The 2011 animated special Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown came at a strange crossroads in the history of the Peanuts franchise. It was made neither by Mendelson/Melendez productions nor by Apple TV but by Warner Bros television. Despite the lengths to which it goes to recreate the feel of classic Peanuts, there’s nothing quite like it.
There’s also a lot to love about the thing, starting with the premise. Linus Van Pelt’s blanket-hating grandmother will be visiting his family in a week and if he hasn’t given up his beloved “security blanket” by then, she’s threatened to make him give it up. This allows directors Andy Beall and Frank Molieri and writers Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine) and Craig Schulz (The Peanuts Movie) to adapt some of the most memorable storylines from the comic strip about Linus either trying to kick his blanket habit or someone else forcibly taking it from him. I’m delighted by this since Linus’s relationship with his blanket has long been one of my favorite running gags in Peanuts, but it had never been the main subject of a special before this.[1]I’d be remiss though not to mention that two of the storylines here were previously adapted in a segment of the episodic 1983 special It’s an Adventure, Charlie Brown. While that was very … Continue reading I am disappointed that Linus agreeing to give up his blanket if Grandma gave up smoking isn’t included here but I can see it wouldn’t have fit in with this special’s story.
Happiness Is a Warm Blanket was clearly made by ardent Peanuts fans. At one point, it even recreates the very first comic as part of a flashback montage. In another scene, Charlie Brown can be seen eating snicker snacks, his favorite cereal at one point in the comic’s history. Now that’s something hardly anyone would know!
Mark Mothersbaugh’s music does a great job of evoking Vince Guaraldi’s compositions for the classic Peanuts specials while still doing its own thing on occasion to good effect. The character designs are unusual in that they specifically evoke the look of the strip in the later 50s and early 60s. (The choices of which characters to use reflects this as well.) You see, the visual style of Peanuts evolved over time. Back when the comic strip was still running, the characters in the movies and specials would always be designed to look the way they currently did in the newspapers. After Peanuts creator Charles Schulz’s death, they would either look the way they did in the 90s or like the most recognizable versions of themselves. The specifically 50s-vibe of Happiness Is a Warm Blanket stands out and not in a bad way.
Unfortunately, the creators’ goal of having the child voice actors sound like the ones from the oldest Peanuts specials doesn’t work as well. The monotone line readings that sounded charmingly amateurish when coming from, well, amateurs just sound flat when they’re being imitated by actors who would probably have done better if they’d been allowed to make the characters their own. Trenton Rogers, who voices both Charlie Brown and Schroeder, particularly feels like a soulless carbon copy of their original voices. And it’s unfortunate that Grace Rolek is one of the least memorable Lucies, given that the character has a major role as antagonist in this special. The best vocal performance is easily that of Austin Lux as Linus, which is fortunate since he’s the protagonist and has a lot of dramatic lines to deliver. The second-best vocal performance is Amanda Pace’s adorable turn as Sally.
Despite its pains to evoke the oldest Peanuts specials, Happiness Is a Warm Blanket regularly employs camera angles that wouldn’t have been used in them. I don’t have a problem with this in theory. I’ve enjoyed seeing Peanuts animation be visually ambitious in the past. But what with the aggressively retro approach of every other aspect of this special, I find it odd and distracting.
While nearly all of the special’s jokes come from the comic strip, it often fiddles with them and expands on them, usually so that it can include more characters. Sometimes this works well, as in the aforementioned flashback montage, but other times it just ruins the comic timing. The worst example of this is how it adapts the hilarious comic where Charlie Brown manages to keep a kite in the air without it crashing or getting tangled up in anything, only for it to explode as if the laws of physics refused to let him fly a kite. In Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown flying the kite is in the background during a conversation between Linus and Lucy rather than being the focus of the scene. This makes the punchline more confusing than funny.
This is going to sound odd coming from me since I’ve praised the slow pacing of old Peanuts movies in the past but this special feels a bit too slow. There are a lot of scenes with the supporting Peanuts characters that-on a first viewing-don’t seem to connect to the story of Linus and his blanket at all and-on a first viewing-come across as padding. Presumably, Stephan Pastis knew this was the only Peanuts special he was going to make and wanted to include his favorite characters but the choice of comics to adapt isn’t the best. Some of them like Lucy destroying Schroeder’s bust of Beethoven only for him to reveal he has a whole closetful of them, are ones that have appeared in previous Peanuts specials.
But that’s on the first viewing. In the end, all the seemingly irrelevant comedic business pays off as Linus gives a big speech defending his blanket addiction in one of the best dramatic moments in the history of Peanuts animation. Its greatness is especially notable in that it’s one of the few moments in this special that is entirely original and not just taking what Charles Schulz wrote/drew and giving it a little twist. Yet it feels as if it could have been written by him. That’s what I appreciate about Happiness Is a Warm Blanket now more than when it was first released. For all its flaws, you can tell the creators are trying to capture the spirit of Peanuts even as they do a bit of their own thing. By contrast, the modern Peanuts specials produced by Apple TV may have their gentle charms, but they seldom feel like Peanuts.[2]To understand what I mean, compare the classic special It’s Arbor Day, Charlie Brown to the recent It’s the Small Things, Charlie Brown, which has a very similar premise but is infinitely … Continue reading
(My spoiler-averse readers should probably bail out now.) In the end, this special even finds a way to have Lucy come to terms with Linus’s blanket without flying in the face of her character. There’s no way to actually write dialogue for her saying she accepts the blanket, which is what Apple TV or The Peanuts Movie would do, without sounding wrong.[3]Even in the heartwarming A Charlie Brown Christmas, the nicest thing she says is “Charlie Brown is a blockhead but he did get a nice tree.” Happiness Is a Blanket has her show her support with the slightest of facial expressions. It’s an understated moment but a beautiful one in context.
References
| ↑1 | I’d be remiss though not to mention that two of the storylines here were previously adapted in a segment of the episodic 1983 special It’s an Adventure, Charlie Brown. While that was very far from being the greatest piece of Peanuts animation, it did add a gloss to how Linus’s blanket is returned to him after one separation which was a great stand-up-and-cheer moment. |
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| ↑2 | To understand what I mean, compare the classic special It’s Arbor Day, Charlie Brown to the recent It’s the Small Things, Charlie Brown, which has a very similar premise but is infinitely more touchy-feely and less funny. |
| ↑3 | Even in the heartwarming A Charlie Brown Christmas, the nicest thing she says is “Charlie Brown is a blockhead but he did get a nice tree.” |