All the Peanuts specials are worth seeing at least once, and a good deal of them are classics. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving to me is not as good as Charlie Brown Christmas and Great Pumpkin as far as their Holiday specials go (and part of it is because Christmas and Halloween resonate a little more with me personally), but it is still a classic and one of the better Peanuts specials.
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving contains some very nicely done animation. It's bright and colourful with detailed backgrounds and charming and never ugly drawings. The music score is both jaunty and whimsical, and the songs are certainly incredibly catchy and have the right amount of emotional impact. Who can't help tingle with warmth during Linus and Lucy? As can be expected, A Charlie Brown Christmas is incredibly well written, the humour is warm and gentle ("what do you expect, a turkey card?") but also hilarious, it's educational which parents will really appreciate and it's filled with charm and heart too, like with the uplifting ending.
The story, while simple, is equally funny, charming and heartfelt, while it doesn't have a central message as such like Christmas (for example) or Great Pumpkin's memorable absurdity the meaning of Thanksgiving is still very well put across without preaching. The occasional surreal touch- like Snoopy fighting with the deck chair, which also proved one of the funnier moments too- was welcome and didn't feel out of place.
Here the characters are on top form and true to personalities, as a big fan of Snoopy he doesn't disappoint and Charlie and Linus are very likable. Peppermint Patty may not be for all tastes (coming from someone who knows people who find her voice irritating), but is to me a very colourful and entertaining character regardless. The voice acting is fine and well suited, with only the occasional choppiness of Marcie's voice work being a very occasional oddity.
Overall, a great Thanksgiving special, and one of the better (and slightly overlooked) Peanuts Holiday specials. 10/10 Bethany Cox
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving contains some very nicely done animation. It's bright and colourful with detailed backgrounds and charming and never ugly drawings. The music score is both jaunty and whimsical, and the songs are certainly incredibly catchy and have the right amount of emotional impact. Who can't help tingle with warmth during Linus and Lucy? As can be expected, A Charlie Brown Christmas is incredibly well written, the humour is warm and gentle ("what do you expect, a turkey card?") but also hilarious, it's educational which parents will really appreciate and it's filled with charm and heart too, like with the uplifting ending.
The story, while simple, is equally funny, charming and heartfelt, while it doesn't have a central message as such like Christmas (for example) or Great Pumpkin's memorable absurdity the meaning of Thanksgiving is still very well put across without preaching. The occasional surreal touch- like Snoopy fighting with the deck chair, which also proved one of the funnier moments too- was welcome and didn't feel out of place.
Here the characters are on top form and true to personalities, as a big fan of Snoopy he doesn't disappoint and Charlie and Linus are very likable. Peppermint Patty may not be for all tastes (coming from someone who knows people who find her voice irritating), but is to me a very colourful and entertaining character regardless. The voice acting is fine and well suited, with only the occasional choppiness of Marcie's voice work being a very occasional oddity.
Overall, a great Thanksgiving special, and one of the better (and slightly overlooked) Peanuts Holiday specials. 10/10 Bethany Cox