Watch Charlie Brown's All-Stars! For Free

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Good movie but grossly overrated

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Charlie Brown's baseball team is horrible and his whole team blames him. It's the start of a new season. After another embarrassing loss, everybody quits to do something fun for the summer. Hardware store owner Mr. Hennessey offers to sponsor the baseball team. The team reunites for the promise of uniforms. Hennessey then withdraws since girls and dog are forbidden in the league. Charlie Brown keeps the secret to himself. The team does a lot better but Charlie Brown's bonehead play loses the game. Everybody blames him until Linus reveals the secret. The team makes a manager's uniform for Charlie Brown out of Linus' blanket.This takes a large section of the Peanuts world and sets it for the second TV special after "A Charlie Brown Christmas". It suffers by comparison. It tries to have a lesson but it doesn't work as well. The message is a little muddled. It also doesn't have anything iconic like the Charlie Brown tree or The Great Pumpkin. It's fine for loser Charlie but it needs to say something more beautiful about losing.

"Charlie Brown's All Stars!" is the rare occasion of a Charlie Brown sports movie. Just like the others, it runs for 25 minutes, was written by Charles M. Schulz and directed by Bill Melendez. This was is going to have its 50th anniversary next year, so it's one of the very early Charlie Brown films from the 1960s. And it's all about baseball. The bunch keep losing their games because Charlie Brown simply sucks at the game and not even great plays by Snoopy (voiced by Melendez himself) and the red-haired girl cheering for Charlie can make him a winner here. So, it's all set for Charlie's usual depressed state. Apart from that, it is also about new team uniforms and a lesson on friendship at the ending. At 9-10 minutes, this may have been a good watch, but at almost 30, this 2-time Emmy-nominated piece sadly isn't. Really drags occasionally and Charlie standing at each base for ages and talking instead of running is just the most unrealistic thing ever. Not recommended.

If you're a fan of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," "Charlie Brown's All-Stars" will not disappoint. It has the heart and warmth of the other two, a sweet story and the feel of Charles Shultz's comic strip, a quality that seemed to diminish after the first three episodes. Maybe it's just me, but everything after "The Great Pumpkin" Charlie Brown specials seemed forced and lightweight.I watched "All Stars" with my family last night when it was paired with "The Easter Beagle." Nobody sat still during Easter Beagle, but all were seated and laughing during All-Stars. For me, everything came together for the first three specials; a sweet and solid story with a nice message, great Vince Guaraldi jazz and voices that suited the Peanuts characters wonderfully; particularly the voices of Charlie Brown and Linus. I read that one of the producers had heard Peter Robbins' voice in a mall and knew immediately that he would be perfect for Charlie Brown. They credit his voice and characterization as one of the reasons the Christmas special was so effective.

Charlie Brown playing baseball must have been established with this program.I always wondered why toy figures of Charlie Brown had him in a baseball cap.I remember this program, and likewise, I remember the accompanying storybook (Charlie Brown and Linus on the pitcher's mound in the rain at the end was effective).Lately, ABC has realized that airing new Christmas or Valentines Day specials simply makes fans go 'what happened to the old one?' so now they air Charlie Brown as a full hour, the old one accompanying the new one.Works for me.I hadnt seen the Easter one in DECADES, do you hear me!!! All Stars aired in connection with the old Easter one, so I sat and watched it.It seemed incredibly crudely done, but as I watched it, I realized which one it was.From there, I was then very amazed by the story.Charlie Brown wasn't as easily defeated here (which was the way he sort of began in the comic strips, kind of like Sluggo to Lucy's Nancy, or Tubby to Lucy's Little Lulu).This time, he took the slings and arrows from his 'friends' with a bit more endurance.What makes this one so funny is they were really sending some ammunition his way! Lucy: "Don't expect us to be doing all that cheering from the outfield. 'Yay, Charlie Brown! You can do it! You're a great pitcher, Charlie Brown!' -- Fact is, you can't do it, Charlie Brown, and you aren't that good a pitcher. That makes us hypocrites. You wouldn't want us to be hypocrites, would you, Charlie Brown?" Sherman: "I don't like being on a losing team, Charlie Brown. It's depressing. You're different. You seem to get some satisfaction from losing." Something like that.I remember many of the situations and jokes from the comics."Slide, Charlie Brown, Slide" was actually the title of one of the reprint books.Yet this episode was made wholly unique when Charlie Brown got a store to sponsor the team with uniforms, then was told he would have to remove the girls and Snoopy from the team.Charlie Brown couldn't do it and the team turned on him.Only later did they learn why and feel utterly crushed.I don't think at any time Charlie Brown has made such a supreme sacrifice for his ungrateful friends and likewise they in turn sought to make amends to the ol' blockhead.Which then brought us to the ending.Devotion.That's what you can say about our boy named Charlie Brown.Devotion.