It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown (1974)

As with A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, I never saw this special as a kid and didn't know it even existed until I saw its VHS advertised right before the main feature on the direct-to-video movie, Donkey Kong Country: Legend of the Crystal Coconut. I honestly can't come up with a concrete reason why I missed it all those years, as it aired on CBS annually up to 2000 and, after that, ABC did the same from 2001 to 2006 (its airing has been sporadic since then, though). I can't even say that it didn't interest me, as it looked charming enough from what little I saw of it in that preview. I guess I was just always off doing something else every time it was aired. In any case, I finally saw it when I bought volume one of the DVD collections of the Peanut specials produced in the 70's and, I must say, I did quite enjoy it. No Peanuts holiday special has ever been as classic as A Charlie Brown Christmas and this one is no exception but, that said, I enjoy this more than A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Mind you, I didn't think that one was bad; rather, I found it to just be kind of ho-hum and not that memorable, whereas I found myself getting more into The Easter Beagle. It's odd that I say that because, unlike A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, this is one of those Peanuts cartoons where there's no concrete story running through it but, instead, it's just a bunch of random stuff that the characters get caught up in during the days leading up to Easter. It's even more scattered in that respect than The Great Pumpkin, which it happens to recycle a subplot from, and there's no true protagonist among the group that everything revolves around, either. And yet, I find it to be more fun to watch than The Great Pumpkin, probably because it's not talked up as much (I like that one fair enough but I don't quite get why it's looked at as such an immortal classic), as well as much more memorable than Thanksgiving (it definitely has more of a feel of its season than that one did, which is a plus) and nowhere close to the melancholy of Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown, which I really appreciate. It may be a controversial opinion but I do think this is one of the better Peanuts holiday specials.

Easter is coming and various members of the Peanuts gang are preparing in their own ways. Peppermint Patty is trying to teach Marcie how to dye Easter eggs but, having never done it before, Marcie continually botches it up in various ways. Lucy, meanwhile, believes that it's the "gift-getting" season and decides to paint and hide eggs so she herself can find them come Easter morning. Woodstock finds that his bird's nest offers no shelter from the spring rains and so Snoopy decides to buy him a birdhouse, although the gesture doesn't come without certain difficulties. Sally decides she needs some new shoes for Easter and she and Charlie Brown go with Lucy and Linus to the store to buy supplies for the holiday. Linus, however, tells everyone who will listen that it's a waste of time to go through so much fuss, as the "Easter Beagle" will appear on Easter morning and hand out eggs to all of the good little children. While most everyone either ignores him or writes him off as crazy, especially Lucy, Sally has a little bit of faith but is still cautious, given the fiasco she went with him over the Great Pumpkin. She'll have to wait and see if the Easter Beagle really will appear or if this will prove to be another farfetched fantasy from the boy she has a crush on.

As with It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown before it, The Easter Beagle was directed by Phil Roman, with Bill Melendez acting as producer. In fact, Roman would be the one guiding the Peanuts specials from here into the early 80's, directing ones like You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown, It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown, She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown, and Someday You'll Find Her, Charlie Brown, among many others. Melendez, meanwhile, was focusing on other projects during this time, such as 1975's Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done and the 1979 animated TV movie of The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe, though he did co-direct 1978's What a Nightmare, Charlie Brown with Roman and the two of them would co-direct the features, Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don't Come Back!!), during this time as well. He wouldn't return to actively directing the specials until 1982's A Charlie Brown Celebration.

