A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)

As I've said before, there are some films and television shows that I saw during my childhood that I enjoyed and had fun with what they gave me as pieces of entertainment but, in the long run, I was too young to comprehend just how profound they were and it wasn't until many years later as an adult that I realized that some of these things had bigger aspirations than just keeping a hyper little kid's attention while his parents tried to get things done. This is certainly one of them. I've never talked about this before but I am a fan of Charlie Brown and the Peanuts Gang. I've never read the comic strip, mind you, but I always enjoyed the various cartoons based on it, whether it be primetime specials like this one or the feature films like Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown. Like most kids, I remember seeing A Charlie Brown Christmas a couple of times when I was growing up, seeing as how it's one of those annual primetime holiday specials that the family gathers around to watch, and I remember liking it for what it was, although it was never my favorite Peanuts-oriented flick, as it's definitely not the funniest one, which, naturally, is what I looked for at that age. And, like I said, I was far too young at the time to understand the deeper meaning to it. In fact, I hadn't even seen that special in years and so, I decided to catch up with it, watch it, and do this review. Having now watched it with an adult mindset, I must say that this is quite an inspiring and very genuine little special. I always thought it was just a quaint little Christmas cartoon, much like those Rankin-Bass specials; I had no idea that there was a deeper complexity to it that I could actually relate to! It's still not my absolute favorite Peanuts-related thing, as there are others that I enjoy a lot more, but this is still a good and notable one.

Everybody knows the plot: Christmastime is here and all of the Peanuts Gang is excited and happy... save for Charlie Brown. Despite how much he loves getting presents, sending Christmas cards, and decorating Christmas trees, he still feels depressed and doesn't understand why. He eventually settles on the feeling that he just doesn't understand what Christmas is about, due to the over-commercialization of it and whatnot. Trying to find a way to deal with his sad state of mind, he visits Lucy's makeshift psychiatric booth and she tells that he needs more social involvement. To that end, she asks him to be the director of a Christmas play the kids are putting on. Charlie Brown is initially enthusiastic at the prospect but, when he gets to the auditorium, his hopes are dashed when the children are more interested in jazzing the play up with modern music, dancing, and such, rather than telling the actual story of the nativity. Charlie Brown remains determined not to let the play become over-commercialized like everything else but will it turn out the way he hopes? And will he finally come to terms with his frustration over the holiday?

The director of A Charlie Brown Christmas was a man who would end becoming forever linked with the animated Peanuts specials: Bill Melendez. Melendez started out as an animator at Disney, doing animation for films like Fantasia, Pinocchio, and some of the Mickey Mouse cartoons, but left after the studio's strike in 1941. He worked at Warner Bros. for a while, doing animation for cartoons featuring Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, and then moved to UPA, where he worked on cartoons like Gerald McBoing-Boing, as well as countless commercials. It was while making a commercial for Ford Motors featuring the Peanuts characters in 1959 that Melendez met Charles Schulz and, from then on, became the only person Schulz allowed to make cartoons featuring his characters. Melendez's own studio, founded in 1963, has worked on every single special and film involving the characters and not only did Melendez direct a large majority of them, he also provided the vocal effects for Snoopy and Woodstock as well. He continued making Peanuts specials up to his death in 2008 at the age of 91, with his last directing job being He's a Bully, Charlie Brown in 2006. From what I've read, Melendez was always somewhat embarrassed about A Charlie Brown Christmas becoming such an annual thing due to all of the technical flaws in the special. While it is true that Melendez and his studio would become much better in producing these cartoons as they went on, I think the flaws of this special, as distracting as they can be if you let them, give it something of a sincere charm, that these people were determined to make this thing despite all of the obstacles in front of them (which were numerous, as I'll get into next). One last interesting bit of trivia is that over the years, Melendez considered going back and fixing a lot of the problems that the special had but Charles Schulz wouldn't let him (George Lucas should take a page from Schulz's book!)

