Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Absolutely Fantastic

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Unfortunately, for them, pretty much all of it is unrequited in "A Charlie Brown Valentine". This is a 25-minute short film from almost 15 years ago and this was one made in the brief period after Schulz' death while Melendez was still alive. They could basically recycle some of the old stuff here for this one in terms of the story as the romantic preferences of the characters have been show in many films already. Charlie and his little red-haired girl is my personal favorite, but one girl's love for the piano virtuoso and the other one's for her little baboo are fairly entertaining too. All in all, another decent addition to this long-running franchise. We shall see how the topic of love is used are used in the new Peanuts film this year. We will certainly see a bit about these romantic connections in there as well. Until then, I recommend watching this one here. Snoopy's pranks are funny again too.

It's Valentine's Day. Charlie Brown pines to be the little red-haired girl's valentine. He doesn't even have the courage to rescue her from a bully. Peppermint Patty also wants a Valentine. She sends one to Charlie Brown. Marcie also wonders if Charlie Brown likes her. Lucy is willing to settle for kisses and a hug from Schroeder. Sally wants Linus to be her sweet baboo no matter what he actually wants.There is something hilarious about the pathetic Charlie Brown. Poor Charlie Brown! It's also his essence. It's just simply funny. I like both Marcie and Peppermint Patty in this. They are a favorable duo of mine. Snoopy has a funny bit putting on a red wig but this is all Charlie Brown. He is completely hopeless and completely funny.

Though it had the usual "Created and written by Charles M. Schulz" credit, this was the first animated special made after Sparky's death in 2000. It was also the second concerning Valentine's day and as such, there isn't the depressing vibe the first one had. In this one, Charlie Brown spends most of his time pining for The Little Red-Haired Girl who is usually an unseen character. But this one has her in a couple of scenes. Unlike the last one, Peppermint Patty and Marcie are also present both of whom think Charlie likes them and get disappointed when they find out otherwise. Add in Lucy still trying to get Schroeder's attention and Sally's ignoring her "Sweet Baboo's" protests of her love declarations and you have a pretty funny show lovingly directed, as usual, by Bill Melendez. But compared to the last Valentine one, it's not as effective...

This special premiered tonight and I really enjoyed it. A lot of classic Peanuts strips were put into animation. Though this was probably the first Peanuts special produced after the death of Charles Schulz it still had the same classic animation and humor as the others. They even showed the Little Red Haired Girl dancing with Snoopy. One thing I've noticed though is that a lot of things are drawn the way they were in the comics: (Ex: In most Peanuts specials Lucy's hair is all black, here it has a white outline. The same thing with Snoopy's ears.) Oh, well. Still this was a great holiday special.