Did you notice how Charlie Brown (voiced by Todd Barbee) only came up once during that plot synopsis? That wasn't me neglecting him but, instead, a reflection of how small his role is in this special, as he has no part in any of the subplots that make up the story and he's not seen until about four minutes in, when he's listening to Sally complain about how she has no new shoes for Easter. The two of them join Linus and Lucy in heading to the mall so she can get some new shoes, running into Peppermint Patty and Marcie there, and that's when Linus informs them about the Easter Beagle. When she questions him about whether or not Linus is all there, Charlie Brown isn't sure what to say and Patty tells him that he has some weird friends. While in the mall, he's disgusted at how they already have their Christmas decorations out, despite it still being eight months away, and has to deal with Sally and Snoopy trying on hats, as well as Sally becoming interested in a pair of shoes that are way too big for her and cause her to fall into him when she tries to walk while wearing them. He's not seen again after that until near the end, where Patty is lamenting to him about how she and Marcie have gone through three dozen eggs in their attempts to color them and Linus again goes on about the Easter Beagle taking care of it for her. He doesn't say anything but the look on his face shows that he's getting sick of Linus yammering on about that. Come Easter, most of the kids are miserable for various reasons and Charlie Brown is no exception, as he's completely alone, despite it being a holiday. His mood is momentarily brightened when Snoopy shows up as the Easter Beagle and passes eggs around to the kids, but that's ruined when, by the time he gets to him, he's run out of eggs.

Speaking of Snoopy (voiced by Bill Melendez), he has much more of a presence here than his owner does, especially since there are two subplots involving him. One revolves around him helping Woodstock after his nest proves to be no refuge from the spring rains. Going to the mall with the kids, he buys Woodstock a birdhouse and puts it in the tree where his nest was. However, he has some trouble in that he has to widen the opening so Woodstock can get in and then, when the bird refuses to try to go in, Snoopy loses his temper and slams the house down on him, getting him through the opening that way. Later, when he sees that Woodstock has made the inside of the place into something of a cool bachelor's pad, he tries to get a closer look at it but gets his nose caught in the hole and, in trying to pull it out, ends up smashing the house. Snoopy, in turn, buys Woodstock another one, this one with a little rope-ladder leading to the hole. Speaking of Woodstock, he mainly acts as a little brat of a bird here, going over to Snoopy and fussing at him after he gets soaking wet from the rain and then, when he doesn't understand what he's talking about, pouring the water on his head, followed by the soaked nest. After Snoopy buys him the first birdhouse, Woodstock has an angry frown on his face the whole time he's putting it up and refuses to cooperate even after Snoopy widens the entry hole for him. Of course, once he gets used to it, Woodstock turns the inside of the house in a nice little home for himself, only for Snoopy to accidentally destroy it and force him to start from scratch.

Snoopy's other part in this special is to show off a carefree, happy-go-lucky, and whimsically imaginative side, in how he tries on hats with Sally at the mall, looks into a special egg there with a bunny image inside it and imagines himself joining them in dancing ring-around-the rosie, and dances with Peppermint Patty and Marcie to the melodies that some music boxes displayed in the mall play. This culminates in him taking the eggs Lucy made and hid for herself and acting as the Easter Beagle, dancing around and passing the eggs along to the kids on Easter morning. He not only gives Lucy one of her own eggs but also gives one to Woodstock, who was sleeping before and then, simply lies atop it in much the same way Snoopy does with his doghouse. He also had every intention of giving Charlie Brown an egg, only to run out before he gets to him and look rather embarrassed about it. Lucy isn't at all happy when she figures out that Snoopy used her own eggs in his Easter Beagle act and is about ready to pick a fight with him over it, only for him to kiss her on the cheek in a way that even disarms her.

God knows where Linus (voiced by Stephen Shea) gets these concepts of nonexistent holiday figures but, in addition to his belief that a Santa Claus-like figure gives kids toys on Halloween night, he also believes in the "Easter Beagle," a canine substitute for the Easter Bunny who serves the same function. Telling people about the Easter Beagle and how he gives colored eggs to all the children on Easter Sunday is Linus' only role in this special, as he tells that to someone in nearly every scene he's in. He also manages to convince Sally of it, despite her reservations from wasting her Halloween waiting for the Great Pumpkin, and his only defense for that is, "This is different: that was Halloween, this is Easter." Incidentally, that's something else this special has in common with The Great Pumpkin: Linus trying to convince Sally, whom he normally wants nothing to do with, of this weird figure he believes in. And just like in that special, he gets bawled out by her when Easter morning arrives and it looks as if the Easter Beagle didn't come, only for him to get a kind of validation this time when Snoopy shows up, taking on the role of the Easter Beagle and giving eggs to all the kids (that's also interesting because, if you remember, Linus thought Snoopy was the Great Pumpkin when he appeared in the pumpkin patch with them). Also just like with the Great Pumpkin, Linus' belief in the Easter Beagle aggravates Lucy (voiced by Melanie Kohn) to no end, although she refuses to let it spoil Easter for her. She sees this time of year in a similar way to Christmas, as the "gift-getting" season, and views the very early Christmas decorations in the mall as validation for her feeling this way. She even tries to convince Schroeder of it, disgusting him with her "gimme, gimme" attitude, to which she responds, "That's called survival, baby." Her end game is to color, hide, and find a bunch of eggs herself, keeping a list of where she put them as she goes. When Easter morning rolls around, Lucy is initially the only one who's happy because of the prospect of her upcoming private egg hunt, but that immediately reverses itself when Snoopy gives her one of her own eggs. She's still miffed about this ten weeks later and goes over to "talk" with Snoopy about it, i.e. to punch his lights out, but when he kisses her on the cheek, she's so touched by it that it takes all the fight of her and she only sigh happily in response.

