Thanksgiving with the Peanuts

Continuing my celebration of holiday cheer alongside the Peanuts gang, for Thanksgiving I watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and The Mayflower Voyagers.  The Peanuts are a good perk to the spirit for this holiday because Thanksgiving can often be overlooked as boring and daunting, compared to the magic and wonder of Halloween and Christmas that it is unfortunately sandwiched between.  Looking through the eyes of the children characters and influenced by their creator, Charles Schulz’s, own patriotism and spirituality, the gang explores the holiday’s history and its present meaning of thankfulness and togetherness.

The first segment, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, touches on the situations of the hassling preparation for Thanksgiving meals and the bond of friendship.  I think we all can feel for Charlie’s pains in his pathetic attempt to make a Thanksgiving meal for his friends.  It is no easy feat to make a feast, especially considering cooking the turkey and then the embellishments that come with it, so is there any real surprise that his answer to feeding his guest was to make piles of toast accompanied with popcorn, pretzels, and jelly beans.  I’ll forgive him for his simplistic but sweet actions, but I won’t forgive Peppermint Patty for her extremely rude behavior.  That lez needs to pull up a book on manners and smack herself in the head with it, and then maybe she’ll get a clue.  Seriously, how can you scold somebody who you’re supposedly in love with for creating a poor meal when you’re the one who invited yourself over anyways and then hold expectations on a young boy?  At the same time, Charlie should have really gained a backbone and just told her what.  Guess that’s why they call him “wishy-washy”.  Good thing for Marcie, who just always knows how to the fix a situation in her own weird way.  Another issue I find is the parents’ complete lack of activity in the day’s events.  For being Thanksgiving, I didn’t that much of family togetherness, unless you consider the gang’s ride to Charlie’s grandmother’s house and the back of his mother’s car as a part of it.  I just find it very questionable. 

The second segment, The Mayflower Voyagers, is very much more educational.  It’s a actually an episode from the Peanuts miniseries This is America, Charlie Brown, in which the gang take part first hand of the greatest moments of US history.  In this case, they are among the Pilgrims on their journey to the new world and their first tough year in trying to settle.  It is a very cute way to introduce history and to make it entertaining to kids.  I can say the regular Peanut specials are far more entertaining than this, especially considering most of the episode consists of the kids reciting the historical facts with an occasional gag here and there.  But their recital of the event is very thorough, containing much information that I didn’t know and not very common knowledge. 

That’s the interesting part.  In today’s school education, I believe they barely touch the events of Thanksgiving, if even.  Even in elementary school, I remember I wasn’t taught much about it besides Plymouth Rock and Squanto.  I didn’t even know the captain’s name was Hamlish.  Also, and what is very common about the Peanuts, is the expression of Christianity.  Of course the Pilgrims’ flight was religion-influenced and often thanks God for their, but the gang themselves display faith.  Linus gives a prayer at Charlie’s Thanksgiving dinner, which is a big deal compared to today’s society in which I don’t think school’s dare to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.  As usual, Schulz has shown me how much the ideals for American youth culture has changed from forty years ago to the present.

For more information on these movies, click on the links below:

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068359/

The Mayflower Voyagers: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0307141/

A Peanuts' Halloween

Its holiday season now and who’s better to spend it with than with the Peanuts gang.  The Peanuts have movies and specials galore, and I always found the holiday-themed ones to be my favorites.  With Halloween kicking the season off (with Election Day coming very short after it), obviously the first dvd to watch is a double feature containing It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown.

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown displays extreme qualities about the main characters.  We realize that Linus is very naïve and borderline retarded for believing in such thing as a giant pumpkin that brings gifts to children on Halloween; we are constantly reminded how pathetic and tragic Charlie Brown’s life can be, displaying immense unpopularity and gaining only rocks while trick-or-treating; and Lucy, who is always bossy in general, is just a huge bitch in this movie, bringing her sass any chance she gets.  I know these are things to find humorous about the characters, but when you take a close look, you see the reality of it all.  Being made in 1966, you see actually how much has changed in pre-adolescent Halloween culture.  Charlie and friends dressed up in homemade ghouls and (mainly) ghosts costumes; today kids are in super get-up superheroes and Disney princesses.  Charlie and friends received quarters and cookies during trick-or-treating; nowadays giving a cookie during Halloween can result in a police visit.  Charlie and friends went out at night without parental control; that would be considered completely unsafe and an act of bad parenting for today’s standards.  The 60’s was an easier and less threatening time for children on Halloween.  The movie leaves me feeling sorry for poor Sally, missing her first trick-or-treating because of her blind devotion for Linus, Lord knows why?!  A child without candy on Halloween is a sad, sad story.  I feel your pain Sally!

As for You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown, it’s definitely not about celebration Election Day (usually not much to celebrate anyhow), but it does tie in with the day in that the movie is about a school election.  The focus isn’t so much on Charlie Brown not being elected but more about Linus who is.  Once again Lucy acts as a bossy bitch and organizes and pushes her brother’s whole campaign.  Why she didn’t run for office herself I don’t understand, because she knows how to get what she wants and she loves ordering people about, so class president would seem ideal for her.  Besides that Snoopy makes an appearance as Joe Cool, there really isn’t much interest about this Peanuts special.  But don’t worry; there are plenty of others that are more enjoyable.

For more info on these movies, click on the links below:

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060550/

You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069525/

Another Mel Brooks Horror

I previously said that Young Frankenstein was my second favorite Mel Brooks film.  After watching Dracula: Dead and Loving It again, I realized that that was a lie.  Maybe it’s the generation gap, if that’s even it, but I find Brooks’ humor of the 90’s far funnier than that of the 70’s.  And don’t expect that I mean the material is cruder.  It might be, but the gags I find funniest are one’s that are more classically slap-stick.  For example, one of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Dracula attempts to lure Mina out of her bedroom but the maid complicates things, resulting in gags such as tripping over footstools and two people knocking each other over.  So basic but it almost always brings tears to my eyes from laughter.  Leslie Nielson is… the most interesting Dracula I’ve seen.  It may be because I have the image of Bela Lugosi stuck in my mind, who was quite the opposite of an old man, but Nielson’s characterization may be more based off of Gary Oldman’s Dracula impersonation.  Ironically, throughout the movie Dracula views everyone else as the simpletons (and they are!) but he neglects to notice how big of a simpleton he is himself.  To truly understand the humor in this movie, you have to know the source (duh).  Like how Young Frankenstein was a parody of the 1931 Frankenstein film and The Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula: Dead and Loving It satirized elements of the classic Lugosi film and the 1992 Bram Stoker’s Dracula.  Peter MacNicol, who plays Renfield, did the most amazing job at replicating Dwight Frye’s own portrayal of said character in the 1931 film.  A lot of Frye’s scenes from the original movie were replicated, and MacNicol was very close in copying them, of course taking Renfield’s insanity over the top to the point of extreme idiocy.  MacNicol imitates Frye’s voice perfectly and even has Frye’s creepy laughter down pat.  Also, I love Amy Yasbeck!  She acts so silly and frazzled and her voice adds to the humor ten-fold.  Mel Brooks as Dr. Van Helsing was ok.  He, as an actor, isn’t as good as the ideas he manages to create.  I do enjoy the scene when Van Helsing and Jonathan Harker drive the stake into Lucy’s heart, causing gallons of blood shooting out at them, but that is more about the gag than Brooks’ acting.  He makes me laugh, so I forgive him.  

For more information on this movie, click on the link below:

 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112896/