First Things First…
Your mileage may vary on Valentine’s Day, but in honor of the holiday, I’m going back to the Peanuts’ well for another old-school TV special. Apparently there’s some sort of mix-up between Sally and her Sweet Baboo. I’m sure hijinks will ensue…
4 Things I Like
4. Snoopid
I can’t ignore how cute and funny it is when Snoopy dresses up as Cupid and tries to shoot Charlie Brown with arrows that have suction cups in place of arrowheads. And when he fails to hit him, he just runs up to him and sticks one directly on the side of Charlie Brown’s head!
This doesn’t have anything to do with the rest of the special, it just leads into the opening credits, but it’s still one of the best parts.
3. Here’s Your (Used) Valentine, Charlie Brown
“Charlie Brown, we’ve been feeling awfully guilty about not giving you a valentine this year. Here, I’ve erased my name from this one. I’d like you to have it.”
Violet
As usual, Charlie Brown is such a sad sack that things don’t go his way for most of the special. He gets ZERO valentines. Zero in the mail, and zero at the class party…
… until Violet and her friends feel guilty the day after Valentine’s Day and swing by his house to give him one. It’s a used valentine—Violet takes one she got, erases her name, and gives it to Charlie Brown.
Is this the ideal way to get a valentine?
Of course not.
In fact, Schroeder steps up and acts as a really great friend to Charlie Brown. He usually doesn’t care about anything besides Beethoven, and maybe baseball. But he has Charlie Brown’s back. He absolutely loses his shit on Violet and the other girls. He goes on an epic rant, accusing them of not caring about Charlie Brown’s feelings, only easing their guilty consciences.
But Charlie Brown doesn’t care. He’s thrilled anyway!
And frankly, I think he’s right—if they’re feeling guilty, it’s because they know his feelings were hurt, and they want to make him feel better. That shows they do care about him, at least a little.
For as much as Charlie Brown gets shit on, I’m always glad when things go his way at the end. It’s still not to any great degree. They don’t work out perfectly for him. But even to just get this little win is a big deal. And it leads directly to my next point…
2. Relentless Optimism
Charlie Brown always bounces back. He’s resilient. And though it might not seem like it, because he’s so well-known for his depressive episodes, he’s relentlessly optimistic.
How else can you explain him sitting by the mailbox waiting for valentines, getting none, yet coming to school with a briefcase to carry all the valentines he expects to get from his classmates, then saying…
“I wonder if one briefcase will be enough. Maybe I should have brought another one.”
Then, even though he doesn’t get a single valentine at school, the one belated valentine he gets from Violet the next day helps him rebound so thoroughly that he says…
“Hey, maybe this is a start of a trend. Maybe this is a whole new trend for old Charlie Brown! Maybe this is the start of something big! Maybe next year I’ll get a whole bunch of valentines! Maybe next year I’ll need three briefcases instead of two!”
Some might call this delusional. That’s fair. But it’s also very, very optimistic. And I love that about him.
1. Lucy Gets Hers
There aren’t any football shenanigans here. But let’s face it… Lucy is always a raging bitch. That’s no different in this special.
Lucy is cruel to Charlie Brown at the start of the special, when she sees him reclining on the ground against his mailbox waiting for valentines…
She destroys Schroeder’s piano because he’s ignoring her…
And she’s absolutely nasty when, after Violet notices during the party that Charlie Brown hasn’t gotten any valentines, she says…
“Who would waste a valentine on stupid, old Charlie Brown?”
So I have ZERO sympathy when her attendance at Snoopy’s “Pawpet Show” doesn’t go well.
Putting aside how phenomenal it is that Snoopy’s multifaceted talents are on full display, as he serves as cashier, concession worker, and ticket taker, before performing the entire puppet show solo, with only Charlie Brown’s help as narrator…
In the course of performing his show, Snoopy douses Lucy with water, splatters mud all over her, and dumps garbage on her head!
And, for good measure, he beats her with his bandit puppets.
Apparently it’s an immersive experience!
1 Thing I’m Mixed On
1. Hot for Teacher
“You’d better be careful, Linus. It’s not a good idea to fall in love with your teacher.”
Violet
I know this is just a harmless children’s cartoon, so I won’t harp on it much. But I wish Linus would’ve been crazy about one of his classmates instead of his teacher.
It’s probably for the best that he never gets the chance to give Miss Othmar the big, heart-shaped box of candy he bought her for Valentine’s Day. She never even knows Linus is crushing on her. So they never have to address the boundaries Linus is hoping to cross.
Needless to say, I feel much worse for Charlie Brown on his long, depressing walk home than I do for Linus on his.
2 Things I Don’t Like
2. Malicious or Oblivious?
I don’t understand what Violet is up to.
She knows Linus just bought the giant box of candy for his teacher. Yet, moments later, Sally mistakenly thinks he bought it for her and giddily tells Violet that.
You’d think this would be the perfect time for Violet to tell Sally the truth. But instead, she actually gives Sally advice about what to buy Linus in return!
It doesn’t seem like Violet is trying to mess with Sally. But she also literally talked with Linus and watched him buy the candy for his teacher moments earlier. Forgetting also seems unlikely. So I don’t know how to explain this scene.
1. Making It About the Little Red-Haired Girl
“I’d give anything if that little red-haired girl had sent me a valentine. Hey, maybe she did send me one. Maybe she did send me a valentine and it didn’t get here till today. Maybe it’s in our mailbox right now. I’m afraid to look. If I look and there’s nothing there, I’ll be crushed. On the other hand, if she did send me a valentine… I’ve got to look!”
Charlie Brown
It’s not until the day after Valentine’s Day, 22 minutes into a 25-minute special, that Charlie Brown even mentions the little red-haired girl. All his sadness was about not getting any valentines, from any of his classmates. It was never about his crush. Making it about her in the last few minutes comes out of nowhere.
And that’s even more apparent when he’s so uplifted by Violet’s gesture.
Tim Matassa