Though it's more than her brother, Sally (voiced by Lynn Mortensen) also doesn't have much of a role in this special. She's first seen in that scene where she's telling Charlie Brown that she needs some new shoes for Easter, which is also when Linus first tells everyone of the Easter Beagle. At the mall, she's just as annoyed as her brother about how they have their Christmas stuff up, despite it only being April, and after having some fun by trying on some hats with Snoopy, she tries on some over-sized, old-fashioned shoes because they're on sale; when she tries to walk in them, she falls into her brother. Regardless, she does get a pair of brand new shoes. As much she might want to believe Linus when it comes to the Easter Beagle, she's a bit skeptical because of how she got burned by sitting out in that pumpkin patch on Halloween night, waiting for the Great Pumpkin. She eventually goes along with it but, when Easter morning rolls around and there's no sign of the Easter Beagle, she lays into Linus, yelling about how she should have learned not to believe what he says and shouts, "Get me my lawyer! I've been humiliated!" But then, he faith in Linus is restored when the "Easter Beagle" shows up and gives the two of them and everyone else, save for Charlie Brown an egg, apparently not recognizing that it was just Snoopy with a basket.

The first characters that you see when the special begins are Peppermint Patty (voiced by Linda Ercoli) and Marcie (voiced by Jimmy Ahrens), as the two of them try to color eggs. However, because of Marcie's naivety, as well as, let's face it, lack of common sense, she constantly messes it up, much to Patty's growing aggravation. First, she fries the eggs on a griddle; the second time, she puts four in a waffle iron, then tries to put one in the toaster, and when that fails, puts the rest in the oven; and the third and final time, Patty tells her that they have to be boiled and she does just that, except she cracks them before putting them in the pot. Patty ends up spending all of her money on three cartons of eggs, with no colored ones to show for it, and she's both frustrated with Marcie and disappointed that she won't be able to teach her how to dye eggs. Initially skeptical about Linus' talks of the Easter Beagle, she starts to hope that he's right after running out of eggs, but when Easter morning comes, she and Marcie are as depressed as just about everyone else, Marcie apologizing for ruining th eggs. However, that's when Snoopy shows up as the Easter Beagle and gives an egg each. Afterward, Marcie asks what they do with the eggs and Patty says that they put salt on them and eat them. Marcie does so but eats it the egg shell-and-all, which she says tastes awful, and all Patty can do is facepalm in response.

Schroeder (voiced by Greg Felton) only appears in a couple of scenes, one of them being at the beginning when Lucy is going on about how Easter is a "gift-getting" season, despite him telling her that it's a time of renewal and admonishing her for only thinking of herself all the time. He's clearly disgusted when she says that what she's doing is nothing more than survival. He appears again near the end, when the Easter Beagle gives him an egg all his own and he's very grateful for it. While he may have gotten an egg when Charlie Brown didn't, at least Charlie Brown had more screentime than Schroeder!

