Why, Charlie Brown, Why? (1990)
A new girl comes to the neighbourhood school and Linus is smitten with her. Unfortunately, she develops the symptoms of leukemia and must go to the hospital for cancer treatment. Linus and Charlie Brown help her through the traumas of chemotherapy as best they can while Snoopy plays at being the world's greatest doctor.
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Wonderful character development!
Best movie ever!
Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%
Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
"Why, Charlie Brown, Why?" is a television short film that runs for slightly over 20 minutes and was written by Charles M. Schulz. but this is already everything that this one has in common with the other Peanuts movies. The topic in here is leukemia, fairly heavy material for the franchise actually. Linus' little friend has blood cancer and the title of this film is a question he asks to Charlie Brown. poor Linus and poor Janice as well. It's really not fair. Luckily for everybody (including audiences), things take a turn for good in the end. Still, it's a rarity that you see a Peanuts character crying and having such a severe anger attack like Linus does in this film. My favorite Peanuts movie I believe and I very much recommend it. Thumbs up. Oh yeah, this one also was nominated for an Emmy, but unluckily lost it to "The Simpsons" who were already a thing back 25 years ago. How time flies... "Why, Charlie Brown, Why?" is not only a very heartfelt movie, but also nicely educational for young audiences who probably know absolutely nothing about (blood) cancer. Give it a watch. You will not regret it.
My youngest daughter loved this show and watched it over and over again because we bought it on video. I'm surprised it hasn't been put on DVD by now.It is a show that deals with the sensitivity about a childhood illness and at the same time brings us some humorous moments with Snoopy. My daughtered loved the part where Snoopy unplugs Charlie Brown's light he's reading by to plug in his Christmas lights.The most unrealistic part is when the girl has her full head of hair at the end. Nobody's hair grows back that fast after Chemo, but I think the message was is that her hair would grow back. Something the kids needed to know. Most kids like to have happy endings.No, it wasn't perfect but in my opinion it was done well.
This one will probably continue to hold the award for Most Annoying Shouting By An Aggrieved Child until the 5th Harry Potter book is filmed. These Charlie Brown cartoons always had an unpolished speaking style for the kids' voices, which in the early days was cute and winning. The stilted shouting was funny when it was Linus ranting about the Great Pumpkin. But they use the exact same phony-sounding style when the issue being discussed is cancer, so the whole thing comes off as hokey. The worst part is when Linus lectures an insensitive kid on his cruel comments about the girl who's lost her hair through chemotherapy. It's loud, toneless, and self-righteous, and just made me want to belt him in the mouth, rather than making me feel sympathetic.
For little kids, this is a great video for explaining cancer. Any kind of cancer, almost, not just leukemia. In a very gentle way, it gives a basic overview of testing and the effects of chemo. It also makes sure to provide a few of the traditional Snoopy laughs while still being true to the serious nature of the story. It's one of my favorite Peanuts specials, and I was glad to learn it is on video; I'm going to order a copy ASAP.