I was wondering the same thing. I remember seeing some mixed reviews of the barebones releases of the first two that came out what, last year? I do really want to get both though, so unless I hear otherwise, I'll probably just go ahead and order them.

Not so much censored, but the TV versions and originally released video versions (VHS?) were cut for time. I was shocked when I got the DVD of Charlie Brown Xmas and it had some scenes I'd never seen before (the fence scene).

For the record, the original bumpers were Coca-Cola until 1968 when Dolly Madison took over.

Actually, Paramount's DVD releases of "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" and "Snoopy Come Home" from last year were pretty good, on balance.

You can read my complete review of them here:

http://web.mit.edu/smcguire/www/abnc...vd-review.html

But in summary: the video on "Snoopy Come Home" is really nice, and "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" is also bright and colorful, but unfortunately should have received a little more restoration work than it got. The exciting news was that the DVD of "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" is the longer, theatrical edit of the film; all previous home video versions were a shorter (by 7 minutes) edit of the film. The choice to put widescreen instead of fullframe versions of the films on the DVDs is a bit questionable; see my review for a more extensive discussion. But overall, I recommend the DVDs, especially given that they're pretty cheap.

Returning to the new deal with Warner... it seems unlikely that the four Peanuts feature films were included with this deal, since as Patrick McCart pointed out, the owners of those films are CBS and Paramount, in contrast to the TV specials, which are owned by Mendelson and Melendez Productions (and thus not tied to any particular studio). Still, I'm trying to get confirmation one way or another.

I'm optimistic about the new deal - Warners has a good history so far with their other cartoon DVDs, and even if they treat Peanuts only half as well, it'll be good news. (They really couldn't do worse than Paramount has done; Paramount did a fine job getting all the shows out on VHS, but dropped the ball with DVD releases.)

Scott McGuire
Peanuts TV & Animation Page - http://web.mit.edu/smcguire/www/peanuts-tv.html

A Boy Named Charlie Brown is actually 1.75:1 anamorphic widescreen, like the recent Disney remasters of The Jungle Book and Robin Hood. This is correct. It's also worth pointing out that the credits are windowboxed to 1.44:1, but are formatted for at least 1.85:1. So, they didn't really have to windowbox them.

I'm actually surprised that there was a cut version before this DVD. No wonder some of the scenes didn't seem that familiar to me. I just assumed that it was because I hadn't seen the film in a long time.

Coca-Cola Ending to Christmas special...

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Th1GdWQiYPM"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Th1GdWQiYPM" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

There was a line in a 1977 Peanuts special "It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown." The gang was playing football against a rival team. Every time Charlie Brown tried to kick the football, Lucy would pull it away. Peppermint Patty berated HIM for the mistake. Some viewers wrote in, protesting, since it was obviously Lucy's fault. Some changes was made to the soundtrack. This was mentioned in a book, "Happy Birthday, Charlie Brown."

The details on the editing can be found on this page. There has been editing on other specials, but it appears to have been done for time or sponsor tags. This looks to be the only time the series was edited for content, and that was done by the show's creators:

http://web.mit.edu/smcguire/www/peanuts-animation.html

EDIT: It turns out I got the info from smcguire's website, listed above, which I found it through Google.

What's your source for saying that 1.75:1 is the "correct" aspect ratio for the two Peanuts movies?

And the credits would be an extremely tight fit at 1.78:1 or 1.85:1 - some words would be practically touching the top or the bottom of the frame.

--Scott McGuire

A few Christmas ago I got the collection that had the 5 movies, 3 major holiday ones and I think Easter and Valentines Day. These will definitely be something I double dip on if they add more to them, Peanuts are my absolute favorite cartoon.

The first release is coming! February 19th!

It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown! Remastered!

http://whv.warnerbros.com/WHVPORTAL/....jsp?OID=31292

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...d=HO67D46DZ1IS

The first release is Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown, on January 15th.

Rob

I stand corrected!

http://whv.warnerbros.com/WHVPORTAL/....jsp?OID=31290

http://www.amazon.com/Be-Valentine-C...6959490&sr=1-4

oddly enough i noticed the used prices for the xmas special jumped up to around 25 dollars a few days ago...not sure if that is part of the holiday season or something to do with the set. oddly enough i still see the 3 pack for around 20 bucks in a few places