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)
Our next film is…
WATCHING: It’s Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown (1992)
DIRECTOR: Bill Melendez who, as mentioned, is almost always the MC for all things Animated Peanuts.
WHAT IS IT?: The not-quite-sequel to the 1965 classic, A Charlie Brown Christmas.
THE PLOT: It’s Christmas time again for Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the gang and we’ve got multiple stories at play: Charlie Brown attempts to raise money to buy his crush, Peggy Jean, a nice pair of gloves; Sally, Peppermint Patty and Marcie attempt to memorize lines for the school Christmas play — with somewhat undesired results; Snoopy has vignettes as a Salvation Army Santa who runs afoul of a skeptical Lucy.
WHAT DID CRITICS THINK?: It didn’t get the attention of audiences like the ’65 classic did, but Variety seemed to enjoy it for what it was and their sentiment was echoed by other writers who reviewed it as well.
WHAT DID I THINK?: This special isn’t anything…um, special, I guess. It feels like long-time Peanuts director Bill Melendez knew that the original, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” couldn’t be topped. What he does do is creative: he animates a bunch of old published strips as “mini-stories” and runs them across 24 minutes.
The stories shown here are adorable but, on the whole, it’s not cohesive and lacks the emotional power that the original Charlie Brown Christmas special had 30 years prior to this.
Still, it’s entertaining enough, doesn’t insult your intelligence, and, at 24 minutes, the entire thing goes down easy and doesn’t wear thin for adults or the kids who will eat this up with a spoon.
GRADE: B