Day Ten: It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

So I thought I would zig when you thought I would zag, and by the suggestion of a friend of mine from work, I decided to mix it up a little and go family-style with my last review of the 10 Days of Horror. There is something charming about It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Maybe it is the background elevator music, or the poorly drawn backgrounds, or the fact that Charlie Brown gets shit on at every turn.

I am not sure the reason, but I have been watching this every Halloween ever since I was a kid, back when it was on CBS every year, and then on DVD for the last few years.

There is so much to love about this show that I am not going to go through it all here, but I will touch on a few of the things that stand out to me every time I watch this. For one, this episode includes a brief glimpse at the Snoopy vs. Red Baron rivalry that I have loved ever since the Royal Guardsman song that I used to listen to back on my record player from when I was a kid. I loved that song so much that I ruined the record that I had by listening to it over and over again. I used to sit on the top bunk of my bunk beds and pretend that I was Snoopy going after the Red Baron. I would play the song on my record player, and hop up onto the top bunk of my bed, and when the song was over, I would start it all over again. I also love the multiple-eyed ghost costume of Charlie Brown that has become so iconic for peanuts, there is the "pull the ball away from Chuck as he tries to kick it" hoax that appears in almost every episode of Peanuts. I love the pitter-patter sound of the kids when they run, and the "excitement" audio track of all the kids talking at once.

There are not many cartoons made like this today, and I am not referring to the artistry, but more for the story and the non-pc nature of the series. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of cheese on this biscuit, but it does not prevent me from falling in love with this show every year when I watch it. If you could not tel from the review, I highly recommend watching this one.

So concludes my 10 Days of Horror... or I guess 9 Days of Horror, and one day of Halloween nostalgia. See you next year.