It Was My Best Birthday Ever, Charlie Brown

"*There's a wonderful Chinese proverb that says, he who plants a garden plants happiness!*"
— Mimi explaining to Linus

 Director(s)
 Producer(s)
 Writer(s)
 Music by
 Distributor
 Released
 Runtime
 Previous episode
 Next episode

**It Was My Best Birthday Ever, Charlie Brown** is the first VeggieTales special (marked as the show's ninth episode) and the first installment of the Mimi and Linus van Pelt's Adventures franchise.

## Plot

### Opening Countertop

The episode starts where Bob and Larry greet the kids on a countertop, before Larry tells Bob that he just made a funny joke about Charlie Brown being selfish to her sister Sally Brown. Bob then says to Larry that it's not nice to make a funny joke to the people outside in public, to which Larry says it is true.

The story begins with Linus roller skating around town. He roller skates to a birthday party and back. On his way home, he passes a garden, and hears a beautiful singing voice. He enters the garden to find the source of the beautiful voice, and finds a little girl singing.

Linus goes over to her, and introduces himself. She tells him her name is Mimi, and is visiting her grandmother for a while. Linus helps her in the garden, Mimi tells him how much she loves flowers and teaches him about them.

After they finish gardening, Linus tells her he has just come from a birthday party, Mimi tells him she loves birthday parties. Linus then invites her to his birthday, which is in a few days, and she accepts.

Linus hears her beautiful voice everywhere he goes, and says he can not get her out of his head. He does not even realize what he is writing when the teacher asks him to write on the board.

When Lucy is looking over Linus's birthday party guest list, she asks who Mimi is. Linus tells her, and Lucy thinks it is ridiculous that he is inviting a girl he just met, and that she probably will not show up. Linus assures her that she will show up, and even sing to him. Linus does not even think the party will be fun if Mimi is not there.

Later that day, after Charlie Brown, Lucy, Sally, and Snoopy have been shopping, the party takes place. Linus greets everyone who comes, but wonders where Mimi is. Nevertheless, Linus is still certain that that she will come.

While all the other children are enjoying the party, Linus waits by the door, looking for Mimi. He begins to worry that she will not show up. Then Lucy brings out the cake, and starts singing "Happy Birthday" to Linus.

Linus tries getting her to stop, because Mimi has not shown up yet, but it is too late, everyone else joins her in singing, and Linus grows very upset. As soon as they finish singing, Linus hears a familiar voice singing "Happy Birthday". Linus becomes very excited, when he realizes the girl singing is Mimi. He runs outside and finds Mimi in her car.

Once Mimi finishes singing, she hands Linus a flower and gives him a kiss on the forehead, then she gets out of the car. Linus becomes so happy that she did this, that he starts dancing with Mimi, and soon becomes the life of the party. The next morning at the brick wall, Charlie Brown tells Linus that he is sorry he did not get to meet Mimi (while she's not there). Linus, who is still thinking about Mimi, wonders if he will ever hear her beautiful singing again. Mimi appears right next to them and singing the song, much to Linus and Charlie Brown's enjoyment as the story ends.

## Characters

* Bob the Tomato
* Larry the Cucumber
* Linus van Pelt
* Mimi
* Jimmy and Jerry Gourd
* Mr. Nezzer
* Mr. Lunt
* Laura Carrot
* Scooter
* Tom Grape
* Rosie Grape
* Ma Grape
* Charlie Brown
* Sally Brown
* Lucy van Pelt
* Archibald Asparagus
* Pig-Pen
* The Scallions
* Junior Asparagus
* Pa Grape
* Dad Asparagus
* Mom Asparagus
* Snoopy
* Woodstock
* Art Bigotti (*picture cameo*)
* Henry the Potato

### Cameos

* Peppermint Patty
* Marcie
* Violet
* Patty
* Shermy

## Songs 🎵

* VeggieTales Theme Song 🎵
* The Birthday Song 🎵
* O Mio Babbino Caro (*sung by Mimi*)
* Silly Songs with Larry: Friend Like Me
* Happy Birthday to You (*sung by everyone else*)
* Happy Birthday Dear Linus (*sung by Mimi*)
* What We Have Learned (*sung by everyone else*)

## Home media

*Main article: It Was My Best Birthday Ever, Charlie Brown/Home video*
## Fun Facts

### Moral

* Don't let fear dictate your life. (Reused from "A Boy Named Charlie Brown")

### Explanations

* Potpourri is a mixture of dried, naturally fragrant plant materials, used to provide a gentle natural scent, commonly in residential settings.
* Digitalis is a genus of about 20 species of herbaceous perennial plants, shrubs, and biennials, commonly called foxgloves.

