Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey, everyone! Depending on when you read this post, I hope you’re about to have, currently having, or have already had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I’m here with Erin, and we’re going to meet up with her family later for a get-together at her sister-in-law’s church, followed by dinner.

My family will be having their usual Thanksgiving feast, and I’ll give them a call later to talk to everyone, even though my sister steadfastly refused my request to save me a piece of her chocolate raspberry rum cake.

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Since I reviewed the deluxe edition of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown during the Halloween Party, and since I have every intention of reviewing the deluxe edition of A Charlie Brown Christmas during the Christmas Party, I thought I’d give you my thoughts today on the deluxe edition of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Like the other DVDs in the series, the cartoon has been digitally remastered and cleaned up, so it looks wonderful. I’ve always thought this was kind of underappreciated in the canon of Peanuts holiday specials. True, it’s not as great as the Christmas or Halloween specials, but it’s still a sweet little cartoon, about Peppermint Patty inviting herself and several others over to Charlie Brown’s house for Thanksgiving dinner, despite the fact that he can’t cook and he’s already got plans to visit his grandmother.

Snoopy takes on the chef duties, resulting in a most unique dinner. When Peppermint Patty is less than pleased, leave it to ol’ Linus to step up and remind them all what Thanksgiving is really about.

I was a little disappointed that the back-up cartoon on this one is The Mayflower Voyagers, the same cartoon as the original DVD release. (When you add the fact that this is also available on the This is America, Charlie Brown DVD, that means that I now own that particular cartoon three times). Again, the presentation is superior to any previous release, but it’s the same thing.

The real selling point of the DVD, as with most of these Deluxe Editions, is the short making-of documentary Popcorn and Jellybeans, which got a little into the production of the cartoon. There’s a lot of intriguing information here — the fact that Peppermint Patty was actually voiced by a boy, that they had to use an adult’s voice instead of the traditional children for Charlie Brown’s “AAAAAAAUGH!,” and the fact that at least one of the producers of the cartoon was just as creeped out as I was by the fact that Woodstock was sitting there gobbling up turkey at the end.

Without a new bonus cartoon, my recommendation for this is going to have to be split. If you don’t have the original DVD release, you have to get this one. If you do have it, though, then it’s really only necessary for the hardcore Peanuts fans.

Like me.

Happy Thanksgiving, friends! And come back tomorrow for the first entry in the 2008 Evertime Realms Christmas Party!