Reptileenbu
Did you people see the same film I saw?
PiraBit
if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.
Ginger
Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
trigerhppy
I have seen this special only once, during it's original broadcast. My parents let me stay up to watch it. I had not thought about it until yesterday, passing a field of poppies here in Afghanistan, I thought about Linus reading the poem IN FLANDERS FIELDS. I truly wish more people would see this special and that it would be rebroadcast. Charles Schultz served in the 20th Armored Division in Europe at the end of WWII, seeing a small amount of combat. He later remembered the troops every year by having Snoopy visit Bill Maudlin (the cartonist behind Willie and Joe) for memorial day. Before his death he donated $1 million to the National D Day memorial. What have we learned is what children need. I would love to get a copy on DVD
tecknikov
As I watched the recently released on DVD movie "Ike, Countdown to D-Day", starring Tom Selleck, I was reminded of another film. It was just a 20 or 25 minute animated piece starring the Peanuts Gang titled "What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown?" In such a respectful and poignant way, this film recounted the awesome sacrifices made at the Normandy Invasion and left me with a profound impression that will remain with me the rest of my life. I only saw it once, the night it was first broadcast, but I will never forget it. I notice it is not available on DVD. If anyone out there reading this has any clout in the digital world, could you please see about getting it released on DVD? As one American who owes so much to those gallant men and women for their sacrifice, I sure would appreciate it.
sbertolino
This interesting short movie (24 minutes) won a Peabody Award for excellence. In today's cynical, apathetic society where people are not really interested in the sacrifices that were necessary to conquer evil, it's not surprising that this movie is not shown more.
As far as the movie goes, any plot is clearly secondary to the point of the movie which is to educate youngsters about the Allied invasion of France and to a lesser extent the World War I events at Ypres and Flanders. The film is most successful in this respect with, (as usual) Linus as the champion. The images shown during his descriptions of the D-Day invasion are powerful and interestingly very atypical of the usual Peanuts animation style. Actual combat photography is used, although it is transformed into two-tone color images. The use of the red imagery is powerful in the battle scenes (it seems odd discussing battle scenes in a review of a Charlie Brown movie).The film does a solid job of educating and instilling awe, sorrow and compassion for the men who fought the battles discussed.Seriousness aside, the other parts of the film are typical Peanuts fare: Charlie Brown gets hurt a lot, Snoopy is in charge and gets into trouble, Linus is the scholar, etc. These parts made my 4-year old son laugh. But more important, it made him start asking questions about what the gang was doing, who the bad guys were and if any good guys got killed. These questions mark the beginning of an understanding of magnitude of the effects of World War II and the lives forever altered and ended by that conflict. In this respect, the movie is a resounding success and deserves the ten stars I gave it.
Rabbit-7
Truly an impressive feat, this animated special is quite a departure from the rest of the Charlie Brown series. Featuring rotoscoped footage of Normandy Beach and a reading of the poem "In Flanders Fields" by Linus, it will touch the hearts of adults while not being too gruesome for kids. If it were up to me, I'd require every person in America to watch this each Memorial Day, Veteran's Day and Fourth of July!
