After failing to get his baseball team motivated for some practice while it's still wintertime, Charlie Brown starts putting them through spring training and, as usual, they're awful. They don't get much better when Frieda's little brother, Leland, joins the team because he desires to play in a big league. Following some particularly frustrating training involving Lucy, the outfielder, she brings up the fact that they have no uniforms, unlike the other teams in the league. Charlie Brown manages to get a deal with Mr. Hennessy, the owner of a hardware store, who agrees to sponsor the team and buy them uniforms... if they win the first game of the season. Despite his confidence that, if they really try, they could do it, no one else shares in his faith, and even if they do manage to win the game, will the uniforms really matter in their ability to play the game?
I couldn't remember in the long while since I first watched it but, while preparing for this review, I was positive that It's Spring Training, Charlie Brown wasn't directed by Bill Melendez, as I couldn't see him letting a lot of the stuff in this one slide, and I was right. While Melendez, along with Lee Mendelson, was a producer on it, the special was directed by Sam Jaimes, who was actually a veteran of the Peanuts by this point. Not only had he worked in the animation department on way too many of the past shorts and movies to count, he'd also directed other Peanuts projects like episodes of The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Snoopy: The Musical, and It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown (ironically, another Peanuts special that is poorly dated). Moreover, he directed Why, Charlie Brown, Why?, the special that took on the subject of cancer and received an Emmy nomination for the effort. Spring Training is the last bit of directing on Jaimes' IMDB page but he did go on to work on other Peanuts cartoons in various capacities, often as animator, such as You're in the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown and It Was My Best Birthday Ever, Charlie Brown, as well as for other cartoons like Frosty Returns and an episode of Garfield and Friends. His last credit was as a character designer on a 2005 short called Jasper: The Story of a Mule.
Though present, Linus (voiced by John Christian Graas) doesn't have much of a role in the story, save for mainly just being another body on the team. Like everyone else, he doesn't give much for their chances at winning the first game of the season and, like his sister, he believes that if they had some uniforms, it would make all the difference in their performances. He does nothing significant during the big game and, when they lose the second one, despite now having uniforms, he expresses dismay about it, thinking that they would have been unbeatable. I'm not a fan of the kid who voiced Linus here, either, as his performance is pretty flat and has neither the spirit or inherent intellect that you often associate with the character. I guess I shouldn't be too hard on Graas, as he was only nine or ten when he did this cartoon, but Linus has had much better voice actors over the years (the kid who played him in the first specials in the 60's, while not a brilliant actor, left more of an impact). You also don't get much action from Snoopy (voiced by Bill Melendez), who's the team's shortstop. During the opening, when there's snow everywhere and it's cold, he enters the field on a ski-line, and later, when he goes with Charlie Brown and Linus to Mr. Hennessy's hardware store, he runs into trouble when a wrench snaps onto his nose, sticks his head in a machine that shakes him around, gets a bucket stuck on his head, and gets blasted around by a leaf-blower. When Charlie Brown tells the team about Hennessy's offer and tries to get them pepped up for it, he says, "I've asked an expert to lead us in some calisthenics." Said "expert" is apparently Snoopy, who's snoozing over on the bench while standing up. During the actual game, he manages to catch a ball with his mouth, and when he goes to get a drink of water during a break in the action, having to drink from the hose proves to be really hazardous for and the team, as it starts flailing around while he grabs onto it, trying to bring it under control. When they get their uniforms, Snoopy makes the painful mistake of putting his on without taking the pins out, not that it matters because, like everyone else, he doesn't play any better while wearing it.
