Well there was a series of Peanuts cartoons aside from the beloved holiday specials. There are also some newer and much lower quality specials that have been produced in the last few years. I'd say those are for hardcore fans only.
A Charlie Brown Christmas Charlie Brown's All-Stars He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown Play It Again, Charlie Brown You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown There's No Time For Love, Charlie Brown A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving It's a Mistery, Charlie Brown It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown What a Nightmare, Charlie Brown You're the Greatest, Charlie Brown She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown Life Is a Circus, Charlie Brown It's Magic, Charlie Brown Someday You'll Find her, Charlie Brown A Charlie Brown Celebration Is This Goodbye, Charlie Brown? It's an Adventure, Charlie Brown What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown? It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown Snoopy's Getting Married, Charlie Brown You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown Happy New Year, Charlie Brown Snoopy: The Musical It's the Girl in the Red Truck, Charlie Brown It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown Snoopy's Cat Fight Snoopy: Team Manager Linus And Lucy Lucy Versus The World Linus's Security Blanket Snoopy: Man's Best Friend Snoopy The Psychiatrist You Can't Win, Charlie Brown The Lost Ballpark Snoopy's Football Career Chaos In The Classroom It's The Team Spirit, Charlie Brown Lucy Loves Schroeder Snoopy And The Giant Snoopy's Brother Spike Snoopy's Robot Peppermint Patty's School Days Sally's Sweet Babboo
The holiday specials are the cream of the crop. Everything else, franky, is of much lower quality. Even the other "classic" shorts.
In the early 90's, a cable station (possibly the Family Channel - I'm not sure) noted that with the exception of the Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas shows, all of the other Peanuts TV specials were gathering dust on a shelf, and thus aired them over a few weeks or months. I didn't have that channel at the time and was unable to tape them, but it would be nice if someone reran them.
The only Peanuts shorts that I know of on DVD are the holiday specials, which are available separately or together in a nice little no-frills box set, which I have. Also the more recently produced cartoons are out but I don't recommend them. The tone of them isn't right, the voices don't even come close to matching the originals, and there's just something fake looking about them. ICK !
I've seen the non-holiday episodes a number of times. They're aired on both Nickelodeon & Disney Channel over the years. Sometimes with commercials, sometimes without. They're worth watching if you're a big fan. But if you're looking for any moments even approaching Linus' speech from the Christmas special then you will be very disappointed.
Well, the christmas special is the best Peanuts special ever, so you won't see another like it. However, don't let that prevent you from enjoying the rest of the specials. I'm a big Peanuts fan and while alot of the specials(and tv series) don't have that same quality, I still enjoy watching them.
Some other specials worth recommending that are on dvd:
1. Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown 2. You're in Love, Charlie Brown 3. Charlie Brown All-Stars 4. It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown 5. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving 6. It was a short summer, charlie Brown (I think that's on dvd) 7. You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown
Some of these specials are bonus features on some dvds, for example: You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown is a bonus feature on It's the great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown dvd.
I'm still anxiously waiting for the rest of the Peanuts catalog to come out on dvd. If paramount would only get off their butt.
I have reason to believe that "Snoopy Come Home" and "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" are on Paramount's radar screen for next year, but that's all I have to say at this time.
re: " It was a short summer, charlie Brown (I think that's on dvd)"
I seem to have collected most of the pre-90s specials on VHS, quite a few years ago. I don't think we're ever going to see a complete boxed set of the specials because they make money selling the various holiday specials individually. And yeah, all the specials vary in quality. Most of the 60s & 70s ones are pretty good (with a few clunkers). Many of the specials are quite memorable and as a child I looked forward to certain ones. Others, like "you're Not Elected, Charlie Brown," "Play it Again, Charlie Brown" and "It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown" were fairly forgettable. Then there's underestimated gems like "It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown," or "There's no Time for Love, Charlie Brown," (I think that's the one where they mistook a supermarket for the city museum...hilarious!)
This wasn't a regular tv series, you know. It only came out once or twice a year. Therefore, there was little continuity among the rank and file of the show's creators, (although the bigwigs stayed throughout). But each show has slightly different animators, and they're probably working off different model sheets. I generally feel that the animation in all of them was kinda lousy; notice the most popular episodes are the ones that had great scripts. Nobody ever much praises the animation in Peanuts specials...!
"Snoopy Come Home" is a must for dvd, and so is the movie where Charlie Brown is in the spelling bee. "Race" is hilarious!
Also, with regards to the voices, I remember them making a big deal about how they used real kids to do the voices, so they sounded like authentic kids, not cartoon characters, so as long as the boy sounds natural saying Charlie Brown's lines, the goal was not to get someone that sounded exactly like the previous special's Charlie Brown
That's fine news, David. I've been l;ooking foward to a Snoopy Come Home DVD for years, and i hope thatr it comes out. For 2006 Will be a great year for DVDs
I'd like to see "Race for your Life, Charlie Brown" as well. After the 60s Xmas and Halloween specials, this is easily the pinnacle of the animated peanuts. I wasn't even really a kid when I first saw it.
Well, I hear the VHS tapes for the specials and for The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show, which have been around for a good long while are being discontinued. I can only hope that this means DVD releases are coming.
Me being a big Peanuts fan, I'll take it all and love it all, specials, shows, movies, thank you very much.
Better see it again pretty soon, then, because I don't think your high opinion of it will quite hold up, unfortunately. :frowning:
I caught "Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown" Tuesday night on HBO for the first time since I saw it on TV in the early '80s, and the movie has NOT aged well. "Bon Voyage" is far less stupid and far more respectful of the 'Peanuts' audience.
Most of the supporting characters besides Peppermint Patty are given nothing to do, and the plot is glacial and uninvolving.
While "Bon Voyage" is enjoyable for both children and adults, "Race For Your Life" is enjoyable at a kids-only level...and it's a good possibility that even many of those kids will be restless 15 minutes in, if not earlier.
Hmmm, I guess this is a good example of "to each his own" because I feel exactly the opposite of George. While RACE isn't on the same level with the holiday specials or A BOY NAMED & SNOOPY COME HOME, it's still much better than BON VOYAGE (which I can't watch at all), IMHO.
Gary "I'd love to have all the Peanuts stuff on dvd" O.
Funny, I'm the other way around: Race for your Life is my favorite while I find A Boy Named Charlie Brown almost PAINFULLY slow. Different strokes and all that.
Still, the sooner it's out on DVD, the better. One assumes that Paramount retains the rights to all the movies and TV shows save for A Boy Named Charlie Brown. Think Fox has that one.