It's interesting to go back and research the history of this special because that's when you realize that it ended up almost not getting made at all. The thing was shot with basically no money, resulting in very simple animation, which was done in the last four months of production, and art-work and some rather poor sound (which I'll expound upon later). In addition, most of the child voice-actors had no experience whatsoever and, therefore, some of the acting here comes across as wooden and unnatural at times (that said, I think it always works better when you actually use kids instead of adults trying to sound like kids, which is often really unnatural and distracting). Bill Melendez and Charles Schulz also had to really fight with the network executives to secure their vision of what the show should be, as the executives hated almost every part of this thing, from the child actors to the soundtrack and so on. They actually complained that there wasn't a freaking laugh track present like you would hear in cartoons at the time like Scooby-Doo and such. (Personally, I'm really glad that they didn't go with that idea because laugh tracks in old cartoons like that annoy me to no end.) And, most of all, they didn't like the moment where Linus recites from the Gospel of Luke, which, as I'll get into shortly, is the very heart of the entire special. Fortunately, Melendez and Schulz didn't back down and made the cartoon they wanted to make, which turned out to be a flawed but very genuine piece of animation.

I don't think I need to do a real introduction to the character of Charlie Brown (at least, I hope I don't). He's simply one of those unique characters who, despite being as much of a mopey, bad luck-magnet as he is, you just have to love the guy. In this cartoon, as well as several others made afterward, he's voiced by Peter Robbins, and while I think some of the other actors who came after him did it better, Robbins did a fair enough job here with what he had to do. At the beginning of the special, he makes Charlie Brown an absolutely depressed sack of crap and it's very odd hearing a kid who is so young (Robbins was only eight when he did this) talk in such a weary, depressed way about how he hates what Christmas has become in recent years. The line that really gets me is, "I know nobody likes me. Why do we have to have a holiday to emphasize it?" Good God, have you ever met a kid that young who's so miserable?! I'm sure there are kids like this out there but, man, that just floored me after hearing and fully understanding it as an adult. But, that said, you really have to root for someone this young who wants to have a Christmas that isn't commercialized and hyped all to crap, while all of the other kids around him are buying into that sort of thing. No matter what happens, he refuses to let the play he's directing get away from the roots of the holiday, going so far as to get a little, scrawny tree, while everyone else wanted a huge, overly done aluminum one (to that end, it's not exactly subtle that the only real tree on that tree lot is such a sickly, neglected one as well). Of course, he's mocked for his choice and is initially completely despondent but, when Linus tells him, as well as everyone else, what Christmas is really about (that image of him looking at what appears to be the North Star while remembering Linus' recitation is quite impactful to me), he decides to not let the commercialism that everybody else wants ruin his holiday. Granted, at the end of the special, he does become rather hopeless about his own resolve when he puts an ornament on his little tree and it falls over but he cheers up when he sees that the other kids have taken his feelings and Linus' recitation to heart, decorating the little tree and making it look really good. He may be the "Charlie Browniest" of all the Charlie Browns in the world, as Linus says, but he's a good kid at heart and, as the other kids learn, his resolve is something to be commended instead of mocked. I'll say this, I like the ending and the way things turn out for Charlie Brown a lot more than the way a number of these cartoons handle it, as they have a tendency to go overboard and come across as rather mean-spirited.

I have some mixed feelings about Christopher Shea's performance as Linus here. Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first: his voice and way of speaking sound really awkward to me. I'm not sure how old he was at that time but, regardless, he sounds a little too young to understand the stuff that he's saying. I know that's a weird thing to complain about the Peanuts, where all of the characters are technically too old to act the way they do and say the stuff that they do, but throughout this cartoon, I just find it hard to buy that this kid comprehends some of the stuff that he's saying. And yet, despite that Linus gives what I and everyone else feel is the very heart of this special, which is when he recites from the Gospel of Luke to let Charlie Brown and the other kids know what Christmas is all about. Despite Shea's voice, it's a very powerful and awe-inspiring moment and he delivers it so well that this is where I think, "Maybe Linus does know what he's saying." It's the same reaction you'd have if you were at a local Christmas pageant and a kid that young recited something that well and perfectly. I'm probably doing a crappy job of explaining how I feel but, basically, what I'm trying to say is Christopher Shea is awkward in some spots but in others, especially the one that really counts, he's quite good. I also do like Linus' character overall. He's the one kid who's sympathetic to Charlie Brown's despair over what Christmas has become and tries to help him in any way he can. I originally was going to say that if he recited that Bible passage to him earlier, he could have spared Charlie Brown a lot of misery but, after thinking about it, I realize that the intent was for all the kids to hear it and understand that they were too hard on Charlie Brown. On top of the heavy stuff, Linus has a moment that I've liked ever since I was a kid, when he asks Lucy to give him one good reason why he should go through with memorizing all the dialogue that he has to and she says, "I'll give you five," then proceeds to fold her fingers up one at a time while counting until it makes a fist, with Linus responding, "Those are good reasons!" I will say, though, that I think his embarrassment at Sally fawning over him is done much better and funnier in future Peanuts cartoons. In conclusion, good characterization but the voice actor's performance is mixed.

