A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973)

This is a half-hour television special from üver 40 years ago, in which Charlie and the gang celebrate Halloween while running into the usual obstacles. Melendez and Schulz are on board as always as by 1973, there was one new Peanuts movie every year. This is the first with Phil Roman as co-director on board. He returned for many future Charlie Brown films. You may also know for his very long involvement as a producer of "The Simpsons". Anyway, this film can basically be split into two parts: Charlie's Halloween struggles and the sequences with Snoopy and Woodstock. Charlie has to prepare a Halloween meal for his friends and still make it to his Grandma's house to have Halloween with the family. Quite a challenge as we find out quickly. But there is nothing new or refreshing about this Emmy-winning short film here. Nothing that hasn't been done before. The female characters are annoying, the boys are whiny. Peppermint Patty is basically a more aggressive Lucy and I guess that's why the latter was hardly in this film except at the beginning. i wish Schulz could have come up with more differences in characters. There really aren't that many. But the worst thing is probably that they included a black Peanut for political reasons with racist tensions in the 1970s rising I guess. Of course he hardly says a word or has any other impact of the story. But he needed to be there to be politically correct these days I guess. Horrible, just horrible. I recommend to not watch this one, also because it's really never funny.

Charlie Brown and Sally are going to their grandmother's for Thanksgiving. Peppermint Patty calls and invites herself and then Marcie and Franklin to Charlie Brown's for Thanksgiving. Linus suggests Charlie Brown have two Thanksgiving dinner with the help of Snoopy and Woodstock. Peppermint Patty is angered by the lack of traditional Thanksgiving food but Marcie convinces her to apologize. Charlie Brown's grandmother calls and invites everybody to her place.Peppermint Patty's voice by Christopher DeFaria is really rough and raspy. It's a little bit jarring. Otherwise, this is a charming Charlie Brown holiday special and it holds up well. It has the innocence of the simple cartoon drawings. Also it's a single story without the usual detours. This just has the sense of the impending Holidays that appears every Fall. I do wonder if there is anything wrong with Woodstock eating turkey.

It starts out with the oldest gag in the Peanut's Gang comics, the football kick. Lucy pulls the ball from Charlie when he was about to kick it. I have to say; I have mixed feelings about that. Charlie Brown is always falling for it, but yet I feel sorry for him because Lucy always seems to bring up good points to tell him why she 'won't' pull it this time. I love the fact they pull up that people seem to skip Thanksgiving and go to Christmas in the stores. It also brings into consideration how the whole group gets together and looks at what they are thankful for rather then the large turkeys and dinners. The peanut group always seems to do that sort of thing, pretty much bringing the story to its simplest forms.The artwork is pretty well done even if some of the images are inconsistent in some areas. The show has its own charm that really made it one of the best things.Sadly, some jokes seem to go a bit overboard and long for my taste, though the ones with Snoopy normally have a really fun charm to them. I don't know exactly why but I like his character more then any other.

Believe it or not Thanksgiving is actually my second favorite holiday of the year if you can believe that. To me it's not just the delicious dinner we eat, but to me it's the company that you keep. This film is another childhood relic of mine and just like the holiday just never gets old, I'm an adult and I still watch it to this day.There's really not much I can say about it, the animation is great well it's pretty much the kind you'd expect from the "Pennuts" comics but I wouldn't want it any other way. However what really drives there are as usual the characters as well as the music score with it. The music score is just superb, from the theme but my favorite is that upbeat piano score when their making Thanksgiving dinner.And it just fun, funny, and touching seeing each of the characters go through the motions. The comedy is great as usual, from the infamous football kick scene which I find funny but a little sad at the same time, one day Charlie Brown just needs to kick Lucy in the face, sorry that sounded harsh but the amount of times she trick him will make anyone do it. And my favorite which is the fight with Snoopy and a fold able summer chair, it's one of the daftest fights I've ever seen, I can emphasize with Snoopy frustrations with those chairs those suckers can be a pain to unfold due to them sticking all the time, let alone don't always stay upright. But mainly just the concept itself is ridiculous it's hilarious what the heck does a chair have to be so teed off about anyway, why am I bothering to ask? But there is a little emotion involved as usual when you feel sympathy for Charlie Brown as he did his best to give Perperment Patty and company a dinner of some sort; hey he's not a color nary chief what the heck does Perperment Patty expect. But most of all just isn't entirely sure what Thanksgiving is really about.It's got a good message about the meaning of thanksgiving. That it was never really about the eating, but that it's about simply being thanking that you've came this far in life and the company that is with you at the table.Well, that's all I have to say so Happy Thanksgiving everyone.Rating: 4 stars