By the late 1990s, virtually every Peanuts special had been released at least once onto videocassette, with the specials from the 1960s and 1970s even getting multiple releases over the years. As early as the mid 1980s, there had been talk about producing new specials directly for the home video market, but as CBS was still regularly airing the specials at the time, that simply didn't happen. By 1997, though, the situation had changed. It had been nearly 5 years since CBS had ran a new special, and no other broadcast network appeared to be willing to pick up the slack. A cable network might have been an option, but even in the late 1990s, basic cable originals were not generally held in high esteem. But with home video in general, and videos aimed at kids in particular, surging, the time finally seemed ripe to produce a special intended to debut directly onto video.
To be fair, while It Was My Best Birthday Ever, Charlie Brown was intended to be a straight-to-video release, the special was clearly designed with broadcast television in mind. It runs a TV-friendly 24 minutes, and there were several spaces where the action just faded to black before the next scene began, clearly designed for commercial breaks. It's ironic, then, that at least in North America, the special does not appear to have ever run on either broadcast or cable.
The "My" in the title is Linus, who turns--well, they don't say how old he's turning, of course, but he does indeed have a birthday party during the course of the special. However, despite the title, his party is not the focus. Instead, it's primareily about how Linus has fallen in love yet again, for the third time in a speical from this decade. How quickly he seemed to have moved on from Janice and Melody. That said, we don't actually get to meet Linus's latest love until the special is almost a third over.
First, we're treated to Linus rollerblading, and rollerblading, and rollerblading some more. The story starts with a solid minute of him rollerblading, including performing some stunts at a skatepark, before briefly relinquishing the spotlight to Snoopy to try his own tricks at the park. Then, after a surprisingly gross joke involving Pig Pen and the opening credits, it's another solid minute of Linus rollerblading, before he arrives at a party--someone else's birthday party. We never do find out who the party is for, but it's well-attended (mostly by generic kids) and Snoopy is doing the DJing, which leads to yet another extended sequence of Linus being cool, this time by dancing. There are cuts to a dancing Snoopy and other kids dancing, but the majority of this rather long sequence is focused on Linus getting down.
After a brief dialog by Charlie Brown and Sally about the party (dialog in which Charlie Brown strongly implies he didn't go, even though he was seen dancing there), we go back to another solid minute of Linus rollerblading, before the plot sort of finally kicks into gear when he hears a girl singing while skating by a house with a fence and a large garden. Naturally, he goes to investigate, and after yet another minute plus of screentime is taken up by his looking around this yard (which appears to be the size of a park), he finally finds her. Naturally, she's not the least bit upset that this strange kid has wandered onto private property, and instead introduces herself as Mimi, says she's visiting her grandmother, and also talks about how much she likes flowers--something that she proceeds to prove by talking about flowers for what feels like two solid minutes (this special is very much into long stretches where nothing actually happens). A smitten Linus finally gets around to inviting her to his upcoming birthday party (though neglecting to mention the place and time), and she accepts, leaving Linus to skate home hearing her singing in his head.
By this point, the special is already halfway over, but don't worry, we still have plenty more long stretches where nothing much happens. There's a montage of Linus "hearing" her singing in school and at home, which somehow leads him to wander into the shower in the middle of the night in his pajamas and turning it on.
Finally, finally, something mildly interesting happens about 15 minutes in, when Lucy expresses her disdain at Linus inviting Mimi, a joke involving Sally and the meaning of RSVP, and a montage where Snoopy, Lucy, Sally, and Charlie Brown go shopping for the party, in which Snoopy leaves behind a trail of destruction. That leads to the (second) big birthday scene, as Linus misses much of his own party waiting at the door for Mimi to arrive? Does she? Well, I'd refer you to the title.
While I don't think this is the worst Peanuts special to date, it is probably the least consequential. A few weeks ago, I criticized Snoopy's Reunion as having no stakes, but that one feels downright monumental compared to this one. It felt like Charles Schulz had a germ of an idea, but couldn't figure out how to expand past that germ.
Then again, the reason there was so much skating could have been answered at the very beginning of the closing credits, when "Skating choreography by Jill Schulz" comes up. The star of It's the Girl in the Red Truck, Charlie Brown had left acting by this time and was now a professional skater and chorographer. As for the other technical credits, Bill Melendez returned to his perch in the director's chair, and the music would be written by David Benoit, with only a few moments of Vince Guaraldi's classic compositions heard. To be fair, however, the soundtrack was mostly dominated by the aria "O Mio Babbino Caro" by Puccini, which Mimi is singing when Linus first hears her (and would keep hearing throughout the remainder of the special). This would be the only Peanuts special for most of the cast, though they mostly had worked on two Peanuts educational video games that had come out in the year before this was made. Anthony Burch, who voiced Linus, would go on to have a recurring role on Mad Men, and Danielle Weiner, who voiced Sally, is the sister of Josh Weiner, who voiced Linus in Snoopy's Reunion. Sadly, this would be the final special to debut during Charles Schulz's lifetime. Though he would write the next one as well, he would pass away before its debut.
More than any previous special, this feels like filler. While the 90s specials were not exactly high in quality, at least most of them had stories and stakes. It Was My Best Birthday Ever, Charlie Brown desperately needed something, anything, else to happen. Maybe for Linus's next birthday, he should ask for a rewrite.
Next week: Peanuts has its first (and only) fairy tale adaption with It's the Pied Piper, Charlie Brown.
No comments:
Post a Comment