It's the Great Halloween!

No Halloween would be complete without watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" Watching the film is even better when you have a pumpkin to carve at the same time. I love the Peanuts gang, even though Disney does get it's generous share of airtime on this blog. There's something really nostalgic about watching Schultz's creations around the Holidays. The Peanuts family has been around for over 40 years, always making appearances on prime time TV during the holidays on ABC and other family channels. You no longer need to hope and wait that the Peanuts gang shows up on TV now thanks to the recently released Peanuts "Holiday Collection" DVD which features all three major Peanuts films: "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!", "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving", and, of course, the classic "A Charlie Brown Christmas."


I've posted some stills from the movie just to get you into the Halloween spirit. As I was grabbing some of these images, I couldn't help but marvel at some of the great color styling. Now, the Peanuts cartoons aren't exactly high tech or chock full of special effects or even, at the most basic level, believable. But that's where the charm is. The story lines are sweet, the characters are lovable, the lessons are endearing. The movements and motions of the characters are not meant to be realistic, by stylized in the familiar Schultz form. That doesn't make the films any less enjoyable. In fact, as I was saying before, the color choices are what are really phenomenal. I particularly love the scene above that takes place at the Halloween party. The use of pink is entirely novel and it compliments, almost too perfectly, the orange and the black.

So often we get locked into the concept that palettes are limited to only one or two colors. Often ir's the one or two unexpected yet complimentary colors that make the main color scheme really pop. Schultz's film provides a lovely example of good color styling, and as ever fits perfectly with the childlike and endearing theme of the Peanuts cartoons. Afterall, Halloween's spooky frights should always be sprinkled with some childish delights!