It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown Review

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is a 1966 animated television special and the third in the Peanuts series. It is not on par with the previous two specials, but is still great.

Linus believes in The Great Pumpkin and wants to wait for him to arrive in the patch while the other kids ridicule him for it. Meanwhile, Charlie Brown still has a string of bad luck first with Lucy and then with candies whereas Snoopy has his adventures as a World War I flying ace. In terms of storytelling, it is filled with many subplots for better and for worse and it focuses on Linus instead of Charlie Brown which is a nice departure, but I still wished for more Charlie Brown here. And yes, this isn’t as funny as usual and it is crammed with too many subplots, but it is still very engaging and an authentic special as it is different from the rest which is great.

Yes, the animation was nice here, especially during those Red Baron sequences. The score is once again great as is the acting, but I liked its laid-back approach and its slower pace as it lead to more heartwarming moments with the moment between Lucy and Linus near the end being so beautiful and with the silent scenes being also wonderful and a nice departure from the usual talkative format. Linus is the emphasis here with such a great storyline and such a fantastic use of his character. Charlie Brown is also good and the conclusion between the two is phenomenal and perfectly wrapped up. Sally is so funny and I liked how Lucy ridiculed her brother, but still showed that she cared. Pig-Pen has one funny moment and Snoopy is really good and finally gets his Red Baron storyline and it is done right as it is never too long, but rather well executed and quite funny with his scene with Schroeder being the funniest.