Tuesday
07Oct2008
New to DVD - 'Peanuts: You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown'
Tuesday, October 7, 2008 at 5:36PM Peanuts: You're Not Elected, Charlie BrownFeaturing the voices of Chad Webber, Robin Kohn, Stephen Shea, and Hilary Momberger
Directed by Bill Melendez
Not Rated
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."
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
Colin Boyd | Permalink | in Animation, Charlie Brown, DVD | Print Article | Email Article | Post a Comment | Share Article
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