The Lookback : Charlie Brown Lookback : It's the Pied Piper , Charlie Brown

The Peanuts  

     A Peanuts special you may have not heard about , "The Pied Piper, Charlie Brown" , that sounds like  the Great Pumpkin (is that capitalize?)  has so far not aired on TV (in the US, maybe other countries)  but it was the first released on DVD , in 2000.  It was also the first "new" one after Charles Schultz's death.   Let's get to it.

    Sally wants her big brother, (Ole Charlie Brown) to read her  a story because , in her words,  he promised her that he would read her story.  After she prods Charlie Brown he relents and gets two books :  War and  Peace  or  The Pied Piper (Are children supposed to read War and Peace, and what if Sally picked that one would this be called " It's War and Peace , Charlie Brown" ?)  Since the title of the special is not with War and Peace , you know Sally picks the 2nd book because it was lighter.   Charlie Brown changes rats to mice because Sally didn't like that intro. (Rats  are jerks , mice are not)  He also changes the story  to a more modern small town , over run with mice (sports mice).

                                 

     The mice dance in victory of their kill/ Copyright Peanuts

  Charlie Brown , Sally, Linus , and Lucy follow a TV crew to city hall where Charlie Brown tells the mayor (who's approval rating is probably down due to mice problem) he knows someone who lead the mice away from the town.  Funny hidden joke when the mayor's sectary turns him away  she tells him why don't come back when you are fifty years old, the Peanuts were around for 50 years by this point so ... joke on her.   Eventually , Charlie Brown does get to talk to the mayor and suggest his help. The Pied Piper ,(Snoopy).
                                                   

                                The mayor has  a strict wear red and white policy/ Copyright Peanuts

 The desperate mayor agrees to have Snoopy (the Pied Piper) get to work he even signs Snoopy's contract.  (Politics at work?)  Snoopy plays his  Concertina and he leads the mice in a merry melody and leads the mice out of town.  (Though, apparently the city has a low cat population, darn it Bob Barker )  Then Charlie Brown , Snoopy , and some kids there to help Snoopy  all go the mayor to collect his reward. The mayor decides he  doesn't think he promised such a thing even  dis-owning that the contract is real and not even owning up to signing it. (In other words , he's a politician)
  Charlie Brown warns the mayor  that folks that don't pay a promise will pay in other ways.   Snoopy plays his instrument again  and the mayor and pals all get enamored and follow Snoopy out of town , never to be seen again. (Hey Snoopy , we have a job for you, we will keep our promise)   Charlie tells his sister  the moral of the story, to keep your promises.  Sally doesn't believe anything like that can happen in real life when  : Charlie Brown and Sally hear music outside and see Linus , Lucy, Peppermint Patty , and Franklin all dancing around Snoopy's dog house as he is playing his instrument.  Lucy begs Charlie Brown to make him stop.

  That's our look at this special , it's a quite interesting one , fun to see the Peanuts characters playing  an interesting story. (War and  Peace Peanuts would have rocked)   The music  in the special is a fun mixture of Irish sounding, country, anda few other sounds. It's  a nice special  based off the story.