Little Janice's big fight

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Movie
German title Little Janice's big fight
original title Why, Charlie Brown, Why?
production country United States
original language English
Publishing year 1990
length 22 minutes
Rod
directing Sam Jaimes
script Charles M. Schulz
production Bill Melendez
music Judy Munsen
camera Nick Vasu
cut Chuck McCann ,
Warren Taylor
occupation

Little Janice's Big Fight (original title Why, Charlie Brown, Why? ) is a 1990 American television film . It is the 33rd television production based on the Peanuts comics and is about Linus' helplessness in the face of a good friend 's cancer .

The film was made on the initiative of the pediatric nurse Sylvia Cook, who wanted to explain her situation to cancer patients in an understandable way. It was originally supposed to be five minutes long and only shown in hospitals. However, the creator of the comic series , Charles M. Schulz , with the support of the American Cancer Society , was able to convince the Peanuts network CBS to produce a television film on the subject.

Little Janice's Big Fight premiered in the US on March 16, 1990 on CBS. In Germany it was first broadcast on Sat.1 in 2000 and released on three Peanuts DVD collections .

plot

Charlie Brown and Linus have a new classmate named Janice Emmons who Linus has a crush on. One day, the three of them are waiting for the school bus with Charlie's sister Sally and his dog Snoopy; when Janice gets in, she accidentally hits her arm on the railing and suffers a contusion , which has happened to her more often lately. In class, Janice suddenly feels tired and has a fever . That is why she is first sent to the school nurse and a little later picked up by her mother. Three days later, the class learns that Janice is in the hospital.

After school, Snoopy goes to the clinic, poses as a surgeon, and raids the cafeteria. Meanwhile, Charlie and Linus visit Janice. She tells them they have leukemia . When Charlie then asks if she's going to die, Linus rebukes him. However, Janice reacts calmly because she asked the doctors the same question. She describes how she underwent a blood test , a bone marrow biopsy and an X-ray , and explains to them how her IV drip works . Janice is undergoing chemotherapy and is confident that she will recover soon and be able to go to school because she wants to swing and see her friends again.

On the way home, Linus behaves in an unusually troubled manner for him. Frustrated, he asks Charlie about the reason for Janice's illness, but Charlie has no answer. After Charlie and Linus break up, the latter is still desperately pondering Janice's situation to Farther Along . When he gets home, he tells his sister Lucy about Janice's situation, but she isn't interested. After Lucy has Linus bring her a glass of milk, the two get into an argument when he mentions touching Janice at school. Despite her brother's attempts to explain, Lucy believes cancer is contagious ; Janice also only suffers from the disease because of her "spooky" nature. When she, horrified, asks him to take the milk glass away, Linus refuses because he doesn't want to be infected by Lucy's meanness.

A few months later, Janice is able to attend school again in the winter, but has lost her hair from chemotherapy and covers her baldness with a hat. In the schoolyard, a boy makes fun of her hat, takes it off and taunts Janice. Linus angrily confronts him, explaining the reason for Janice's baldness and asking how he would feel in her situation, to which the boy ruefully apologizes. Just before Christmas, Linus wants to visit Janice and bring her a present. There he meets her sisters, who tell him that she has to be treated again in the hospital. They confess to Linus that he has felt neglected by his parents since Janice became ill. After sharing their frustration with him, they explain to Linus that they still care about their sister and understand their parents. He eventually leaves his present with them and leaves.

In the spring, Linus meets Janice, who has a surprise for him. The two head to Janice's favorite swings, where she asks him to give her a swing. Her cap falls to the ground, which makes the laughing Janice's hair grow back visible, to Linus' great delight.

occupation

figure original speaker
Charlie Brown Caleb Henley
Linus van Pelt Brandon Stewart
Sally Brown Adrienne Boots
Lucy Van Pelt Jennifer Banko
Janice Emmons Olivia Burnette
Boy in the school yard Dion Zamora
Janice's little sister Britanny Thornton
Janice's big sister Lindsay Sloane
snoopy Bill Melendez
Woodstock

production

In December 1985, Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz received a letter from pediatric nurse Sylvia Cook. Cook, who worked at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto , saw her work with patients, some of whom were very young, who didn't fully understand what their cancers meant. Because the majority of those affected liked the series, Cook Schulz suggested that a Peanuts short film about cancer be made to help children with the disease understand their situation and comfort them.

