It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)

[flat-top]

I was afraid that I missed it this year, but it's on Fri Oct 27th on ABC!!!
It wouldn't feel like Halloween without it!
http://imdb.com/title/tt0060550/

 

[SinatraStyle]

Thanks for the heads-up, Flat-top.

While I don't rank it nearly as highly as the Christmas movie, I am still a huge Charlie Brown fan. I'll be watching on Friday.

 

[flat-top]

Thanks for the heads-up, Flat-top.

While I don't rank it nearly as highly as the Christmas movie, I am still a huge Charlie Brown fan. I'll be watching on Friday.

Oh yeah...A Charlie Brown Christmas is really the best! The soundtrack stands on it's own to evoke great Christmas memories!

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've always thought the Red Baron sequence in "Great Pumpkin," where Snoopy is creeping thru the French countryside after his plane is shot down is one of the most atmospheric bits of animation ever done for television -- take a look at those blacks and blues and purples and the subtle details in the backgrounds. A far cry from the low-budget work in most TV animation of the day, and still very evocative.

(And I always felt so sorry for poor Charlie Brown when all he got was a rock...)

 

[Mojave Jack]

Man, I love the Charlie Brown specials! Thanks, Flat-top!

I heard somewhere that Charles Schultz was a huge jazz fan, and either asked Guaraldi to do the music, or asked for him to do it. Either way, I love the albums.

 

[Harp]

Downed Recon

Snoopy's lone traverse through the French countryside was my
favorite scene also, and an exceptional bit of animation mixed with
imaginative scenario.

 

[flat-top]

Christmas Time is (almost) here......

 

[BegintheBeguine]

Good, it's not on cable!

Yeah, Harp and LizzieMaine, and the MUSIC while he's slithering past the mileposts, too, ooh: then to discover himself in a brightly lit hall with a party going on, with females in attendance, surreal, and him trying to smile bravely and crying. The ads back then were for Dolly Madison cakes, which my best friend who's in vending tells me was bought out by Hostess. No, we never got packaged cakes or doughnuts on a tray at anyone's door, but everyone remembers the lady who gave out full-sized Three Musketeer bars 35 years ago on this inner-city street where I still live.

 

[flat-top]

MMMM, now I'm hungry! Does anybody see these where they live anymore? In NY, they are nowhere to be found, cuz trust me, I've been lookin'! Ever tried a Zinger?? YUM!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_Madison

 

[AlanC]

We have it on DVD and did our ritual family viewing last week with the girls. They even got popcorn. For the Peanuts holiday specials we always watch it together as a family then the girls watch them on their own until the holiday, at which point they're squirreled away until next year.

 

[Haversack]

Mojave Jack wrote:
"I heard somewhere that Charles Schultz was a huge jazz fan, and either asked Guaraldi to do the music, or asked for him to do it. Either way, I love the albums."

There has been something of a symbiosis between cartoonists and jazz here in the San Francisco Bay area going back to the early 1950s. In part it is because of all of the jazz clubs that used to be in San Francisco, and also that the many cartoonists who settled here after WWII had previously worked in animation in the 1930s & 40s. The most famous of this pairing was in Monterey where Hank Ketcham, Gus Arriola, Eldon Dedini and some others started up a private jazz club in Ed Ricketts' old premises. Their patronage of jazz musicians led to the creation of the Monterey Jazz Festival. This group was pretty gregarious but I do not know if Charles Schultz was a regular there. According to legend, Schultz was driving across the Golden Gate Bridge when on the radio he heard Guaraldi playing live at one of the clubs in San Francisco. He immediatly turned around and drove straight there and started their collaboration.

Haversack.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Besides all the praise for Schultz and Guaraldi, can we stop for a second to mention Bill Melendez, who as the *director* of the CBS Peanuts cartoons (not to mention owner/proprieter of the animation company that made them) was really the driving force in turning out these masterpieces?

It's true that he couldn't have done it without the Peanuts strips existing first, and Schultz was definitely involved as a consultant, but Melendez was the key talent on "Christmas", "Pumpkin", and most of the later shows/films. Melendez is responsible for the signature pacing and timing of the animated Peanuts (not to mention the voice casting and vocal direction), which is a whole other thing from the characters/gags of Schultz's strip...

 

[mysterygal]

All the Charlie Brown movies are great! I remember every kid in the neighborhood would have to watch them...everything else could be put aside for awhile I especially like the message in the Christmas one.

 

[Paisley]

And Sally lets herself get sweet-talked into spending Halloween in a cold pumpkin patch waiting for the Great Pumpkin instead of going to parties and trick-or-treating. All for love, and look where it got her!

 

[Lady Day]

I was afraid that I missed it this year, but it's on Fri Oct 27th on ABC!!!
It wouldn't feel like Halloween without it!
http://imdb.com/title/tt0060550/

I cut out the middle man and just bought it on DVD. Im not missing it again ever!

LD

 

[Lady Day]

Oh yeah...A Charlie Brown Christmas is really the best! The soundtrack stands on it's own to evoke great Christmas memories!

Did anyone ever see the 'remake' of the Christmas one that was done, the 'less religious' one?

The Christmas one makes me cry everytime

LD

 

[BegintheBeguine]

Didn't know there was a remake, but not surprised. [huh]
Bobbing for apples is actually very difficult.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

MMMM, now I'm hungry! Does anybody see these where they live anymore? In NY, they are nowhere to be found, cuz trust me, I've been lookin'! Ever tried a Zinger?? YUM!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_Madison

I have asked the vendor: Hostess now makes Zingers! Look for 'em near the orange Snowballs. Dolly Madison only makes bearclaws and donut dunkers, whatever they are, guess the name is self-explanatory, don't remember them.

 

[Avalon]

It's not quite a remake, but "I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown" focuses on Rerun, Linus' little brother. For me, it lacks the charm of the original specials and I don't like it much.

The "Great Pumpkin" and "Christmas" specials, however...those are like childhood in a box. I adore them and never miss them.

"I got a rock."