Share:                           
Permalink:       

DVD Review: I WANT A DOG FOR CHRISTMAS, CHARLIE BROWN
Remastered Deluxe Edition

Studio: Warner Home Video
Year: 2003
Cast: Adam Taylor Gordon, Ashley Rose Orr, Jimmy Bennett , Hannah Leigh Dworkin, Corey Padnos, Nick Price, Bill Melendez
Director: Bill Melendez, Larry Leichliter
Release Date: October 06, 2009
Rating: Not Rated for
Run Time: 00h:41m:10s
Genre(s): television, animation, kids

Lucy: What are you doing?
Rerun: I'm writing a letter to Santa Claus.
Lucy: Forget it, Rerun. He doesn't have time to read all those letters. I mean, he stands on the corner all day ringing that bell. When he gets home, he's tired. He doesn't want to read a bunch of whiny letters... Tell him Lucy says hi. - Ashley Rose Orr, Jimmy Bennett

Buy Now @ Amazon

Warner Bros. line of remastered Peanuts specials continues with that perennial favorite, I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown. What? You don't remember that one? Well I do. Probably only because I reviewed the original DVD release though.

Movie Grade: B

DVD Grade: B

When Charles M. Schulz died, his characters, the loveable Peanuts gang, were to die with him. He didn't want anyone else taking up the reigns, drawing new adventures for Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Linus and Lucy. In order to keep producing the popular Peanuts television specials, Schulz' longtime collaborators Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelson went back to the source, using abandoned story ideas from the cartoonist and already published comics to create programs that are really more a collection of gags and jokes than a new, complete story.

2003's I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown doesn't hold together as well as classics like A Charlie Brown Christmas or It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown, but it's still a treat for lifelong Peanuts fans like myself (particularly since I often missed reading the daily strip in the newspaper, the source for the "plot" in these newer programs).

In the last few years of the strip, Schulz elevated Rerun, Linus and Lucy's little brother, to main-character status, and he's the star of this program, too. He's the one who wants a dog—as the lonely younger sibling of a thumb-sucking outcast and a sister who he calls "the crab grass in the lawn of life," Rerun's only real friend is Snoopy. He wants his own dog, but his mother won't let him get one ("Wah wah wah!" she says, making a good point). The main story is broken up with short scenes of the rest of the cast in familiar situations: Lucy bothering the piano-playing Schroeder, Snoopy tormenting Linus. Keep an eye out for a cameo from Snoopy's brother Spike and brief snippets of lesser-known siblings like Olaf and Marbles, first seen in 1990's animated Snoopy's Reunion.

The voice work and animation is vintage Peanuts, thanks to the efforts of Mendelson and Melendez. Nearly a decade after Schulz' death, the characters still feel alive, even if they're repeating the same old adventures (heck, the Chicago Tribune is still reprinting, uh, reruns of the strip).

The DVD: Warner Bros.' "Remastered Deluxe Edition" replaces the original release from Paramount, dropping the deleted scenes-like Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales and the featurette on the making of the original A Charlie Brown Christmas (which, let's face it, belongs on the deluxe edition of that special anyway). Instead, there's a bonus program, 1987's rather obscure Happy New Year, Charlie Brown (24m:17s), featuring an appearance from none other than the famed Little Red-Haired Girl. There's also an interesting new featurette, Sibling Rivalry: Growing Up Van Pelt (11m:09s) that discusses Schulz' decision to give Linus and Lucy a younger brother and also serves as an ersatz making of for the feature presentation, illustrating how the dialogue comes directly from the script. Schulz' widow Jeannie provides her perspective on her husband's work.

As for that "remastered" part, I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown looked pretty good on the original DVD, and I can't say it looks significantly better here. Upgrade for the extras, not the video quality.

Posted by: Joel Cunningham - October 6, 2009, 5:59 am - DVD Review
Keywords: charlie brown, snoopy, peanuts, charles schulz