Wearing a helmet and catcher's mitt that are far too big for him, Leland (voiced by Gregory Grudt) shows up during the team's spring training, hoping to try out for a big league, despite being much younger and smaller than the other kids. He's really earnest about it, willing to take any position that Charlie Brown gives him, and though he proves to not be that great of a catcher and has a hard time understanding their signals (he finally gets the signal for wanting to bunt but he ends up confessing that he doesn't know what a bunt is), he eventually gets the position of infielder. During the big game, he manages to get a pop fly when the ball bounces off the ground and up into his helmet, and he also turns out to have a crush on Lucy, telling her when he first meets her that he thinks she's pretty and calling her "gorgeous" at one point. At the last of the ninth, it's Leland's turn to bat and he almost strikes out, only to dizzily walk on base when a ball whacks him in the helmet and he also manages to score a run in the same manner, winning them the game. Though, after that game, Leland decides to go back to his little league, since the large size of the team's uniform convinces him that he's not ready for the big league yet. As I said in the synopsis, Leland is the little brother of Frieda (voiced by Noley Thornton), who has one appearance near the beginning of the special when she has to tie Leland's shoes for him before he heads off to try out.
Schroeder (voiced by Travis Boles) is also part of the team but he only has a couple of noteworthy moments. One is when he plays the piano so the others can do the hokey-pokey before the game (yeah, even on the ball-field, you can't separate him from his piano), as per their tradition, and the other is when, as the game is about to start, he walks up to Charlie Brown on the pitcher's mound and tells him, "One finger will mean just try to get over to the plate. Two fingers will mean try not to throw over the backstop. And three fingers will mean we'll all be glad when the season's over." After he walks away, Charlie Brown comments, "Catchers are weird." Other than that, not much can be said about Schroeder other than how, as usual, Lucy gets on his nerves with her constant and unwanted flirting. There's an unnamed girl player (voiced by Elisabeth Moss) on the team who, in one scene, looks exactly like Marcie, as she's randomly wearing glasses just like her, even though she doesn't wear them anywhere else during the cartoon. As you can see, even without the glasses, you could easily mistake her for Marcie, as she's dressed just like her and her hair is the same color and shape. Pig-Pen is on the team but he never says anything or does anything significant, nor does a dark-haired boy who I don't recognize at all. Franklin is on the team as well (voiced by Jessica Nwafor) and he has one very memorable scene but I'm going to wait a little bit before talking about it, as that scene deserves a section all its own.
For all of the faults that it does have, Spring Training is one of the lovelier-looking Peanuts specials, undoubtedly because it was made in the early 90's. Its color palette is very rich, for one thing (as you should have already noticed by this point, the colors really pop), and since 98% of it takes place outside, the designers really focused on making the environments look as nice as possible. The opening in wintertime looks like something out of a beautiful postcard due to the idyllic, snow-covered scenery, and during the bulk of the story during the springtime, the bright greens of the grass and the trees in the background are very pleasing to the eye, particularly in the big wide shots of the baseball diamond. And while the special ends on a melancholy note, the deep orange from the sunset makes it look pretty, at least. Moreover, the animation, while not Disney-level by any means, had really improved by this point in the specials' history, as the characters' movements are quite fluid and fairly detailed when compared to what had been done in the past. As cringe-inducing as the scene itself is, Franklin's rap song (yes, you read that right) before the game is made up of some really good and intricate animation involving his and the other characters' dance moves, and it's the only part where things get very stylized, with these colored backgrounds in the closeups and some showy panning movements from the camera.