Schulz had already had experience with the topic of cancer himself, as his mother had succumbed to the disease shortly before he began serving in World War II (Schulz himself died of colorectal cancer ten years after the film was released ). He called Cook immediately after receiving the letter and was open to the idea. However, he explained that he knew nothing about childhood cancer and that even producing a short animated film was very expensive. Cook therefore initiated a fundraiser and turned to the American Cancer Society (ACS). Some of their employees and a pediatric oncologist explained to Schulz not only the symptoms, but above all the emotional stress that young cancer patients have to contend with.

After these discussions, Schulz began writing the screenplay, involving Cook as an advisor. This is one of the reasons why the atmosphere of the script was uncharacteristically serious for the series , apart from a few humorous scenes with Snoopy and Woodstock . The main character Janice is bullied because of her baldness caused by chemotherapy and has to deal with the jealousy of her siblings and the misunderstanding of her peers, according to Cook real situations of children with cancer. Presumably for the same reason, Little Janice's Big Fight is the only Peanuts TV movie to date that doesn't feature Linus' trademark comfort blanket.

Schulz finally decided not to produce a privately financed short film intended only for hospitals, as initially planned, but to produce a television film of normal length. The regular broadcaster CBS was initially hesitant because there were doubts whether the Peanuts could do justice to the seriousness of the issue. However, those responsible were finally persuaded by Schulz' commitment to the project. In addition, according to Executive Producer Lee Mendelson , Little Janice's Big Fight was also a good opportunity to show the public that the Peanuts are not just pure entertainment.

The ACS used the money raised early in the production phase to make cassettes of the film. She distributed these free of charge to clinics in the United States and to branches of the organization where the videos could be loaned to schools and children's charities. Helen Crothers, general manager of the California branch of ACS, explained that the situation for children with cancer improved significantly in the 1980s due to more modern treatment options. However, there are still many fears and misconceptions about the disease, which is why the film is the best way so far to correct misconceptions about cancer in a child-friendly way. The cassettes were also later used by The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society , which supports (mostly young) cancer patients and their families.

publication

Little Janice's Big Fight premiered on CBS on March 16, 1990. It was seen by 15 million viewers, which corresponded to a Nielsen rating of 8.7 or a market share of 16 percent. As part of what was then a children's reading program, CBS released the production's script and accompanying educational materials for use in the classroom. In addition, shortly before its television premiere, Charles M. Schulz released a 64-page book based on the film entitled Why, Charlie Brown, Why? A Story About What Happens When a Friend is Very Ill , with a foreword by Paul Newman . Its reprints (without a foreword) appeared in 1991, 2002 and 2005. In Germany the book was published under the title Why, Charlie Brown, why?: The big fight of little Janice .

Little Janice's Big Fight was released in the United States in the late 1990s along with the 1985 television musical adaptation You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown in Laserdisc format and later also by Paramount Home Video on its own VHS - cassette released. The film was also released on the 2015 DVD collection Peanuts: Emmy Honored Collection and is available on iTunes .

In Germany, The Big Fight of Little Janice was broadcast on June 24, 2000 on Sat.1 for the first time and repeated four times there from 2001 to 2003. The production also appeared in Germany on three Peanuts DVD collections.

reception

In the Internet Movie Database, the film received a rating of 7.9 out of ten stars based on 930 votes.

Ken Tucker described Little Janice's Big Fight in Entertainment Weekly as at times stiff and pedantic, typical of instructional art. However, some moments in which the established Peanuts personalities are used to represent common attitudes and reactions to cancer are still successful. Tucker cited Charlie's awkwardness in the hospital scene or Lucy 's awkward opinion of the cancer patient as examples. Simon Abrams of New York placed the production 20th out of 45 in a ranking of Peanuts made-for- television movies. Although it's a bit too maudlin, Little Janice's Big Fight still works, as the audience just has to empathize with the main character and is brought to tears by the end. Lynne Heffley found in the Los Angeles Times that the mood of the film was surprisingly muted. Although Snoopy loosened up the mood with some of his usual daydreams, that was absolutely beside the point. The young audience would be given simple information about cancer and a lesson in empathy. For viewers without previous knowledge, parental explanations would be appropriate before and after watching.

