My little girl (aged 2) is mildly obsessed with Peanuts and this is one of her favourites...because Linus skates in it. That's the good news.
For anyone who enjoys Peanuts for story and characterisation, well, this special is a real low point.
I've watched it about 10 times now. IMO this special was not completed as intended. Maybe they ran out of money?
They take shortcuts everywhere to pad out the running time: There is the skating scene which is repeated twice, this takes up nearly 6 minutes of running time. So desperate where they to pad out time that they repeat scenes within the repeated scenes...or they must have a lot of banks in that area for Linus to skate past. A party Linus attends, without bringing a present for the host, looks like scenes cobbled together from Linus's birthday party later in the episode. This leads to a glaring continuity error, Charlie Brown is at the early party and dressed like he was at the latter party, but then he asks his sister what the party was like. I didn't realise he was that forgetful! A kitchen in the house Linus has his party keeps from one side of the house to another. Linus is missing his blanket when skating, then has it back again...You get the idea.
Animations in the dancing scenes are directly lifted from 'It's Spring training Charlie Brown', but done about half as well.
The plot is wafer thin. Linus falls in love with a girl who's house he breaks into. In another padded out sequence Linus creeps through the gardens of the girls home like a stalker. She welcomes Linus warmly despite his trespassing and then she starts talking, a lot. In a short time frame we find out she has he voice of an angel, likes to espouse Chinese proverbs and has an encyclopedic understanding of horticulture and it uses in modern medicine. Yes, she's a know it all.
Despite this, Linus then invites her to his birthday. She makes him wait for her arrival, then when she does arrive she doesn't come inside, she drives past and gives him a flower. Yeah, she's definitely a keeper...
Children may love it, but adults will not. There are many far superior Peanuts specials and movies, try those instead.
For anyone who enjoys Peanuts for story and characterisation, well, this special is a real low point.
I've watched it about 10 times now. IMO this special was not completed as intended. Maybe they ran out of money?
They take shortcuts everywhere to pad out the running time: There is the skating scene which is repeated twice, this takes up nearly 6 minutes of running time. So desperate where they to pad out time that they repeat scenes within the repeated scenes...or they must have a lot of banks in that area for Linus to skate past. A party Linus attends, without bringing a present for the host, looks like scenes cobbled together from Linus's birthday party later in the episode. This leads to a glaring continuity error, Charlie Brown is at the early party and dressed like he was at the latter party, but then he asks his sister what the party was like. I didn't realise he was that forgetful! A kitchen in the house Linus has his party keeps from one side of the house to another. Linus is missing his blanket when skating, then has it back again...You get the idea.
Animations in the dancing scenes are directly lifted from 'It's Spring training Charlie Brown', but done about half as well.
The plot is wafer thin. Linus falls in love with a girl who's house he breaks into. In another padded out sequence Linus creeps through the gardens of the girls home like a stalker. She welcomes Linus warmly despite his trespassing and then she starts talking, a lot. In a short time frame we find out she has he voice of an angel, likes to espouse Chinese proverbs and has an encyclopedic understanding of horticulture and it uses in modern medicine. Yes, she's a know it all.
Despite this, Linus then invites her to his birthday. She makes him wait for her arrival, then when she does arrive she doesn't come inside, she drives past and gives him a flower. Yeah, she's definitely a keeper...
Children may love it, but adults will not. There are many far superior Peanuts specials and movies, try those instead.