website tracking
Search The Big Picture
« On-Set Video from 'Kick-Ass' with Nic Cage | Main | Jodie Foster Surprised to Learn About 'Inside Man 2' »
Tuesday
07Oct2008

New to DVD - 'Peanuts: You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown'

Peanuts: You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown

Featuring the voices of Chad Webber, Robin Kohn, Stephen Shea, and Hilary Momberger
Directed by Bill Melendez
Not Rated


elected01.jpg My childhood, and that of most people from my generation, is partially tethered to Charlie Brown specials. Though the most famous and successful ones are probably A Charlie Brown Christmas and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, there were dozens of them, one for almost every occasion, between the 1960s and 2006, including - yes - It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown.

In 1972, Charles Schultz got political with the release of You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown. The TV special was borne out of a Peanuts comic strip from 1964 in which Linus Van Pelt ran for school president. Charlie Brown, it should be noted, didn't run for the office, because Lucy took an informal poll and determined that he had a zero percent chance of winning.

Though we can look at the animation and the child voice actors now and think this is all rudimentary stuff, there's a pretty healthy societal and political critique in this 25-minute show that's worth paying attention to.

When his campaign promises are boiled down into something more bite-size by the school newspaper, Linus laments, "The press is against me." And near the end of a days-long run for office, Lucy admits to Charlie Brown, "It's hard being a campaign worker. We're completely at the mercy of our candidate. We ring doorbells and make the posters and build up the candidate's image, and then he says something stupid and ruins everything we've done."

It's not overly sophisticated, of course, but it's got some life lessons, as does the less entertaining tack-on, He's a Bully, Charlie Brown, which features Linus' and Lucy's younger brother, Rerun.

There aren't a ton of special features, but it did get me to thinking how cool an Ultimate Charlie Brown collection would be. All the hits there together in one box set...Good grief.

Peanuts: You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown
Own You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown on DVD Tuesday, October 7th from Warner Home Video
Check out the official Peantus DVD website
Purchase You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown now
Get the inside scoop on WB movie and DVD releases! www.wbreelnews.com

Share/Save/Bookmark

Reader Comments

There are no comments for this journal entry. To create a new comment, use the form below.

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.

My response is on my own website »
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>