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| Poor Charlie Brown, why don't people like him?
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Charlie Brown's Christmas Special (the original)
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Growing up, the Charlie Brown Christmas Special was the definitive Christmas Special. Sure, there was Garfield and the Grinch, but nothing really signified Christmas the way Charlie Brown did. The best part is that the networks have started to air the original Christmas Specials again and you can even catch the Charlie Brown one this year (the original one reviewed here is from the 1960s and they did an updated one some years later).
The special begins with the typical Charlie Brown musical introduction with the whole gang ice skating to some cool jazz music. Of course, snoopy is tearing up the ice, but that's ok because it's winter and time to cut loose.
But things aren't as carefree as they seem. At least not for poor Charlie Brown. As usual he's depressed and the fact that he simply can't get into Christmas this year is making the whole winter just a bit drearier. Nobody has sent him a Christmas card, his little sister is obsessed with grubbing for gifts, and Chuck feels that everyone has replaced the real meaning of Christmas with raw consumerism.
Looking to ease his existential burden, Charlie Brown turns to his trusted friend and counsellor, Lucy. The only problem is that Lucy's psychological training compels her to find a name for Charlie's condition (if you can classify it, you can treat it). The only problem is that he doesn't have a disorder, he's just sad. Well, there's only one way to fix that. Maybe if he gets involved in something Christmasy, he'll get into the spirit of things.
Sartre may not have embraced this, but Charlie Brown takes it as good advice.
Thinking that he'll get into Christmas if he plays the part of someone in Christmas, Chuck decides to take the role as director for their school pageant. This was made in the 1960s, so there's nobody there to get an injunction preventing the staging of a religious pageant on government property. The only caveat is that Lucy makes Chuck promise that he won't ruin the pageant just like he ruins everything else he touches (maybe the cause of his depression isn't so hard to put a finger on after all).
But come rehearsal time, Charlie finds that the whole crew just goofs off as usual and nobody wants to give him the creative license he needs to make this a great pageant. They even mock him for buying a stupid 'real' christmas tree instead of one of those new fangled aluminium ones that are so in these days. That's the least straw for Charlie Brown, he's disguste that nobody else appreciates the significance of Christmas.
But just when Charlie seems unable to scape the throes of an angst that would make Kierkegaard blush, Linus steps in and shares the true meaning of Christmas by reciting the story according to the gospels. You see, he hasn't forgotten, he's just been caught up in the commercialism just like the rest of the herd.
Christmas isn't about presents or decorations- it's about taking a moment to reflect on the qualities that make us all a bit better. Well, that's fine, but still Charlie takes his pathetic tree home in disgust. Well, the rest of the Peanuts gang come to realize that maybe Charlie wasn't just rambling through some manic episode, he's been right all this time.
Charlie Brown can't even decorate his stupid tree. They were all right about hime. Or so he thinks. The rest of the gang comes to his rescue by decorating his tree and singing carols. That's all Charlie Brown ever wanted- to celebrate the true meaning of the holiday.
So the special ends with the whole gang humming carols next to Charlie's tree. It's uplifting, but like any of the Peanuts cartoon episodes, you just walk away not really knowing what the last twenty five minutes were all about. The dialogue is full of akward pauses and false starts, you're never clear if something is really supposed to be funny, and the plot is interrupted with bizarre jazz numbers.
On top of that, Charlie Brown is such a self deprecating manic depressive that you're constantly sitting on the edge of your seat wondering if he's just going to end it all. I know that a lot of what you see in these comes directly from Charles Schultz' own experiences and understandings, but why do they let people like this write children's specials?
With that said, the surprising part is that even though this was made in the mid 1960s, there's a prevailing theme centering on the over-commercialism of Christmas. That was before we were all raised by televisions and had so many great things to ask for each Christmas. The action figures, the never ceasing TV commercials, toy catalogs. Poor Charlie Brown definitely would have offed himself if he experienced a fraction of what Christmas is like now. So maybe it's a good thing the networks are playing these specials
again...
-Mark
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Copyright 2006, OnePageWonder.com, the merriest site on the internet
Contact me at mark@onepagewonder.com |
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