What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown? (1983)

After releasing the Peanuts specials of the 60's and 70's in a chronological series of box-sets, one for the former and two for the latter, Warner Bros. abruptly stopped and didn't go any further, into the 80's and 90's, and I figured that was that, as far as my collecting them was concerned. But, unbeknownst to me, not only were the original Peanuts feature films finally released to DVD in 2015, there was also the Peanuts Emmy Honored Collection, a two-disc set containing eleven specials that were either nominated for or won Emmies. While one or two of them had either been in those chronological sets or I had at least heard of them, the majority were news to me and so, when I came upon this set at an FYE in Pensacola in 2017 while staying at Orange Beach, I decided to give it a shot. Because of the vagueness of the titles, I had little idea as to what to expect from any of these specials, and some of them really took me aback when I watched them (Why, Charlie Brown, Why? was especially shocking, given its subject matter), but what initially surprised me about What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown? was the realization that it was a direct follow-up to Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don't Come Back!!), picking up right where that movie ended and following the gang on part of their journey back from France. Being a fan of that flick, it proved to be a pleasant surprise, but what I was definitely not expecting was for this to turn into a very poignant and somber special that dealt with the Peanuts gang coming upon places famously tied to both World Wars, particularly Omaha Beach, and learning what happened there and the importance of the sacrifices of so many lives. It is quite an affecting cartoon, one where animation is often combined with actual wartime newsreel footage and audio, and has a very serious and touching tone throughout, but, at the same time, it comes off as very respectful, rather than being overly melodramatic and heavy-handed, as it easily could have been, and the characters manage to retain what makes them who they are, regardless off the subject matter.

While putting together a photo album of pictures taken during his time in France with Linus, Peppermint Patty, and Marcie as part of a student exchange program, Charlie Brown is asked by Sally what happened on their way back home. He then tells her a story, which begins after they left the Chatea du Mal Voisin and started back to England. Their troublesome rental car finally broke down completely and they were forced to borrow a replacement from a kindly, elderly French lady, one which had an old-fashioned cranking engine that caused Charlie Brown a lot of pain and misery whenever he had to fool with it. After getting back on the road, they became lost and were forced to spend the night camping near a beach. Linus felt that there was something familiar about the place and, waking up just before dawn and walking towards a hill overlooking the beach and along the beach itself, he realized it was Omaha Beach, the landing spot of the Allied forces on D-Day in 1944. When the others woke up, Linus told them where they were and of the story of D-Day, beginning an emotional journey that taught them the sacrifices of all of the men who died in both World Wars, whose final resting places dot the French landscape.

Sergeant Charles M. Schulz

As much as it was yet another of the many Peanuts specials directed by Bill Melendez, the biggest inspiration for What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown? came from Charles Schulz's own military background, which had already partly served as the basis for Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown. The open ending to that movie, with the characters on their way home after their time in France was over, was deliberate in case they came up with ideas for any other adventures they could embark on in the interim. It was Schulz himself who came up with the idea of the characters traveling through places such as Omaha Beach and Ypres, Belgium and remembering that is where many significant and hard-fought battles took place during both World Wars. Though Schulz only saw actual combat at the tail-end of World War II, long after D-Day, he still, as anyone would, recognized the sacrifices of all those who died in action (he himself could have easily been killed, as he'd forgotten to load his machine gun, but fortunately for him, the German soldier he intended to shoot surrendered) and meant for this special to be a tribute to them, hence why the special has the simple subtitle of, A Tribute. It paid off, as this special was very well-received, both by critics and general viewers, and was not only nominated for an Emmy but also won a Peabody Award.

