Sunday, June 18, 2023

I'm Reviewing All Your Specials, Charlie Brown: Snoopy's Reunion (1991)


 

Snoopy didn't always have a family.  In a 1959 strip, he said he was an "only dog".  That didn't last, as by 1965, it was established that, not only was he born at the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm, but that he had several siblings.  A storyline that year had Snoopy leaving for a reunion with them, though that took place entirely "offscreen" and none of them actually appeared in the strip until Spike made his debut in 1975.  That would be followed by Snoopy visiting his sister Belle in 1978, his brother Marbles visiting in 1982, and another brother, Olaf, appearing in 1989.  Of them, only Spike would become a regular character, and, until 1991, be the only one who would appear in a special.

It seems strange that, after the disaster of It's the Girl in the Red Truck, Charlie Brown, that Charles Schulz would want to revisit Snoopy's family so fast.  But revisit he does, and Snoopy's Reunion not only marks the animated debut of Belle, Marbles, and Olaf, but also introduce three other siblings, Andy, Rover, and Emily.  Learning Snoopy's backstory seems like a nice idea for a special.  Unfortunately, this particular one just falls completely flat.

The special opens as a newborn Snoopy, along with the rest of the litter, is bonding with his mother, Missy.  She loves her puppies and the puppies love her, but alas, they all live at the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm, which means that after a couple of months, the farmer (who is unnamed, but in a big departure from the specials' usual style, is both fully seen and completely understandable when he speaks) puts out a "Puppies For Sale" sign, and one by one, all eight get snapped up.  This is after the puppies have all formed their own bluegrass band, which makes me wonder why the farmer didn't just keep them all and become rich touring with his all-dog band, but there wouldn't be a special otherwise.

Snoopy is the first to go, to a girl named Lila, which was undoubtably a surprise to the viewers who hadn't seen 1971's Snoopy, Come Home, in which she plays a prominent part, or read the series of 1968 strips where Snoopy visits her.  Alas, she lives in an apartment building, which promptly decides to ban dogs, forcing her to return Snoopy to the farm.  Meanwhile, Charlie Brown had been thinking of getting a dog, and eventually goes with Linus to the farm, where the farmer allows Charlie Brown to adopt Snoopy for only $5.


In theory, all this sounds like it could be interesting.  But the reality is that it is all rather bland and boring.  If they're going to the trouble of depicting Lila, maybe center the special around her.  She's given quite a bit of buildup before she picks Snoopy, but then almost immediately turns around and gives him up.  This is meant to be a pogient moment, but as we havne't gotten the oppertunity to know her, it just isn't.  I'm also not sure how we're supposed to feel about the farmer.  He seems like a nice person, and definately doesn't mistreat the dogs, but he does breed dogs for sale and does rip apart the family.

The second half picks up four years later, with Charlie Brown (looking exactly the same as when he adopted Snoopy--the animators couldn't be bothered to age down Charlie Brown, Linus, or Sally) realizing that his dog has become depressed.  It turns out he's homesick and missing his siblings, so Charlie Brown suggests a reunion.  The letters get sent out, and soon all seven siblings have shown up.  

Given that the title of the special is Snoopy's Reunion, this should be the special's primary focus.  Instead, the now-adult dogs don't reassemble until we're past the halfway mark, and they don't really do much of anything once they arrive, except promptly reform the family band. In the climax, they all go out to the farm, only to discover that it is now gone, replaced by a parking garage.  Instead of spending time watching Snoopy bond with his family, we spend what feels like several minutes with Charlie Brown reacting with shock and confusion about this development.  Then the dogs play another song, they all head back home, and that's it.

The designers did a good job in depicting the various members of the litter and distinguishing them from each other.  Even if you aren't positive which dog is which, they all manage to have unique looks while keeping the basic Snoopy shape.

One thing that didn't really get explained is what happened to the owners of the other dogs.  Spike appears to be adopted by a rich family, but of course, by the time of the reunion is living on his own in the desert.  Olaf and Emily also seem to be living by themselves instead of with the people who adopted them.  Of course, no explanition is given.

Direction, for the next-to-last time, was provided by Sam Jaimes.  This would be the only appearance in a Peanuts special for the entire voice cast save for Bill Melendez, though Linus's voice Josh Weiner (now known as Josh Keaton) has gone on to a long career as a voice-over artist, including voicing a character in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

This would mark the only appearance in a special for most of the siblings.  However, after this, Olaf and Andy would become semi-regulars in the strip, and would make another appearance in a special a bit over a decade later in I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown.

Even in the bad Peanuts specials, I felt like there was something at stake.  That was not the case here.  This was the first special I've seen that felt like things were happening on screen just for the sake of happening.  Nothing was anchoring it to the ground, so if it had all just blown away, I wouldn't have been surprised.  And given how very low stakes some of the previous specials had been, the fact that this was about Snoopy's family makes the lack of connection all the more bizarre.  There are certainly worse specials out there than Snoopy's Reunion, but at least until this point, there were none less consequential.

Next week: The CBS era comes to an end as the specials come full circle with It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown.

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