylight, at dusk, with the orange and purple colors from the setting sun, and at

night, with the full moon up in the sky. There are also some memorable landmarks, like some sort of formation that's shaped like a human figure, which the dog sled team passes by while heading towards the small town in the middle of nowhere, as well as the various mountains in the background and the frozen lake that the team falls into at the end of the dream. Although we don't get to see much of the aforementioned town, what we do see has that old-timey, western kind of feel to it, with a general store 

right next to the saloon that Snoopy sneaks into. The saloon's interiors may not be extremely detailed, as per usual with the Peanuts, but they get across that same vibe, with the wallpaper, some of the portraits you see on the wall, and the overall wooden aesthetic of everything. My personal favorite part of this location is the stage with the painted backdrop of Paris that Snoopy stumbles onto. What's more, unlike most Peanuts animations, you can see a little bit of the adult patrons in the saloon, if only from the waist

down, and if you listen closely, you hear actual human voices conversing with each other. Getting back to the real world, while the interiors of Charlie Brown's house are nothing that spectacular either, they, inexplicably, have a fairly large dining room (much bigger than what you typically get), with a pane glass window in the background that has a great view of the snowy yard outside.

Unlike most adult characters in the Peanuts franchise, the sled master in Snoopy's dream does have an onscreen presence, but is only seen in either shadow or silhouette, including when he first attaches the harness to Snoopy (in fact, it looks as though his shadow is what does it), and speaks in a deeper, more threatening version of that familiar "waa-waa" sound. The other sled dogs are, fittingly, drawn in a more realistic style, and really made to look mean and nasty, depicting how out of his depth Snoopy is in this scenario. But, when he finally decides that he's had 

enough and becomes quite feral and ferocious in his own right, they manage to make Snoopy both look and sound the part. Fittingly, as Snoopy asserts himself, they begin drawing the other dogs' facial expressions in a more classically cartoonish manner, showing how they're now scared of him and he's truly become the new alpha male.

Given how there's so little dialogue, the animation was particularly key here, and there are some real standouts, for sure. Even before we get into the nightmare, the sequence at the beginning, where Snoopy forces Charlie Brown to pull him along in the sled, has some really fast, energetic animation in both the way the characters are moving and in how the backgrounds whip by. The same also goes for when Snoopy whips himself up and then eats that big dinner, especially when he's mixing the dough for the pizza crusts. Once the nightmare starts, there's great

animation to be found in numerous moments, like when Snoopy is being dragged around as part of the dog sled team, the work done on the other dogs to make them come off as really mean and ferocious towards him, and the mischief he gets up to in the saloon, like when's pretending to play the piano, when his winning hand at the poker table causes a fight to break out, and when he tries to dance when he ends up on that stage. Some of these moments of action, like Snoopy getting dragged by the other dogs and his

panting after a long day, do tend to be repeated a bit throughout the cartoon, a la Hanna-Barbera, but it actually helps to get across just how he's being put through the wringer. Where the animation really excels, though, is depicting the exhaustion, discomfort, and frayed nerves that Snoopy goes through, like when he's desperately clutching at his throat and moaning from thirst and hunger, continually threatened and barked at by the other dogs, shivering from the cold, and finally breaks down crying. When combined with the pitiable noises that Bill Melendez was able to make, it makes you feel all the worse for him. 

Of course, that's before Snoopy decides he's not going to take it anymore and becomes a vicious sled dog as well, which is another highlight, animation-wise. In fact, it's about as distressing to see Snoopy acting like this as it is to see him being mistreated, with how feral he looks, and the truly ferocious growls and barks he lets out. But it's well-realized, with his walking on all fours, snarling facial expressions, and his howling at the moon (the sound of that howl is recycled from Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown). Probably the best instance of animation in the entire

special, and one of the best out of any of the entire franchise, is when Snoopy and the alpha male fight for dominance. It's a pretty brutal fight, too, with the two of them first roaring at each other, followed by the alpha grabbing Snoopy by the back of his neck and shaking him, only for Snoopy to turn the tables and bite his right front leg. They then roll on the ground, with Snoopy's nose ending up in the alpha's open mouth, but he pulls out, uses his back feet to push him away, then grabs his harness with his teeth, flings him to the ground, and pins him. The alpha 

doesn't take that as a loss, though, and the two of them suddenly become a rolling cloud of fury, before they stop to catch their breaths. Snoopy then promptly trounces the alpha by grabbing his harness again, shaking him back and forth, and lifting him up and slamming him hard on the ground! Snoopy snarls at him as he walks away, knowing when he's been beaten, and takes his place as the team's new leader. There's a lot of great detail in the very fast action of this fight that merits you watching it in slow motion.

