It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)

Starring: Peter Robbins, Christopher Shea, and Cathy Steinberg
Grade: A+

At one point, Pig-Pen shows up in a ghost costume and is surprised that the others could tell who he is, despite him having his ever-present dust cloud following him, which begs the question, “Does this poor bastard not even know he’s dirty?”. One of these kids has to set up an intervention for him or something. Call it It’s an Intervention, Charlie Brown or something.

Summary

Together, Linus (Shea) and Lucy (Sally Dryer) leave their house and go out for a walk in the nice fall weather. Almost immediately, Linus picks up an apple off the ground that has fallen from the apple tree and starts eating it as they go. After a few bites, he throws it in the garbage, and they continue. Next, they go through some leaves and Linus kicks some in the air, and it leads to the two going into a pumpkin patch. Linus picks up a couple of pumpkins and Lucy shakes her head at them. Finally, she points at one specifically. Of course, that pumpkin is the size of Linus himself, and he’s forced to carry it back with Lucy leading in front. She goes through a hole in the fence, so Linus is forced to walk around it after an attempt to follow her though the thin hole. Now, he’s rolling the pumpkin on its side, which is much easier. This goes on until Linus gets tripped up and falls onto the pumpkin as it rolls, and it goes straight to their back porch where he crashes next to Lucy. Lucy opens the door for him, and he lifts it inside and places it on the papers she lays on the living room floor. Next, Lucy pulls out a knife, cuts out the top of the pumpkin, reaches inside, and takes out the seeds and guk that comes with it. As Linus sees this, he wallows in pain saying, “You didn’t tell me you were gonna kill it!”.

We’re off to a great start.

For the credits sequence, the kids are dressed in their costumes at night and are spooked by random visuals of skeletons and black cats and such before they hide in a pumpkin patch.

In the daytime, Snoopy (Bill Melendez) is sitting beside a tree and some leaves fall next to him. He doesn’t let the second one hit the ground. Instead, he blows it into the air and leads it all the way to the pile of leaves Charlie Brown (Robbins) is raking up, so he thanks Snoopy. Licking a lollipop, Linus sees this, charges, and jumps straight into the pile of leaves Charlie Brown made. As Charlie Brown and Snoopy look at him pissed off, Linus gives them advice of never jumping into a pile of leaves with a “wet sucker”, as the candy now has leaves attached to it. Just then, Lucy shows up with a football and asks Charlie Brown if he wants to practice a few place kicks. Naturally, Charlie Brown is skeptical. He knows her whole shtick, but she insists he can trust her this time. She pulls out a signed document, testifying that she promises not to pull it away. Seeing this as assurance, Charlie Brown runs straight for the football, but once again, Lucy takes it away and he falls flat on his back. Unfortunately, Lucy explains that the document was never notarized. Later, Linus is in his home writing a letter to the mythical “Great Pumpkin”. As he writes about how he’s looking forward to his arrival on Halloween night and how he hopes he will be getting lots of presents from him, Charlie Brown interrupts to ask what he’s doing. Linus explains that it’s for the Great Pumpkin. On Halloween night, the Great Pumpkin rises from his pumpkin patch and flies through the air with his bag of toys for all the children. Charlie Brown calls him crazy for believing in something so idiotic, but Linus counters by bringing up Santa Claus. Charlie Brown deduces things as them being separated by denominational differences and leaves the room.

Following this, Linus goes back to writing to the Great Pumpkin and talks about how he must be getting discouraged that more people believe in Santa Claus than in him. Linus gives credit to Santa for having more publicity, and suggest the Great Pumpkin try harder. Once he writes this part of the letter, Snoopy looks in and starts laughing at him. He laughs all the way back over to where Lucy is watching TV, and he falls on her. Annoyed, Lucy tosses Snoopy to the side and walks over to Linus. She sees what he’s doing and shakes him back and forth because she can’t believe he’s writing to the Great Pumpkin again. It has made her the laughingstock of the neighborhood because all everyone talks about is how her little brother always writes to the Great Pumpkin. She threatens to beat his ass before leaving. Privately, Linus realizes there are three things never to discuss with people.

