Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales (2002)

Good movie but grossly overrated

An action-packed slog

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

"Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales" is a television short film from the early 2000s and somewhat different compared to other Peanuts short films. First of all, there are several short films in here that all have no connection to each other, apart from the Christmas reference. Also this one only runs for 17 minutes, which is a bit shorter than they usually do. This was one of the first Peanuts short films that were made after the death of writer Charles M. Schulz. The voice actors in here have appeared in live action projects as well and that's also a difference, especially compared to the early days of Charlie Brown and company, where most of the kids never appeared on anything else. Still, none of them are famous like Taylor Lautner or Fergie for example. At least I am not familiar with any of the names. And, all in all, I think this is among the weaker Peanuts films. They recycled many references from old films for traditional purposes, but the new aspects aren't too memorable. Snoopy in Santa outfit is fun though. Sadly, the stories are not. Not recommended. Maybe watch the new Peanuts theatrical release instead.

It's 18 minutes. It's a series of Christmas theme vignettes without a continuous story. It's disjointed but it's still watchable. In the end, this is like a TV version of the newspaper comic strips. It has its charms but it doesn't last like the classic Christmas special. The most notable things are the side characters. Linus meets a mysterious girl who calls herself Jezebel and then proceeds to keep changing her name. I think that character has lots of potential. On the other hand, Sally has a fight with an angry kid over a small Christmas tree. The kid is off-putting and doesn't really fit the Peanuts style. It also pales in comparison with the iconic Charlie Brown tree. This is a functional Christmas special but it's nowhere near the classic.

A series of Noel vignettes with the Peanuts gang: Snoopy works as a bell-ringer to raise money and tries to make peace with the ferocious cat who lives next door, Linus develops a crush on a weird classmate in school and makes faltering efforts to write an appropriate letter to Santa Claus, Lucy attempts to be nice, but still tries to convince everyone to buy her presents for Christmas, and Charlie Brown and his sister Sally stay up late to see Santa Claus. Granted, this show doesn't have the warmth or resonance of the classic 1965 TV special, but it does possess a certain sweet charm and an innocuous sense of good-natured humor that's impossible to either resist or dislike. Best gags: Sally takes a Christmas tree from a local kid's yard after it falls down (she doesn't know how to cut said tree down!) and Snoopy making off with a plate full of cookies while dressed as Santa Claus. The smooth animation does the trick while the pleasantly bouncy and melodic light jazz score by Vince Guaraldi and David Benoit keeps things bubbling along throughout. A nice lightweight diversion.

I believe this is the Charlie Brown I'm thinking about.Last year (2002), There was a new Charlie Brown Christmas movie on. This amazed me because Charles Schultz had retired the characters with him. I guess he had made this before he died because the writing credits are credited to him. I had taped this special but can't find where I taped it, hopefully I'll find it, otherwise I hope they sell t.It was a very nice special, this must have been it because it's dated 2002. If it's on again this year, everyone should watch it!