A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
A Charlie Brown Christmas Review
A Charlie Brown Christmas is a 1965 animated television special and the first in the Peanuts series.
Charlie Brown finds himself depresses upon Christmas and Lucy suggests that he direct a school Christmas play, but he is still mocked by the children. The plot itself is very good and all of its parts do work. I really liked its beginning, the session with Lucy is so much fun, the play is excellent and funny as well and the use of Christmas theme is wonderfully explored with nice themes and a great message. The only problem I’ve had with it is the ending which is sweet, but not particularly satisfying in my opinion.
It is solidly animated and superbly voice acted. It is great to watch during the holiday as it does have a great Christmas spirit and is naturally a smart 25-minute entertainment. Charlie Brown is fantastic here and especially in the beginning he is so likable and funny. Linus also has his moments and Snoopy, although pretty funny, disappointed me a little as he did not receive that much attention unfortunately. Sally is great as is Schroeder and Pig-Pen. But Lucy is expectedly the highlight here with such a fantastic personality and many hilarious lines. The humor here is wonderful and it made me laugh a couple of times as the dialogue is genius. The pacing is slow, but that wasn’t the problem for me. The static feel of the episode was a much bigger problem, but the special still managed to overcome it with a strong holiday feel, a great plot and superb soundtrack.
