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popculturebuffet · 2 years

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A Special Named Charlie Brown: It's Flashbeagle Charlie Brown!: LISTEN TO THE SOUND OF HIS NAMEEEEE (Patreon Review For Emma Fici)

Hello all you happy blockheads, and welcome to a new feature on this blog: A Special Named Charlie Brown, where I occasionally take a look at the wonderful and ridiculous world of Peanuts specials.

I absolutely love Peanuts. Not a huge shocker at the time of this review given my avatar is Snoopy's Awkward Teenage Nephew, a character who I assure you I did not make up as while I think i'm pretty funny, i'm nowhere near Charles Schultz level...

I mean that last panel alone shows the man's brilliance: Snoopy's awkard expression, bell's adorable mommy pride, and of course Snoopy's Awkward Teenage Nephew himself in all his gawky glory. He's still missed.

Peanuts impact and brillance cannot be overstated: As a strip it's inspired or influenced practically every comic strip that's existed since Peanut's hit it's stride in the 60's. When reading behind the scenes commentary for any given comic strip it's almost a guarantee for Peanuts to come up for damn good reason. It's also endlessly creative: I mean off the top of my head he's had Snoopy run an airline as the WWI flying ace, Charlie Brown get a baseball themed rash and have to wear a sack on his head and thus become popular for once in his life, Sally befriend her actual school building, Linus get ostracized for patting birds on the head, Woodstock sue Snoopy for a broken heart after he accidently chats up Woodstock's crush, Peppermint Patty attending Obedience School thinking it's private school, Snoopy having his house, Van Gough and all tragically burn down and the timeless classic where Marcy punches a sexist annoyance in the face

It's can make you laugh, make you cheer.. and make you cry quite a bit like the time Peppermint Patty outlined how seeing the Little Red Haired Girl made her feel

It's a remarkable work, one that from what I can tell really changed comics and without it most strips today wouldn't exist. The strip has long stood the test of time

While the strip could easily rest on it's impact on the medium and sheer quality, what made it the cultural juggernaught that everyone regardless of generation knows and has at least seen something of happened in the late 60's: Producer Lee Mendelson wanted to do a documentary on Schultz, with animator Bill Melendez doing a short bit for it. When no advitisers wanted the doc, Lee agreed to the first person who agreed.. only to find out they wanted a full animated special. Schultz was more than happy to do it and had a fountain of ideas, unsuprisingly, and while it was apparently a hectic, 6 month rush to get it done, one i'll look into and cover more when I review A Charlie Brown Christmas itself, the result was a giant hit and an all time classic that STILL reairs to this day. It kickstarted the idea of animated holiday specials, is one of the most iconic pieces of television out there and still holds up today.

So naturally there were others and this is where this project comes in. See most know the big holiday ones that get replayed quite a bit: A Charlie Brown Christmas, It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, along with smaller ones related to certain other holidays that still get played once in a while: It's The Easter Beagle Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Valentine and You're Not Elected Charlie Brown. But even from childhood I got hints there was more having a copy of a book adaptation of "Its' A Mystery Charlie Brown" that I accidently lost from my school library, and a vhs of "It's Christmastime Again Charlie Brown", not really thinking anything of it till the pieces came together via wikipedia as a teen. I'd only seen a FOURTH of the specials at most. There were a grand total of 39 peanuts specials produced before Schultz Died. Yes 39. And oh it gets better. At the time of this writing there's 49 specials and I wouldn't be shocked if we finally hit 50, with a few produced in the early 2000's, one in the 2010's (Written by Pearls Before Swine maestro Stephan Pastis no less), and recently making a comeback via AppleTV+, with Apple having produced four specials so far under the "Snoopy Presents" banner with more undoubtly to come.

Since i've wanted to be a reviewer this is a project i've been wanting to tackle, reviewing ALL of these. Even realizing there's a whopping 49 specials to cover hasn't really detered me. These specials are both intresting time capusles of when their produced and neat adaptations of one of the greatest strips ever, all made with some heart and effort. With 49 specials and more to come they run the gammut from iconic to truly baffling and I plan to hopefully cover them all at some point, along with all 5 movies. TV Series are gonna have to wait because... well 49 specials. I don't know when i'll finish this and will be taking my time with it but damn if this won't be fun.

As for why start HERE of all places, with a bizzarely wonderful 80's as heck special it's simple: I brought it up to my friend Emma once because I like talking about stuff like this, I have also told her the virtues of Snoopy's Awkward Nephew, and when needing to pick something for her monthly patreon, she picked this. And while I COULD have said no and started this elsewhere.. I thought this review would be too fun to pass up.

So now all the pomp and circumstance is out of the way i'm sure most of you are aksing the big question: What the heck is a Flashbeagle? Why is Snoopy dressed like the late great Olivia Newton John? If this is based on flashdance is snoopy also a steel town girl on a saturday night looking for the fight of her life? These are valid questions, and part of why I was delighted to stumble into this special on the dvd for Snoopy's Reunion (Which I also used for this very review), though if your curious about this special you can also find it on the excellent Emmy Honored Collection I intend to buy at some point. Either option works since for whatever reason, AppleTV+ hasn't added it. The cowards.

