(courtesy IMDb)
Love, sweet love … ain’t it the greatest?
Well, yes, but not if you’re Charlie Brown sadly and no one, I repeat no one, is giving you Valentines, and in public, on the big day!
The attitude, as expressed by Lucy (Melanie Kohn) in her trademark scornfully dismissive way is “Who would waste a Valentine on stupid old Charlie Brown?” and while Violet (Linda Ercoli), to whom she addresses the remark, may agree, others don’t such as wonderful, sweet Schroeder (Greg Felton) who steps in, when Violet, Lucy and the others show after the event with a re-purposed old Valentine, to say that Charlie Brown shouldn’t get anyone’s romantic castoffs.
The thing is, in the 1975 delight that is Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown, that Charlie Brown will take what he can get, and so, after Schroeder has finished his passionate defence of his friend’s romantic integrity, he takes the Valentine with Violet’s name scrubbed out and his substituted, reasoning that it’s better than nothing.
It’s actually a melancholic moment, a trademark element evident in all the Peanuts TV specials which affectingly marry (yes, yes a loaded word in this circumstance but work with us here) some real hard-hitting sentiment with a playfulness, mostly evidenced by Snoopy and Woodstock’s antics (both voiced by Bill Melendez who produced the special) and some genuinely moving sentiment.
That last part comes courtesy of Sally who is handed a love heart candy that doesn’t have a pithy little throwaway sentiment on it, but rather, and this defies the laws of physics, the entire poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43).
Quite who gives her such a loquacious piece of heart-shaped candy isn’t clear – it’s from a communal classroom pot so it could be anyone, even a lovestruck manufacturer – but it delivers a lovely sweet sentiment straight into the heart of Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown which simultaneously celebrates the day while lowkey questioning whether it sometimes do more harm than good.
(courtesy AppleTV+)
I mean, how can you not feel deeply for poor old Charlie Brown?
Everyone else has armfuls of Valentines, and while people like Schroeder don’t seem to care much for the day – there’s one scene where Lucy says that if he doesn’t do something romantic he’ll lose her (“Awwwwww! Are you sure you want to risk losing me?”) but he passively looks as she dramatically laments his future lost love and smashes his piano to smithereens – Charlie Brown really, REALLY does.
And despite all the disappointment meted out on the poor guy, he keeps the faith, standing by the mailbox until it’s clear he won’t get any Valentines, then convincing himself the Little Red Headed Girl meant to sent him one and it’s just late in the post, and finally telling himself with real authority that next year will be different.
He is nothing if not optimistic and hopeful which is probably why rather than crushing him and all his hopes and dreams as a distinct lack of romantic interest might do, Charlie Brown keeps believing that one day his card or rather cards will come and his faith will be rewarded.
But it might be a tough ask as Snoopy, playing the part of Cupid with red rubber suction arrows, demonstrates when all his bow-driven missives fall listlessly around Charlie Brown and he has to resort to going up and all but switching one on his owner’s round head.
But the thing with Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown is that, all comedy and visual slapstick aside, it’s a meditation on love and belonging and while Charlie Brown doesn’t get Valentines, and poor old Linus, love sick for his teacher Miss Othmar, finds his chocolate love unrequited, he has friends who care, including Schroeder and Linus, and with his faith in love and hope intact, you can only things will change for good old Charlie Brown next year. (They won’t but a boy can dream, can’t he?)
Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown is available to stream on AppleTV+