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/
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