November of 2009 marks the 36th anniversary of the release of “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.” I watched it every year during my childhood. These days (in my “adult childhood”) I still make it a point to watch it every November.
Last year, I offered a post that described my favorite details of this wonderfully entertaining and socially significant cartoon. What follows is a reprinting of that post, with a few additions.
Here are some of my favorite components of “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving:”
-SNOOPY’S BATTLE WITH THE ORNERY LAWN CHAIR—Tapping into the frustration that most of us have experienced with uncooperative folding lawn furniture, Snoopy’s passionate fight with the anthropomorphic chair ranks as one of the great moments in the history of animation. I think about that scene whenever I have difficulty opening up the folding chairs at church—which is often.
-FRANKLIN’S UNIQUE GREETING WHEN ENTERING THE HOME OF CHARLIE BROWN—When Peppermint Patty and Marcie come through the door, they greet Charlie Brown with simple hellos. But when Franklin, the only African-American boy in the story, comes into the house, he and Charlie Brown exchange a pronounced and audible slap of hands. In light of the fact that this was 1973, such a greeting was a slap heard round the world—one that signaled the arrival of a new age of race relations, even in the world of animation.
-SNOOPY’S PANICKED EXPRESSION WHEN HEARING THE INVITATION TO PRAY OVER DINNER—Peppermint Patty calls for someone to pray over the Thanksgiving meal. Snoopy, in a split-second response, looks suddenly panicked, as though he’s afraid that someone will look to him for the prayerful words. That split-second makes me laugh every year, if for no other reason than its illumination of a spiritually reluctant family pet.
-SNOOPY’S TOASTED EAR—While preparing for Thanksgiving Dinner, Woodstock the bird accidentally puts Snoopy’s ear in the toaster, then butters it. Such bold and risky physical comedy can only be described as Chaplin-esque!
-WOODSTOCK’S FONDNESS FOR POULTRY—It hit me in late elementary school that, in the closing scene, when Snoopy and Woodstock sit down for a turkey dinner, Woodstock was actually committing a form of cannibalism before my very eyes! I wonder if the turkey was accompanied by some fava beans and a nice chianti.
-AN ECLECTIC THANKSGIVING MEAL—The actual meal that Charlie Brown serves to his friends includes jellybeans, pretzels, popcorn, and toast—just like the pilgrims ate.
-LINUS’ PRAYER—When Linus quotes the prayer that was prayed by Elder William Brewster at the first Thanksgiving meal, it is the only moment in the entire animation that his security blanket is not visible. What a winsomely subtle way of making the point that, when Linus experiences the security of prayer, he doesn’t need the blanket.
-THE SPONTANEOUS REJOICING—When the children receive word that they are all invited to Charlie Brown’s grandmother’s house for a real Thanksgiving dinner, they erupt with a joyful fervency normally reserved for Steeler games and Pentecostal worship services. Even Snoopy is jubilant, and he’s not even invited.
-THE COMPLICATED FLIRTATION—Peppermint Patty’s aggressive crush on Charlie Brown, counterbalanced by her dysfunctional tendency to rely on Marcy as a communicational go-between, puts Charlie Brown in mysterious and often confusing territory in the matter of romance. And yet, when Patty utilizes a simple handshake as an opportunity to point out that “you’re holding my hand, Chuck, you sly dog,” I am always inspired to smile at the labyrinthine politics of romantic flirtation.
-THE REALISTIC SINGING—In the car, when the children sing “Over the River and Through the Woods,” they are neither unified in their tempo nor disciplined about their tonality—meaning that they sounded exactly like every group of singing children that I have ever heard (except for the Jackson 5 and that time that the Brady Bunch kids became the Silver Platters).
-THE EMPHASIS ON REMEMBERING OUR HISTORY—When Snoopy and Woodstock don their pilgrim outfits, and when Linus recites the Brewster prayer, these peculiar little animated characters make a compelling case for the urgency of remembered history.
-GREAT SPECIAL EFFECTS—Snoopy’s impressive game of ping pong against himself makes Forrest Gump look like a bumbling novice!
-THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE MOVEMENT TO SUBURBIA—“There’s only one problem with that song,” Charlie Brown says about the bucolic “Over the River and Through the Woods.”
“What’s that, Charlie Brown?”
“My grandmother lives in a condominium!”
By uttering those six words, Charlie Brown concludes the production with a bold and prophetic acknowledgement of the frightening implications of suburban sprawl—implications that still carry substantive weight, even thirty-six years later.