Happy Holidays and welcome! We are counting down the days until December 25th and, in that time, I will be reviewing each and every Christmas/holiday film I watch during the month. They’re mostly a selection of films in my own library or films and shows that have been recommended to me.
Please enjoy and leave a comment!
And if you missed any of our past reflections, take a look:
Holiday Inn (1942)
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
The Bishop’s Wife (1947)
White Christmas (1954)
Santa Claus (1959)
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)
Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny (1972)
Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983)
I Believe in Santa Claus (1984)
Lethal Weapon (1986)
Die Hard (1988)
Ernest Saves Christmas (1988)
Scrooged (1988)
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
Home Alone (1990)
Die Hard 2 (1990)
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
It’s Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown (1992)
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
Miracle on 34th Street (1994)
Jingle All the Way (1996)
The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
Home Alone 3 (1997)
Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas (1999)
Olive the Other Reindeer (1999)
Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales (2002)
Our next film is…
WATCHING: I Want a Dog For Christmas, Charlie Brown (2003)
DIRECTOR: Bill Melendez and Larry Leichliter. We’ve spoken about them before. Both are Peanuts vets.
WHAT IS IT?: The fourth Peanuts Christmas special.
THE PLOT: Linus and Lucy’s younger brother Rerun envies Charlie Brown for having such a fun dog and even offers to take Snoopy off his hands. Charlie Brown denies this request but allows the two to hang out together.
When Rerun realizes that he just can’t have Snoopy, he begs for a dog of his own. When Linus and Lucy don’t help him out, Snoopy delivers in the clutch, calling his brother Spike, who lives in the desert, to help Rerun out.
WHAT DID CRITICS THINK?: It received decent reviews from most reviewers who thought it was a cute story — but felt that it was also made up of several of Schulz’s comic strips.
WHAT DID I THINK?: This is the fourth and final Peanuts Christmas special (the second Christmas special produced following Peanuts creator Charles Schulz’s death in 2000) and I’d say that I enjoyed this one far more than the other two sequels mainly because it has one coherent story — and, at 40 minutes, it doesn’t feel like a quickie ratings-grabbing after-thought.
Plus, it’s nice to see Rerun and Spike here, two Peanuts characters who don’t seem to get much play outside the comic strip. Rerun is adorable while Spike, like his brother, is silent — but almost deadly thin (there’s nothing much to eat out in the desert) and hilarious in his mannerisms.
As one might expect, I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown doesn’t hold a candle to the original, A Charlie Brown Christmas but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t watchable.
GRADE: B