According to Schulz biographer Rheta Grimsley Johnson in her book Good Grief: The Story of Charles M. Schulz , The Great Fight is Little Janice Schulz's masterpiece.

nominations

Little Janice's Big Fight was nominated for a 1990 Humanitas Award in the 30 Minute Network or Syndicated Television category. That same year, the film received an Emmy nomination for Best Animated Short Program .

web links

itemizations

  1. ↑ a b Brian Cronin: Charlie Brown's Most Heartbreaking Cartoon Owes Everything to an Unsung Hero. In: Comic Book Resources. January 23, 2021, accessed January 2, 2022 (English).
  2. ↑ Sarah Boxer: Charles M. Schulz, 'Peanuts' Creator, Dies at 77. In: The New York Times . February 14, 2000, accessed February 2, 2022 (English).
  3. ↑ a b c d Eileen Ogintz: `PEANUTS`-EYE VIEW OF CANCER. In: Chicago Tribune . March 16, 1990, accessed January 2, 2022 (English).
  4. ↑ James Egan: 3000 Facts about Animated Shows . Lulu, Morrisville 2016, ISBN 978-1-32-663587-9 , p. 177.
  5. ↑ Cancer in the Family. In: The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. 6 May 2016, accessed 2 January 2022 (English).
  6. ↑ WHY, CHARLIE BROWN, WHY? (TV). In: The Paley Center for Media. Retrieved January 2, 2022 (English).
  7. ↑ March 16, 1990. In: TV Tango. Retrieved January 2, 2022 (English).
  8. ↑ Charles M. Schulz : Why, Charlie Brown, Why? A Story about what Happens when a Friend is Very Ill . Topper Books, Cincinnati 1990, ISBN 0-886-87601-X .
  9. ↑ Charles M. Schulz: Why, Charlie Brown, Why? A Story about what Happens when a Friend is Very Ill . Ravette, Horsham 1991, ISBN 1-853-04332-X , 1st reprint.
  10. ↑ Charles M. Schulz: Why, Charlie Brown, Why? A Story about what Happens when a Friend is Very Ill . Ballantine, New York City 2002, ISBN 0-345-45531-2 , 2nd reprint.
  11. ↑ Charles M. Schulz: Why, Charlie Brown, Why? A Story about what Happens when a Friend is Very Ill . Ravette, Horsham 2005, ISBN 1-841-61231-6 , 3rd reprint.
  12. ↑ Charles M. Schulz: Why, Charlie Brown, why? Little Janice's Big Fight . Haffmans Verlag, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-251-00283-X (from the English by Gerlinde Bode, Original Topper Books, Cincinnati 1990).
  13. ↑ The Laser Disc Newsletter . Indiana University Press, Bloomington 1997, Issue 149, p. 16.
  14. ↑ Peanuts: Why, Charlie Brown, Why? vhs In: Amazon . Retrieved January 2, 2022 .
  15. ↑ Jennifer Wolfe: Warner Bros. Announces Emmy-Honored 'Peanuts' Collection. In: Animation World Network. 6 May 2015, accessed 2 January 2022 (English).
  16. ↑ Peanuts Specials Vol. 1. In: iTunes . Retrieved January 2, 2022 (English).
  17. ↑ The Peanuts Episode 28: Little Janice's Big Fight. In: Fernsehserien.de . Retrieved January 2, 2022 .
  18. ↑ The Peanuts: DVDs & Blu-rays. In: Fernsehserien.de. Retrieved January 2, 2022 .
  19. ↑ Ken Tucker: Why, Charlie Brown, Why? In: Entertainment Weekly . March 16, 1990, accessed January 2, 2022 (English).
  20. ↑ Simon Abrams: All 45 Peanuts Specials, Ranked. In: New York . 22 November 2018, accessed 2 January 2022 (English).
  21. ↑ Lynne Heffley: TV Reviews : Charlie Brown and Friends Get Serious in CBS Special. In: Los Angeles Times . March 16, 1990, accessed January 2, 2021 (English).
  22. ↑ Rheta Grimsley Johnson: Good Grief: The Story of Charles M. Schulz . Pharos Books, New York City 1989, ISBN 0-886-87553-6 , p. 198.
  23. ↑ Nominees Announced for Humanitas Prize. In: Los Angeles Times . 6 July 1990, accessed 2 January 2022 (English).
  24. ↑ Outstanding Short Format Animated Program Nominees / Winners 1990. In: Television Academy . Retrieved January 2, 2022 (English).