DVD Review: You’re a Good Sport, Charlie Brown

Movie Info:
Writer: Charles M. Schulz
Director: Phil Roman
Cast: Duncan Watson, Melanie Kohn, Stuart Brotman, Jimmy Ahrens, Gail Davis, Liam Martin, Bill Melendez
Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Warner Home Video

Release Info:
Original Release Date: October 28, 1975
DVD Release Date: January 27, 2009
Online Availability: Amazon for $14.99

I’ve quite enjoyed how Warner Home Video has released a new Charlie Brown DVD every few months. Charlie Brown is huge in my house. My son, CT, has loved Charlie Brown since he was only 2-3 years old. As a teenager now, he still loves the Peanuts gang. Now that my nephew Lil B is old enough to appreciate Charlie Brown and the gang, he too loves the Peanuts DVDs we’ve been receiving for review.

Of course, the Charlie Brown love extends as far back as my brother and I, to the 1970s and 1980s, when many of these specials were first being released. I was born in 1978, so I grew up with Peanuts on television and in my local newspaper. I read the comics in the paper every Sunday and I made sure to catch the specials every time they aired on television. Snoopy has always been one of my favorite cartoon characters.

When I was sent You’re a Good Sport, Charlie Brown, I knew what to expect content wise. I’ve seen this special before though neither my son or my nephew had. I sat the boys down and we watched this together as a family. While the boys enjoyed this DVD immensely, they both stated this wasn’t their favorite Peanuts special. Lil B loves the Peanuts Christmas specials while CT loves The special about the Great Pumpkin. Still, they were more than willing to watch this DVD again and again.

All of the Peanuts specials are great for children. They have great messages, are funny, and deal with issues that all kids can relate to while watching. They also entertain the entire family. Snoopy is just a scream. As he interacts with the humans and with Woodstock your kids can delight in the pleasure of watching this one of a kind dog. I always wanted a dog like Snoopy. Instead I got a beast of a dog name Chucky (named after Child’s Play — and with good reason). I don’t think they make dogs as cool as Snoopy. He’s pretty much one of a kind.

The You’re a Good Sport, Charlie Brown Plot
You’re a Good Sport, Charlie Brown is one of the less familiar Peanuts television specials. I’ve only seen it a few times and my son, a huge Charlie Brown and Peanuts fan, had never seen it at all. It’s nice that Warner is putting out some of the lesser known Peanuts specials on DVD, so we can add them to our collection with the more popular options like “Great Pumpkin”, “Easter Beagle” and a “Peanuts Christmas.”

You’re a Good Sport, Charlie Brown is about sports, as you might have guessed. It starts with Snoopy on a tennis court. All starts out well when he uses a button to dispense balls from an automatic ball machine, but when the machine malfunctions, going out of control, the balls start hitting him, as Snoopy whines for help. At the same tennis court, Sally and Linus plan to play. Unfortunately, all the courts are full with big kids. When Sally tells the big kids to share the courts or Linus will beat them up, Linus runs away.

In the meantime, Snoopy is playing a fast paced game of tennis. He tries his hardest, but his opponent is too hard to beat. They go back and forth with Snoopy catching up, but always a step behind. In the end, Snoopy loses and we find out his opponent is actually Woodstock. The scene shifts to Charlie Brown. He’s playing football with Linus and Lucy is trying to get him to place kick so she can pull the ball out on him. Peppermint Patty soon arrives on her new motorbike. She invites everyone to the Motocross tournament. Linus is convinced he can train Charlie Brown to win this Motocross event.

Linus and Charlie Brown pool their money together, to purchase a motorbike. It’s a poor quality bike, but it’s all they can afford. Both take great pride in their purchase. By now, it is time for the race. Patty is sure she’ll win, but she has stiff competition with “The Masked Marvel” aka Snoopy in the race. When Charlie Brown and Snoopy wipe out right away, they are taken to the vet and the hospital though the ambulance switches them around. When Charlie Brown escapes from the vets, he takes Snoopy from the hospital back to the race. With no helmet, Linus gives Charlie Brown a pumpkin to wear on his head, and the race continues until the best man wins!

There is a second episode included on this DVD. This episode is You’re the Greatest, Charlie Brown. This was done in 1979 and it was the last Peanuts special to air in the 1970s. This special is also about sports, which is why it was included on the Good Sport DVD. While both of these episodes are around 30 years old, they have held up amazingly well!

In the summertime, Charlie Brown’s family chooses not to go on vacation. Instead, he decides to enter the Junior Olympics on his school’s team. The only event he can enter is the decathlon. Charlie Brown knows this is going to be a lot of hard work, so Peppermint Patty decides to train him. The training is rigorous and Charlie isn’t exactly the best athlete out there. Peppermint Patty continues to encourage him, but she also has Marcy join the team so that their school has a hope of winning.

The day of the decathlon comes. The competition is stiff. Besides Marcie, Charlie has to take on Freddie Fabulous, the defending champ of this event from a school called Fremont, and a mysterious student from the Ace Obedience School, “The Masked Marvel” who is really Snoopy in disguise. Patty and the rest of the gang are sure that Charlie is destined to lose. When he does better than they expect, they begin to rethink the way they’ve been treating him and how they view Charlie Brown.

Storyline/Plot:
Replayability:
Acting:
Directing:

Audio/Visual:
You’re a Good Sport, Charlie Brown is shown in the original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. For the most part things really do look good here. There are some occasional specks and there are some moments when you can see that this is just not something brand new. However, it never looks truly old. Kids will love it. There are plenty of bright colors and the detail is fairly defined. It could have been cleaned up a little bit, but all in all it’s not looking too bad. It’s obviously been remastered and though it could look a little better, there isn’t much to complain about.

Dolby Digital Mono is normally nothing to brag about, but it sounds just fine for Charlie Brown. It’s a children’s cartoon so it doesn’t need to be stellar audio. It just needs to be easy to hear and understand. The music sounds fabulous and the dialogue is crystal clear, so there is really nothing to complain about. Tracks are also included in Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese. Subtitles are available in Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Thai.

Visual:
Audio:

Bonus Features:
The main special feature here, assuming you don’t count the second episode, is a twelve minute featurette called, “Dust Yourself Off and Pick Yourself Up, Charlie Brown.” It is both fun and interesting to hear from Schulz’s son, the now man (then boy) that had a hobby that inspired the Good Sport show in the first place. Some historians weigh in and an author is heard from as well. Some previews are also offered, but other than that not much is here.

Bonus Features:

Bottom Line:
Everyone in our house loves the Peanuts gang. Whether your child loves Charlie Brown and the gang or not you should pick this up for them. You’re a Good Sport, Charlie Brown might be a great way to introduce less familiar children to the Peanuts series of television specials. The lessons about perseverance and good sportsmanship are important for kids to learn and for its age, the quality of this DVD is excellent. On the whole, You’re a Good Sport, Charlie Brown comes highly recommended.

Overall Rating:

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Written by Ashtyn Evans – Visit Website
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Ashtyn is in her early 30s. She is a mother, writer, college student, and music lover. Ashtyn has had a successful career as a writer since 2003. She turned to blogging in 2005. Ashtyn attends Wright State where she is getting a degree in Psychology. She has extensive knowledge in SEO and Social Media Development.