"You know something, Chuck? It took women 72 years, from 1848 to 1920, before they won the right to vote. Seventy-two years, Chuck. And now, I can strike you out with just three pitches!" - Peppermint Patty in "The Music and Heroes of America"
This is America, Charlie Brown DVD Review
By A.J. Carson
Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang first appeared in comic strips on October 2, 1950. Fifteen years later, Charles Schulz brought the pals to TV in A Charlie Brown Christmas. Many TV specials followed, each entertaining and educating - sometimes subtly, sometimes not - kids of all ages. In A Charlie Brown Christmas, we learned the true meaning of Christmas. In It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, we learned that even if you don't waste your time on Halloween keeping watch in a pumpkin patch for a fictional character, you might still end up with a bagful of rocks. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving proved that most people wouldn't be happy with a Thanksgiving Day meal of toast, popcorn, and jellybeans. The lessons became more explicit during the 1988-89 season, when CBS presented This is America, Charlie Brown, an eight episode miniseries looking at the highlights of American history, from the arrival of the Pilgrims to the birth of jazz.
Unabashedly educational, this miniseries is like the Peanuts 'Cyclopedia brought to life. That, unfortunately, is a big part of the series' problem. Much of the whimsical charm of regular Peanuts specials is jettisoned in favor of fact-heavy narration. Maybe we should change that to "fact"-heavy narration. "The Mayflower Voyagers," for example, presents Indians that speak English, welcome their invaders with open arms, and sit down for a convivial Thanksgiving celebration with roasted turkey and cranberry sauce. We now know that this is mostly myth - albeit myth that is still often taught in schools.
Some of the episodes, like "The Music and Heroes of America," present this information in the form of a report given by the Peanuts gang to their classmates. Others, however, feature Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Snoopy, and others inexplicably interacting with presidents and other historical figures. Watching Linus, Lucy, Charlie Brown, and Sally cross the Atlantic on the Mayflower is weird, to say the least.
Fans who have mostly watched the old holiday specials lately may not be aware that later specials and films featured the actual voices of grown-up characters. After all, Linus and Charlie Brown can't be expected to have a conversation about the Gettysburg Address with Abraham Lincoln if Honest Abe features a "voice" that sounds like a muffled trumpet. Many of the older males we see in these episodes are voiced by Frank Welker, who also voiced Fred on Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? It might be a little awkward for animation geeks when one of the Wright brothers opens his mouth and out comes the instantly identifiable voice of a teenage detective.
As usual, the episodes are filled with mostly terrific scores by legendary jazz greats. Viewers can expect to hear the work of Wynton Marsalis, David Benoit, Dave Grusin, and Lou Rawls.
Episodes include "The Mayflower Voyagers," "The Birth of the Constitution," "The Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk," "The NASA Space Station," "The Building of the Transcontinental Railroad," "The Great Inventors," "The Smithsonian and the Presidency," and "The Music and Heroes of America."
These eight episodes are divided onto two discs. Each disc is decorated with a member of the Peanuts gang - Charlie Brown on disc one and Snoopy on disc two. The discs are housed in two slim, clear keepcases. The front covers feature the episode titles and drawings from the episodes. The back covers include drawings of Charlie Brown and Snoopy. The double-sided coversheets show through to the insides of the cases. The interiors feature episode titles and plot synopses. The interiors also feature drawings from the episodes. The keepcases are housed in a cardboard sleeve. Overall, the design is patriotic and Peanut-ty.
The static menus are simple to navigate. Viewers can play all of the disc's episodes or pick an individual one. There are no scene selection menus, but the episodes are divided into chapters.
