I Want A Dog For Christmas, Charlie Brown

 

I Want A Dog For Christmas, Charlie Brown (2003)  B

Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tale (2002)  B-

The Making Of A Charlie Brown Christmas (2001)  B

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B-     Extras: D

 

 

The original A Charlie Brown Christmas is a classic that is going on 40 years of age and animated TV has yet to equal it.  With that program already out on DVD, Paramount and Peanuts Home Entertainment have issued a companion DVD in I Want A Dog For Christmas, Charlie Brown.  The main program is one of the latest in a series of follow-up holiday shows with The Peanuts Gangs.  The more recent shows feature little brother Rerun Van Pelt, who is a fine addition to the cast of classic characters.

 

When he has to deal with his older siblings, he precociously but cleverly talks about his relevance to them as an adult brother when they will need him later.  What usually would have been a disaster in any TV sitcom since the 1980s is just plain charming here.  I Want A Dog For Christmas, Charlie Brown has him wanting his own Snoopy, and I have to say that it shows the longetivity and greatness these characters represent that they remain as fresh and as smart as ever.  Even with creator Charles Schultz’s passing, they keep moving on as amazing as he intended.

 

Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tale is one of the installments that features a series of funny vignettes with the characters asking other questions about the holiday and one of the best features among them are the wacky letters they try to write to the North Pole to everyone by Santa himself.  Though not the peak of all these Holiday shows, they are fun in the best Peanuts tradition and is shorter than the usual bonus program.

 

The Making Of A Charlie Brown Christmas is a show from several years ago hosted by Whoopi Goldberg that talks about the unbelievable struggle to get the show made and aired.  Fans know that no matter what great, simple, brilliant idea Schultz introduced, the rejection and even outright hostility was as if he declared the world was round when it was somehow “obvious” it was flat.  This includes classic clips during the production back in 1965 and all-new interviews with many of the participants years later.

 

The full screen 1.33 X 1 image fares well here as the two animated programs are recent and the TV special is a relatively recent taping in professional NTSC analog format video.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has Pro Logic surrounds on the animated programs and some ambiance from the documentary show.  The only extras are previews for other children’s DVDs, including the same general preview for the initial Peanuts DVD releases.  All in all, another solid installment on DVD from the Peanuts archive.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo