Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown: Difference between revisions

Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown
Title card for the short.
Directed by	Jim Reardon
Written by	Jim Reardon
Starring	Etienne Badillo Rich Moore Mike Reardon William Hanna William Holden Bret Haaland Nate Kanfer Jeff Pidgeon
Narrated by	Rich Moore
Edited by	Jim Ryan
Production company	California Institute of the Arts
Distributed by	California Institute of the Arts
Release date	June 27, 1986
Running time	200 seconds
Country	United States
Language	English

Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown is a 1986 American animated short fan film directed and animated by Jim Reardon, who would later become the director and storyboard consultant for The Simpsons, and one of the co-writers of the Oscar-winning 2008 animated feature film WALL-E. The cartoon was made while he was at CalArts. This cartoon, done entirely in black-and-white, has a rough, unfinished-looking style.

Plot

The short film is presented as a trailer for a faux Peanuts television special. The "special" is said to be sponsored by a foods company called Madison Barns, "makers of Ding Dongs, Twinkies, pooftas and wussy cakes".

The short begins with Linus, Lucy, Schroeder, and Snoopy kneeling in fear in front of the Great Pumpkin, who puts a bounty on Charlie Brown's head on a wall, dead or alive. This is followed by a sequence of clips introducing each character. In the first clip, Lucy tries to get Charlie Brown to kick a bomb disguised as a football. In the second clip, he asks Schroeder what happened to his piano, and a (full-sized) piano falls on his head. Snoopy, as the flying ace, gets shot by machine guns, as the narrator introduces him and the "Red Baron". Charlie Brown then holds a York Peppermint Patty (not the character), and Snoopy bites off his hand, which gushes blood). The Kite-Eating Tree then falls on him. Finally, he complains to Linus that everyone's out to get him, who tries strangling him unconscious with his blanket.

Charlie Brown attempts to finally escape, but he finds Linus, Lucy, Schroeder, and Snoopy running toward him. Having had enough, he arms himself with a pump-action shotgun, a submachine gun, and an M16 assault rifle. He then executes the entire Peanuts cast one by one, before getting shot by Lucy from behind. He turns around and shoots, making her head explode. There is then a montage in which Charlie shoots and kills scores of Mexican banditos, a Wehrmacht machine gun nest behind which Adolf Hitler is painting a flower, two other soldiers, and Richard Simmons doing jumping jacks, who then falls through a window. This is followed by his sister, Sally, being decapitated by an axe.

Following this is another montage, this time of Snookles the Baby Dragon breathing fire, Pig Pen vomiting profusely in Violet's face, two biplanes crashing into each other in midair, Dagwood Bumstead getting kicked in the testicles by his wife, Blondie (causing his head to pop off), Mickey Mouse getting hit on the head with a lead pipe while laughing, Rocky Balboa getting punched in the face by Popeye The Sailor Man, and Godzilla squeezing Dr. Pepper out of a giant soda can. It ends with a scene showing various characters, including some taken to the hospital, some lying on the ground, and even one character resembling Billy from Family Circus hanging from a tree by a noose. Charlie Brown then announces, holding his two guns, that "happiness is a warm Uzi" in a thick Arnold Schwarzenegger accent. The screen cuts to him smoking a (presumably post-coital) cigarette in bed with the Little Red-Haired Girl (who, fittingly, is not fully seen), who asks Charlie Brown to turn off the bedroom light and go to sleep.

The song "Charlie Brown" by The Coasters plays over the end credits. The credits end with a note from Jim Reardon:

The creator of this picture wishes to state that he does not in any way wish to tarnish or demean the beloved characters of Charles M. "Dutch" Schulz's comic strip, Peanuts. No malice or damage to their goodwill was intended. So please don't sue me, because it will drag through the courts for years, and I haven't got a lawyer – and besides, you've already got half the money in the world, and I haven't got any. OK?

Cast and credits

• Charlie Brown – Etienne Badillo, Rich Moore, Mike Reardon, William Hanna, William Holden
• Linus van Pelt – Nate Kanfer
• Lucy van Pelt – Bret Haaland
• Great Pumpkin – Jeff Pidgeon
• Additional Voices – Ed Bell, Bruce Johnson, Mike Reardon, Bret Haaland
• Narration – Rich Moore
• Others – Ed Bell, Dale McBeath, Bob Winquist, Mike Giaimo, Craig Smith, Bret Haaland, Nate Kanfer, Doug Frankel, Mike Reardon, Rich Moore, Russ Edmonds, Hal Ambro, Dan Hansen, Jim Ryan, Tony Fucile, Jeff Pidgeon, Bob McCrea, Sarge Morton, Mom, Eileen, and Beverly
• Dedicated to Sam "The Man" Peckinpah
• "Peanuts Theme" – Vince Guaraldi
• "Charlie Brown" – The Coasters (wrongly credited as The Platters.)
• A Jim Reardon Cartoon – Made at Cal Arts, U.S.A.

External links

• Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown at IMDb
• Bring Me The Head of Charlie Brown at YouTube
• Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown on Dailymotion