Pretty visuals and technical savvy don't mean anything to me if I don't care what's going on and that's one of the areas where Spring Training falls flat. The story is uninspired, to say the least, and I'm not saying that because it's centered around baseball, which I have zero interest in, as I've enjoyed past Peanuts specials that involved sports (for that matter, I absolutely love The Sandlot, a big chunk of which is about baseball). All we're seeing is the gang being a lousy team, getting the idea that having actual uniforms will suddenly make them better, and actually trying to win the first game of the season for no other incentive than the offer of uniforms if they win. So, when they do win, through sheer luck rather than skill, and get their uniforms, you can see what's going to happen right then and there: it makes no difference, they get beaten (admittedly, not by much; just a couple of points, in fact), and learn that how you look means nothing if you can't play for crap. It's so predictable, and it would have been better if it had instead been about them simply trying to win just one game. What's more, it recycles a bit of the story of Charlie Brown's All-Stars, with Mr. Hennessy offering to sponsor the team and get them uniforms, but it has none of the depth of that much superior special, which involved Charlie Brown having to turn down Hennessy's offer because the league doesn't allow girls or dogs on the team, keeping this development from his friends to ensure they won't quit the team, and his friends becoming angry at him when they find out, only to feel bad when Linus tells them the real truth behind it (even Lucy felt bad, in that instance!) The only noteworthy side-plot in Spring Training is how they let young Leland play with them but they do nothing with it at all, as his winning the game, again, is a happy accident rather than any talent on his part, so his having to leave the team doesn't make a difference anyway. These story issues are weird because, as was the case with many of the Peanuts cartoons made during his lifetime, Charles Schulz did write this. Maybe he was just struggling for ideas or received some interference from the network or whoever but that's up to debate. And finally, while there are some laughs to be had here, like Snoopy's antics in the hardware store and his trying to get some water from the hose that serves as the field's drinking fountain, as well as Lucy's comments from the outfield, I'd be lying if I were to call Spring Training a complete riot.
One aspect of the Peanuts franchise as a whole that has always made it really special is how timeless the stories are. As Jim Davis did with Garfield, Charles Schulz never put anything in the stories that dated them and made them of a specific time period. Even though the comic strip began in 1950 and the specials in the mid-60's, they all hold up because there's nothing in them, not slang, not clothing, not hairstyles, not fads and trends, or anything else that ties them to those specific time periods. Schulz did take on period-relevant topics and issues in his stories but rarely did them in ways that were so blatant as to make it come off like they were in because they happened to be in the air at the time. For the most part, the specials kept this timeless feel about them, but every once in a while, you would get one that was heavily-influenced by the time in which it was made, like the aforementioned It's Flashbeagle, which draws a lot of influence not only from the movie Flashdance but other stuff from the early 80's, like the arrival of MTV and the breakdancing craze. Spring Training is not as dated in terms of the story's content but because of how it sounds. Even though you could make the argument that Vince Guaraldi's jazzy compositions do date the original specials somewhat because they're rooted in the music he did in the 50's and 60's, it fits with the mood of Peanuts so well that you don't think about it. Plus, whatever you may think about it, you can't tell me that you find it to be more egregious than the music score we have here.
The music score for Spring Training was done by Judy Munsen who, like director Sam Jaimes, was certainly no stranger to Peanuts, having been doing music for them as far back as 1977's It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown and had also scored the movie, Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don't Come Back!!), as well as the very serious, Why, Charlie Brown, Why? So, she was definitely no slouch in the scoring department, as the music she did for those projects is quite good, particularly her score for Bon Voyage, but she really dropped the ball here. I don't know if it was her call, Jaimes', or whoever, but she filled the soundtrack with this electronic, synthesizer-based, kind of grungy score. It's especially prevalent during scenes where they're practicing and playing the game, which are accompanied these big, bold electronic themes that, I swear, sound like they have DJ record scratching at some points, and if it weren't for the characters being onscreen, you would forget that you're watching a Peanuts cartoon, because it sounds more like a demo tape for an early 90's music video. That's the problem: it doesn't fit. I'll admit, there are some bits of this music that I do like the sound of, being a child of the 90's and all, but when I'm watching Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, and the gang playing baseball to a score that makes me think, any minute now, I'm going to start hearing Paula Abdul's greatest hits, it doesn't work! There are some flourishes in the score that do sound more appropriate, though, such as pieces of classic baseball music, like the first notes of Take Me Out to the Ball Game during the opening, and when Schroeder heads up to bat at one point, you hear the first notes of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 played on a piano, a very appropriate motif for him. Following the credits, the opening scene in the snow it set to a piece made up of low strumming, piano, and saxophone, which works for both the scene and Peanuts as a whole, as does the solemn flute piece of the ending scene. But, instances of music like those are few and far between here, as you're mainly stuck with that grungy music, which may have been of its time but doesn't fit with Peanuts.