If there's one major downside to this special, it's that none of the voice-actors from Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown returned (likely because they were now too old) and the performances provided by their replacements, for the most part, aren't that good. Granted, the main point of this special isn't about the Peanuts gang getting into the usual mischief, but I still wish they could have gotten better voice actors. Plus, as the character this special focuses on primarily is Linus, most of the others are little more than spectators along for the ride, kind of like his own role in the movie. While Charlie Brown (voiced by Brad Kesten) is somewhat significant in that he's telling the story to Sally while putting together a photo album of their trip to France, having remembered something what happened after they left the chateau when Sally asks him if he learned anything, he, for the most part, does little more than react to what Linus is telling him about the wars. There is, however, a running gag with him where, after they trade in the rented car they started out with for an old one with an engine lever, Snoopy always makes him crank it and he always gets zapped and spun around by it until he's flung off, which does a number on his hand. Peppermint Patty probably comes off the worst here, simply because it often sounds like she's voiced by a boy. While only a girl named Victoria Vargas is listed as her voice actor in the credits and on IMDB, Wikipedia also mentions someone named Brent Hauer as having played her and I'm not inclined to doubt that, given how boyish she tends to sound and also because she's been voiced by a boy in the past. In any case, she does about what you would expect: offer no sympathy for Charlie Brown whenever he nearly kills himself cranking the car up, telling him he's holding them up, coming off as clueless about the World Wars and the significance of the various places, and getting somewhat annoyed when Linus switches from talking about World War II to World War I when they find themselves on the road to Ypres. Marcie (voiced by Michael Dockery) is also quite flat in her vocal performance, and does little more than act as a French translator, as she did in the film. And Sally (voiced by Stacy Heather Tolkin), the only other member of the Peanuts gang to appear, is present in the bookends, asking her brother about his time in France and ending the special by telling him he's putting the pictures in the album upside down.

Linus (voiced by Jeremy Schoenberg) starts out as the mostly passive, along-for-the-ride kind of character he was in the movie, but that changes when they're forced to camp overnight near a beach after they take the wrong road on their journey out of France. When they bed down for the night, it's obvious something is eating at him, but it's not until he wakes up shortly before dawn and walks over to the ridge overlooking the beach that he realizes what it is: they're at Omaha Beach. After reliving archival footage he's seen of the battle of D-Day, he tells the others as they wake up where they are and the story of the battle, before leading them up to the cemetery on a ridge where all of the American soldiers are buried. Once they leave there, and stop at a small cafe while they wait out a rainstorm, Linus reads from a book about the specific horrors the soldiers who stormed Omaha Beach faced, and when the rain lets up, they walk up to a cliff overlooking the harbor, which he tells them is where the British troops came ashore. They then travel on up to Ypres, coming upon a field of red poppies, marking a spot where a battle in World War I took place, and Linus tells them the legend of the poppies turning red as a result of all the lives lost there. He leads them on through some trenches and finds the remains of a British dressing station, telling them it's where Colonel McCrae was inspired to write the poem, In Flanders Fields, which he recites. Once that's done and they start to head out, Linus asks the question, "What have we learned, Charlie Brown?", which Sally caused him to think about again, bringing the story full-circle.

Snoopy and Woodstock (voiced by Bill Melendez), mainly Snoopy, have some memorable moments. As in Bon Voyage, Snoopy is their driver, and the flashback begins with the ending scene of that movie where they get rear-ended for the second time and Snoopy makes various gestures at the drivers while Marcie admonishes them in French. Like before, the rental car gives them trouble, but this time, when Snoopy tries to fix it when it breaks down, he gets zapped by the engine and it falls completely apart when he kicks it in anger. He tries to fix it but is only able to rebuild it into a disgraceful mess which isn't going to get them anywhere, forcing them to rent another car from an elderly French woman. Though she's not so sure about lending it to them, she becomes convinced to do so when she sees Snoopy in his World War I Flying Ace outfit and is told he'll be the driver. As mentioned, throughout the special, Snoopy makes Charlie Brown crank the car's engine lever, causing the kid constant misery, and even when he tries to make Snoopy do it himself in one scene, he's the one who ultimately ends up getting hurt. However, Snoopy doesn't go totally without aggravation himself. A couple of times, a flock of ducks crowd atop the cars and he acts like a general, barking orders at them and forcing them to march off but, while this does work, both times one duck sneaks around behind him and bites his tail. Woodstock has only one memorable moment to speak of: when the rental car falls apart, he looks at himself in its discarded mirror and attempts to karate chop and kick his reflection, hurting both his hand and foot in the process. Aside from that, the two of them do little more than learn about the tragedy of war like Charlie Brown, Marcie, and Peppermint Patty.

