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Peanuts Deluxe Holiday Collection
| Movie Rating: |
 | 10/10 |
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| DVD Rating: |
| 8/10 |
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| Overall Rating: |
| 9/10 |
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Starring:
Special Features:
Note: It's Christmas Again, Charlie Brown
The Mayflower Voyagers
It's Magic, Charlie Brown
Backstory featurettes
Other Info:
Video: Full Frame - 1.37
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 - English, Spanish
DTS HD Master Audio - English, Spanish
Subtitles: French, Spanish
Run Time: 150 min
Rating: NR
Synopsis from DVD Cover:
Included are It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown; A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving; A Charlie Brown Christmas; 3 bonus TV specials; and 3 featurettes.
Quick Review:
I think it's a safe bet that there are a lot of people in the world whose only exposure to Peanuts was through the TV specials, especially the holiday specials. "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is one of the all-time great classic Christmas specials. I don't often say this about anything, but they don't make 'em like they used to. Between that special and the other two full-length specials on this disc, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving," most of the great iconic moments of animated Peanuts are covered, from the Snoopy dance to Charlie Brown getting a rock while out trick-or-treating to the popcorn and jelly beans Thanksgiving dinner. We all grew up watching these, waiting all year for them to come on TV again because we didn't have VCRs and DVD players so we could watch them anytime we wanted. Man, I sound old. Back in my day we didn't have all this newfangled technology!
The specials have lost none of their charm, relevance or enjoyment. I know from personal experience that today's kids love and respond to them the same way we did. The iconic Vince Guaraldi jazz piano background music, the dry humor, the deadpan voice acting, it's all so very, very classic. This new set for Blu-Ray features each special on its own disc with an additional, shorter special included. "It's Magic, Charlie Brown" comes with the Halloween special, "The Mayflower Voyagers" with the Thanksgiving special and "It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown" with the Christmas special. These are some of the lesser-known Peanuts animated specials but they are still charming and a welcome addition to this holiday set.
The three main holiday specials were previously released on DVD as Special Editions. The Blu-Ray transfer is pretty good; ironically the short films look better than the featured specials, mostly because they were produced later.
Each disc features a really interesting featurette about the making of each holiday special. These are full of fun tidbits and even some reminiscences from the voice cast (did you know Peppermint Patty was voiced by a boy?), not to mention some insight into how the specials were conceived and made, and some of the issues that cropped up during production. Also included is a six-song CD of music from the Christmas special, plus iTunes codes for downloading two additional tracks for each special. These extras really enhance the video content and sweeten the deal for the price of the collection.
In Conclusion:
These three holiday specials are must-haves for most family libraries, and the bonus content of the three short features and the making-of featurettes really make it worth the money. A really solid collection.
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