Happiness Is… Peanuts: Team Snoopy keeps to the same style, as would be expected since the 2003 special Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown is co-directed by Bill Melendez, who devoted a good part of his life to Peanuts animation, being the only one allowed by Charles M. Schulz to do so. It shows, with baseball diamonds and pitching mounds being the center of this world. Charlie Brown is frustrated by Lucy being so bad at playing right field, and wishes she wouldn’t play. But there she is again for the new season, and he tries to figure out a way to keep her from playing, including the thought of trading her to Peppermint Patty’s baseball team. He just wants to win one game, maybe more if possible, but he can’t do that if Lucy is still in right field, unable to catch even one fly ball. Can’t Charlie Brown ever get a break? No, because then this wouldn’t be as funny.
Compared to previous Peanuts specials in decades past, this one is much busier, even with the same quiet settings. More gags pressed into 25 minutes becomes tiring most of the time. Each of them are good, but the story isn’t allowed to breathe as freely. There’s one trade that nearly takes place, and then the title trade happens. Perhaps it was just in keeping up with the times to put more into it. Yet with A Charlie Brown Christmas being a sizable hit every year, simplicity is always appreciated. It makes for bigger laughs and more touching moments.
Also included on this DVD is episode 15 of The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show, which aired on CBS from 1983-1985. Here, in “The Pelicans,” Peppermint Patty presses Charlie Brown into selling popcorn to raise money for the team, then finally agrees to let Charlie Brown pitch like he wanted, leading her team to a loss of 53-51, after being ahead of the other team by 50. She has to figure out something else for Charlie Brown to do, and she does. It’s nice to see Charlie Brown stand up for himself, though offscreen. My favorite segment is “Great Pumpkin” in which Linus waits yet again for the Great Pumpkin, this time with Snoopy, while Peppermint Patty leads Charlie Brown to a Halloween bowling tournament. Future sitcoms take note: This is how episodes in a bowling alley should be done. Learn from this.
The third segment of the episode is “Spike,” in which Snoopy’s brother Spike visits from the desert outside of Needles, California, and Lucy sets about fattening him up, concerned about his very thin frame. Charlie Brown and Snoopy are happy because Spike can take on the nasty cat next door. It’s nice to see with this one episode that what makes A Charlie Brown Christmas great is prevalent here too.
Warner Home Video has taken good care of the Peanuts franchise since it got the rights after Paramount had it for years. But to call this “An All-New Collection” isn’t right. Not “All-New,” but “Collection,” because two episodes does not make a collection. There should be more. And in fact, The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show should finally be released in full on DVD. The occasional episode on a Happiness Is… Peanuts DVD is not enough. It’s time to do it right.
The only extra features are trailers for Happiness Is… Peanuts: Snoopy’s Adventures, and the 80% abominable Tom and Jerry: Around the World, demonstrating the comfortable niche that Warner Bros. has established in animation DVDs. It’s always open to whoever wants it.
In 11th grade at Hollywood Hills High School in Hollywood, Florida, I had an algebra teacher named Tim LeMay whose classroom was completely covered in Peanuts comics, figurines, stuffed characters, posters, pictures, you name it, he had it. In fact, he was known more for that collection than being a math teacher, although he was great at that, enough to be frustrated at my inability to grasp some of the concepts he taught. That shows dedication. I think he would like this DVD, but would want more than a special and a Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show episode per DVD. More Peanuts means more to enjoy. More than two, especially.
