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- Cert:
- Cat.no: FFDVD 3003
- Running time: 48 minutes
- Year: 1974
- Pressing: 2004
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 12
- Sound: Mono
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: None
- Fullscreen: 4:3
- 16:9-Enhanced: No
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £5.99
- Extras: None
Director:
- Phil Roman
(Tom & Jerry: The Movie, TV: Garfield, Peanuts)
Producers:
- Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelson
Writer/Creator:
- Charles M. Schulz
Original Score :
- Vince Guaraldi
Cast of voices :
- Charlie Brown/Schroeder: Todd Barbee
Snoopy/Woodstock: Bill Melendez
Peppermint Patty: Linda Ercoli
Lucy van Pelt: Melanie Kohn
Marcie: Jimmy Ahrens
Sally Brown/Violet/Frieda: Lynn Mortensen
Linus Van Pelt: Stephen Shea
Peanuts:I still don’t know why it refers to Snoopy and the gang (right), but it defines a timelessseries of cartoons about pre-teen life at a time when innocence reigned and all thatcould bother you were the basics about trying to get to grips with understandingwho you are, whether it’s trying to live without your security blanket or thecomplexities of being in love with the little red-haired girl – and all with themost memorable of underlying piano-based music, which I wouldn’t call theme music asit goes all the way through, but you’ll know the infectious tunes when you hear them.
For the first ever Peanuts DVD, there’s only two episodes, to coincide with the Easterholidays, hence the first is It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown!.Hang on… Easter Beagle? Surely it should be the Easter Bunny? Read on.
Easter is coming and Marcie tells Peppermint Patty that she has the eggs she asked for,”Sir”, so they can paint them. Alas, Marcie – clueless as ever – doesn’t leave them be,but fries them(!) As things go from bad to worse and Marcie scrambles and boils the yolks,along with any other egg combination, Lucy tries her best to crack on to Schroeder thatshe fancies him but his only interest lies in tinkling his ivories… on the piano.
Put-upon Charlie Brown can do little but look on and stare as Linus extols the virtuesof the Easter Beagle, a concept that no-one buys into however sure he seems of himself.Even Lucy thinks she knows best when it comes to the eggs, and colours them herself,leaving them all around outside so that when it comes to finding them only she will knowwhere they are because she put them there(!)
Life is a Circus, Charlie Brown, but what to do when your own pet becomes thecentre of attention and falls in love with Fifi the fancy French poodle? Snoopy knows what hehas to do and that’s to become the circus clown in a bid for true love, but his trainer hasother ideas for him when he’s renamed Hugo The Great and forced to make an impression on theunicycle, the high wire and then the trapeze.
Whatever you say about Peanuts, it really is the sweetest cartoon ever, especially whenSnoopy has his own little adventures such as buying Woodstock a new birdhouse, or pretendinghe’s dancing with the bunnies. Does that make me monumentally soft? And, anyway, how does abeagle carry cash about to purchase a home for his birdy best friend?
The cartoons are in 4:3 fullscreen and the print is surpsingly good looking, clean and clearfor footage that’s 30 years old. No problems on the sound but it doesn’t set the speakers alight.Still, it’s the subtlety of the soundtrack that holds its own virtue.
Sadly, with just a few chapters to each episode and a silent/static menu, there are no extrasto accompany this release. This is probably because it’s a cheapie, but what we deserve -and what I’d love to see – is a ‘Complete Series’ boxset. Please!!!
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
0OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.