It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown originally aired all the way back in 1966 and is second only to the sainted Christmas pageant in Charles M. Schulz's great seasonal Peanuts pantheon.
Though its appeal is timeless, you also wouldn't mistake this generally quiet, episodic little masterpiece for a cartoon made today: real children perform as the child-characters and they speak less fluently and more deliberately than the adults who usually play kids in animated series today. In fact, everything moves more naturalistically than the music-video and video game-inspired, quick cutting, keep things jumping, slam bam NOISY wow of today's animated series (many of which I love). It's just a different kind of storytelling, and one that requires some adjustment for kids raised on Fairly Odd Parents, SpongeBob, Jimmy Neutron and The Simpsons.
We begin with the irresistible rolling left-hand piano bassline of Vince Guaraldi's indelible "Linus and Lucy" (Guaraldi's melodic, hooky, cool but rhythmically insistent music is the secret weapon of the entire Peanuts animated series, notably reviewed by El Bicho here), aptly named because as the tune unfolds, the title characters, an odd couple brother and sister (as are Charlie Brown and the precocious, litigious Sally) stroll through a gorgeous leaf-strewn autumnal landscape out to the pumpkin patch in pursuit of the perfect orange orb, a pumpkin Lucy decides must surpass their combined weight, and which Linus, under Lucy's direction of course, must navigate back home. Lucy brandishes a butcher knife and impales the unfortunate vegetable savagely- Linus recoils in horror. A novel's worth of relationship is conveyed wordlessly in a few perfect animated moments before the credits even roll.
Linus and Lucy each then trouble poor Charlie Brown: Linus without malace aforethought by jumping onto his just-raked pile of leaves, Lucy with elaborate premeditation, inducing him to kick the phantom football one more time via the ruse of a "signed document," which, she she informs him ex post facto as he lies flat on his back, wasn't notarized.
Article comments
1 - Jason Koulouras
Thanks for the trip down memory lane
2 - Eric Olsen
thanks Jason, it was fun to really think about it
3 - Eric Olsen
this is on tonight at 8 on ABC, by the way
4 - Claire
Jason already stole my line...the trip down memory lane. You know, as many times I have watched this over the years, the best time ever since I saw it as a child, was watching it with my very young nieces.
Seeing it "new" through their eyes, made it child-like again for me...
What a well written piece, Eric. As always, your words could almost replace the watching...but will absolutely enhance it.
Claire
5 - Eric Olsen
thanks Claire, very much appreciated - I tried hard to convey the essence of why I think it endures, so glad it made sense
6 - Mark Saleski
i totally enjoyed watching that last night.
it's been years.
i had forgotten about the linus ghost with too many holes thing.
classic.
i got a rock.
7 - Eric Olsen
I hadn't seen it in years either until we got the video a couple of weeks ago for Lily's birthday. The first time she watched it she thought it was kind of slow and her attention wavered, which I referred to indirectly at the beginning. But she has now watched it several times and has really picked up on the subtleties and relationships and thinks it's great