WARNING: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!
The Peanuts gang can no longer take Snoopy's mischievous behavior anymore, therefore causing them to demand Charlie Brown to tame him. He sends Snoopy to the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm to learn discipline, however rather than escorting him there himself (I'm not sure if this kid even has parents. And god knows where his little sister Sally is in this whole affair) he lets Snoopy go out on his own telling him to spend the night at Peppermint Patty's house during the trip. Why does he spend the night there since she doesn't live that far away from Charlie? Because of plot purposes. Snoopy decides to stay a Peppermint Patty's house (big shock) instead. Though he has thoughts of returning to his master, he can't for feeling no longer loved by him.
The story may sound simple and cute that would lead to many great laughs and moments of emotion, but I received so little of it, where I instead found myself having an unpleasant experience that I don't wish to witness again. When giving the synopsis, I haven't at all touched upon the special's mean-spirited nature through its story-line (explaining why I'm giving away spoilers!). In the other specials as rude as Snoopy can be at times, he never did any real harm, he was just behaving more like an obnoxious child that was hard to control. In this special, he's a flat-out bully. He harasses the kids, beats-them up, throws them around, and selfishly takes advantage of their hospitality. The worst part is, he shows full enjoyment for his cruel actions through his sinister grin, showing no care of how it's affecting the people around him. The special tries to some-what justify some of his actions by having him pretend that he's at war with the Red Baron once again, except when he played pretend in "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" he didn't go around attacking them. There's really no reason to why Snoopy is behaving mean.
It doesn't help that some of the characters act just mean as he is. To be fair their reasons for acting harshly towards Snoopy aren't unwarranted. Charlie Brown doesn't want to harm Snoopy, it's just that Snoopy's refusal to leave for the Puppy Farm has pushed him to behave a little stricter. The same goes to Peppermint Patty's rebel against Snoopy's behavior due to being treated like a servant. However, it is still painful to watch Snoopy practically get strangled as he's being pulled by the leash, and suffer post-traumatic stress disorder from it. Throughout the middle of the special, he wants to return to his old master, only he suffers from his traumatizing thoughts of him being pulled by the leash that prevents him from doing so. And when Charlie Brown returns to bring Snoopy home after giving him a big hug, he brings the leash with him intending to strap it on him, causing Snoopy to have a break-down from the pain he suffered when wearing it. I get that Charlie Brown is unaware at how much harm it brings to Snoopy, but given how this dog has so much of a will of his own (acting just like the other kids, only he's a different species) and seeing how much it scars him, it would be just as bad as seeing one of Charlie's friends get this kind of treatment.
Frankly, the whole situation involving the leash, while still unpleasant to watch the trauma and pain that Snoopy goes through, at least the reason is a little more justifiable when compared to Patty's. When Snoopy returns to Peppermint Patty's house after the whole leash situation, Patty sets ground rules based on Snoopy's last visit. At first, it sounds reasonable, until we find ourselves seeing Peppermint Patty act exactly like how Snoopy was earlier. She never treats Snoopy as a guest or a friend, but more as a servant, forcing him to take on every single chore in the house as we watch him sweat. Patty doesn't once do her part in handling the chores. If anything, she just sits on her butt all day doing her own thing as she bosses Snoopy around. She says that everyone must help with the work around the house, but the only person working in the house is Snoopy, what does she do that's productive? If Snoopy should fail to finish doing his work (without any breaks) she'll forbid him to have supper, to eventually forcing him to sleep on the garage floor instead of a cozy bed for messing things up. And as if she can't get any worse, she thinks that Snoopy is a weird-looking kid. She's not treating him poorly because he's an animal (which is still bad), this is how she would treat her own friends if they get on her bad side, making her actions worse than Charlie Brown's. Seriously what kind of person would treat their "friend" as a worthless slave?!
Maybe this can all be forgiven if the characters learn a lesson about bullying and grow from it if handled correctly. We've seen everybody mock and get angry at Charlie Brown for his actions, to learning in the end to appreciate his good deeds realizing that they were wrong in specials like "Charlie Brown's All-Stars" and "A Charlie Brown Christmas". Only the saddest part of the whole special is that nobody learns or changes at the end (for the right reasons). Snoopy still acts like a jackass, abuses everybody, and the characters happily rejoice upon his return acting as if they were the ones in the wrong and that Snoopy's bullying behavior was right! I feel so incredibly dirty that this is how the special ends. How is anybody supposed to find the kids enjoying Snoopy's abuse charming? Nobody should find his harmful actions tolerable if anything they should have just kicked him out until he learns the errors of his ways. But to be fair, it's hard to really pick a side because the kid's act just as horrible as he is. Given how neither side is perfect there could've been some kind of thoughtful commentary towards bullying regarding how the victim can be just as bad as the bully to bring some kind of method to this madness. Unfortunately, this special wants us to feel bad that Charlie Brown and Snoopy have parted ways that the special fails to capture! The cartoon seems more focused on emphasizing its mean-spirited nature than it is trying to get us emotionally invested. All the scenes of the characters mopping don't at all feel like their given the same kind of attention as previous scenes were in the other cartoons. They just show up blandly expressing how they miss him for about a few seconds and cut to the next scene. Even the whole happy reunion with Snoopy and Charlie Brown (the second time) didn't feel earned since none of them apologize before rejoicing. It's like Charles M. Schulz just wrote the jokes before writing the plot to tie all of these bits together to give the Special some kind of narrative as he paid little attention to the substance.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
All the qualities found in the previous Peanuts cartoons are still here, such as its laid-back music, stilted but charming voice acting, and its simplistic yet unique animation style (the only cringe-worthy parts is the obvious use of stock footage from other specials for how long they drag out to fill for time). Admittedly there are a few laughs to be had as well. But none of that, and I mean none of that doesn't take away for how unsavory the story-line is. I never thought in my life I would find a Peanuts cartoon to be this offensive! But I was incredibly wrong! There's nothing to learn or gain from it except that we should never hold ourselves accountable for our bad behavior because people will eventually appreciate it with open arms! I am not sickened by this horrible message aimed for kids. I'm utterly disturbed! Disturbed that the special tells kids to accept bullying than rejecting it, and somehow earning itself a nomination for a Primetime Emmy for it! I suppose every long running franchise has to have it's one rotten apple filled with maggots; this is certainly the one. God help me if I find another Peanuts special that's worse than this!
No comments:
Post a Comment