Speaking of not fitting with Peanuts, the actual music score has nothing on something that happens right before the fateful game begins. Rather than doing the national anthem, as a player on the opposing team asks, Charlie Brown says that everyone does the Hokey-Pokey before their games, which is fitting, in my opinion. But then, after the Hokey-Pokey is done, Franklin suddenly comes in with a boombox, starts some music going, and does a rap. For close to two full minutes (that's not an exaggeration), the story stops in its tracks and the cartoon truly becomes a corny, cringe-inducing music video, with brightly-colored backgrounds changing color, Franklin pulling off a number of dance moves while rapping, the other characters dancing behind him, and Snoopy doing a bunch of moves with his bat in front of those backgrounds, while kids' voices chant, "Go! Go! Go!" I think the rap is called That's What It's All About, I guess to go along with the Hokey-Pokey before it, but, wow! The first time I watched it, I couldn't believe what I was seeing, and because of its length, by the time we got around to the third verse, I thought to myself, "Man, this is going on long!" When I told a friend of mine about it, he initially couldn't believe it and then thought I was exaggerating how bad it was, until he saw it for himself and felt that I was actually downplaying it. There are so many reasons why this is just wrong. First, it's a rap in a Peanuts cartoon. Do I have to elaborate any more on that? Second, the lyrics are ridiculous: "It's time you started worrying, your strategy's in a muddle, if you're a little aeroplane, we're the space shuttle," "This game has a lot more meaning, our look is on the line, you may as well lay down your gloves, because we're gonna be sublime, "In the past, we've had our share of failures and defeats, but now our shining moment's here, might as well take off your cleats." Third, while the animation and choreography on Franklin is actually pretty good, the other characters aren't doing much more in those wide-shots than just dancing and hopping around in place behind him. If you're going to go this route, at least have better backup for him. Fourth, the length of the rap. Again, this thing goes on so long that it can make you think that they just gave up on the story altogether. Fifth, the stereotypical nature of Franklin being the one rapping, especially given how he was originally created in order to go against the prejudices and politics that were going on at the time. Also, I'm not trying to be racist but the sound of Jessica Nwafor's voice as she does the rap compounds the stereotype. And sixth, the rap dates this special just as much, if not more, than the grungy music score. You look at this and you know instantly that this is from the 90's, which is not a good thing for Peanuts. I honestly should just end the review right here because, trust me, nothing is going to top this thing. My words can't do it justice: you need to look it up and see it for yourself.
The cartoon opens with a snowfall so thick that Charlie Brown has to dig a path through it from his front step to the pitcher's mound, passing by Snoopy's doghouse, as he sits atop it, covered in snow. He shakes the snow off his head, only for Charlie Brown to accidentally getting him on the end of his snout with some more snow as he shovels. Reaching the mound, Charlie Brown announces that it's time for them to start their spring training, when it dawns on him that there doesn't seem to be anyone else out there but him. He declares, "You'll all have weak arms if you don't start throwing the ball around!", only for a bunch of snowballs to whiz by him, causing him to do a flip in the air out of surprise. He sits up on the mound, only to get pelted by a couple of more snowballs, knocking his cap off. He puts it back on his head, which smokes from his aggravation. Following that, he asks Linus where the shortstop is and he says, "I think he's coming in now." Charlie Brown sees what he means by "coming in" when Snoopy rides a random ski lift in and says he doesn't want to hear them complain about the fact that there's now on the ground, as it's "spring training." He adds that they need the practice and, in the outfield, Lucy comments, "And maybe other flu shots!" Admitting that it is still winter, he says, "That doesn't mean we can't show spirit, does it? Let's hear some chatter out there!" So, Lucy gives him some chatter, starting to sing a Christmas song. With that, she and the other players run off, leaving a frustrated Charlie Brown out there by himself. After he gets no response when he repeatedly yells for them to come back, he walks over to a snowman and asks it, "Care to shag a few flies?"