Technically and stylistically, What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown? is very much on par with Bon Voyage in that it sports some very fluid animation and sophisticated panning shots, more detailed environments and backgrounds than normal, and an instance where an adult character, the elderly French woman (voiced by Monica Parker) who lends them the replacement for their rental car, speaks actual dialogue and her face is seen onscreen. As with that movie, the art direction and designs are very true to life, this time in representing notable landmarks and remnants of the World Wars, like Omaha Beach, Le Pointe du Hoc, the American cemetery up on a ridge near those two locations, a red poppy field in Ypres, enormous blast-points in the ground, wartime trenches, and the remains of a British field dressing station. Also among the most notable pieces of visual work in this special is the integration of actual wartime archival and newsreel footage, either presented by itself or with the characters rotoscoped in the foreground, such as when Linus first realizes they're at Omaha Beach, and with bright, colored filters placed over it to make it line up better with the animation and which give it a strangely surreal and uncanny quality. In addition, there are painted images that appear from time-to-time, either to represent scenes of war or, most poignantly, to represent the lives of those who died in war, the latter of which are tied to Linus' recitation of McCrae's In Flanders Fields.

Technical accomplishments aside, what can really get to you about this special is the tone and how dramatically it shifts. It starts out like it's going to be a fairly typical, silly Peanuts cartoon, possibly with some educational value added in, given the title and Sally's asking Charlie Brown if he learned anything significant while he was in France. The flashback, as I've said, begins with the ending of Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown, where the characters drive off in the rental car driven by Snoopy, get caught up in another pile-up when they get rear-ended three times over, and head off after Marcie and Snoopy admonish the drivers in their own individual ways. When the special proper starts, there's a funny bit of business where, while driving through a small village, their car gets overrun by a bunch of ducks and Snoopy jumps out of the car, holding a switch akin to what a general would have, and literally barks and growls orders at the ducks, getting them to march off (the sounds Bill Melendez makes for this are especially funny), only for one of them to slip up behind him and bite him on the tail. Following that, their rental car breaks down, as it did in the movie, and Snoopy, again, tries to fix it, but this time, he gets shocked by the engine and, getting angry, kicks the front of the car, causing it to completely fall apart and hurt his foot in the process. Following that comes the moment where Woodstock tries to do karate on the mirror, only to hurt his hand and foot in the process, and while the kids head into a cafe to have lunch, Snoopy tries to figure out how to fix the car. In the cafe, there's the gag from the film where the kids have a hard time understanding the menu. (Weirdly, I think a couple of the lines in this scene were said in the wrong order. Peppermint Patty: "What are you going to order, Chuck?" Linus: "Why don't we all order something different, and then, one of us will get the right thing?" Charlie Brown: "I don't know. I don't know. I can't read the menu." See what I mean?) By the time Snoopy is done with the car, it's a total disaster of a mess that barely sputters along, forcing them to trade it in for another car, the old-fashioned with the crank-lever engine that gives Charlie Brown nothing but trouble as the special goes on. While leaving, a girl on a bicycle nearly hits their car, and angrily yells at Snoopy in French, but he merely kisses her and drives off.