The Easter Beagle looks an awful lot like A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving in terms of the feeling the colors and backgrounds create, which wasn't a good thing for the latter, as it felt more like spring than November; however, it works very well here. When I see those gray and white, overcast skies, suggesting possible rain, with just a hint of blue in spots where there are gaps in the clouds, combined with the lush greens of the grass and tree leaves, it feels like a spring day to me, especially since I live in the south. I also like how the inside of the mall (they call it a store but it's so big, with escalators that run up and down to different levels, it feels like a mall to me) has a bit more detail to it than you usually see in the interior scenes in these cartoons, with all the displays and decorations, as well as more stuff on the wall than normal. Surprisingly, the same goes for Peppermint Patty's kitchen when she and Marcie are trying to color eggs, as you see far more appliances and furniture than in settings like living rooms and bedrooms, which are usually made up of beds, chairs, and/or TV sets with a blank, nondescript wall behind them. Speaking of which, you have to love how Woodstock turns the inside of the birdhouse that Snoopy buys for him into a 70's style bachelor pad, with modern artwork on the walls, a sunken bed, a TV, and even a freaking quadrophonic stereo system! (Yeah, that kind of goes against the timelessness of Peanuts, which I personally feel is a big no-no, but it's only in this one scene, unlike a certain other special we talked about recently.) But, when Snoopy accidentally destroys the house, Woodstock seems to not consider trying to convert the second one he buys for him in the same way and just leaves it as is, using the Easter egg Snoopy delivers to him as something to sleep on top of. Finally, Snoopy has a cute, whimsical fantasy where he joins some bunnies in an idyllic field with a clear blue sky in the background, and this feeling kind of carries into the scene on Easter morning near the end of the special when he appears as the Easter Beagle, with the pinkness in the low part of the sky giving the feeling of an early sunrise (the deep blue color of the sky in the scene before that, where Lucy is hiding her Easter eggs, has a similarly lovely feel to it).

One thing about this special that makes me smile is the childhood nostalgia of Easter that it brings up for me. While it was never as important to me as Halloween or Christmas, I did enjoy Easter when I was a kid and a big part of that had to do with coloring eggs. Watching Peppermint Patty mix up the bowls of different-colored dye for the eggs and having to boil them before doing so brings back the fun memories I had of doing that with my mom, using these little tiny squirt bottles filled with the dye and squeezing it into bowls where the boiled eggs were held. I actually enjoyed that more than I did the egg hunts, though I do have memories of taking part in some, either at our church or in my grandparents' front yard (in the case of the latter, the eggs were plastic). And I hate to say it but I was kind of like Lucy in that I saw Easter as another opportunity to get presents, as my mom once put some type of video tape in the basket, along with the candy and plastic eggs, and after that, I expected to get something like that every year. That's how I ended up getting the copy of Mario Kart 64 that I've held onto since childhood (I actually cried for it, which is not something I'm proud of but, I'll admit, I was a tad spoiled as a kid). Yeah, if you're a parent, don't decide to give your kid a gift like that during a time of year when that normally doesn't happen, because then they'll come to expect you to do so every year.

I like how, once again, Charles Schulz couldn't help but put in a little commentary on the commercialization of holidays, much like he did with A Charlie Brown Christmas. What's more, he did so in a way that's even more relevant nowadays than it probably was in the 70's (anyone who was around during this time, tell me if the special is accurate about that), with how stores now start pushing Christmas stuff on you before Halloween has even come and gone. The banner in the mall, which reads, "ONLY 246 DAYS UNTIL XMAS," and the signs that read, "SAVE," "BUY EARLY," "BUY NOW," and, "CHRISTMAS DISCOUNT," say it all, and it's very appropriate that, while Charlie Brown and Sally are irritated by it (remember in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, she was annoyed that Thanksgiving was so soon after Halloween), Lucy is absolutely delighted. In fact, I'm pretty sure the reason why Schulz put this in here was so it would serve as a reflection of her being just as greedy about Easter as she would be about Christmas, to the point where it's like they're interchangeable and, therefore, the presence of Christmas decorations in the springtime has no meaning at all. Its meaning is not dwelt upon as much as it was in the actual Christmas special but, if you think about it, it is significant to the plot, given how Snoopy's giving all of the eggs Lucy made for herself to the kids and making them all happy shows that Easter is not about getting stuff for yourself, as she thought. Though, because of that, I do wish that things had turned out better for Charlie Brown, just as it did at the end of A Charlie Brown Christmas, and he got an egg too.