Come actual spring training, Charlie Brown is disappointed to see that, as usual, the team is absolutely lousy at baseball: Lucy gets whacked on the head by the ball she was supposed to catch, Pig-Pen flat out misses the ball that's thrown to him when he's up to bat, Snoopy collides into Franklin while trying to get on base, and Lucy and that other girl player don't even react to a ball that comes their way until it hits the ground between them. Charlie Brown yells in frustration upon seeing this and sits down beside Linus on the bench. Meanwhile, little Leland gets out of bed and gets dressed, as well as puts on his oversized helmet, glove, and shoes. After having to get Frieda to tie his shoes for him, he heads out to the ball-field. He comes across Snoopy as he stands there with his bat, asking him where the manager is, but Snoopy flat-out ignores him. Leland then walks over to Lucy, who points him in Charlie Brown's direction when he asks about the manager, and he comments that he thinks she's pretty before walking on, much to Lucy's confusion. Charlie Brown is reluctant to put Leland on the team because of how small he is but lets him try out; sadly, Leland misses one ball Charlie Brown bats his way and another bounces off the ground and hit his helmet. After that, Charlie Brown tries to teach Leland their various signals, starting with the one indicating he wants to bunt. It takes a little bit but Leland does manage to memorize that complicated signal... only to then ask, "Mr. Manager, what's a bunt?" Charlie Brown then gets back to practicing with Lucy, who's now confident that she can catch the balls he bats to her, only for her to miss four in a row: one lands right behind her, two roll across the ground and go between her legs, and another hits the ground in front of her. Charlie Brown gives up and says, "Okay, everybody in!", to which Lucy, after saying "I can't do it!" after missing each ball, says, "I can do that." This is the last straw, as Charlie Brown calls her the worst outfielder ever, which is when Lucy brings up the fact that they don't have uniforms, thinking it would make a big difference.
Later, Charlie Brown walks with Linus and Snoopy to Mr. Hennessy's hardware store. While the boys talk to Hennessy, Snoopy's nosiness gets him in trouble when, walking over to a tool rack, he touches a wrench and it instantly snaps on his nose. After struggling to yank it off, he walks over to a paint mixer and sticks his head in, only to get shook around and flung to the floor, a bucket getting thrown up into the air as a result and landing on his head. Trying to get it off he, he stumbles into a leaf-blower and gets blasted up into the air, before it shorts out and blasts him off to the side. Despite being distracted by this, Charlie Brown goes on to talk to Hennessy about his offer of sponsoring their team. After that, he tells his team about Hennessy agreeing to sponsor the team and buy them uniforms, which makes them happy. However, their excitement dies when he adds that Hennessy will only do it if they win the first game of the season, and their spirits aren't lifted at all when Charlie Brown declares that if they try hard, they could do it. He stops their bellyaching by saying, "We can do it! We'll start serious practice tomorrow," and they head out onto the field to warm up. That's when Charlie Brown says that he's asked an "expert" to lead them in calisthenics and it cuts to Snoopy, who's sleeping while standing up on the bench.
