Peanuts
Emmy Honored Collection
(1976 - 1990/Warner DVD Set)/Sesame
Street: Play All Day With Elmo
(2015/Warner DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C/C+ Extras: D/C+ Main Programs: B/C+
Here's
a good set of new child titles...
The
Peanuts Emmy Honored Collection
(1976 - 1990) brings together some less talked about, but still fun
and smart specials Charles Schultz made over the years that reminds
us that their output goes far beyond the holiday classics that
launched what remains the most successful series of animated specials
in TV history. Over 2 DVDs, most of these specials were issued as
part of other DVD releases (save a couple debuting here to our
knowledge) and include...
You're
the Greatest, Charlie Brown
She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown
It's
Magic, Charlie Brown
Someday You'll Find Her, Charlie Brown
Is
this Goodbye, Charlie Brown?
Life is a Circus, Charlie Brown
What
Have We Learned, Charlie Brown?
It's Flashbeagle, Charlie
Brown
Snoopy's Getting Married, Charlie Brown
Why, Charlie
Brown, Why?
You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown
These
all hold up very well, especially in the cases where I had not seen
them in decades. You might expect Flashbeagle to be the weak
one here, but the makers took advantage of the trend, had fun with it
and took it as an opportunity to make it a musical show with several
genres of music. However, it is Marine Jahan, who choreographed the
hit Flashdance movie for star Jennifer Beals, et al, did the
same for Snoopy and a friend of Franklin's making it the first time
in animated history we saw breakdancing, breaking or any form of hip
hop animated.
However,
the real gem making its long overdue debut here is Why, Charlie
Brown, Why?, the most underrated of all Peanuts specials where
Charlie Brown and Linus wonder why a new female student suddenly did
not show up at school. Linus is especially taken by her, so when she
turns out to be sick, he is not only hurt, but finds himself fighting
for her against all the prejudice, stigmas and even potential hate
steaming from her illness. As a moral center backing what he
believes, it is his finest hour of so many and brilliant television
and animated storytelling at its best. So much so that it alone
justifies buying the whole set. Excellent!!!
There
are sadly no extras.
Sesame
Street: Play All Day With Elmo
(2015) is the latest Elmo entry that offers the main program, then
adds bonus features about as long, full length episodes Simon
Says and Elmo's
Word Games in this case.
This is a good set and child friendly as always, but the sum total
did not have the impact some of the other DVDs in the series had for
me. However, I know I am not the target audience and children
(especially Elmo fans) are more likely to enjoy this in
rewatchability than I, but I still though many of the others just
worked a bit more.
The
1.33 X 1 across all DVDs (35mm film for Peanuts, video for
Elmo) look about as good as they can for the format and the
Peanuts Blu-rays already issued made me think how much even better
those specials could look, but we have few aliasing errors here and
the prints are in pretty good shape. The Peanuts shows have
all been upgraded from their original mono and stereo TV
presentations to lossy Dolby Digital 5.1, but some have not
benefitted as much as others and in those weaker cases, where are the
original soundmasters? The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Elmo
can compete as a result.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
