Sally Brown, Charlie Brown's little sister, was introduced into Peanuts in 1959 as a baby. Charles Schulz had a habit of introducing characters as babies, and then quickly aging them up, and Sally was no exception. She would also eclipse the more established Violet and (original) Patty in popularity to becoming the second-most-important female character after Lucy, though she would fall to third with the introduction of Peppermint Patty. Even though Sally was a major character in the strip, she never really became more than a supporting player in the specials. She would certainly have important supporting roles in It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown, and she was arguably the most prominent character in Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales, but the latter was centered around vignettes. For whatever reason, Sally had never been the main character in a special, at least until Apple TV decided to focus on some of the ones that never got the spotlight during the long reign of Schulz/Mendelson/Melendez.
Sally isn't the only main character in It's the Small Things, Charlie Brown, the only one of the Apple TV specials to date to use the traditional "Declarative Statement, Charlie Brown" title format. Indeed, it's big brother Chuck who is the one to learn a valuable lesson here, but the plot is primarily driven by Sally.
As the special opens, Charlie Brown is literally dreaming the impossible dream--beating Peppermint Patty at baseball. Indeed, he is convinced that this will finally be the year his team takes down her team. To be fair, his team does look pretty good in the practice scenes, with even Lucy looking halfway competent. However, that only really lasts until Sally shows up, now finally old enough to join the team. She's pretty hopeless, but that's OK, because she's quickly distracted by something else, specifically a dandelion growing on the pitcher's mound. Like little kids tend to do, she becomes extremely protective of the flower, much to the chagrin of her brother and the rest of the team, since the next day is big game against Patty's team. But Charlie Brown assures everyone that this is a short-lived phase, and she'll have moved on to another interest by the next day. Of course, she doesn't, and to Charlie Brown's horror, she somehow convinces the entire neighborhood to come out and support the flower.
Eventually, things come to a head, Sally rejects Charlie Brown's attempt at compromise, and things seem to end very badly. But a Peanuts special is not going to end on such a dark note, and as Charlie Brown begins to appreciate just what Sally and that flower was able to accomplish, the two of them are able to reconcile.
The special's release was tied to Earth Day and it has quite a bit in common with the prior Peanuts special to tackle the environment, It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown. Both feature plotlines involving plants on the baseball field, well-meaning characters putting plant life ahead of baseball, and a big showdown with Peppermint Patty and her team. Like in the earlier special, both Patty and Charlie Brown are befuddled by the changes to the field, though this time around, the changes, other than the dandelion, actually enhance the field, which was trash-strewn and decaying.
While original music has long been a part of the specials, from "Christmastime is Here" onward, in previous specials (outside of the two musical adaptions), the songs were written by the special's composer. While Jeff Morrow is the composer this time, doing his best to ape Vince Guaraldi, the special's title song was written by Ben Folds. He performs the song over the closing credits, but it is sung in the special by Sally's voice, Hattie Kragten. The song would earn a nomination for Outstanding Original Song at the inaugural Children and Family Emmys, the first Emmy nomination for a Peanuts special since Why, Charlie Brown, Why? in 1990 (it would lose to a song from Sesame Street).
As WildBrain was the production house for this special, it looks quite similar to For Auld Lang Syne. Direction was from Raymond S. Persi, an animation veteran who worked on The Simpsons for 14 years before moving onto Disney, where he worked on Wreck It Ralph and Frozen. He is also a voice-over actor, most notably playing Flash the sloth in Zootopia. This appears to be his first Peanuts project. The voice cast is mostly the same from For Auld Lang Syne, though this time Charlie Brown is voiced by Tyler James Nathan, who had previously played the role in Snoopy in Space. The original story was by WildBrain staff writer Josh Saltzman, who wrote the script with The Peanuts Movie scriptwriters Bryan Schulz, Craig Schulz, and Cornelius Uliano.
Like the movie and For Auld Lang Syne, It's the Small Things, Charlie Brown knows just the right formula to tug at the heartstrings. Indeed, this one may be even more affecting than For Auld Lang Syne, since I think Peanuts fans are much more predisposed to like Sally than Lucy. So far, Apple is doing right by the franchise, and have now gone 2-for-2.
Next time: The gang scrambles to celebrate Mother's Day, while Peppermint Patty ponders not having a mother at all, in To Mom (and Dad) With Love.
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