As for what the heck a flashbeagle is, you have to remember that as timeless as he is, Charles wasn't immune to commenting on the culture of the time, such as with Tapioca Pudding, a little girl who claims to have her own merchandising line and what not, a parody of the merch heavy 80s. So while I didn't know it till I did the wikipedia research for this review that this special came out of a strip parodying flashdance, I wasn't suprised

Is this strip a tad dated? Sure. Is it objectively funny to see Snoopy in the outfit from flashdance, thus still working today?

It WAS a suprise to find out this one silly gag tickled Bill Melendez so much he built an entire musical special, complete with tie in album, around it.

I'm so pleased he did for. While Flashbeagle is one of the more dated Peanuts adventures, it's cheesy 80's quality, odder quirks, and genuine banger of a main song mean it stands out quite a bit and as someone who enjoys some good 80's cheese feels like it's made for me. So let's put on our head bands, get into our sweats, and listen to the sound of his name. It's Flashbeagle Charlie Brown!

Flashbeagle is weird in that

Unlike most peanuts specials which have a story it follows pretty well, if with the ocasoinal dip into some bits from the comic or for the special itself, Flashbeagle is three seperate not connected at all stories, two of which barely involve Snoopy. My best edudcated guesses are either they had to fill the plot with the musical numbers elswhere on the album, which we'll get to in a moment, or they simply reealized Snoopy's story only covered half the special and had to create some other songs and segments to cover.

As a result the first half is not the best. The first bit after the title is funny, Charlie Brown needling Snoopy over not following him to school and what follows is right up my ally: A fe wbits about Peppermint Patty sleeping in class taken from the strip. I've always had a special place in my heart for Peppermint Patty's antics and felt her and Marcy's adventuers are some of Schutlz best work, so this wasn't bad... but it DEFINTELY feels like Padding. It's very loosley connected to the rest of the special, Peppermint Patty doing an exercise class for the rest of the gang, and is ionly tolerable because well .. it's various good peanuts strips adapted. It just feels like other specials do a better job implimenting them and making the bits feel organic. Not the worst offender at just putting in bits from the strip to stall for time, but still noticable.

The actual musical number she gets, I'm In Shape.. is not my faviorite. It's mildly adorable: Not only did Schultz apparently base Peppermint Patty's movements in this bit , her doing her own exercise class, on his own daughter, but it is nice to see her just genuinely happy for once without it crashing down on her due to her own foibles. Which really can qualifiy for any time we see the peanuts gang happy without it either being smug exculsion or said joy being squashed soon enough.

I'm In Shape is just not a good song. They do sing talking more than actually singing which is fine, it can be used well and Peppermint Patty's VA here , Gigi Holtzman is likely not a trained singer. But the song itself is just a boring ra ra go team style song about fitness that's not really funny or intresting I get their trying lightly to goof on both Olivia Newton John's Physical and Tony Basil's Mickey, with the fitness theme and the chrous of "Hey (Insert Peanuts Kid Here) Get in Shape Come on Your doing Great Hey (Insert Peanuts Kid Her) Hey (insert peanuts kid here)", but it dosen't land. As the king of all song parodies himself, Weird Al, has shown us, this kind of thing works better when it sounds as good as what your making fun of. Physical freaking slaps and Mickey is an earworm for a reason. This is just nothing.

The next bit has Charlie Brown and Snoopy goin to a party at Lucy's. Some kid with a VERY 70's haircut tries to get everyone to do Simon Sez.

Now having some random character we never see again is nothing that unusual for animation. Peanuts itself has done this before. What makes it feel weird is with Peanuts having a deep bench for it's main cast and frequently having characters like Shermy, Violet and Patty show up as extras long after they disappeared into the void in the strip proper, why go to all the effort of creating a new character design or reusing one from another special? Just have it be Shermy Lucy shoves aside. Shermy needs this he hasn't fed his children in weeks. Their skeletons Lucy, Skeletons!

The song that ensues though is suprisingly catch. It's Lucy Says, a groovy ditty about Lucy's verison of simpon says "I I didn't say lucy says". Her singing voice, Jessica Lee Smith does a REALLY fantastic job. Is it as good as what's to come musically? Eh probably not but is it still really fun and catchy? Yeah> Do we get to see Snoopy being too cool for school in a red leather jacket and play Lucy Says? Yeah.

The next song is The Pigpen Hoedown. It's.. forgetable. It's generic hoedown music. I mean if you needed a generic country song Peanuts Crew just go forward in time and use this

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I will, no joke, give a free review to ANYONE who sets Pigpen Hoedown to this song in a video. I may be kind of messed up.

So with that we get snoopy getting dolled up for a night on the town to the absolute bop, Snoopy. It sounds like his TGIF theme song and it is every bit as catchy and amazing as that sounds. It's by the duo of Desiree Goyette and Joey Scarbary Scurbury and it's just fun.

