To criticize a well-intended little animated special that attempts to convey a positive message (I think) and keep the spirit of beloved cartoon characters from another time alive seems akin to kicking a proverbial Beagle, yet I can't help it. This program made me unhappy, so I'm sharing my thoughts for anyone who is interested in a counterpoint to, "Watch it because I just thought it was lovely!"
To begin with, it's truly stunning in a visual sense; for some time now, at least as far back as the Peanuts feature film from 2015, digital technology has given the Peanuts world a vision that is both respectful to the Schulz original and improves it for modern audiences, something one suspects Schulz would have approved of. And certainly, over the years, beginning some time in the mid-to-late 70s, the short specials and films that kept arriving into the 80s began to devolve into less authentic, less intelligent, less subtle, less edgy and generally less fun pablum. "I Want a Dog For Christmas" from 2003 probably came about as close to authentic post-Schulz as one could, but that one lacked story and point and just looked like a really authentic copy, albeit an entertaining and well-made one.
Now there's this; Sally Brown falls in love with a dandelion on the field where the Peanuts kids play baseball and things descend into a tug of war that is so on-the-nose about its message it's cringe-inducing: "What's more important, the tiny pathetic things of nature or the will that we insist on imposing on it all?" Were Schulz alive I suspect he'd have laid the question out, in much more subtle tones, and left it to the audience to decide, while making us laugh and cry all the while...a response that is mature, considering it really isn't all that easy a proposition ultimately: Yes, it's important to pay attention to our frail, evaporating resources; yes, we still have to live and having gotten used to a way of life, it's hard to change. Yes, we need to change, but change isn't easy.
Here we have things I hoped to never encounter in a "Charlie Brown" special...Sally and Charlie growing truly upset with each other as their wills clash, then Sally and Charlie joining hands and walking off into a synthetic sunset with the emotional maturity of adult couples in a Hallmark Christmas movie. The fun of the Peanuts kids was that they ACTED like little adults, not that they actually were...no kid, ever, has or would act like Charlie and Sally do here, and considering kids aren't fully formed creatures they shouldn't be expected to do so. Making things even worse is an annoying and cloying Ben Folds song that I'm happy to say I was finally able to remove from my head.
What's missing are funny jokes, irony, the harsh realities of kid-dom and any sense of moral ambiguity (even the "Christmas" special, which the makers of this were clearly trying to emulate, is vague about HOW exactly the pathetic little tree blossomed--God's love, or the love of the little kids, or both, but it's never stated outright, leaving room for thought...here it's simply "magic," more's the pity.
Worst of all, it's all played dreadfully serious, with Sally presented as a sort of hippie-guru-martyr...the lesson seems to be everyone should ignore their rational instincts and step in line (cough, sorry) follow Sally into her cause of adoring a small weed simply because she believes in it so strongly, not because you've researched the cause yourself and made up your own mind, because if you had you might have realized that the reason weeds have a stigma is not because people are "mean" but because *weeds will inevitably kill other things that you have planted that you also loved.* It would be akin to re-framing the ending of the beloved Christmas special so that the kids rally 'round Charlie at last not because they saw the magic that came to the sad little tree themselves, but because Charlie simply TOLD them that it had bloomed, that it was important, and that they should accept it on his word and be joyful.
Am I the only one who sees this as problematic, I wonder?
Well, again, even though the over-the-top emotionalism, the story-by-committee feel, the lack of sincerity and the agenda-pushing on this one made me grind my teeth, there are far worse messages to convey than what this attempts to do. The score nicely emulates Vince Guaraldi, the overall feel is gentle and pleasant to look at. Unlike the first run of Peanuts cartoons, this wasn't meant for everyone, only people of a certain age or those who find the contents charming and/or valuable. Alas, I am not one of those people...would Sally love the "weed" that is me as much, I wonder?
Thankfully people still return to the original holiday specials it seems; here's hoping when people watch them in the future they actually understand what those shows were saying.
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