Happiness Is a Warm Blanket Charlie Brown

Lucy tells her brother Linus that their grandma is coming to take away his blanket. Charlie Brown isn't much help. Linus is so desperate that he asks psychiatrist Lucy for help which only leads to her many cruel tactics. Snoopy has his eye on Linus' blanket. Linus can't kick his blanket habit but he points out that everybody has their own unique crutch.

I love the old fashion style that is reminiscent of the best Peanuts cartoon specials. It's a little disjointed at times but that's fine for Peanuts. Pig-pen is here in this one along with all the main characters. It's too bad that my favorites Peppermint Patty and Marcie aren't around. They don't have the needed aspect connected with this concept. Linus' blanket is a classic concept. This special tackles it from an interesting angle. It gets a little dark at times but there is plenty of fun. This is a solid addition to the great Peanuts lineup.

When the beloved blanket goes missing, he is on a search to find it. Then a grandmother is coming for a visit. The Peanuts gang is back with children voicing the characters. The director did a terrific job in bringing the legacy of the Peanuts gang under the Charles Schulz Estate and Foundation. The special is only 45 minutes but heartwarming and special to Peanut fans of all ages. You can relate to the characters here just as when you were a child. Peanuts never grows old but we aged over years.

Let me say first off that I am a huge Peanuts fan. I've followed them since early childhood and it is still deeply rooted into my character. But there was a lot of strange elements about this special that really irked me.

My biggest problem was Linus himself. He didn't seem like the intelligent, spiritually-savvy kid he had been throughout the comics and many of the specials. Instead he seemed very angry, rather short tempered and seemed different in a very non-refreshing way. But out of all of the things that made me cringe about him, the biggest was towards the end where he exclaimed: "DO YOU WANT ME TO END UP LIKE CHARLIE BROWN?!?"

Ouch.

Which brings up another point of mine: Charlie Brown himself. It seemed that the Peanuts Gang was being especially rude and cold-hearted to good old Chuck. I felt genuinely bad for him, which detracted a lot from the main premise of the feature.

Now, all that out of the way, I must add in some of the pros, because there were many. I think that the art in this special shone. There was one scene where Linus was standing in a field looking up at the sky for his blanket (which had been turned into a kite and flew away) while the sun set. It gave me the chills. Linus is my favorite character and it displayed him as the philosophical and wise character we all know. The art direction really suggested a back-to-basics sort of feel, very retro, and very different...and very cool.

I especially enjoyed the usage of Charles M. Schultz's comics. They were engraved into some of the writing, and the majority of the plot.

All in all, it turned out to be a very mediocre hour for me. Part of it screamed "THIS IS GREAT" but the other, "Yikes."

In the words of Linus: "It has its drawbacks."

The lucy charactr was mean and rude. At some point the rudeness of the characters made me put the show on mute. We are living in a mean spirited age where writers think its okay to speak like this. If Mr. Schultz was living he wouldn't approve. I hope my granddaughter wasn't watching.In the past the characters seemed to Show a sense of concern and caring.for the producers to make this a hour long show was staggering. Thank you the characters remained in tack. I guess because of the copy right rstrictions nothing could be done to change this. I did get a feeling by the nature of the voices that this was an updatesbversion and when insaw 2011 i knew something was amiss. Even my oldest grand said she didn't care for this version. Please don't mess with perfection.

Movie needs more love-laced scenes from all of the characters making an effort in their lives, like real people.

When I chose to view the movie, your DVD cover art of Linus hugging Snoopy had me hoping for a lot more cozy heartwarming scenes. More hugs, more tea parties or the like, more laughs, more sweet acts of helping each other out as neighbors. Maybe even community dances, walks in park, sports scenes (ski?).. creative thoughts here.

The movie was enjoyable, you guys worked so very hard and it shows!! I hope Lucy and Snoopy (I don't remember Snoopy having the vicious eye look which is not a good movie memory and makes me think twice if I want to see the next movie) and Schroeder's character's will not be quite so mean to one another in future films, (that I hope you make) but everyone will display a moral code of integrity and gentleness trying and including more acts of kindness and joy! Maybe Charlie Brown smiles on occasion with a couple nice achievements in his life every so often. Don't forget to include Snoopy's 'joy dance' reflecting good things that happen to him and his friends!! Maybe Schroeder and Lucy can be a lot more civil as well as Linus and Sally toward one another - as many people relate to these relationships also and most likely hope for guidance similar to Mr. Schulz's original "Peanuts" movies.

Best Wishes!!