It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C Main Program: B
Halloween
is a fun time of the year where kids get to have fun with monsters and many
other identities while getting as much free candy as possible. Anyone who thinks otherwise misses the point
or wants to ruin it needs to get a life.
One of the best TV specials ever made about it happens to be the funny,
charming 1966 special It’s The Great
Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Besides the
“trick or treat” stuff, Linus thinks there is an entity called The Great
Pumpkin (for reasons we honestly never find out about) arrives once a year to
give kids goodies.
It is not
that he is too lazy to get a costume or anything, but actually has convinced
himself to spend all kinds of time in a pumpkin patch until this entity shows
up. In the meantime, the others do go
out for candy, though it is not quite working out for Charlie Brown. Of course, Snoopy has a different take as he
battles The Red Baron and the show is a classic alone for how well it works.
Appropriate
to the time period and linked by a brief moment to it is You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown from 1972, where Charlie Brown
and Linus compete to run for class president.
Lucy does not run, but does try to help out Linus in the best way
possible, except that she is Lucy.
Though not as strong or memorable as Pumpkin, it has some good moments and one of Woodstock’s first
animated appearances.
The 1.33
X 1 image on both programs is just fine for DVD and their age, with good color
and from clean prints for the most part.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on both are about on par with each other,
making watching either pleasant. It
should be noted that Bill Melendez is the only major voice to return in 1972 as
Snoopy, as the children from the first special had their voices change by then. This DVD was originally pressed in 2000 and
did not need any upgrading. There are no
extras, but the latter program is considered one.
- Nicholas Sheffo