Come the day of the game, the team sees their end goal right in front of them when the opposing team shows up, wearing official uniforms. Following the Hokey-Pokey and Franklin's rap, Charlie Brown's team heads out onto the ball-field, everyone pepped up, including Lucy, who tries to flirt with Schroeder when he walks up to give Charlie Brown the rundown of the signals; as you can guess, he just glares at her in response. The game gets underway afterward and Charlie Brown throws the first pitch of the season, only for it to get batted back at him and knock him out of much of his gear and clothes. Next, Lucy, yet again, misses a ball and returns it to Charlie Brown, saying that she missed it because she was overly hopeful. He throws another pitch, resulting in a pop fly over to the infield, where it lands on the ground and bounces up into Leland's big helmet. He takes it out and tosses it to Pig-Pen, who then tosses it to Linus on base, but he misses it, as the batter rounds all the bases and scores a home-run, the other catchers all missing the ball or catching it too late. Charlie Brown throws another pitch and this pop fly is caught by Snoopy, who jumps up and catches it in his mouth. Charlie Brown is elated by this and Schroeder is then able to tag out another runner. He heads to the bench, with Lucy bugging him by hitting a homer for his "favorite girl" when it's his turn up to bat, while Linus is now the one up to it. He hits the ball easily and manages to round the bases, as his team cheers. Schroeder is up to bat next and, despite being annoyed and disgusted at Lucy's continued fawning over him, he does hit a homer. During a break, Snoopy goes over to get a drink from the water hose nearby, which serves as their drinking fountain, and when he shakes it when no water comes out, he gets blasted in the face and then tries to get it under control as it flails around and soaks the other players. After that mishap, the game continues and goes well for Charlie Brown's team, with Linus snagging a ball in mid-air with his blanket while on base and Lucy managing to distract a catcher long enough through some flirting for him to miss the ball, allowing her to touch home plate. The team is happy to just be keeping up with their opponents and they manage to keep it up to the last of the ninth, where they need a run to win. Leland is the one up to bat and, because of how small he is, Charlie Brown hopes he'll simply get on base rather than get a hit. The first pitch, Leland gets a ball, but then, he gets two strikes and the team starts fretting about how, if he strikes out, Charlie Brown will be up to bat. Lucy frets that they've lost their uniforms and lets out an "augh!" The pitcher throws a curve-ball to Leland, which whacks him in the helmet and he dizzily staggers over to first base. The pitcher throws the ball to the baseman on first base and Leland manages to stagger over to second base and then third, the basemen both missing the balls. The baseman on third falls back when try to catch the ball and Leland heads for home, touching it as the baseman falls over to the right while trying to get the ball. He walks back over to where the team is cheering happily and is tossed up and down by them, hailed as a hero.
The game won, the team heads over to the hardware store, where Mr. Hennessy (whom you actually see, unlike most adult characters in these cartoons, and who is possibly designed after Bill Melendez) presents them with their uniforms. Snoopy puts his uniform on straight out of the plastic, only to flail around and squeal in pain; Lucy growls, "You stupid dog! You gotta take out the pins before you put it on!" At the start of their next game, the team is dressed in their new uniforms, Lucy declaring, "Well, this is better! Now that we have uniforms, we'll be unbeatable." Leland then shows up, wearing the uniform, which is far too big for him, and tells Charlie Brown he doesn't think he can play with them anymore, as it's made him realize he's not ready for the big leagues yet. He thanks him for the chance to play with them and heads back to his own league, Charlie Brown telling him they'll miss him. They then head out onto the field, confident that they have it in the bag, but the game turns out to be a total disaster. Like before, Charlie Brown throws the opening pitch and the batter knocks him out of his shoes, mitt, and cap when he returns it, and the ball then lands right behind Lucy, just like during the training. She brings the ball back to Charlie Brown, her excuse this time being that the "past" got in her eyes because she remembered all the balls she missed before. Charlie Brown throws another pitch, which gets batted to Pig-Pen, who picks it up amongst the big cloud of dust he kicks up, who then throws it to Snoopy, only for him to come up short on getting an out. After that, Snoopy attempts to catch a ball that comes his way, only for it to bounce off the ground in front of him and over his head; Charlie Brown again gets knocked senseless by a return from the batter; and when he tries to catch a pop fly at the end of the game, hoping that he'll be the hero this time, it bounces out of his mitt and onto the ground, causing them to lose, and only by two points. On the pitcher's mound, Schroeder asks Charlie Brown how he could miss such an easy pop fly and he answers that it's a question he'll ask himself over and over again. Linus then comes up and asks, "Have we lost? Is the game over?", and Charlie Brown says, "Not quite. I'm afraid it's all over, but the shouting." Lucy lets out a mournful, "AUGH!", and with that, Charlie Brown says, "Now it's over." After the game, he and Linus think about their loss, as Charlie Brown figures out what they should have known from the beginning: looks mean nothing if you don't have any skill or talent. And on that solemn note, the special ends.
Damn good review sir.
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