Product: A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
Rating: 4.0
Essential Holiday Viewing of the 1965 Classic Plus a Fitfully Entertaining 1992 Follow-Up
How anyone could not love "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is beyond comprehension? It's been part of my childhood memories since it first aired in 1965. Seeing it again forty years later, I am still impressed by how Charles Schultz combined character-driven humor, holiday-related poignancy and Vince Guaraldi's memorable music into such a nostalgic jewel. What strikes me more now is the number of religious references Schultz made unobtrusively within the theme of the cartoon - how to deal with the increasing commercial exploitation of Christmas. The plot revolves around Charlie Brown's duties as the director of the school's Christmas play as a means to divulge the true meaning of Christmas. I still love the tableaux shot of all the children dancing in a mid-1960's beatnik style.Needless to say, he is surrounded by the cynicism of his schoolmates, and it all comes to a head when Charlie Brown buys a sad little tree as the centerpiece of the play. His best friend Linus articulates the meaning of Christmas by quoting Luke 2:8-14 from the King James translation of the Bible. At the end, everyone gathers around the tree (given new life by using the decorations Snoopy uses to win 1st prize in the doghouse decoration contest) and sings "Hark! The Herald Angel Sings". Because the cartoon focuses on Charlie Brown's singular journey, the message has a sweetly-turned resonance that remains touching to this day. It's a timeless must-see for any child or adult.The same really can't be said for the second cartoon included in the DVD, 1992's "It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown". Twenty-seven years later, most of the gang is back in what amounts to a series of vignettes about Christmas, but because Charlie Brown is only one of the characters whose holiday dilemmas are addressed here, it feels more like a hodgepodge of comedy bits - some funny, some rather tired. The other sad inevitable fact is that the voices are different, a point of discontinuity that feels a bit jarring when seeing the cartoons sequentially. I also miss some of the original characters like Pig-Pen and Beethoven-playing Schroeder and frankly don't find some of their replacements as likeable.Charlie Brown's only challenge this time is being able to afford a pair of gloves for his crush Peggy Jean. It appears that Peppermint Patty and Charlie Brown's little sister Sally are the ones trying to find the meaning of Christmas this time with many of the other characters (like Lucy and even Snoopy) relegated to small bits. The familiarity of the characters and Guaraldi's music, however, still make this one leagues better than similar children's programming. The combination of the original classic and this derivative makes for superior viewing.