1. Religion
2. Politics
3. The Great Pumpkin

Once he picks up his pencil to write again, Patty (not Peppermint Patty for the record) randomly appears in his house and tells him he’s wasting his time, and the Great Pumpkin is a fake. Using this as fuel, Linus writes that everyone tells him that the Great Pumpkin is fake, but he still believes in him. He follows this up with a “P.S.” of if he is fake to not tell him because he doesn’t want to know. Sally walks over and asks Linus what he’s doing, but he walks around it because he doesn’t want her to laugh at him. Sally insists she would never and calls him intelligent. Linus appreciates her compliment and blushes, admitting he’s writing to the Great Pumpkin. Since Sally is in love with Linus, she passes this off as him saying the “cutest things”. Excited to tell her more, Linus retells the lore of the Great Pumpkin rising out of the pumpkin patch on Halloween night to give toys to good little children everywhere. He asks her if she would like to sit with him in the pumpkin patch on Halloween night to wait for the Great Pumpkin, and she wholeheartedly accepts. Immediately, Charlie Brown interrupts and yells at Linus for influencing his sister with his cultish nonsense and pulls her away. Moving along, Linus puts his letter in an envelope and heads outside, with Lucy following him and asking how he’s going to mail the letter since he’s not tall enough to reach the mailbox and she’s not going to help him. Putting the letter in his mouth, he uses his blanket like a lasso, wraps it around the handle of the mailbox to open it, and he throws the letter into the air to allow for the wind to carry it directly inside.

The real question is what address he sent the letter to, but this is never disclosed.

As Linus walks away and Lucy stands there pissed off (per usual), Charlie Brown shows up to proudly exclaim he got an invitation to a Halloween party. He celebrates with what can only be described as a river dance. Since she wants everyone to be as miserable as she is, Lucy asks if it’s an invitation to Violet’s party. Once he confirms and excitedly talks about how it’s the first time he’s ever been invited to a party, Lucy explains that it must have been a mistake if he got invited. There were two lists. One of them was for people to invite and the other was for people not to invite. She says he must have been put on the wrong list before leaving. As Charlie Brown stands there and feels like shit, Linus walks by with a written sign saying, “Welcome Great Pumpkin”. He takes it straight into the pumpkin patch with him and waits. Later, the kids are in the house with their costumes. Sally cuts holes in a sheet to make a ghost costume but looks at it and shrieks in fear. Arguing that a person should choose their costume as a direct contrast to her own personality, Lucy contradicts herself by putting on a witch costume. Sally walks over to her and asks if Linus is taking her to the Halloween party, but Lucy says he’s in the pumpkin patch making his yearly fool of himself. Violet (Ann Altieri) calls him strange, but Sally wonders about the possibility of there being a Great Pumpkin. Violet continues and talks about how Linus misses trick or treating and the subsequent Halloween party every year before putting on her ghost costume. Charlie Brown piles on and says Linus will never learn. Sally asks Charlie Brown if she gets to go trick-or-treating with him, and he happily agrees.

Somehow, Sally is unaware on how the process of trick-or-treating is done, so Lucy explains it to her. When she does, Sally asks if this is all legal.

Once Sally puts on her ghost costume, Charlie Brown puts on his but there are several holes cut all over it. He admits he had trouble with the scissors as a few more kids show up in their ghost costumes. Pig-Pen excitedly shows up in his ghost costume and assumes they won’t be able to guess who he is, but they all do because the dust cloud around him is still evident. Snoopy enters dressed as a World War I flying ace. Next, Lucy collects everyone to go trick-or-treating. Right after, they will go to Violet’s Halloween party. Once they exit the house, Snoopy walks off to do his own thing and the kids go to Linus in the pumpkin patch. He asks them if they have come to sing pumpkin carols, but Lucy berates him for missing all the fun like last year. Linus tells her not to talk like that because the Great Pumpkin can tell which kids have been good and bad. Going on with this, he knows the Great Pumpkin will come to him because he has the most “sincere” pumpkin patch and “He respects sincerity”. Sally takes off her costume and asks inquisitively if Linus really thinks he will come. Excited, Linus retells the lore of the Great Pumpkin, but Sally isn’t buying it. Linus is flabbergasted that she doesn’t believe in the Great Pumpkin because “I thought little girls always believed everything that was told to them. I thought little girls were innocent and trusting”. Of course, this prompts Sally to welcome him to the 20th century. Lucy gives him one last chance to leave with the group, but he doesn’t budge. At first, Sally goes with Lucy and everyone but looks back and sees a smiling Linus standing there in the patch by himself. So, Sally runs back to him and he’s grateful. He hypes it up by saying how great it’s going to be when she sees the Great Pumpkin with her own eyes.