But, after this very light-hearted beginning, when they get lost and decide to spend the night camping near a beach, the special starts to become something else as Linus walks to the hill overlooking the beach as dawn is approaching and realizes it's Omaha Beach. As he looks down at it and then slides down the hill, you get artwork depicting D-Day and color-filtered newsreel footage appearing all around him, and it's quite impactful to see a Peanuts character juxtaposed with such imagery. He then tells the others where they are and its significance, taking them to the hill overlooking the beach and telling them, "Thousands of men came ashore right here where you're standing... It was terrible. I read that, by 10:30 in the morning, over 3,000 men had been killed or wounded." He points out the old turrets that dot the hillsides, telling them, "See, from up here, the enemy could fire right down on the invaders," and then points to a structure out in the bay, explaining, "That's where the Allies had built an artificial port. Two weeks after D-Day, a violent storm took the whole thing apart." They next go up to the top of Le Pointe du Hoc, which Linus tells them the United States Army Ranger Assault Group scaled, and Marcie translates a sign up top that reads, "Here remain combatants. The battle, in its chaos, has united them for eternity." But, as impactful as these moments are, they pale in comparison to when Linus leads the group up to the cemetery for the American soldiers and tells them of a speech that General Eisenhower later made about D-Day. Linus starts to recite it, but then, a recording of Eisenhower himself is played: "On this day, many hundreds of men came here, the British, and our other allies, the Americans, to storm these beaches for one purpose only: not to gain anything for ourselves, not to fulfill any ambitions that America had for conquest, but just to preserve freedom, systems of self-government in the world. Many thousands of men have died for ideals such as these, and here again, in the 20th century, for the second time, Americans, along with the rest of the free world, but Americans had to come across the ocean to defend those same values. But these young boys, so many of them, whose graves we have been treading, have been looking at, wondering and contemplating about their sacrifices, they were cut off in their prime. But they never knew the great experiences of going through life, like my son can enjoy. I devoutly hope that we will never again have to see such as scenes as these. I think and hope, pray, that humanity will learn more than we had learned up to that time. We must find some way to work to peace and to regain an eternal peace for this world." Throughout the speech, you see more archival footage, as well as the animated recreation of the cemetery itself, and the powerful shot of the kids standing amidst the graves and looking at them, none of them saying a word. And when they head to leave, it starts raining, adding to the downbeat atmosphere, Linus telling them that such a storm was what destroyed the artificial port.

When they stop at a cafe in a small town, Linus reads to them about what happened on D-Day, this time going into more detail about the specifics of the battle: "When the first units of the 116th Infantry tried to land, they were met by a hail of fire. Within minutes of the ramps being lowered, one company was desolate. The assault on Omaha Beach was a shambles. The engineers assigned to clear the beach of obstacles suffered appalling losses, few of their surviving teams landed in the right places. For their heroic effort the engineers suffered 41 casualties. Meanwhile assault groups were being pinned down on the beach. As the tide crept in, exhausted troops were slow to rally, and even slower to move up the beach. Along the peril bank, the bodies of the living and the dead formed a solid, motionless belt 20 feet wide. By 9:30 A.M. the situation was so bad that the commander considered abandoning Omaha Beach. In all this confusion, isolated groups began to move up the block." You get more archival footage as Linus reads, and while you, obviously, don't see any footage of actual death, you do see soldiers dropping, no doubt from being shot, ships exploding, and when Linus mentions the belt formed by countless bodies, you see something that could be what he's describing, although the colors and filters appear to obscure anything that could have been really disturbing. When the rain stops, Linus leads them up a hilltop, where the British came ashore, and they climb up onto an old tank, where he points out another artificial port which managed to survive the storm that destroyed the one at Omaha Beach.

And finally, there's the last scene of the main story, where the kids head up to Ypres, the site of many battles of World War I. They're driving along, when Linus tells Snoopy to stop, as they have to see what they've come across. When they get out, he shows them a field of red-colored poppy flowers, explaining, "There's a legend that says where battles were fought, these white flowers all turned red, and in the center of each one, there was a cross." He then leads them across the field, through the wartime trenches that remain, and past enormous blast-holes in the ground, before finally stopping at the remains of a British field dressing station, which he tells them is where Lt. Col. J.M. McCrae wrote the poem, In Flanders Fields, which he proceeds to recite: "In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow/Between the crosses, row on row/That mark our place, and in the sky/The larks still bravely sing and fly/Scarce heard amid the guns below, we are the dead/Short days ago we lived, felt dawn saw sunset glow/Loved and were loved, and now we lie in Flanders Fields/In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow/Between the crosses, row on row." His recitation is punctuated by shots of the crosses with poppies growing between them, the larks flying about in the sky, and, most hard-hitting of all, shots flashing back to the aftermath of the battle, with makeshift grave-markers, and images of happier times, alluding to the life those who died there once had. And when they're leaving the cemetery, that's when Linus asks the question, "What have we learned, Charlie Brown?"

