Why Charlie Brown, Why?



Not all cartoons are made equal. Not all cartoon TV specials are made equal either. Why Charlie Brown, Why? is one of those special ones that stands alone. Made in 1990, Why Charlie Brown, Why? tells the story of Janice, a little girl who is in the same class as Linus and Charlie Brown at school who becomes ill with leukaemia. It was the first time that an animated TV special discussed childhood cancer. It is also one of the most accurate depictions I personally have ever seen of what it is like for a kid to watch helplessly as one of their friends becomes seriously ill. Some of the things Linus experiences while he watches his friend become are so accurate I felt at times that the writers and producers were discussing my own childhood experiences, when, sadly one of my close friends developed cancer. (While my friend, Melanie, or Mel as we used to call her, passed away, Janice's future is much brighter.)

We see Linus as he goes through fear for his friend, a visit to the hospital and his inability to understand how such a terrible thing could happen to anyone. (It is then that he mutters the words, "Why Charlie Brown, Why?") Lucy worries that cancer is contagious. Then we see Janice begin to recover and get teased for her baldness by another child who does not understand about cancer. There is a moment when Linus visits Janice's sisters and discover that they are going through some pretty heavy duty emotions as well--they are jealous of the attention that their sister is receiving, but are also scared for her and feel bad for feeling any jealousy at all--which are quite normal and understandable emotions for kids whose siblings are seriously ill. Janice suffers a relapse but is eventually cured. Her hair grows back (though surprisingly quick,) and she and Linus are able to play on the swings once more. And that is where the episode ends. Oh and we gets to see Snoopy do a few silly things and listen to Sally complain about everything. There are a few goofs in the episode as well--notably Peppermint Patty is show as being in the same class as Linus and Janice, when it is known that she, Marcie and Franklin all attend a different school in the comics. And you get to actually hear grown up voices on the PA at the hospital. And Linus does not mention his blanket. But those are pretty small pay offs for what is a very insightful special. Unsurprisingly, according to wikipedia, the special is often shown in schools and hospitals to help educate kids about childhood cancers.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Peppermint Patty: I Cried and Cried and Cried

Image
Unrequited love is a common theme in the Peanuts Comics and is one that I have previously explored on this blog. We know that Lucy loves Schroeder, Sally loves Linus and Charlie Brown has a crush on the unseen, unnamed and utterly unattainable Little Redhaired Girl. But perhaps the saddest unrequited love stories from the comic is that which ran in late June 1972. It was the series of strips where the usually self-confident Peppermint Patty came face-to-face with the Little Redhaired Girl with the intention of thumping her and then something surprising happened: Here we have a usually self-confident girl, who is funny, unashamedly herself and talented at sports reduced to tears by the realisation of who she is not and never can be. I really feel for her in this series of comic strips. She knows that Charlie Brown can never love her, when he is so hung up over a girl who represents a supposedly ideal feminine beauty. Fortunately Linus, the most spiritual member of the Pean
Read more

Charlie Brown, Lucy Van Pelt and the Football

Image
One of the longest, and arguably, most infuriating, running gags in Charles Schulz's otherwise brilliant Peanuts comic strip, is where Lucy promises to hold a football for Charlie Brown and then pulls it away at the last minute, causing Charlie Brown to fall flat on his back. A typical strip looks like this: Source: Go Comics The gag is one of the darker themes in the strip. It works on the concept that every year, Lucy promises to hold a football for Charlie Brown. Every year, Charlie Brown is initially filled with doubt but is eventually pushed on by a kind of optimism that perhaps, this time, Lucy might just let him kick it after all. As a metaphor for life, it is pretty simple. It talks of the moments when we choose to put our trust in people who have let us down only to be taken by surprise when they let us down, again. Lucy is, arguably, one of the crueller characters in the comic. Described as crabby by the other characters, she is often selfish, takes delight in wilfully hu
Read more

Phrases and Idioms: Tickets on Himself

To have tickets on himself: (Australian slang.) To be conceited or vain. To have an overinflated opinion of oneself.  He's got tickets on himself if he thinks that any woman would fall for that. I was thinking about this particular bit of Australian slang the other day, after my boss said, "He's got tickets on himself," to describe the actions of a particular individual. At the time, I smiled, knowing exactly what the boss meant. Later on, I started to ponder on this unusual phrase and wondered where it might have come from. A search on google helped me find the definition, but that was about all. There are no references to it being used in pop culture or literature (if you find one, let me know,) and at the time of writing this post, Tickets on Himself was not listed on Urban Dictionary. (I tried to add it, but the fuckers rejected my definition. They probably think I have tickets on myself or something for trying to add a relatively common piece of A
Read more