The Peanuts - Merry Christmas

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Movie
German title The Peanuts - Merry Christmas
Original title A Charlie Brown Christmas
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1965
length 25 minutes
Age rating FSK 0
Rod
Director Bill Meléndez
script Charles M. Schulz
production Lee Mendelson
music Vince Guaraldi

The Peanuts - Merry Christmas (Original title: A Charlie Brown Christmas ), also Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown , was the first television cartoon based on the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz . The broadcast on December 9, 1965 was a great success and set the standard for other Peanuts films. There is also a stage version with original dialogues and music.

action

Although he knows that the upcoming festival should make him happy, Charlie Brown is always depressed during the Christmas season. He feels repulsed by the commercialization that has spread even to his immediate surroundings: his little sister Sally would like presents from Santa Claus in small bills, and his dog Snoopy extensively decorates his kennel for the prize money in the local competition for the most beautiful Christmas decorations to catch. As a “psychological counselor”, Lucy realizes: Charlie Brown is missing a task, and she gives him the direction of the crib play in the school auditorium. But as a director, Charlie Brown fails due to his lack of authority and the indiscipline of the actors. A Christmas tree is supposed to create the right mood, but Charlie Brown gets a very poor plant and everyone laughs at him. Desperate, he expresses that he just doesn't understand, “what Christmas is all about” (“what Christmas is about”). Thereupon Linus explains the meaning of the festival to him by reciting the announcement to the shepherds from the Gospel of Luke . At the end everyone joins forces to decorate the tree and sing a forgiving Christmas carol.

background

Since its start in 1950, the drawn comic series had already developed into a great international success. The peanuts were only animated for a few commercials and a documentary strip (not shown at the end) when the project of a longer TV special was realized in 1965, with a Christmas theme.

The Peanuts was only finished just before the broadcast date, and many of the makers of the film, but especially those in charge of the station, anticipated a failure. Many aspects of the film seemed unfamiliar for the format of a children's Christmas program. In addition to the relatively slow narrative style and the rather simple animation, this includes above all the use of jazz music and the avoidance of canned laughs .

The focus on religious content had also triggered skepticism, but Schulz insisted on the search for the true Christmas message as the central theme. Schulz looked Linus when his spiritual alter ego - his Bible recitation becomes the heart of the film, and in the words of the angel, "Fear not" lets Linus even protecting him security blanket off.

reception

The nightly premiere on CBS was seen in an estimated 15 million households and received rave reviews. The immediate enormous success set standards for the style of the following Peanuts films, for example the voices of the characters with their children's speakers and the music created by jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi became permanent features.

The film is repeated every year in the US Christmas program and enjoys classic status. Several references to Coca-Cola have been removed since it was first broadcast - the company had sponsored the production of the film . Not only was he originally named in the credits; for example, Linus originally bumped into an advertising sign for Coca-Cola, being thrown around by Snoopy while ice skating.

A Charlie Brown Christmas had a side effect on the aluminum Christmas trees that have been popular in the USA since the late 1950s, i.e. artificial Christmas trees covered with aluminum. They appear in the film as the epitome of a commercialized, distorted Christmas festival and quickly fell out of fashion after the first broadcast.

The soundtrack contains quotes from the traditional Christmas carols O Tannenbaum , Jingle Bells and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing . The German dubbed version changes the focus of the film by removing the biblical reference in the text of the final chorale; Likewise, snow flakes, white skirts and softly trickling snow replace the contemplative Christmas Time Is Here of the American original in a lively presentation at the beginning of the film . This Vince Guaraldi on a text of the producer Lee Mendelson for the film composed song was subsequently become a popular Christmas standard and by many famous artists such as Diana Krall , Mel Tormé , Al Jarreau , Rosemary Clooney or REM gecovert .

In 2013 the publisher Tams-Witmark brought out a stage version that includes the complete scenes and dialogues as well as the music of the original; it is also available in German.

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Lee Mendelson, A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Making of a Tradition , Dey Street / Harper Collins, New York 2013
  2. ↑ A Charlie Brown Christmas: Trivia , IMDb
  3. ↑ M. Thomas Inge (Ed.): Charles M. Schulz: Conversations , University Press of Mississippi 2000
  4. ↑ What does Charlie Brown have to do with aluminum Christmas trees? A look back ... , guardi.at, December 19, 2019, accessed on January 15, 2020
  5. ^ A Charlie Brown Christmas , concordtheatricals.de