The special's opening concerns Peppermint Patty and Marcie's first ill-fated attempt at coloring eggs. Marcie shows up at Patty's house with the eggs and is led into the kitchen, Patty telling her to get the eggs ready while she mixes up the colored dyes. However, while Patty does her part, Marcie "prepares" the eggs by frying them on the griddle, asking, "Uh, sir, how do we color the eggs after we fry them?" Seeing this, Sally stutters and lets an exasperated yell, one of many she'll emit throughout the special, while facepalming. After the title and credit, you see Lucy leaning against the rear of Schroeder's piano as he plays, talking about another holiday is coming up that will allow boys the opportunity to buy presents for "pretty" girls; this attitude of hers leaves Schroeder more disgusted than here mere presence often does. Meanwhile, outside, the rain is pouring down and Woodstock is lying in his nest in a small tree, freezing his butt off in the puddle of water that's accumulated on the nest's bottom. Deciding he's had enough, he appears to take an invisible elevator down to the ground (i.e., he mimes pressing a button and you hear the sounds of buzzing, doors sliding open, and the car running, but he really just walks to the edge of the nest and flutters down) and, dripping wet, walks over to Snoopy's doghouse, where there's a clear sky and no rain whatsoever. Snoopy, as usual, is sleeping atop the house and Woodstock flutters up to him, landing on his feet, and starts jabbering at him, waking him up. Seeing that he's wet, Snoopy takes him and wrings and shakes him out, but Woodstock continues jabbering and hops on Snoopy's snout and off the top of his head, back down to the ground. Hopping down himself, he follows Woodstock over to the tree, where motions up to his nest and cheeps about it. Snoopy shrugs, as he doesn't know what he means, and Woodstock flits up to the nest, pointing at it and chattering some more. Snoopy still doesn't get what the problem is and, frustrated, Woodstock emphasizes his point by pouring the water in the nest onto his head and pushes it down on top of him.

The Peanuts gang heads to the mall, pairs of characters going for various reasons, and inside, they remark on how the Christmas decorations are already up. After a moment where Sally and Snoopy have some fun by trying on hats, Charlie Brown motions for them to come on. They head to the escalators but, while the kids go up, Snoopy takes the escalator that heads down. He passes them on their way up and, when the kids take another escalator further up, they pass him again (even though, this shouldn't be possible, given the complete opposite directions they took). Charlie Brown and Sally head over to the shoe department, where Sally picks and tries on an oversized and out-of-date pair, as she likes to be different from everybody else anyway. But, when she tries to walk in them, she loses her balance and falls over onto her brother, much to his annoyance. Snoopy, meanwhile, comes across a gumball machine and puts a quarter in, but when he presses the lever, all of the balls spill out and slips on them on the floor, ending up next to an Easter display. Spotting the large eggs with holes in them, as well as sign that reads, SEE THE BUNNIES, Snoopy takes one and looks inside it. He sees a simple, static visual of some bunnies sitting alongside a dirt trail but his imagination turns them into some happy, dancing little rabbits and he joins them in their dancing. He gets some applause from them for his dancing and as he continues watching, you see that he's dancing in place while he does so. Later, he's looking at some birdhouses and, after peeking at the price tags of a couple that are seemingly too expensive, he decides on a simple, tan-colored one and buys it. He later puts it up in Woodstock's tree but, when Woodstock tries to get it in, the hole proves to be too small, his beak barely fitting inside. He drops back to the ground and complains about it to Snoopy, who then opens the hole up a little more but now, Woodstock refuses to go in it. Snoopy quickly loses his patience with Woodstock's obstinate and ungrateful attitude and grabs the birdhouse, slams the hole down on the bird, forcing him in it, and hanging it back up in the tree. Inside the house, Woodstock is dazed over what just happened.

