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Movie:		10.0
Picture:		10.0
Sound:		10.0
Extras:		9.0
Score:		9.0

Director(s):	Bill Melendez
Writer(s):	Charles M. Schulz
Starring:	Bill Melendez • Chris Doran • Peter Robbins • Ann Altieri • Sally Dryer • Mimi Gibson
Genre:	Animation • Children & Family
Release Date:	December 01, 2009
Rated:

List Price:	Blu-ray - $18.99
Amazon:

Of all the Christmas specials produced in the 1960s that have gone on to become part of the national vernacular, A Charlie Brown Christmas probably holds up the best. It’s about as much fun to watch parodies of those Rankin-Bass Christmas specials (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus is Coming To Town) as it is to actually watch them, and the Grinch, however awesome it remains, will forever be somewhat tainted by the awful film version. In stark contrast, Brown seems in almost pristine condition, untouched by the technological and cultural shifts that have taken place in the forty years since it was first aired. Some of that can be attributed to how well crafted it is (it doesn’t waste a second of its exceedingly short running time), but more specifically, it remains one of the only pieces of modern media to impart a ‘very important message’ while still fulfilling all of its other storytelling duties.

I doubt that very many of you are unfamiliar with the basic premise of this show, but if you are, here goes: Charlie Brown (voiced by Peter Robbins) is feeling discouraged because of the increasing commercialization of Christmas. Looking to cheer him up, Lucy (Tracy Stratford) invites him to direct the Christmas play that she and the rest of the Peanuts gang are putting on. His first creative decision is to place a thin, sparsely needled Christmas tree at the center of the stage. This is largely met with derision by the rest of the kids, but their enmity is gradually morphed into understanding with the help of Linus’s (Christopher Shea) tender retelling of the story of the first nativity. On paper, this sounds awful, but most anyone who’s seen it will tell you that the simplicity and directness of this plot trajectory actually work as this show’s greatest strength, taking sparseness of plot, dialogue, and even line (this is a pretty simply animated program) and filling it with a character that could almost be described as dignified.

Once a character has been turned into a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon, it would seem that any semblance of an inner life would vanish quickly, but that simply isn’t so for Charlie Brown. On a universal level, Brown is every person who’s ever wanted to be our friend, but maybe wasn’t cool enough. Sure, we liked him (or her), and we could always have a good time when hanging out, but there was something, unexplainable but unavoidable, that made him somehow unfit for popular acceptance. If we’re honest, we all probably made fun of him when he wasn’t around, but felt awful about it later. In a way though, we always envied him, because he had a spine that few of us could hope to have, a willingness to stand apart from the crowd and remain friendless simply because of his determination to be honest and sincere in everything he does. Even if he feels lost in a crowd sometimes (as Charlie Brown does here), he’s still, in no small way, a hero for the unliked, misunderstood, and downright insecure.

That nature is reflected beautifully into the show, which, in retrospect, feels rather bold for putting so profoundly square a protagonist at its center in the middle of the swingin’ sixties. One also has to give it credit for placing Christian belief at the center of its message. Charles Schulz’s own Christianity was a centerpoint of Peanuts, which drew both criticism and praise from the Christian community (particularly for the infamous ‘we prayed in school’ today strip), and it is conveyed nicely here as a warm, but not obtrusive presence. But unlike so much religious media, A Charlie Brown Christmas makes no accusations, and draws no cultural borders to choose sides from. Nor does it portray spirituality as a simple matter of allegiance, looking instead to a higher, more communal calling. In a way, it's very much like Charlie Brown himself, taking refuge in neither dogma nor secular comfort, but instead proposing its own doctrine in which all are welcome.

If it sounds like I’m reading too much into a show that’s less than a half hour long when a simple ‘it’s good’ would do, I probably am, but that’s another great thing about this show: it’s simple enough that anyone could read just about anything into it. Whether you want to look at it in a spiritual way or not, it doesn’t really matter, because you can’t help but feel that the Peanuts kids would take you in no matter what (but especially if you do one of those funky little dances that they all do). And, cynical as I might want to be sometimes, that’s just really nice.

DVD Bonus Features

A Christmas Miracle: The Making of A Charlie Brown Christmas - A documentary on the making of the show (well, duh). A little obnoxious in the editing, but still informative.

It’s Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown - A few more scenes (clearly produced well after the original airing of the show) of the kids running around doing Christmas activities.

Classic Christmas Favorites - A trailer for other Christmas special DVD releases.