Sometimes things don't have happy endings that can be wrapped up with happiness.
"Be my Valentine, Charlie Brown" is the 13th Peanuts special in cannon. It first aired on January 28th 1975. In order of holiday specials it came 9 years after the Christmas special, 8 years after the Halloween special, a little over year after the Thanksgiving special and months after the Easter special. Peanuts the comics and some other specials have dealt with the theme of love before as well.
It starts even with Charlie Brown waiting by his mailbox for Valentines to pour in. Linus feels that his teacher "likes" him and also this special puts Sally and Linus in the same class because reasons. Linus has fallen in love ,innocently enough, with his teacher Ms.Othmar. Thus our main two plots are set. Lucy and Schroeder also have their parts in this , of course Lucy wants Schroeder to "notice" her. We already know that this special won't change their status quo. Linus decides to buy large heart shaped box of candy for his teacher and this is an expensive. Violet says that it's not a good idea to fall in love with your teacher. (We know where this special is going already, thank you very much Violet.) Sally who has a large crush on Linus finds that he has bought that large heart-shaped box of candy. Her idea is to get him something now.
You don't have mail/ Copyright Peanuts
Now that the plots are set, this special does need to fill in that run time and some humor before we all get crushed. (get it?) Snoopy's puppet show is fun. The whole sequence is fun to see Snoopy do this one dog puppet show and also just get Lucy wet, muddy, hit with garbage, hit by puppets, and wetted again. There's also a fun Valentine making segment which also shows us Charlie Brown being a good older brother to Sally, and of course Snoopy is not an average dog and can craft things like a witch.
Lucy are you alright? / Copyright Peanuts
Now it's time for pain. It's equally sad to see that Charlie Brown made people Valentines only where he doesn't get any from anyone. Also they had to use some stock characters hence Peppermint Patty, Franklin , Marcie showing up in the shots. It's crushing to see Charlie Brown hoping so well, and he even tells Schroeder he has a suit case to hold in all his Valentines. Meanwhile, Sally gets crushed because that box of candy isn't for her. I also love how there's scene where Sally reads this really long poem on a candy heart. (You can watch here) Violet notices that Charlie Brown didn't get a Valentine and she asks some others if they sent him one. Linus also gets his heart crushed when he finds out the love we know couldn't be done anyway is not requited because the teacher already has a boyfriend. He's not happy and ends up throwing the candy in a rage piece by piece into a water way. (They added in Snoopy eating the chocolate to lighten it) The mood you can feel, it's depressing and you kind of feel for Linus. Poor Charlie Brown takes out his anger as well.
The next day, the girls decide to give Charlie Brown some Valentines (reused ones). I would say their hearts were kind of in the right space. Schroeder's defense of Charlie Brown is great, I loved it even though , CB kind of messes up by being desperate. As I wrote above Sometimes things don't have happy endings that can be wrapped up with happiness. It does end with Charlie Brown being optomisic though because that's who he is and always strives that next time will be better. The credits in this special is cool too because Snoopy does puppets of the people featured in them.
Much like "The Great Pumpkin" the first airing of the episode resulted in people sending in Valentine's for ole Charlie Brown.
It's kind of a dower special that doesn't make it bad and the comedy moments know when to be placed to keep from being a drag. They did a good job of showing the viewers the sad part of love that many would experience at some point. Charlie Brown's eternal optimism continues through this whole special where you do feel quite bad for him and makes you hope the best for him. Also, we also know that Linus' love wasn't going to be requited and you know what going to happen at the end but it's innocent and makes you feel for the guy when he's throwing those chocolates in frustration in the water. (Also, I want the chocolate)
That's our look, tune in next time when we tell you not to give dogs chocolate.
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