Warner Bros. // 1980 // 47 Minutes // Not Rated
Reviewed by Judge Roy Hrab (Retired) // November 30th, 2011
"Join your Peanuts pals for a great gust of wonderful wintry fun!"
Happiness is...Peanuts: Snow Days is the latest collection of Peanuts cartoons to be released on DVD. This release is comprised of the television special She's A Good Skate, Charlie Brown and an episode of The Charlie Brown And Snoopy Show.
She's A Good Skate, Charlie Brown features Peppermint Patty training for a figure skating competition. Her coach is Snoopy, who angrily barks orders like a Soviet-era trainer. There are two major challenges faced by Patty in this story: 1) getting a costume, and 2) the competition itself. As you can imagine, everything works out for the best, with Snoopy stepping-up as costume designer, and Woodstock playing a critical role when Patty experiences a music mishap. This a nice piece of work, but definitely 2nd-tier compared to the classic Christmas, Halloween, Easter, and Thanksgiving specials. It's not something that warrants additional viewings, unless you have a child who is really into figure skating.
The Charlie Brown And Snoopy Show episode contains three shorts:
* "The Play" -- Charlie Brown reminisces about the time Lucy enlists the gang to perform a Christmas play.
* "Sweet Babboo!" -- Sally and others get ready for Valentine's Day.
* "Snoopy's Story" -- Patty writes an essay about Snoopy.
Again, while there are some amusing moments, this is not great by Peanuts standards. There is better material available.
The standard definition transfers are as to be expected for this somewhat dated material. The 1.33:1 picture is fine, although there is some grain. Colors are good, but on the soft side. The Dolby Mono audio is solid with the music and dialogue coming through clean and clear.
There are no extras.
Happiness is...Peanuts: Snow Days is not Grade-A material and probably only suitable for completists.
I'm a Peanuts fan, so it hurts me to say this: Guilty.
Review content copyright © 2011 Roy Hrab; Site layout and review format copyright © 1998 - 2013 HipClick Designs LLC
Scales of Justice
Judgment: 60
Perp Profile
Studio: Warner Bros.
Video Formats:
* Full Frame
Audio Formats:
* Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono (English)
* Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono (Japanese)
* Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono (Portuguese)
* Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono (Spanish)
* Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono (Thai)
Subtitles:
* English (SDH)
* French
* Japanese
* Portuguese
* Spanish
* Thai
Running Time: 47 Minutes
Release Year: 1980
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Distinguishing Marks
* None
Accomplices
* IMDb: She's A Good Skate, Charlie Brown
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0174200/combined
* IMDb: The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0084996/combined
* Official Site
http://www.peanuts.com/