While Linus tries to convince Sally of the Easter Beagle's existence, Peppermint Patty and Marcie are once again attempting to color some eggs. However, Marcie still hasn't gotten the idea and puts four of the eggs in the waffle iron, creating a real mess. She then tries to put one in the toaster but all she manages to do is put it on top and press down the lever, which does nothing. That's when she takes the egg and puts it, along with the rest of them, into the oven and starts it up, prompting Patty to let out another furious scream. The two of them head back to the mall to get another dozen eggs, running into Linus on the way and listening to him again go on about the Easter Beagle. Elsewhere, Snoopy hears the sounds of sawing and hammering coming from inside Woodstock's birdhouse, followed by some smooth, relaxing music. Curious, he peeks through the hole and is surprised to see the inside completely furnished, with modern art paintings adorning the walls, a sunken bed, a spiral staircase leading up, and Woodstock lounging while listening to the music through some headphones. Snoopy tries to see more but in his attempts, he gets his big nose stuck in the hole and, in trying to wrench it loose, jerks the house off the tree and smashes it on the ground, the piece with the hole still stuck on his nose. Not surprisingly, Woodstock chews Snoopy out for this and the two of them walk to the mall, where they meet up with Patty and Marcie. Snoopy and the girls head in through the doors but Woodstock ends up stuck outside when the doors close on him (he tries to rush in but slams headfirst into the door). Inside the mall (which still has that, "ONLY 246 DAYS UNTIL XMAS," sign up, so we're seemingly still on the same day as we were earlier), they come to a spot where some Christmas music boxes are only display and Patty winds them up. As the music plays, Snoopy dances with Patty, then with Marcie, and then the three of them all dance together. After the music ends, Snoopy kisses both of them on the cheek before heading off by himself, leaving the two girls on the floor, fawning over him. Patty comments, "Boy, that kid really can dance, and he sure knows how to make a girl happy," before adding, "He sure is a funny-looking kid, though," to which Marcie responds, "He has a very strange nose, doesn't he, sir?" Snoopy, meanwhile buys another birdhouse and later, puts it up for Woodstock. This one comes with a rope-ladder, which Woodstock takes advantage of, crawling across and up it as it hangs from the perch below the entry hole.

Trying for the third time to color the eggs, Patty tells Marcie, "These eggs are not to be fried, nor are they to be roasted, toasted, or waffled!... These eggs got to be boiled. You boil them, and then I'll show you how to paint them." Marcie seems to understand it now and heads over to prepare to boil the eggs. She fills a pot with water, puts it on the stove, and starts heating up the water. Patty tells her to let her know when the water starts boiling and to go ahead and put the eggs in. Marcie does just that: she cracks the eggs on the pot's rim and shucks the yolks into the water. She tells Patty that all the eggs are in the pot and Patty tells her to let them boil for a long time. The water starts boiling immediately and Marcie has Patty come over to have a look at them. Patty comments that it smells like soup and when she looks into the pot, she yells at what she sees. She then yells at Marcie, "You've made egg soup!", sending Marcie tumbling backwards off the stool she was standing on and letting out her third aggravated scream of the special. She then laments to Charlie Brown about their predicament, how they've gone through three-dozen eggs, still don't have any colored ones, and now she's out of money. Once again, Linus assures her that the Easter Beagle will take care of it, saying, "Everyone will be filled with great warmth and friendship." He later tries to tell Lucy the same as she's coloring eggs but she isn't having it, saying, "Easter is very simple: you paint the eggs, you hide the eggs, and you find the eggs." He follows her as she hides the eggs throughout the yard and makes up a list of where she put them, intending to find them all herself. Unbeknownst to her, Snoopy is following them and snatching up the eggs that she leaves on the ground.