You'd never expect a franchise based on a comic strip that focused on the misadventures of a kid who has to deal with issues such as getting tricked into taking a kick at a football that will be pulled out from under him and a pet dog who endlessly drives him nuts to deal with such heavy subject matter, nor would you expect it to actually work, but, surprisingly, it does. The scenes of the kids visiting locations such as Omaha Beach, the American cemetery on the nearby cliff, and the poppy fields in Ypres are, as I've described, quite affecting, thanks to the visuals, the subject matter, and the music score and dialogue, be they an actual recording of General Eisenhower or Linus' very poignant recitation of In Flanders Fields, and yet, they never feel that heavy-handed or, given the characters involved, misguided. It's odd how the Peanuts characters can be placed in such significant and serious scenarios, be it this, dealing with the issue of childhood cancer (Why, Charlie Brown, Why?), or taking part in various important events in American history (the miniseries, This is America, Charlie Brown), and still retain what makes them who they are, while also not harming the ultimate message. And yes, while this special does get pretty heavy with the somber tone and its teaching the significance of the sacrifices of both World Wars, it never feels like it's try to bash the viewer over the head with it but rather, is simply getting the point across the only way it can. The only con I think of in this regard is that the transition from this being a little epilogue to Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown to the story of the kids learning this sobering lesson does feel a bit sudden. Bon Voyage did have some ties to this subject matter, given the story of Charlie Brown's grandfather meeting Violette Honfleur's grandmother while he was stationed in France as a soldier, but that was just backstory, so it still comes off as abrupt when Linus, realizing where they've decided to camp out, starts telling them everything he knows about D-Day and the like. It's a well-told lesson, mind you, and I guess Charles Schulz felt their being in France in that film made for a nice segue into it, but I feel there could have been more of a lead into it, like maybe have Charlie Brown bring up his grandfather or look over his military satchel, which Violette gave to him as a keepsake (none of that is mentioned here, in fact). The only real sort of lead-in is Snoopy wearing his World War I Flying Ace outfit when they get the replacement rental car and even that's meant as a gag more than anything else.

The music score was composed by Judy Munsen, who worked on the score for Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown with Ed Bogas and often scored the specials in the years following Vince Guaraldi's death. In stark contrast to that movie's music, what she came up with here is one of the most poignant and moving scores you're ever likely to hear in a Peanuts cartoon. Mind you, though, there are some bits of light-hearted, comical music for scenes such as the recap of the ending of Bon Voyage, Snoopy's dealings with the ducks, which are done as a faux marching piece, and Woodstock fooling around with the broken mirror from the car, which has an oriental sound since he strikes a karate pose in front of it. Also, the main title theme is pretty unassuming, with a hint of one of the motifs from Bon Voyage, and the score has moments of classic-sounding French music here and there in keeping with the setting, but once the true subject matter of the special becomes apparent, the score takes on a very somber and reflective sound, sometimes coming off as very soft and poignant, and other times swelling into a moving symphony. A perfect example of both comes during Linus' recitation of In Flanders Fields, which starts off as a soft, sad-sounding oboe theme, then crescendos into a tragic string section, before ending on the oboe again. And there are moments where there is no music, notably when the recording of Eisenhower is played, which is something you don't often get in cartoons at all and helps sell certain moments and scenes better.

What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown? is, most certainly, one of the most distinctive, moving, and, honestly, important Peanuts specials that's ever been produced. While the voice-acting could have been better, and the lead-in to the true subject matter could have been less sudden and abrupt, everything else about it shines, from the animation and detail to the backgrounds and environments, to the visuals of the newsreel footage, the painted imagery, and the effectively moving music score. But, what really makes this special is how genuinely effective it is in getting across the significance of the lives lost in both World Wars through a combination of incredible visuals, very poignant music and dialogue, especially the use of real audio from General Eisenhower and Linus reciting In Flanders Fields, and a serious tone that does its job but never feels heavy-handed or preachy and is not undermined by the presence of Peanuts characters. It's truly one of the franchise's greatest accomplishments and one that I would recommend both to fans who've never seen it and parents who want to teach their kids about what happened in World War I and II without overly traumatizing them. It's definitely something to make a tradition of watching whenever Memorial Day comes around.