Also, as you can see, both of them have both of them have instances of cartoonish facial expressions, Snoopy temporarily reverts back to anthropomorphism, like when he pushes on the alpha's chin, and, as is often the case in cartoons, they become a whirling blur of fighting, all of which keep it from feeling a little too much like an actual dog fight. And after Snoopy wakes up, his telling Charlie Brown about the dream by acting it out is another great bit of animation work.

As I said in the introduction, despite the plot, this cartoon isn't all doom and gloom. It opens with some funny antics, as Snoopy sends Charlie Brown careening down the hill in his sled, which ends with him crashing into a snowbank, and then forces him to pull him along through much of the neighborhood, as Snoopy cracks the whip, laughs, and yells his own version of, "Mush!", leaving Charlie Brown completely exhausted by the time they come back around to their house. Of course, you got to love the sight of Snoopy making himself a big dinner and

eating it all. Of course, this causes him to have the nightmare, and the first sign of it is his stomach grumbling while he's lying atop his doghouse. Again, the scene at the saloon makes for a breather from his mistreatment, as he not only pretends to play the piano and gets a lot of coins for it (which he, at first, unintentionally pours into his mouth, as he's not paying attention when the patrons put them in his empty root beer mug), but also gets into some gambling. He does manage to hold his poker face, 

until he receives the winning hand of five aces, and when he lays it on the table he, the person he's playing slams his fist down, sending Snoopy hurling through the air and causing everyone else in the saloon to run off in a panic. His attempts at dancing don't win him any new friends either, as he goes from getting no applause to having fruits, vegetables, and boots tossed at him, after which he's literally thrown out of the saloon. After he wakes up from the nightmare, he tells Charlie Brown about it by acting 

out nearly every major moment (his pantomime skills are great, but they've got nothing on those of Courage the Cowardly Dog), and upon being allowed in, he makes himself another pre-bedtime meal and joins Charlie Brown in his bed. But, for the most part, this isn't one of the funnier Peanuts specials, so you shouldn't come to it for a load of laughs.

As with many of the Peanuts animations from the late 70's to the 90's, the music was composed by Ed Bogas. While he opens this up with a new rendition of Vince Guaraldi's Linus and Lucy theme (the last time it would be heard in one of these specials for a long while), he mostly does his own thing. Notably, he comes up with a song called Overly-Civilized, Underly-Dogified Dog, sung by Larry Finlayson, which is heard in its entirety when Snoopy fixes his dinner and at the end, when he fixes his sundae. It basically just reiterates what Charlie Brown says about him, and becomes a leitmotif for him throughout the cartoon, playing in a bluesy, harmonica version when he's being dragged around by the dog sled team, and a distant, dramatic horn version when he acts out the nightmare. That bluesy motif, composed along with some notable synthesizer sounds, is used for many of the dog sled team scenes, while the sequence inside the saloon is scored with some old-fashioned, player piano tickling of the ivories (its rendition of The Washington Post March, which Snoopy pretends to play, also plays out the ending credits).

If you want a slightly darker Peanuts story, What A Nightmare, Charlie Brown will definitely fit the bill, though you better prepared to watch Snoopy get put through the wringer, both physically and mentally, and without as much humor as you would expect or hope for (though, it's not completely grim). Still, this one does have a lot going for it: lovely visuals and backgrounds thanks to the snowy settings, some moments of really good animation, memorable music, and it's a noteworthy attempt at doing one of these cartoons with so few characters (it's the first one that focuses almost entirely on Snoopy) and without much dialogue. It may not be everyone's favorite Peanuts special, and I can understand why some parents may not want their kids to see it, but for me, I think it has plenty of merit.