You're NOT Elected, Charlie Brown: Remastered Deluxe Edition
An Overlooked Peanuts Classic
DVD Review by Jon Cooke
 |
|
|
The special opens as Charlie Brown's elementary school is holding its annual election for class president. Charlie thinks about running, but Lucy quickly dashes those hopes when she reveals she has done polling that says Chuck wouldn't have ANY chance of winning. Instead, Linus decides to run against fellow classmate Russell Anderson. What follows is a series of lighthearted jabs at the election/campaigning process that still remain very much relevant today... such as Lucy making Linus appear on a radio talk show run by Snoopy and (in his TV debut) Woodstock. Snoopy also makes many funny appearances throughout the special as his "Joe Cool" alter ego. In the end, Linus becomes a laughingstock after ranting and raving about the Great Pumpkin at the final presidential debate... but will it spoil his chances of winning? Kids and adults are all likely to get some chuckles out of the whole thing. Based on a storyline that appeared in the Peanuts newspaper strip in 1964, this special is full of creator Charles Schulz's trademark humor.
The disc also contains the home video debut of a 2006 special, He's a Bully, Charlie Brown. I had never seen or heard of this special before and, being created so long after the death of Schulz, I wasn't expecting too much. However, this special has enough of that Peanuts spirit for me to give it a passing grade. Apparently based on an idea pitched by Schulz before his death (and based on some strip storylines from the late 1980s/early 1990s), this special has the whole gang heading to summer camp (except Peppermint Patty, who gets stuck at summer school). At camp, Linus and Lucy's little brother, Rerun, encounters a marble-playing bully named Joe Agate. This special features a rather surprising happy ending for ol' Charlie Brown. While some all-too-obvious computer-aided animation and coloring does rob the special of some of the charm of the originals, it wasn't too distracting overall.
In the bonus feature department, like WB's previous Peanuts discs, is a lone 15-minute featurette about the making of the special. I have to hand it to the people who are putting these things together, these little featurettes are very interesting and feature an impressive array of comics and animation experts, relatives of Charles Schulz, original voices (now all grown up), and folks involved with the specials themselves. I am glad they managed to record these interviews with Bill Melendez before his recent passing. He played a big role in how well these cartoons came out. An interesting piece of trivia revealed during this feature is that the special originally broadcast with the title You're Elected, Charlie Brown but was changed on all future broadcasts after viewers pointed out that the title didn't make any sense (since Charlie doesn't even run for anything in the show, let alone get elected!)
Picture quality is very good throughout the disc. Looks like an all-new transfer compared to the old Paramount release. Filling out the DVD are the normal assortment of Warner Home Video DVD trailers (this time around for titles such as Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Vol. 6 and The Smurfs, Vol. 2). It also comes in the same attractive slip-cover packaging as all the other Warner/Peanuts DVDs, so this will look fine with the others on your shelf.
This DVD is definitely worth a look (especially within the next month or so). You're NOT Elected ranks as a better-than-average entry in the Peanuts canon and it is paired with a much more modern effort that is fun as well. Plus, the bonus featurette is well worth watching. Overall it is a nice package at an affordable price. It gets my vote.