It does highlight one of this specials problems though: Ther'es no real cohesion. As I said it's

The stories don't connect which would be fine but unlike say an anthology film none of these stories seem to go together. Peppermint Patty has sleepy shenanigans in a classroom, Lucy throws a party, Snoopy goes out on the town and fucking kills it while hanging out with Franklin which is implied to be something they just.. do every night.

There's nothing tha treally makes them feel like they should be in the same special. It feels more like an episode of the Charlie Brown and Snoopy show, which ran at the same time and used a lot of the voice actors, and frankly most peanuts show which works fine for those, it's a tv show specifically split up into a buncho f vingettes adapting the strip. It dosen't here because it's just a bunch of stories. The classic specials had asides too but each at least linked somehow back to the main narrative and tone of the special, like Snoopy's WWI Flying Ace dream thing in IT's the Great Pumpkin is set up and being it's halloween it's treated as a costume instead of the lifestyle that it is. Here it's just some random segments that don't feel like they belong in a special about Flashdance Snoopy.

You can't.. name the special after something and not clearly lead up to it. The Easter Beagle didn't show up till the clmax of "I'ts the Easter Beagle Charlie Brown", but it's clearly an easter story. Here if you hadn't seen the title carrrd or weren't going into this knowing what it was, you'd wonder what the heck this special was about. It's also a shame as its another peanuts musical but one that really dsoen't take advantage of that. If your going to do something this 80s then go all out. Have Charlie Brown Breakdance Dammit!

Thankfully my blood pressure can go down, as we get to the main event and it. Is. Glorious. As mediocre as this special's first half is the Flashbeagle sequence is every bit as cheesy, ridiculous, and glorious as it sounds. It's helped most of all by it's song. You can tell most of the musical effort went into this song by the way it moves it's feat. It's a champion, it's the best, impossible to tame. People say it's obessed, listen to the sound of it's name!

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It is shockingly epic and perfectly gets the dance style of the time, feeling like it would fit perfectly in Flashdance 2: Enter the Flashbeagle. This one GETS what it was mildly parodying while also being geninely good. A song called Flashbeagle shoudln't be this friggin epic, but Desiree Goyette (Who did a lot of the music for the garfield specails) and Joey Scarbury (Who did the Greatest American Hero theme and looks it...)

Who together create vocal dynamite, paticuarlly Scarbury who does most of the singing (With Goyette still bringing it with the iconic chorus)

And the visuals could've let thigns down.. but despite just being snoopy in flashdance gear dancing while a crowd of teens look on across a technicolor disco floor, that is enough. The dancing is beautifulyl rotoscoped, energtic and looks cool as heck awhil ethe setting perfectly compliments the music. This special may be rediculous but it's the GOOD kind, the kind you tel lyour grandkids about and this one sequel is worth it.

Two more things to note. The first is this is one of the rare times we see teens. Apparently Snoopy and Franklin are just cool enough to get in. IT feels VERY werid seeing these big characters as most peanuts characters are child size, except of course snoopy's gawky teenage nephew...

Also just real quick love the detail that Snoopy WROTE in print that his Nephew is a disapointment. Fantastic.

So while ti's weird the characters are well drawn enough and only on screen so limitedly it dose'nt throw you off too bad. Still weird but still works.

The second is that Charlie Brown's reaction to Flashbeagle is abject embarassment. Bud, Snoopy has had enough weird alter egos at this point you just gotta accept it at some time.

At this point hitting the club in a bit tee and headband is just a normal day.

So Snoopy's tired from killing it at the club and also possibly trying cocaine for the first time but the climax is both classic peanuts and fun as Sally forgot show and tell so just kidnaps snoopy for it. Sally gets mocked by Five for how sleepy he is. I mean granted Five has a chameleon's Cameleons' rule, patcuarlyl my adopted god child here

But still. Also if your wondering who the heck five is which, fair.. oh boy oh boy are you in for a street. See I first found my boy 5 in a beaten up copy of The Peanuts Treasury (An oft reprinted pile of peanuts strips) I found at goodwill, luckily still have it if boxed up for the eventual move. He is.. a lot but in the best way possible.. i'll let the strip field this one.

He wasn't incredibly long lived, as the gag, as brilliant as it was , could only go so far but he's still this nice little blip in peanuts history and still shows up a lot in backgrounds along with his sisters

He ends up being Sally's salvation as he plays his music, because I guess the teacher was asleep, and it get ssnoopy going. Everybody boogies, Sally gets an A and she tells Charlie Brown to lay off his "I want a normal dog" rants for a day. Seriously you have a dog that can spin lik ea top and can never top. Be happy dang it!

So yeah Flashbeagle is terribly uneven, and i'd recommend either just watching the flashbeagle sequence or the second half. It's still worth watching those, the animation is amazing for the clubs sequence and it's nice to see Sally get a W, but the first half is just shockingly boring. Overal i'ts passible but only because it has one heck of a scene to help prop up a pretty mediocre special. Thanks for reading, consider joining my patreon and sees ya next time.

#peanuts #charlie brown #snoopy #peppermint patty #flashbeagle #flashdance #olivia newton john #toni basil #mickey #physical #Youtube

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