On the flip side, I have nothing bad at all to say about Tracy Stratford as Lucy, as she plays her cynicism, bluntness, and overbearing personality very well. What I like about her is that she's a blatant embodiment of the commercialism that Charlie Brown is depressed over. When Charlie Brown visits her psychiatric booth, she makes him pay his five cents in advance and, when he puts the nickel in the can, she spents fifteen or twenty seconds talking about how much she loves the sound of cold hard cash clinking in the can. Even better is when Lucy tells Charlie Brown that she understands his being sad about Christmas because she never gets what she wants, as she always gets a bunch of toys and such. When Charlie Brown asks her what she does want, she says, "Real estate." Yeah, it's really over the top for someone this young to be so interested in money and freaking real estate, but it works here because, like I said, she represents everything that Charlie Brown hates about what Christmas has become. Plus, there's just something about the very blunt, matter-of-factly way that Stratford says those lines that make you believe her. And, of course, even though she makes Charlie Brown the director of the school play, she's the one who tries to be in charge and probably just made him the director because she knows she can push him around. My favorite part with her is when she asks Charlie Brown if he thinks she's beautiful and when he hesistates to answer, she takes offence and tells him that she knows when she's been insulted. I don't know why but that part, while not laugh out loud funny, always makes me smirk. She also forces the commercialism onto him, telling that's all that Christmas really is, and is the one who sends him out to get a big aluminum tree. But, while she does mock Charlie Brown's choice of Christmas tree like everyone else, she also, in the end, realizes that his intentions were pure and decides to join everybody else in sprucing the tree up.

The most awkward part of the special is Kathy Steinberg as Sally. This little girl had never acted before and was so young that she couldn't read, forcing Bill Melendez to have her record her dialogue one line at a time, and boy, does it show! You can really sense that this girl has never done this before and probably isn't all that sure about what she's saying. Fortunately, Sally isn't in the special much but, still, it's cringe-inducing. Trust me, I'm not trying to be mean to the girl because I'm sure for a little kid doing that for the first time, it had to be weird and nerve-wracking, but this is one instance where the choice of using real children hampered the special a little. And yet, ironically, it makes the idea of someone this young having her older brother write a letter to Santa Claus that begins by buttering him up before going into great detail about the gifts she wants funnier than it would have already been.

