Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales

It's 18 minutes. It's a series of Christmas theme vignettes without a continuous story. It's disjointed but it's still watchable. In the end, this is like a TV version of the newspaper comic strips. It has its charms but it doesn't last like the classic Christmas special. The most notable things are the side characters. Linus meets a mysterious girl who calls herself Jezebel and then proceeds to keep changing her name. I think that character has lots of potential. On the other hand, Sally has a fight with an angry kid over a small Christmas tree. The kid is off-putting and doesn't really fit the Peanuts style. It also pales in comparison with the iconic Charlie Brown tree. This is a functional Christmas special but it's nowhere near the classic.

The voices are spot on - so much like the original cast of the 60s and 70s Peanuts shorts. What's not to love?!

This one is a series of short cartoons that feature a particular character per short instead of one long story like other Peanuts films we are all too familiar with.

The film is very much in the spirit of the originals!! This is definitely worth watching - I enjoyed it very much.

9/10.

I saw this last night on ABC after 1965's Charlie Brown Christmas, so it may be unfair to compare the two, but I will anyway! This special is far from the 1965 classic simply because it really doesn't stand out. The 1965 version tackled issues like commercialization and what Christmas is really all about. This special simply has different segments devoted to different characters (Lucy, Sally, etc) around Christmastime. Don't get me wrong, this special is cute, generates some good laughs (I liked Linus's infatuation with the weird girl that sits behind him), and sticks to the Peanuts formula. It's just not a groundbreaking special, and I doubt it will really ever stand out. It's worth the 30 minutes though, and if you're a Peanuts fan, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

My IMDb rating: 7/10

Just watched this, the third of four Peanuts animated specials after "It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown" but before "I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown", on ABC after the classic first one, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" came on. Done and first aired after the untimely death of creator Charles Schulz, it took some of his comic strip vignettes and compiled them for this show. What we get is Lucy trying to get a skating partner with the only choices between Snoopy and Schroeder. Guess who she wants? Next, Linus has a crush on a classmate who keeps changing her name. Then, Sally grabs a Christmas tree that falls down in a neighbor's yard which she only did because that neighbor kid said it's hers if it did so. Watch the cartoon if you want to find out what happens. There's other situations but I'll just say this was quite funny and is a fine tribute to the man long known as Sparky. Also, the late Vince Guaraldi's music is excellently interpreted by David Benoit here. So on that note, Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales is highly recommended.

This was a pretty good special. The Peanuts gang feels natural and at home in this special. I know this animated special was largely inspired by original Peanuts comic strips written by Charles M. Schulz not just because I read so, but because you can just see the original strips coming to life as the music and characters be themselves. Cute but clever.

I think that while many might know about this special, it may be a hidden gem for later generations or even earlier generations who remained negligent of the Peanuts animated specials since the early 1970s.

It's truly worth a watch especially when watching the original 1965 Christmas special!