Cinema Crazed

2002

Rated: Unrated

Genre: Kids/Family Animated Comedy

Warner Home Video

Running Time: 18 Minutes

Review by: Felix Vasquez Jr.

Review Date: 1/15/11

CHARLIE BROWN'S CHRISTMAS TALE (DVD)

The point of "Charlie Brown" was that the kids who were kids talked like kids but didn't act like or speak in the general colloquialisms of kids their age. Does that make sense? I doubt it, but that's what I kept thinking while watching "Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales." The kids aren't supposed to act their age. They're supposed to be observant, self-aware small adults who approached life with cynicism and keen analytical eye while realizing they're just kids in the end. This 2002 animated special is grating and often times absolutely tedious, even at a seventeen minute run time. Lucy has this whiny obnoxious voice who does nothing but whine and follow Charlie around.

Schulz places an odd amount of time on Rerun, one of the most uninteresting characters of the Charlie Brown lore, and Snoopy doesn't get much screen time. Void of the low key and downbeat storytelling of the original specials, Schulz relies on an obscene amount of palaver to keep audiences motivated and when his characters speak they don't seem to say anything at all. When they're intelligent, they're really just forcing the comedy, and there's not much of a moral to be learned here beyond random skits of our characters interacting and clashing at the prospect of the impending holiday.

Cue thinly veiled Christian undertones, and really a lack of any actual goal when the characters decide to decipher the meaning of Christmas. The DVD features an extra episode, the 1983 special entitled "Is This Goodbye, Charlie Brown?" a twenty four minute special about the sad moving away of Linus and Lucy and what happens when the gang comes to terms with losing their two friends. Both animated episodes are rather forgettable, but the DVD is restored and in wide-screen with the option of a second holiday treat for folks who continue to watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas." I'll happily stick with that one over these two bland servings.

These are not the best installments of the Charlie Brown franchise and you'd be better off seeking the original Christmas special in all of its glory. "Christmas Tales" is a tedious and drab affair, while "Is This Goodbye Charlie Brown?" is rather forgettable.

Have something to say about this review? Pop on over to Cinema-Lunatics
and speak your mind in our Answer Back! Forums >>