DVD Review: Peanuts Snoopy's Reunion
Lee Mendelson, Bill Meléndez Adapt Charles M. Schulz Charlie Brown
Apr 23, 2009
In 1991, producers Lee Mendelson and Bill Meléndez went back to the Peanuts well, creating an all-new story that brought Snoopy and his siblings from the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm together for a family reunion and hoedown.
Now Warner Home Video has packaged Snoopy's Reunion on DVD, unfortunately pairing it with one of the most despised entries in the Peanuts canon.
Warner Home Video Releases Charles M. Schulz's Snoopy's Reunion on DVD
The story starts with Snoopy's origins on the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm. He and his siblings play together in a bluegrass band that starts to collapse after various members are snatched away to new homes.
Snoopy, after a first round with Lila (first seen in 1972's Snoopy Come Home), finds happiness with "the round-headed kid." However, Snoopy still pines for his siblings and Charlie Brown, wanting to make his dog happy, organizes a family reunion. But things don't quite go according to plan . . .
Snoopy's Reunion irritated some purists who felt the special violated Peanuts canon. For instance, according to the comic strip, Charlie Brown's parents bought Snoopy for the then-three-year-old Chuck after a bully poured sand on his head. His younger sister Sally wasn't even alive yet. Also, Charlie Brown didn't discover Snoopy was previously owned after the beagle took off to visit his first owner, Lila, who was sick in hospital in Snoopy Come Home.
However, in the special, Charlie Brown looks exactly the same as he does in the present day, as does Sally, and it's Linus who discovers Snoopy's past on the day Charlie Brown buys him. To top it all off, the adults actually appear and speak lines in this special, as opposed to just communicating off-screen with a "wah wah" sound.
This special may have had its faults (a choppy storyline didn't help matters either), but the familiar Peanuts charm is still there.
Unfortunately, this can't be said for the other special in this DVD set, 1984's It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown, an ill-advised attempt to make Peanuts accessible to the MTV generation. In the half-hour special, Charlie Brown is mystified that Snoopy doesn't act like other dogs: he doesn't try to follow him to school, he doesn't greet him when he comes home.
What Chuck doesn't know is that, every night, Snoopy tears up the discotheques as new-wave dance sensation Flashbeagle. What little story this special has screeches to a halt every time the producers insert a pedestrian faux-New Wave song. It's a curious memento of the Flashdance generation, but of little interest otherwise.
DVD Extras
There's not much here. The big featurette "Together Again: A Peanuts Voice Cast Reunion" interviews many of the former voice cast when they reunited for the 2008 ComicCon. Naturally, they all give lip service to Schulz, Mendelson and Melendez's bravery in casting children as voice actors (something completely unheard of in the mid-1960's). It did help the half-hour specials stand out in the children's entertainment field but let's face: everyone who talks about the Peanuts specials mentions that at some point.
There's also a trailer for the 25th Anniversary DVD of the Sesame Street movie Follow That Bird.
The Final Analysis
There's no denying the charm of Charles M. Schulz' creation, which has enthralled countless generations ever since Peanuts debuted in 1950. However, it's clear that Warner Home Video is digging into the dregs of the vaults for these two specials: It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown was a real low point in the series.
That said, you gotta love Peanuts. It gets a 6/10.
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