Easter morning arrives and everyone is pretty miserable for various reasons. Peppermint Patty is down because she and Marcie never got to color any eggs, saying, "I've seen this happen on holidays before: you look forward to being real happy, and then, something happens that spoils it all,"; Sally is livid at Linus because, just like with the Great Pumpkin, the Easter Beagle was a no-show; and Charlie Brown is depressed because it's a holiday and he's by himself. The only one who's cheerful is Lucy, who is preparing to have a great Easter egg hunt since she's the one who's going to find all of them. Woodstock, however, couldn't care less, as he's in his new birdhouse, snoozing. After Sally declares that you shouldn't trust someone with a blanket and demands a lawyer, a figure appears in the distance and it turns out to be Snoopy, who's passing out the eggs he picked up earlier (I recognized the shot of him doing this as the first thing you see during the opening for the first season of The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show). Seeing him, Linus excitedly yells that the Easter Beagle is coming and this prompts all of the kids to stop and look. He passes by Patty and Marcie, tossing them some eggs, and does the same for Linus and Sally, act that elates the former. Schroeder is the next one to get an egg and, afterward, he tosses an egg into the birdhouse, where it knocks Woodstock on the head, startling him awake. After shaking off the daze, he gets up and simply uses the egg as something to sleep on top of. Snoopy then walks up to Lucy, shaking her hand, and hands her one of the eggs, before going over to Charlie Brown... but then, he discovers that he's run out of eggs and all he can do is shrug and smile sheepishly (maybe he shouldn't have been tossing them around willy-nilly before he got to the kids). As the other kids rejoice, Lucy isn't too happy, seeing as how she just got one of her own eggs. Marcie then asks Patty what they now do with the eggs and Patty tells her that they eat them with some salt. So, Marcie takes out a salt shaker, sprinkles some on her egg, and bites right into it, shell and all. Chewing on it and swallowing, she tells Patty that it tastes awful, while Patty can do nothing but facepalm yet again.

Ten weeks later, Lucy is still angry, declaring she'll never get over what happened and kicks the cushion she was lying on for emphasis. Linus suggests that she over and talk things over with Snoopy and she leaves to do just that, only her idea of "talking things out" is to challenge Snoopy to a fight. When she tells him come down off his doghouse so they can have it out, he scoots across the top of the house until his head is leaning over the edge and he's looking at Lucy, as she puts up her dukes. Turning right-side up, he jumps down in front of her, as she starts shuffling in place and tells him to put his hands up. Instead, he kisses her right on the cheek and does so in such a hard way that it leaves her a bit dazed. As he walks away, instead of being disgusted, like she usually is, Lucy can only sigh happily and intone, "The Easter Beagle."

Vince Guaraldi's score here is a little bit different than the music he normally created for the Peanuts specials in that it's not as jazzy. You still get those nice, mellow pieces that often come with these specials, such as some symphonic ones in scenes such as those with Peppermint Patty and Marcie, when Linus first tells the kids about the Easter Beagle, and when Snoopy tries to get a gumball, but the main title theme is this really whimsical, fairy tale-sounding, flute piece, which you also hear when Snoopy fantasizes about having fun with the bunnies (it's the only sound in that scene) and over the ending credits. A similarly magical, jig-like piece is heard when Snoopy shows up as the Easter Beagle, which actually the first movement of Beethoven's 7th Symphony, with the second one being played in the bit before that, when Sally is giving Linus an earful about the Easter Beagle. Speaking of classic pieces of music, the tune that the music boxes in the mall play is one that was written by Bach. The scenes with Woodstock have a distinctive, bluesy-sounding guitar piece set to them, the scenes at the mall have a high-pitched, softly-played, twanging theme with a Christmas twinge to them, and the look at Woodstock's little bachelor pad is set to some relaxing, lounge-like music. A symphonic version of the Linus and Lucy theme can be heard when Lucy is hiding the eggs she painted and the special ends with a nice piece similar to the one that opened it, only with a little more bounce to it.

For me, It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown is something of an underrated Peanuts holiday special. It may not have much in the way of one, concrete, instead being comprised of several different subplots, and Charlie Brown himself is barely even in it, but there's a lot to recommend it. Most of the characters featured do have a lot to do, particularly Snoopy, the look of the special really gives off the warmth and sunshine of spring, there's some surprising detail in the design of some of the environments, it can bring up some nice childhood memories of Easter, Charles Schulz again manages to slip in some commentary about the commercialization of holidays, there are a number of funny and memorable scenes, and the music score is really charming. There's just a real good feeling about this one, mostly because it doesn't revel in the melancholy that these cartoons sometimes do (sadly, Charlie Brown's lack of screentime could have something to do with that), and it's one I would recommend watching with your family this Easter.