A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

I have watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving for many years and of all the Peanuts specials that I have watched and reviewed for this website, this is my favorite. The opening scene where Lucy pulls the football away from Charlie Brown always cracks me up. If you watch it on DVD or tape it off the TV, play back the football scene in slow motion to see Charlie Brown in mid air.

As for the rest of the cartoon, I thought Peppermint Patty was bossy and rude to Charlie Brown, inviting herself, Marcie and Franklin to Charlie Brown's for Thanksgiving dinner, monopolizing their phone conversations and even worse, complaining about the nontraditional cuisine. She was also flirtatious toward Charlie Brown. There were also outstanding sight gags involving Snoopy and Woodstock and the scene where they get the food ready for the feast that's set to "Linus and Lucy." It proves that cartoon scenes can work well without dialogue.

I also liked the scene near the end when the kids are in the car and they sing "Over the River and Through the Woods" en route to the Brown's Grandma's condo for a real Thanksgiving dinner. Before or after you go over the river and through the woods for your holiday feast, watch this cartoon. You'll even learn about the holiday in Linus' Thanksgiving prayer.

Another big hit with the kiddos. Some continuity with It's A Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, most obviously with Lucy tricking Charlie Brown into running to kick the football and then withdrawing it. But there are other interesting connections: once again, Linus is the bearer of the festive traditions. In It's A Great Pumpkin, he gets it wrong, producing a holiday grotesque; in this, he gets it right, offering historical reconstructions of the pilgrim's voyage, troubles over the course of the first winter, and finally the first thanksgiving. These narratives seem a bit forced, underlining the loose connection of the origin story of Thanksgiving to the celebration itself, even in the 1970s. Both specials highlight the enjoyment of the children even if they do not quite reproduce the standard script of the holiday. In this case, Charlie Brown ultimately gets it right, by showing hospitality, even if he is unable to offer his friends who have invited themselves over (following Peppermint Patty) a real feast; he is rewarded when his grandmother saves the day. Once again Snoopy provides the humor, with his struggles against the folding chair, and loyal efforts at making bread, popcorn, and an unidentified, but strangely appealing, jello dessert. There's a bit of subversion this time: we learn at the end that he has been hiding a Turkey and pumpkin pie the whole time, for himself and his pet bird, Woodstock.

Also funny that Sally made the same complaint in the 1970s that the kiddos and I do now: Christmas decorations up before Thanksgiving! Reviewing November 2020; previously watched 2017 and 2018.

Well, today is Thanksgiving and that means one thing to do, for certain that is. I must watch "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving." It has become a tradition for me for the last five years in a row and will continue for the rest of my life. You just can't go wrong with Good Old Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang. Watching this special brings the true meaning of Thanksgiving. As usually Snoopy steals the show. Thank you Mr. Charles Schulz for this and all the Peanuts holiday specials. Thanksgiving requires "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" year after year, it is simply tradition. Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of the Peanuts gang on the holidays make the holidays more enjoyable.

Throughout the years I have see the film a few times during the holidays. I would rank it as one of the top ten Peanuts films that Charles Schulz did. As a child I could relate to Charlie Brown whose cooking skills only include making toast and popcorn. After reading the comment about Woodstock eating the turkey, I noticed some thing else slightly distrubting. In this film short Charlie Brown invites all his friends for dinner. Yet Charlie Brown's only ethnic friend is Franklin, who is African American. Franklin does not say more than two lines in the film. Yet considering the film is nearly 30 years old this limited inclusion of multi-ethinic persons is understandable.

Thanksgiving is not really something that is acknowledged and certainly not something that is celebrated in Scotland, but I watch this TV special every year in the run up to Xmas just to get me in the mood. The cartoon begins with the usual gag where Lucy yanks the football away from Chuck. I guess he'll never learn to distrust women, eh.

But his main grief in this one is the fact that all of his friends invite themselves over to his place for Thanksgiving despite the fact he's going to his grandmother's for the celebration. Snoopy and Woodstock work together (and against each other) to prepare a slapdash dinner including toast, jelly beans and popcorn. Needless to say the rest of the Peanuts gang are far from impressed with the menu, though that doesn't stop Peppermint Patty putting the moves on Chuck.

All this talk of food has made me hungry.