Let Snoopy and Charlie Brown brighten your holidays with seven merry-making Peanuts DVD titles available from Warner Home Video (WHV) this fall. Among the animated classics offered to consumers is Happiness is…Peanuts™: Snow Days, a new title making its debut on DVD October 18, 2011. Several iconic Peanuts holiday classics will also be available in stores including: It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown; A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving; A Charlie Brown Christmas, among others.
From a Warner Home Video press release.
BURBANK, CA – Let Snoopy and Charlie Brown brighten your holidays with seven merry-making Peanuts DVD titles available from Warner Home Video (WHV) this fall. Among the animated classics offered to consumers is Happiness is…Peanuts™: Snow Days, a new title making its debut on DVD October 18, 2011. Several iconic Peanuts holiday classics will also be available in stores including: It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown; A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving; A Charlie Brown Christmas, among others.
New to DVD:
Happiness is…Peanuts™: Snow Days – The newest Peanuts collection of stories celebrates everyone’s favorite thing about a long chilly winter: snow days! This DVD is comprised of one newly remastered classic Peanuts television special, She’s a Good Skate, Charlie Brown and one episode of The Charlie Brown & Snoopy Show. In She’s a Good Skate, Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty trains for a figure skating competition with Snoopy as her tough coach, and crafty costume designer. The smiles continue with three short tales from The Charlie Brown & Snoopy Show including: The Play; Sweet Babboo! and Snoopy’s Story. It may get cold outside but the Peanuts kids are sure to bring lots of warmth and happiness into everyone’s homes this winter! Happiness is…Peanuts™: Snow Days will be available in stores October 18, 2011 and will retail for $14.97 SRP.
Holiday Classics:
Peanuts Holiday Collection – Is comprised of three of the most popular Peanuts specials including A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, A Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s a Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. The DVD set features loads of bonus material including three extra episodes. Peanuts Holiday Collection will be available in stores October 2011 and will retail for $29.98 SRP.
Bonus Episodes:
- TheMayflower Voyagers
- It’sMagic, Charlie Brown
- It’sChristmastime Again, Charlie Brown
I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown –This special centers on Rerun Van Pelt, Linus’ and Lucy’s lovable and wise-beyond-his-years little brother who wants a dog for Christmas after he sees what a great relationship Charlie Brown and Snoopy share. The Van Pelts however, don’t think he’s ready or capable to care for a pet yet. Rerun turns to Snoopy for some amusement and holiday cheer.
Bonus Features:
- SiblingRivalry: Growing Up Van Pelt – This documentary featurette explores the creationand development of Rerun Van Pelt and how his arrival changed the familydynamics between Lucy and Linus. Jeannie Schulz, Lee Mendelson andothers discuss why Charles Schulz considered Rerun such a treasured newaddition to the strip.
- HappyNew Year, Charlie Brown (Bonus Episode) – This delightful special was firstbroadcast in 1986 and was included on DVDfor the first time on this release. It tells the story of Charlie Brown,who attends Peppermint Patty’s New Year’s Eve bash even though he has tofinish a book report on War and Peace. He attempts to readthe novel at the party but winds up falling asleep and wakes up to findout he has missed his chance to dance with the elusive little red-hairedgirl, who wound up dancing with Linus instead.
I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown
will be available in stores October 2011 and will retail for $19.97 SRP.
A Charlie Brown Christmas – In this Emmy® (for Outstanding Children’s Program in 1966) and Peabody Award winning classic, Charlie Brown is upset by how commercial the Christmas holiday has become. To coax him out of his holiday blues, Lucy suggests he direct the school’s Christmas pageant and decorate a glorious tree. Charlie Brown concedes. The tree he finds however, is puny, prompting everyone to ridicule him.
Bonus Features:
- AChristmas Miracle: The Making of A Charlie Brown Christmas – An in-depth look athow the producers brought a newspaper comic strip to animated life in anew medium. Under intense pressure and with many doubters, the showcreators were able to create the Peanuts in a new medium and makethe show a smash success.
A Charlie Brown Christmas
will be available in stores October 2011 and will retail for $19.97 SRP.
Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales – This special, which originally premiered on ABC in 2002, is comprised of a series of delightful animated vignettes, each of which showcase a different member of the Peanuts gang. The DVD also includes the rarely seen Is This Goodbye, Charlie Brown? In this television special, Charlie Brown and pals face the departure of Linus and Lucy, who must move when their father is transferred to a job in another town.
Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales, will be available in stores October 2011 and will retail for $14.97 SRP.
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown – This Emmy® Award-nominated (in 1967) special, finds the Peanuts gang outfitted in costumes, ready for trick or treating and crashing Violet’s Halloween party. Charlie Brown is in a ghost costume (with more eyeholes cut out than needed), Lucy dressed as a witch and Snoopy in a World War I flying ace costume. Linus decides to steadfastly hold vigil in the pumpkin patch as he awaits the Great Pumpkin.
Bonus Features:
- We Need a Blockbuster,Charlie Brown – Documentaryfeaturette focusing on the myth and tradition of the Halloween stapleTelevision program, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Revealed along the way through original interviews with the Schulz familyand producers are the pressures and challenges of following up an underdoghit with a bigger and better TV special.
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown will be available in stores September 2011 and will retail for $19.97 SRP.
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving – In this Emmy® Award-winning (for Outstanding Individual Achievement in 1974) special, Peppermint Patty invites herself to Charlie Brown’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. Marcie and Franklin are soon added as dinner guests. Charlie Brown admits that his culinary skills are limited to “cold cereal and maybe toast.” Snoopy and Woodstock transform the ping-pong table in the backyard into a dinner table. As the guests arrive, they are each served two slices of buttered toast, some pretzel sticks, popcorn and jelly beans. Patty is outraged at the meal and berates Charlie Brown until embarrassed and dejected, he leaves the table and goes back into the house.
Bonus Features:
- TheMaking of a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving – A look at the finalinstallment of the Peanuts holiday trilogy and what it meant to itscreators and the public.
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving will be available in stores September 2011 and will retail for $19.97 SRP.
“We are delighted to offer these legendary specials to consumers,” said Mary Ellen Thomas, WHV Executive Marketing Director of Family & Animation Franchise. She added, “Decades after their initial broadcasts, the Peanuts’ seasonal specials continue to captivate audiences of all ages. Celebrating the holidays with these endearing stories is a great tradition to pass on to future generations.”
About PEANUTS WORLDWIDE
The PEANUTS characters and related intellectual property are owned by Peanuts Worldwide LLC, a joint venture owned 80% by Iconix Brand Group, Inc. and 20% by members of the Charles M. Schulz family. Iconix Brand Group, Inc. owns, licenses and markets a growing portfolio of consumer brands including CANDIE'S (R), BONGO (R), BADGLEY MISCHKA (R), JOE BOXER (R), RAMPAGE (R), MUDD (R), LONDON FOG (R), MOSSIMO (R), OCEAN PACIFIC(R), DANSKIN (R), ROCA WEAR(R), CANNON (R), ROYAL VELVET (R), FIELDCREST (R), CHARISMA (R), STARTER (R) and WAVERLY (R). In addition, Iconix owns an interest in the ARTFUL DODGER (R), ED HARDY (R), ECKO (R), MARC ECKO (R), ZOO YORK (R), MATERIAL GIRL(TM), and PEANUTS brands. The Company licenses its brands to a network of leading retailers and manufacturers that touch every major segment of retail distribution from the luxury market to the mass market in both the U.S. and worldwide. Through its in-house business development, merchandising, advertising and public relations departments Iconix manages its brands to drive greater consumer awareness and equity.
About Warner Home Video:
With operations in 90 international territories, Warner Home Video, a division of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc., commands the largest home entertainment distribution infrastructure in the global video marketplace. Warner Home Video's film library is the largest of any studio, offering top quality new and vintage titles from the repertoires of Warner Bros. Pictures, Turner Entertainment, Castle Rock Entertainment, HBO Video and New Line Cinema.
About Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group brings together Warner Bros. Entertainment's home video, digital distribution, interactive entertainment/videogames, direct-to-DVD production, technical operations and anti-piracy businesses in order to maximize current and next-generation distribution scenarios. WBHEG is responsible for the global distribution of content through DVD, electronic sell-through and VOD, and delivery of theatrical content to wireless and online channels, and is also a significant worldwide publisher for both internal and third party videogame titles.
For more information on this and other titles distributed by Warner Home Video, visit www.whvdirect.com.
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
