It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Directed by: Bill Melendez/Charles Schultz
(Warner Home Video)
“Let’s face it…Santa Claus has had more publicity,” writes steadfast Linus to his Halloween hero, the Great Pumpkin, in pop-cultural institution It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. “But,” he continues, “being number two, perhaps you try harder.” The line’s apparently a reference to an old ad for car rental company Avis. Today, the joke’s outdated, and hasn’t aged quite as well as the much-loved special that features it. The rest of ITGPCB isn’t start-to-finish spectacular, either: The scenes with Snoopy strutting his stuff as a “WWI flying ace” are boring, and the Charlie Brown-gets-rocks-in-his-treat-bag sequence runs a little long. But the rest of the special’s remained beloved for a reason. There’s something rather lovely about the gleeful nose-in-the-air jig that Charlie Brown embarks upon when he thinks he’s finally been invited to a party, and about dopey, faithful Linus’ annual vigil as he waits for a giant gift-giving pumpkin that he’s never seen. “Each year the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. I don’t see how a pumpkin patch could be more sincere than this one,” declares Linus. Me, neither, Linus—and I’ll gladly join you and your earnestness for Great Pumpkin duty any year.
—Lindsay McCarney
This article appears in Oct 30 – Nov 5, 2008.