Little does Sally know, the chances of seeing the Great Pumpkin are pretty much zero on account of him not being real.

Just don’t tell Linus that!

My Thoughts:

We can talk about the Peanuts catalogue all day long, but the general agreement of what is considered to be the top three are exactly what you think they are. As I have stated previously, it’s this special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. The order of this top three can still be debated, but they will always be the go-to specials of Charles M. Schulz’s beloved multimedia franchise. Some Charlie Brown purists have argued that It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown tops the iconic Christmas special, but I’m not one of them. Actually, I’ll take it a step further. As good as It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is, I’d still take the Thanksgiving special over it, as controversial as that may seem. Regardless, there is a reason this TV special is yet another one considered to be required viewing during the holiday season. In fact, it was the first animated Halloween special of its kind, and it led to the “Halloween special” becoming a thing because of its success. No matter what you may think about this small, simplistic, relatively inconsequential 25-minute TV special, it’s influence on television programming is seen to this very day.

Compared to other Halloween specials, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown still sets itself apart from all of the others by doing something entirely unique with the holiday. In the midst of the stuff you expect (trick-or-treating, parties, costumes, candy, etc.), we bring to a life a new holiday figure in the Great Pumpkin, and it’s quite amusing to think about. No other kid in the neighborhood believes in it but Linus. Where did he come up with the idea? Who explained it to him? None of this is known. His sister Lucy doesn’t even know. On top of that, Charlie Brown doesn’t even support his best friend over the idea and calls Linus crazy just like everyone else. This is actually kind of funny too because we know that if the roles were reversed and Charlie Brown believed in the mythical figure, Linus would support him. Here though, Linus gets the Charlie Brown treatment and is treated like a moron, but he trucks along. He’s writing letters to whatever this thing is (again, what address is he using to send these letters to?) and waits out all night for the Great Pumpkin. He doesn’t shy away from his beliefs either and will defend the Great Pumpkin’s existence to whoever will listen, mirroring little kids and their love and belief for Santa Claus. Speaking of which, this was the best moment of the entire special and really put everything into perspective with the allegories to religious differences being obvious. Charlie Brown, and the viewer naturally, can’t believe Linus has entrenched himself in some make-believe nonsense and the backstory that Linus has seemingly created and is fully committed too for whatever reason. However, Linus’s simply brings up how it’s the exact same thing with Santa.

Some might be bothered and argue that Santa has more followers compared to Linus being the only follower for this fictional pumpkin, but does having more followers equate to being right about your belief system? No, and this is Charles M. Schulz’s point. Though he masks it as a great joke for this ahead-of-its-time special, you can’t help but admire such a well-thought-out and intelligent argument that has been slyly inserted right in the middle of this relatively harmless holiday special. It’s as if he’s asking, “Who are you to say what I believe in is fake? What makes what you believe in better?”. You could even interpret this in sort of an atheistic direction as well depending on who you are. Regardless, their “denominational differences” really made this special a memorable one right from the get-go. As we come to expect, the Peanuts specials do this a lot where they have a few great lines or moments, whether it was taken directly from the comic strip or not, that make their running time worth it. This was one of them.

The idea of sincerity intrigued me, however. Constantly, Linus expresses how the Great Pumpkin appreciates and respects sincerity and how he looks for the “most sincere” pumpkin patch. Even when he is doubted by Sally, Linus exclaims how his patch has to be picked because there is “nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see”. What a random term to hammer home. I get that he essentially explains the Great Pumpkin’s entire background being exactly the same as Santa’s, but we don’t even use that term to describe Santa’s motivations. It’s such a strange thing for this fictional being to be focused on and for Linus to really internalize without explanation. It gets to the point that when Sally argues to the others that Linus “knows what he’s talking about”, you’re sitting there like, “No the fuck he doesn’t”. If anything, his reputation as the voice of reason to Charlie Brown in the following specials loses a few points considering the madness he seems to have conjured up out of thin air. Going along with this, you kind of chuckle at Sally because she talks about how her reputation is relying on this now that she went to bat for him.

Girl, it’s already ruined.

Side note, I don’t understand why Sally threatens to punch Linus if he holds her hand considering it’s widely known how outwardly in-love she is with him.

