Sunday 30 October 2011

The Great Pumpkin

I usually watch horror movies during Halloween, but there is one movie I try to watch every year, which is all about Halloween and is not a horror movie, not even scary, yet I think it captures the season oh so perfectly. Other fans of Charles M. Schulz probably know that I am talking of course about It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. There is everything and more in it: the automnal atmosphere, leaves falling down, the fiery colours, the whole childhood rituals of Halloween, rendered perfectly, a little bit of playful fear, plenty of Jack O'Lanterns, a bit of World War 1 recreation with Snoopy fighting the Red Baron (I think Schulz wanted to remind people about Rememberance Day), the little relentless cruelties of childhood (Schulz was a master at depicting them) and of course the Great Pumpkin, which is quite a profound concept. You can read more about it here. But even if you don't care about profound themes of cartoons, you can enjoy this one as a seasonal treat. Here are the first minutes:

2 comments:

suzanne said...

A classic! I've loved this since childhood. :)

PJ said...

Il faudrait pouvoir trouver la version en français (traduite au Québec) qui n'est pas disponible sur DVD, parce que ça reste la version de notre enfance.