I'm REAL sorry if this has already come up (stupid search is useless... ), but was just wondering if anyone knows if the new Peanuts Holiday Collection being released on 9/23 is any different than the one released back in 2000? Or is this just a re-issue?

Thanks!

While it does include A Charlie Brown Christmas, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and It's the Great Pupmkin, Charlie Brown DVDs, they are all the new remastered versions. Besides being remastered, they each include a new featurette, and the Great Pumpkin DVD includes It's Magic, Charlie Brown as it's bonus special instead of You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown, which is getting its own release this time.

I'm looking forward to this release since I only own A Charlie Brown Christmas, I'd like to get the other holiday themed DVDs.

I thought I read somewhere that the Holiday Collection would also include a CD of Music
from the cartoons.

Don't people read reviews at all? Top of the page people, there's a review search box.

There are two DVDtalk reviews, both explain the differences in the sets, and as far as a CD is concerned the following is mentioned in one of said reviews:

Well, there's a review of the new Great Pumpkin DVD, not the whole set. And the set WILL include a CD.

I saw the new Halloween DVD in stores, and it has a sharp looking slipcase with foil and embossing. I assume this will not be present in the box. But if you're wanting all 3 of the holiday specials, the box works out to be much cheaper.

I'm looking forward to the 9/23 box also but no set of these classics can truly be complete without the inclusion of a few (stale) Dolly Madison snack cakes.

Has anyone seen this collection in stores? I'm curious if slipcovers would be included -- or if the box itself is nice. I hate to admit that this sort of matters to me.

I couldn't find it today either, when I went to Best buy.

My DDD copy shipped. Looking forward to it.

Costco has the 3 title boxset, $30, no slipcovers, has the audio CD (6-track excerpt from the Charlie Brown Christmas album).

No slipcovers in the box.

Seems odd to me that the Holiday Collection was available this week, whereas the Christmas and Thanksgiving DVDs wont be out until the 7th of October. I'd prefer to have 'em all separate, with slipcovers, so I see no reason to get this, just seems odd that it's out sooner. Besides, if you (like me) already have the other three releases, it'd look weird to have this box next to 'em.

I really wonder what the remastering looks like and if this really needs it. Honestly a major part of its charm is traveling back in time to when color tv sets weren't in every home let alone HD. I think it even lost some charm when I started watching Charlie Brown Christmas on DVD instead of the well worn VHS tape I had from the mid eighties.

So does watching this newly remastered version take away some of the nostalgia?

Does the box itself have foil and embossing like the Great Pumpkin individual release? Or is it just plain and flat? Thanks.

What is the CD called?

I'm wondering if it's specific to the release, or if it's the already released Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits.

It's a 6-track excerpt from the Charlie Brown Christmas album.

Ah, okay! Thanks.

The cover of the box is raised and does have some foil on it.

With a B&N membership and the 20% off coupon, this set can be had for $22.67. Being in Canada, I still had to pay shipping, but it still comes to only $28.65.

Wish there were more cartoons on the Christmas DVD.
There were two more Christmas specials. There is more then enough space to fit them on one DVD.

"Charlie Brown Christmas Tales" and "I want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown".

If I'm not mistaken, I want a Dog is a full length movie. On the whole I agree with you, there should be about 4 cartoons per disc. They have 75+ to pull from. Get 'em all out there.

Barnes and Noble appears to have an "exclusive" box set with all 6 remastered holiday titles. With the 20% coupon, it was $65 + tax.

http://video.barnesandnoble.com/DVD/...9049738/?itm=9

I don't think the remastering takes away the nostalgia, but your mileage may vary, of course. I think for me, a lot of the nostalgia is in the soundtrack (the music and kid's voices) as well as the pictures, and the soundtrack is still the same old mono as it always has been.

In my opinion, the video remastering offers modest, but noticeable, improvements over the previous Paramount DVD releases of the Peanuts specials. The image is sharper, and a very slight amount of color bleeding that was present in the Paramount DVDs is gone here.

One other improvement is that the masters Paramount used had been processed with a poor form of digital noise reduction which resulted in the black outlines of the characters breaking up during scenes of fast motion; the Warner Home Video DVDs do not have this problem at all.

One minor way in which the Warner DVDs may not be quite as good is there is more grain/noise in some scenes - although probably a lot of people wouldn't notice. Since at least for "the Great Pumpkin," I noticed grain/noise in the same places on the Warner DVDs as I've noticed in the new master ABC made for broadcast, my assumption is it's part of the original masters, and the rather strong noise reduction that Paramount used removed it from their DVDs (along with some of the black outlines!).

The video on the Paramount DVDs looked good; the Warner Peanuts DVDs look really good.

But don't worry, even though the shows look really good, they aren't perfect - there are still the occasional blemishes and smudges, probably created during the original animation drawing. So you can still feel nostalgic about the imperfect animation. And you can always turn the color on your TV down to simulate black and white if you want! :-)

And the new behind-the-scenes documentaries, while short (12-14 minutes each), are well done, entertaining, and reasonably informative.

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