Category: Cartooning

Happy Holidays, Charlie Brown!

Charlie Brown and Linus

Tonight is the annual showing of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” on network TV. The show was quite a breakthrough when it first aired in 1965, which is something I couldn’t fully appreciate until I became an adult.

Schulz makes an unabashed plug for his Christian faith and The New Testament, and I would be disingenuous if I claimed it never had an influence on me. He also offers another message, which is IT’S OK TO BE DEPRESSED DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON.

Click here here to go to the gallery to see an adaptation of “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” published by Family Circle magazine in 1977. Be sure to click “full” to enlarge the images.

Vince Guaraldi’s music for “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is the subject of a feature on NPR that can be heard by clicking here.

Just what is “graphic blandishment,” anyway?

Jump Rope

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/Anime/Jumprope.flv 400 300]

Here’s a nice 3-minute vignette from Azumanga Daioh. The show has such a wide variety of original music, and much of it can stand on its own, like the track I put on the audio player.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/Japan/AzumangaDaioh.mp3]

Between Heaven and Haibane

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/Anime/Haibane.flv 425 240]

Honorable son Eric’s latest animé pick is a very odd offering, indeed. Odd because Haibane Renmei depicts angel-like (although not angelic) creatures who are perhaps on their way to Heaven? Seems like a rather Christian basis for a Japanese story. Without Netflix there’s no way we’d be able to see all of these animé titles.