A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Charlie Brown and Sally are going to their grandmother's for Thanksgiving. Peppermint Patty calls and invites herself and then Marcie and Franklin to Charlie Brown's for Thanksgiving. Linus suggests Charlie Brown have two Thanksgiving dinner with the help of Snoopy and Woodstock. Peppermint Patty is angered by the lack of traditional Thanksgiving food but Marcie convinces her to apologize. Charlie Brown's grandmother calls and invites everybody to her place.

Peppermint Patty's voice by Christopher DeFaria is really rough and raspy. It's a little bit jarring. Otherwise, this is a charming Charlie Brown holiday special and it holds up well. It has the innocence of the simple cartoon drawings. Also it's a single story without the usual detours. This just has the sense of the impending Holidays that appears every Fall. I do wonder if there is anything wrong with Woodstock eating turkey.

I remember seeing "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" back in the 80s when I was just a child. Every Thanksgiving they would show this at night time, since I was around 6-9 years old I couldn't stay up late to watch cartoons. But my parents made exceptions in these cases. Heck, I even recorded this on BETA! Thats right those tapes that are half the size of VHS tapes! Now that I'm older I wonder where time went, one day I'm a kid sitting on the living room rug watching Charlie Brown the next day I'm in my room hearing the advertisement on TV for the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving holiday special. Since I saw this when I was a kid I must say I was scared of the last portion of this presentation, the part where Charlie Brown camps out of a house. Damn that scared me! All I can say is that this is a classic for anyone who saw this as a kid. What's wrong with those people that gave this a 1 rating?!?! Some people just have problems.

I have watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving for many years and of all the Peanuts specials that I have watched and reviewed for this website, this is my favorite. The opening scene where Lucy pulls the football away from Charlie Brown always cracks me up. If you watch it on DVD or tape it off the TV, play back the football scene in slow motion to see Charlie Brown in mid air.

As for the rest of the cartoon, I thought Peppermint Patty was bossy and rude to Charlie Brown, inviting herself, Marcie and Franklin to Charlie Brown's for Thanksgiving dinner, monopolizing their phone conversations and even worse, complaining about the nontraditional cuisine. She was also flirtatious toward Charlie Brown. There were also outstanding sight gags involving Snoopy and Woodstock and the scene where they get the food ready for the feast that's set to "Linus and Lucy." It proves that cartoon scenes can work well without dialogue.

I also liked the scene near the end when the kids are in the car and they sing "Over the River and Through the Woods" en route to the Brown's Grandma's condo for a real Thanksgiving dinner. Before or after you go over the river and through the woods for your holiday feast, watch this cartoon. You'll even learn about the holiday in Linus' Thanksgiving prayer.

In my opinion, this is an excellent holiday special which is very appetizing. However, I couldn't bear seeing Snoopy and Woodstock having to endure all that torture. In addition, the thing that really makes this special worth watching is the score, especially "Little Birdie and "Linus And Lucy." When those songs are performed, I always get warm and tingly. I would have to say that's my favorite song of this special. If you ask me, Charles M. Schulz was a really good artist. In conclusion, I highly recommend this excellent holiday special which is very appetizing to everyone, especially all you fans of the comic strip who have not seen it. When you see it, prepare to smile, have a good time, and bon appetit.

I have always enjoyed these "Charlie Brown" specials as

I called them...It always tells me a holiday will be coming shortly when i watch this on television. there is a weird quality to these specials...they are children oriented, but they seem to have a lot of strong messages

behind them for anyone of any age....like Linus's speech

about Massasoit--a young one who loves his blanket and

sucks his thumb, and to be so smart is like an oxymoron, a mature child..I'm sure we can all relate to one of the

characters in a way!