One of the more recent of the Peanuts television specials, “He’s A Bully, Charlie Brown” was initially made available as a bonus episode on the DVD release of “You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown” which came out about seven years ago. Now we get this titular special leading the charge.
Instead of the usual school setting we have summer camp, which presents a whole new set of challenges for Charlie Brown. Taking center stage is Joe Agate, a swindler at marbles. If you are familiar with the game you understand just how painful of a pun the character’s name is. After cheating Linus & Lucy’s little brother, Rerun, out of his grandfather’s marbles, Joe Cool (Snoopy) teaches Charlie Brown how to play – and ultimately win.
Alright, so this is a different special for a number of reasons, one of which is that it makes Charlie Brown out to be a bit of a winner. Oh, am I spoiling the ending? Don’t worry, there are still enough surprises in this one, particularly the relationship between Peppermint Patty and Marcie.
Also included on the DVD is the special “It Was A Short Summer, Charlie Brown” – again breaking out of the more traditional school setting. Here we have summer camp again, this time it is vastly different. An older special, it was previously only available on DVD through The 60s Collection. Apparently it was the final special released during that decade. And it uses flashbacks, which just makes it all the weirder.
Here the gang is going to summer camp, which winds up falling prey to too many cliches. There is the horrible camp food, and of course the boys versus girls scenario – since the boys are led by Charlie Brown, you can guess how this is going to turn out. Snoopy comes in to save the day in his Masked Marvel persona.
Both specials are definitely not going to be anybody’s first choice, but the are both well worth watching and if you are a Peanuts fan you are going to want them. Also included on the disc is an episode of “The Charlie Brown And Snoopy Show” which is billed as having four shorts, but really it’s just one episode that includes four separate segments. The whole of the series is available through Warner Brothers’ Warner Archive Collection.
Is this DVD worth purchasing? Considering that everything is available elsewhere, you may want to think twice. However, some of those other DVDs are out of print and hard to find. Peanuts fans will definitely want these shorts in their collection and this is a good way to do it.