Movies

Repelled by the commercialism he sees around him, Charlie Brown (Peter Robbins) tries to find the true meaning of Christmas.The story goes that when this cartoon was first made, it ran into issues because of the lack of canned laughter and the religious overtones. Despite some apprehensions, it went forward as planned. And guess what? It became one of the most successful Christmas specials ever aired.I could not even imagine this with laughter. I mean, Charlie Brown is something of a sad sack -- we should not be laughing at him, but feeling sympathy for him. And how can we not appreciate his message of commercialism gone too far? I was not alive in the 1960s, but I think it would be a fair assumption to say that the commercialism of Christmas has not decreased... not one bit.

I remember the first time that I saw this cartoon. I was about 6 or 7 years old, and I was starting to get into the Peanuts comic strips as I was learning how to read. From the first time I saw it, I knew there was something very different about this animated Christmas special that set it apart from others. Maybe it was the fact that it actually gave the true meaning of Christmas by having Linus quote Luke 2:8-14. Maybe it was able to capture charm and whit of the Peanuts comic strip by Charles Schulz. Maybe it was the jazzy background music by Vince Guaraldi. Maybe it was all the above. I'm gonna go with the last one. To this day I still find this Christmas special to be a very touching one.

This might just be the best kid's Christmas special ever. RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER and HOW THE GRINCH STOLE Christmas are very, very close but I think I'd give this film the nod for two major reasons. First, the music by Vince Guaraldi is amazing--and one of the best sound tracks ever. Second, Charles Shultz insisted that this Christmas special actually talk about the REAL meaning of Christmas--with a reading from Luke of the Christmas story. Oddly, studio executives were apparently worried this might offend people! Imagine the gall of mentioning Jesus in a Christmas story!! This special is also amazing because it was the first Charlie Brown cartoon and subsequent films using the characters never quite matched this first great film and its success led to these other Peanuts films.