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Movie:		5.0
Picture:		8.0
Sound:		8.0
Extras:		6.0
Score:		6.0

Director(s):	Sam Jaimes
Writer(s):	Clark Gesner (play), Charles M. Schulz (creator)
Starring:	Kevin Brando • Michael Dockery • Brad Kesten • Jeremy Scott Reinbolt • Tiffany Reinbolt • Jessie Lee Smith
Genre:	Animation • Children & Family
Release Date:	January 26, 2010

List Price:	DVD - $14.99
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It's really weird to hear Snoopy talk.

Though in the Peanuts cartoon strips, Snoopy had a tendency to express his thoughts to the readers via thought bubbles, this device has always been (smartly) left behind on the page in the Charlie Brown cartoons, with You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and its "sequel" Snoopy! The Musical being the only two notable exceptions. Here, Snoopy doesn't just talk in voiceovers—he also sings.

You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown is one of the dozens of TV specials starring the Peanuts gang, produced in 1985. It's the adaptation of the famous musical play of the same name, which debuted Off-Broadway in 1967, which in itself was an adaptation of a concept album. This cartoon is one of several attempts to reintroduce the play, the most famous of which is probably the 1999 Tony Award-winning Broadway revival which featured the stellar cast of Kristin Chenoweth, Roger Bart, B.D. Wong and Rent's Anthony Rapp as Charlie Brown.

Seeing how it features the familiar cartoon faces of the gang and not, you know, live actors, one would assume that it should be the definitive version: the authentic Charles M. Schulz look, the cracked high-pitched singing voices of kids instead of professional adult performers, the suitably animated hijinks of Snoopy's antics. Maybe that's where all the charm is, but can that charm be sustained for very long?

The original theater incarnation wasn't exactly plot-centric to begin with. Only Charlie Brown's pondering of what makes a "good man" ties the scenes together (which, in true Peanuts fashion, is an adult existential question that becomes doubly interesting when given to a kid to explore). It's even more abrupt in this cartoon, which cuts the play down to just some of the memorable numbers and little else. It serves more as a series of vignettes introducing someone unfamiliar to the Peanuts world via songs. All the iconic moments are here, recreated as musical numbers: Charlie Brown trying to fly a kite, Snoopy as a flying ace, Lucy hitting on Schroeder as he plays his piano, and the gang losing a Little League Baseball game.

At 49 minutes, it feels longer than it should because of the unfocused direction of the thing and the feeling of having seen all these moments countless times before, with only the songs as the new offerings. Before even diving too deep into it, it's easy already to lose attention and wish for the songs on that original album instead.

Long-time fans of this special should be happy, though. Released on DVD for the first time, the animation seems to have been cleaned up—simplistic as it is—looking like a brand new Charlie Brown 'toon.

DVD Bonus Features

A retrospective look at the special proves to be fairly informational, with a Peanuts historian and some of the crew recounting the history of this musical's various manifestations. It's not a comprehensive span of the production, however, since it spends just as much time talking about Charles Schulz (deservedly so, but maybe not compressed together with this topic in one feature).

The only other feature on the disc is a trailer for a Scooby Doo movie; probably because the preview for another upcoming Charlie Brown release is put in front of the disc, before the menu.