### Trivia

* The episode was originally planned to be released in July 22nd, 1997. They rescheduled back to early October 1997 release.
* This was the first episode for several things:
	+ The first episode where Mimi invites Linus for showing up at his birthday party, since the 1997 Peanuts special to have the car drove away.
	+ The first episode where Larry, Mr. Lunt and Pa Grape are dressed up in their costumes, including The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything during the party scene.
	+ The first episode since The Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk not to have Dolly since her debut appearance.
	+ The first episode Everett Downing worked on.
	+ The first episode to have more lighting department since the previous episode.
	+ The first episode of Mimi and Linus's relationship.
	+ The first episode Bob and Larry played the secondary characters.
* This is the last episode for a few things:
	+ The last episode to have Linus's blanket being dark blue. In the next episode, he has his light blue blanket.
	+ The last episode where Pa Grape has a triangular nose.
	+ The last appearances of Tom and Rosie Grape.
	+ The last episode to have Bob and Larry in the main story. The next episode, however, they appeared as their picture cameos.
	+ The last episode to have the "Distributed by Word Entertainment" text on the back of the VHS cover.
* In some airings of this episode on Smile of the Child and TBN, some scenes were removed, including Linus takes a glass of water but he accidentally turns the shower on. This is possibly due to time.
* This episode was featured in Heroes of the Bible!: Stand Up, Stand Tall, Stand Strong with No Fear! and Lessons in Handling Fear and Helping Others Double Feature.
* Mr. Lunt's voice starts to become more high-pitched starting with this episode.

* When this episode is about to re-release in 1999, the cover was vastly different and had some differences.
	+ Mimi, Linus, Sally and Charlie Brown were originally going to be kept from the original. The final version had Sally and Charlie Brown are behind the "A Lesson In..." box, and Mimi standing behind Linus.
	+ The prototype cover originally had a green Stargazed background pattern and had a blue banner at the top with "Extraordinary!" as the critic review. The final version had the banner was red and there was a teal blue pattern.
	+ Snoopy was originally going to be the character profile instead of Linus.
* Bob the Tomato reads the interactive storybook version on The Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk.
* There exists an extremely rare early 2002 VHS reprint of this episode by Lyrick Studios/HiT Entertainment. It has a black tape with a white ink label, and it has a print date of March 15th, 2002.

### Remarks

* Despite the Classics DVD being released on the same day as The Star of Christmas, the previews are from April 2002. It is possible that it was originally supposed to be released on the same day as the first two VeggieTales Classics re-releases for Rack, Shack and Benny and Josh and the Big Wall.
* On the VeggieTales Classics DVD release, some sound effects are different from the original VHS release, such as Mimi tapping her shovel on the ground, and Lucy lighting the birthday candles.
* Linus never got hurt after he manages Mimi to help her with the wheelbarrow. Whether or not this is a mistake or he flips with the wheelbarrow it is unknown.
* It's unknown how Bob and Larry got into Linus's house. This is possibly because they got into his house for hearing Mimi's singing in the background.
* Bob has shoes in his closet, however, he has no feet.
* It's unknown how Mimi showed up at the birthday party. It could be possible that she was in her car approaching to Linus's house.
* Some international releases replace Friend Like Me with The Hairbrush Song.

### Goofs

* When Linus passes a garden where Mimi is staying with her grandmother's house, he loses his socks and his feet are clipping through the ground.
* Mimi's hat clips through the wheelbarrow.
* When Mimi tries to pull the wheelbarrow the first time, she gains teeth. However, she doesn't have any when she tells Linus to help her.
* The shovel appears to float above Mimi's hand while she's humming to the song.
* Larry's mouth disappears in one shot.
* Linus's pencil was not touching his paper while he is writing.
* When Larry leaves to get the birthday hats, he clips through the shopping carts.
* As you'll noticed in some shots, you can see some buzzing in the textures.
* In the overshot of Linus's house entrance during the sunrise/sunset, you can see black on the left side of the houses.
* One shot shows Lucy is standing without touching the ground.

### Inside References

* A poster for "Larry-Boy! and the Fib from Outer Space" is shown on the wall.
* Some background peas were re-used in the previous episode.
* Larry, Mr. Lunt and Pa Grape's pirate costumes were re-used in "Very Silly Songs!".

### Real World References

* The song "Thank God, I'm a Country Girl" (taken from Snoopy's Country Classiks) can be heard on the radio during the store scene.
* Bob's line "I gotta a basket from my mother and on my way, I dropped it!" is actually one of Lucy's favorite song where she attempts to catch Snoopy from his Easter basket.

### Fast Forward

* Mimi would later become friends with Linus in the next episode.
* Bob and Larry would later cry in a later episode.

## Gallery

File:ItWasMyBestBirthdayEverCharlieBrownTitleCard.jpg