We all love the Christmas season: the gifts, the music, and the iconic movies involving the holiday add magic to the year. However, one movie that I remember the most was A Charlie Brown Christmas. From the simplistic style of the animation to the wholesome message of the story It turned into a must-watch Christmas movie for families all around the world!
By the 1960s, Charles M. Shultz’s comic strip The Peanuts became a huge success which had gotten the attention of Lee Mendleson. They both agreed that they wanted to work on a film that was around half an hour long. So they hired animator Bill Melendez since he had worked with Shultz on Ford Motor Company commercials featuring The Peanuts gang. So all three of them tried to find a sponsor to fund the project which Coca-Cola was interested in doing but they needed to pitch the whole special in 5 days. So all of them came up with an ideal 30-minute film consisting of winter scenes, a school play, a scene to be read from the bible, and a soundtrack combining jazz and traditional music.
When the special was finished nearly everyone who worked on it hated it and when they showed the film to the network executives in New York it also had a negative response. Most of the complaints were that I was “slow-paced” and that the animation was “too simple”. But the executives invited television critic Richard Burgheim of Time Magazine to review it. He reportedly loved it and praised it. The special was released on CBS on December 9th, 1965 at 7:30 ET and was viewed by 45% of people watching TV at the time. And it turned out to be a huge hit with families all across the county! Many people love the simple and cute message of the special and the adorable and charming characters featured in it. Many people hail it as one of the greatest pieces of Christmas media of all time. And with the smooth and relaxing soundtrack made by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. I could understand why people would make such a big statement like that. There is nothing to hate about the special
It’s just very simple and it just executes everything perfectly. And now we should just all relax and get all our loved ones around us and just watch A Charlie Brown Christmas.