None of the other kids have that much of a role in the story but some of them still have some interesting and memorable moments for me. I don't know if this was his gimmick in the comics or in other specials but it is interesting how Pig-Pen (I'm not sure who voiced him; one source says that it was another voice done by Peter Robbins, whereas another says that he was played by a kid named Geoffrey Ornstein) is so dirty in appearance and yet, he talks in a rather sophisticated and proper manner. Again, I don't know if that's always been his gimmick or what but I did think that was a little funny in an ironic way. Schroeder (voiced by Chris Doran) has a funny moment with Lucy while they're waiting for Charlie Brown to return with their Christmas tree. He shows Lucy the music he's picked out for the play and then proceeds to play Beethoven's Fur Elise. When he tells her that it's Beethoven, Lucy comments on how he wasn't so great since he never had his picture on any bubblegum cards, causing Schroeder grumble, "Good grief." Lucy later asks Schroeder if he can play Jingle Bells, which he proceeds to, although when he does play it, it sounds like he's playing it on a traditional grand piano. Lucy interrupts him, saying that he doesn't get it and tells him to try again. So, Schroeder plays the piece again and this time, it sounds like a pipe organ when Lucy interrupts again and tries to give him more inspiration, telling him, "Ï mean 'Jingle Bells.' You know Santa Claus and ho-ho-ho, and mistletoe and presents to pretty girls." (That latter part and the way she looks at Schroeder is the only hint of her trademark crush on him in this special.) Schroeder, by this point exasperated at her interrupting him, proceeds to play the song on a single, little key and is completely dumbfounded when she yells, "That's it!" I thought that was funny. The other kids include Shermy (also played Chris Doran), who complains that he's always cast as a shepherd in these school nativity plays; Frieda (voiced by Ann Altieri), whose only point of interest, as always, is her curly hair and making sure that it stays curly; Violet (Sally Dryer), who doesn't catch Charlie Brown's sarcasm when he thanks her for sending him a Christmas card that she, in fact, didn't send; and Patty (not Peppermint Patty but a random girl voiced by Karen Mendelson), who, even though she has only one line, I think is kind of cute when she talks about how fun it is to catch snowflakes on your tongue.

And, of course, you can't talk about anything Peanuts-related without mentioning the antics that Snoopy gets into. Although, while I do think that Snoopy does some funny stuff here, I personally think he's much funnier in the later Peanuts cartoons. That said, though, I can't help but smile at how Snoopy's decorating his doghouse for a Christmas lights contest depresses Charlie Brown even more since he feels that even his own dog has gone commercial (and Snoopy actually wins the contest, which doesn't cheer Charlie Brown up either). The most well-known gag that Snoopy does here is when he's making fun of Lucy behind her back when she's telling the other kids that they must take direction and when she tries to slug him for doing so, he licks her, prompting her to yell about how she's been infected with dog-germs. As funny as that is, I actually find the bit before that when Snoopy shows how talented he is at imitating other animals to be funnier. That dog has some skills! I don't really laugh at the part where he's dancing on top of Schroeder's piano to the music, though. I know it strikes others as funny but it just doesn't do anything for me other than come across as kind of cute.

For me, out of all animated adaptations of comic books and strips, the Peanuts cartoons are the ones that really do look and feel like the source material in motion. A part of that could be due to the fact that none of these things, especially this one, had very big budgets, forcing the filmmakers to create very simple animation and backgrounds. While I'm normally very critical of cartoons that don't do much in terms of their techniques (the sheer static quality of the old Hanna-Barbera cartoons in particular just irritates me), here, while I can't quite explain it, it adds a real charm to it. Like I said, it and the rest of its progeny really do look like moving and talking versions of those comic strips. I guess that is why it's so special but, again, it's just hard to explain for the most part. But, that said, there are some noticeable technical mistakes in both the animation and sound, with the most notable example of the latter being a moment when Schroeder stops playing his piano but, if you watch some of the kids, they continue dancing for a few seconds afterward. The audio track is where the biggest technical errors lie, though. Besides the aforementioned inexperience of many of the child actors, the sound quality is all over the place. Sometimes, it sounds fine, but other times it really dips in quality, becoming rather choppy and hard to hear. And you also generally have to turn the volume up rather high on what ever format you're watching it on in order to hear it. Obviously, given the limitations they had while making it, it's amazing that you can hear and see it at all but, still, those issues are blatant. And, going back to the animation for one last moment, I've noticed that in this special, there are some movements and facial expressions that the characters make here that I don't remember seeing again in any other Peanuts special. This is really hard to explain like everything else but the way the characters' eyes narrow whenever they're irritated or some of the faces they make when they're exasperated seem to appear in only this special, except maybe in It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (I'd have to see that one again to be sure). Maybe it was because they refined their animation techniques and the character designs as they went on and whatnot but it is something I can't help but notice. Again, I know I suck at explaining this but watch this special, watch the characters' animation closely, and then watch some other Peanuts cartoons and I think you'll see what I mean.

