AIRDATE: 10/30/81STORY: Charlie Brown spends a lazy day watching a (presumably) local football game on TV. Linus is hanging out with his head buried in a book. In the waning seconds of the game, Chuck's imagination is seized by a two-second shot of a girl sitting in the stands. Mania subsumes sense and Charlie Brown is practically hysterical at the thought of never knowing the identity of this mini-Freya. Proactive Chuck Brown, come on down!
Grudgingly, Linus agrees to help his friend on his quest. Once they've arrived at the 80,000 capacity stadium where that day's game was held, the pair (not necessarily aided and abetted by Snoopy and Woodstock) are able to locate the exact section where the girl was seated--Tunnel 13, Charlie Brown's favorite number--and the family who hold season tickets to the row where said seat was located.
But any investigation spearheaded by the same boy who misspelled "beagle" at a nationwide spelling bee is destined for false hopes and wrong turns.
The address they have takes them to a duplex. Charlie Brown cannot bring himself to gaze directly into the eyes of his incandescent angel, so Linus agrees to knock on the door. The girl who answers is far from ravishing; indeed, she has more the look and sound of one of Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel's several dozen offspring. Hope does not abandon the boys yet, however, as it turns out this unsightly young girl was not actually at the game, her seat instead taken by her cousin. Riding a bus ensues.
By this time, Charlie Brown's cheeks have a perma-blush caused by the desire pinballing off and around his pumpkin-head. Thus, when the next door Linus knocks on opens to reveal a tall, blonde girl with an overly-rouged visage, it seems that, yes, this must be her! A little older-looking, perhaps, but since when did true love bow to the tyranny of age?
Except...not only is she also not the one, she's offended at the idea she should be little more than an object of worship for some little stupid kid. Besides, she tells Linus, it was probably her friend who lives at "Happy Valley Farm".
With a palpable sense of "now or never", a nerve-shot Charlie Brown and barely-interested Linus approach the farm, Snoopy and Woodstock somehow still hanging in there with them. gnarly cat with a spiked collar does his best to intimidate the shit out of everyone, but finally Charlie Brown and Linus work out their system of communication. When the girl answers the door, Linus will look back at Chuck. If he gives affirmation, Linus will tell her all about his super nice friend who just happened to fall in total batshit crazy perpetual-eternal love with her after seeing her on a television for two seconds.
The lass who opens the door is a petite blonde holding a pink blanket. Now it is Linus who is instantly smitten. Without further thought to the skittish boy in the zig-zag shirt hanging around just outside the white picket fence, he accepts her invitation inside. It is deep dark night before he leaves. Once on the way home with Charlie Brown, Linus seems to have forgotten his buddies infatuation entirely, as he can do naught but yammer on in the lilting tone of the recently taken lovesick about sweet, kind, loving Mary Jo. Charlie Brown resigns himself to yet another loss and closes out the show with bittersweet recitations from a book on love. 9; not a 10 only because the anticlimactic resolution in the conflict between Charlie Brown and Linus is completely in-line with the Peanuts universe, but not personally satisfying to me as a viewer. It's hard to watch Linus just be so freaking oblivious after he's spent hours being dragged around on a hunt he protested as frivolous from the very start, merely because he fell head over heels for the treasure once it was found.
Then again, Thomas Fuller once wrote, "Love requires Boldness, and scorns Bashfulness." I'm sure Schulz approved.
MUSIC: Light fluffy piano, lighter martial-style drums and horns, some ragtime shit for Snoopy (fits, though) and a rare standalone song: "(When I Feel Most) Alone" by Becky Reardon, a soul-searer that accompanies nicely animated scenes of Charlie Brown looking for his dad's razors. 8
ANIMATION: Dry, but serviceable. As the protagonists have to do a lot of traveling in this one, the background is filled with Peanuts novelties like traffic and buildings other than the kids homes and schools. The attention to detail isn't very noteworthy, but the colors are tastefully bold throughout. There's just something about the clash of yellow and black with red and blue whenever Charlie Brown and Linus are together that grabs my eye. 9
VOICES: There are only five speaking roles in this special, a triumph of economy--but not quality. Charlie Brown as peformed by Grant Wehr only gets a 7.5; he's fine, but Peppermint Patty-ish at times. Earl Reilly as Linus also gets 7.5; too amorphous. He only hits his stride at the end, when he steals his best friends girl.
Said girl, Mary Jo, appears barely over a minute. In that time, it's not hard to see what Charlie Brown's gut was telling him. She's charming and adorable, a female Linus with blanket in tow. To resist the pull is to be inhuman. And the girl who voiced her is named Jennifer Gaffin. As a rule, girls named Jennifer rule. 8.5
The two "false start" girls are voiced by Melissa Strawmeyer and Nicole Eggert. Yes...that Nicole Eggert. 6 and 4, respectively. Meh and feh. Weak and sauce.
"LOVE IS A SHADOW. HOW CAN YOU LIE AND CRY AFTER IT?"
--Hey guys! I wouldn't leave those two alone, I think they might be prone to shenanigans!
--"Two seconds is all you need to fall in love." "Especially when it happens every week."
--You know Charlie Brown's lost it when he asks Snoopy questions and seriously expects him to answer.
--I got yer mixed martial-arts right here, pal.
"ETERNAL PASSION! ETERNAL PAIN!"
--Mere moments after seeing her for the first time ever, Charlie Brown wails to Linus that the mystery girl in the stands is "the only true love of his life". Forget redheads much, Chuck?
--At various times throughout, both Charlie Brown and Linus refer to the image of Mary Jo on the screen as a "honey shot", a slang term in the business that seems to have been forever abandoned. Too close to "money shot", perhaps.
----------------------------------------------------
Well, that's almost it for the Peanuts lovefest this week. Tomorrow this week of swooning at Trapper Jenn MD comes to a close with a review of There's No Time for Love, Charlie Brown, the very pinnacle of them all.
Charlie Brown Snoopy Peanuts
Charlie Brown Snoopy Peanuts
No comments:
Post a Comment