It has been said before, but the art regarding the landscapes of what Snoopy imagines as the French countryside were very pretty to look at in comparison with the rest of the program. It individualizes him and his subplot apart from everyone else, and it coincides with how Snoopy’s personality contrasts every other character. Truthfully, depending on how you decorate your home, many of the shots in which Snoopy is in-character as the World War I flying ace, who acts as if he’s travelling behind enemy lines before he gets to Violet’s house for the Halloween party, would be something you could hang in your house as a mood setting. It’s as if the artists had the idea in mind that they didn’t care whether it fit the story or was realistic in its approach. Instead, they went into it knowing they were attempting to fit the nonlinear narrative Snoopy conceptualizes. In doing so, they set his sequences completely apart since he’s in an entirely different headspace until the two sides meet at the party with Snoopy journeying through random fields, hills, and landscapes with a beautiful mix of colors and patterns that match the freeing feelings of the childlike imagination of everyone’s favorite cartoon dog. Early on, we get a taste of it when he’s sitting on the doghouse and visualizing himself in a plane as he’s being shot at and he’s firing a machine gun as a response. The imagery of a purple color shading him, switching to blue, and then switching to red as he “flies” his doghouse up and down to dodge bullets was an exciting one for the time being. It might be the best example out of all the Peanuts specials on the recurring gag of Snoopy dreaming up scenarios of himself as a pilot.

It was a charming way to showcase it.

Though our beloved Charlie Brown takes a little bit more of a backseat to Linus in this special, he still gets moments to amuse us for being the prototypical loser in town like when the girls paint what they want to do with the pumpkin on the back of his big ass head because it’s the exact same size as the giant orange fruit. At times, we feel bad for him. Other times, they do a good job at keeping things light and fun, despite Charlie Brown having trouble fitting in. In the case of Charlie Brown trick or treating and getting rocks instead of candy, you can’t help but laugh because it implies that the parents think he sucks too. What’s even funnier to think about is that all of the kids were completely concealed in their costumes, and the adults still made sure Charlie Brown got rocks instead of candy. It’s like they sniffed out his jackassery and made sure he came out of it sucking more than anyone else. Peter Robbins’s line delivery of “I got a rock” when the other kids talk about what treats they got from each house gets funnier every time he says it. I also enjoyed the kids giving Lucy shit when she bobs for apples, implying that she has a big mouth which is why she’s perfect for it. This leads to Snoopy and her bobbing for the same apple and her being disgusted because her lips touched dog lips.

I agree with Lucy on this note, but her being a white girl and all, I wouldn’t have been surprised if she was into it.

On top of this, Sally shines brightly and has a majority of the best lines, with the best one yelling “I’ll sue!” at Linus after the Great Pumpkin doesn’t show and she realizes she missed out on the trick-or-treating. There are also some good additional jokes of Lucy asking for extra candy for her “stupid brother” as she explains the whole fiasco surrounding the lore of the Great Pumpkin to faceless strangers who you know don’t give a fuck and Schroeder playing happy and sad tunes on the piano with Snoopy overreacting to both until he can’t take it anymore and leaves.

No matter how outrageous his beliefs may be, Linus still says he’ll put in a great word for all the others that went out of their way multiple times to make fun of him. Though his belief is tested at one point (“I said “If”. I mean WHEN he comes!”), Linus stays out there all night until Lucy brings him in at 4AM to go to sleep. He’s disappointed, but he doesn’t lose his spirit. In fact, he’s inspired even more when Charlie Brown tries to console him by saying he too has done a lot of stupid things. The Great Pumpkin will come! Mark his words! With the utmost sincerity, Linus is confident he will prove himself right, and his commitment to his beliefs is admirable considering the backlash he faces. He’s a strong character with strong convictions, and that’s the right message to send in the end. Even if you’re an “outsider” to others, that shouldn’t stop you from doing what you want to do or believing in what you believe in. Plus, if it’s not hurting anybody, who are we to judge? There’s Santa, there’s the Easter Bunny, Cupid, and ehh…

…Fuck it…Maybe, there’s a Great Pumpkin as well! What’s the difference, right?

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is another amusing, fun, memorable, and charming Peanuts special that will continue to live on for generations. It might be a bit odd with its overall plot, but it’s goofy enough to put a smile on your face every year you watch it. Really, that’s all you can ask for.