Back in my introduction of this review, I said that, after watching this special again through adult eyes, I was actually able to relate to it. What I mean by that is that, in recent years, I've felt the same way that Charlie Brown feels here about what Christmas has become. Oh, don't worry, I'm not as depressed about it as he is but I fully understand where he's coming from. When I was around that age, Christmas was just awesome. I couldn't wait for it to get here because it meant two things: time away from school (which I couldn't get enough of) and presents. However, now as an adult, Christmas has lost a lot of its magic for me. I don't if it's because your priorities change the older you get or you become more cynical or what but I can safely that I just don't get as excited about it now as I did back then. I still enjoy myself and whatever gifts I get from my family I do appreciate whole-heartedly but it really isn't what it once was. And, as everyone else has said, the older you get, the earlier Christmas seems to arrive. I can't explain why that is but I do understand what they mean by it and it's another thing that robs Christmas of its luster for me. A big part of it has to be what Charlie Brown is down about here: the over-commercialization of the holiday. The fact that the media and such start shoving Christmas down your throat nowadays with commercials even before Halloween has past really takes the specialness out of it and so does the feeling that you must rush out and by your gifts as soon as possible, with Black Friday and everything. It makes it less like you want to give a loved one a good gift and more like you feel like you have to, like there's some big consumer machine making you do so. It's really sad to think that what was once a very joyous holiday where friends and families got together to share their love for each other in addition to presents has become a big competition to see who can get the hottest holiday item before it runs out or who can be the biggest present cash-cow in terms of quantity and quality. Now, granted, I still ask for some things that I would like to have for Christmas but I don't get too irritated if I don't get it because, in this age of Amazon.com and other online retailers, I know I can get it myself after the holiday has passed. That's another reason why getting gifts isn't that special anymore: everything is much more available nowadays. And, also, you're given an image of Christmas being just a gigantic joyous celebration due to all of the advertisements and stuff that you see and when it doesn't come to pass, like Charlie Brown himself says here, you feel let down even though you may like getting presents and such. So, while I don't think it's entirely to blame, the over-commercialism of Christmas is still a big part of why it's no longer all that magical and, sadly enough, makes A Charlie Brown Christmas more relevant now than it was back in 1965.

The soundtrack to this special, composed by Vince Guaraldi, has some tunes that have become synonymous not only with the Peanuts but, in some cases, with Christmas in general. The most notable one is the "Linus and Lucy" theme, which is first heard when Schroeder plays it several times during the rehearsal for the play; now, of course, it's pretty much thought of as the Peanuts theme.. There's also that slow, quiet song, Christmas Time Is Here, that plays at the very beginning of the special, which has become a popular Christmas song since the cartoon's first airing. That song has such a strange, soft, and oddly melancholy-like quality to it that I think it really fits with Charlie Brown's depression over what Christmas is nowadays. But, because of that, I'm not sure if I like the fact that it's become so popular and linked with Christmas. I'm not saying that it will make you depressed but still. On the opposite end of the spectrum, hearing the Peanuts Gang sing, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, is something that I can't help but smile at and that really will put you in the Christmas mood, as does that nice piece that plays when the kids are watching the snow come down. There are also soft, piano-versions of various Christmas songs that play throughout the special that seem to further emphasize Charlie Brown's melancholy mood of this over-commercialized Christmas season. I can't help but wonder if the gang singing a joyous, sincere version of, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, at the end of the special when they've understood what Charlie Brown meant by getting that scrawny tree is supposed to have some sort of symbolic meaning since it's the only really joyous Christmas carol heard in the entire special, while everything else has that melancholy sound that I've just described.

While I still wouldn't say that A Charlie Brown Christmas is my favorite Peanuts cartoon, rediscovering it after all these years and talking about it here was quite an experience. While its technical flaws are very evident in regards to some of the voice-acting and the low budget animation and sound, it's still a very heartfelt holiday special and, unlike most made around that time or even in recent years for that matter, is absolutely intent on reminding us about the actual true meaning of Christmas. Not only does it do so with flying colors but, even better, it manages to do it well without being overbearing or negating some of the fun of it as well. If you haven't seen it in a long time or you think it's just a silly old Christmas cartoon, I'd highly advise checking it out. It's not only charming but, in many ways, its ultimate intention is even more relevant nowadays than it was back when it was originally released.