I wanted to like this, I really did. I like the Peanuts specials, as a rule, and I didn't think that any of them was truly bad (but then that may be because I haven't yet seen all of them). But sitting down and watching this made me question my life choices.
To start with, it's mostly live action, with only a handful of fully animated segments linking the beginning to the rest of the feature. This is the only point in which Charlie Brown and Snoopy appear. That's fine, but for the rest, the live action cast interact with an animated character (Spike), which raises questions as to how their worlds connect. Where does the animated world stop and the real world begin? Is there some kind of portal between them? It's really an unusual way to make something like this, but it may have something to do with Roger Rabbit being in theatres around the time this special aired.
The general premise is that Spike gets himself picked up by the titlular Girl in the Red Truck, Jenny (played by Charles Schulz's daughter, Jill). They hang out, her boyfriend Jeff comes along... unfortunately, little of value happens until the last 15 minutes or so, where Spike is involved in a gunfight and is saved by the couple. They offer him a nice home with them, but he trades it all for his old, quiet, isolated life in the desert, leaving us with really a sad ending.
The problem is, it's all loosely tied together with things that just sort of happen. We have only a vague idea of what goes on in the live characters' world. We know Jenny aspires to be a jazz dancer, and Jeff tries to arrange an audition over her aerobics class, but we get little beyond that. For all we know, they were both just ill-informed of each other's plans. Maybe that's what it's meant to be, but you're never sure.
I did have hopes for this special, as previously stated, so it really struck me how plodding and miserable the whole thing is. Of course, the next special, "Why, Charlie Brown, Why?" gets the Peanuts Animated Canon back on track with its handling of its hard-hitting subject matter, and is not saddening for puerile reasons. This one, however, remains a strange anomaly.
To start with, it's mostly live action, with only a handful of fully animated segments linking the beginning to the rest of the feature. This is the only point in which Charlie Brown and Snoopy appear. That's fine, but for the rest, the live action cast interact with an animated character (Spike), which raises questions as to how their worlds connect. Where does the animated world stop and the real world begin? Is there some kind of portal between them? It's really an unusual way to make something like this, but it may have something to do with Roger Rabbit being in theatres around the time this special aired.
The general premise is that Spike gets himself picked up by the titlular Girl in the Red Truck, Jenny (played by Charles Schulz's daughter, Jill). They hang out, her boyfriend Jeff comes along... unfortunately, little of value happens until the last 15 minutes or so, where Spike is involved in a gunfight and is saved by the couple. They offer him a nice home with them, but he trades it all for his old, quiet, isolated life in the desert, leaving us with really a sad ending.
The problem is, it's all loosely tied together with things that just sort of happen. We have only a vague idea of what goes on in the live characters' world. We know Jenny aspires to be a jazz dancer, and Jeff tries to arrange an audition over her aerobics class, but we get little beyond that. For all we know, they were both just ill-informed of each other's plans. Maybe that's what it's meant to be, but you're never sure.
I did have hopes for this special, as previously stated, so it really struck me how plodding and miserable the whole thing is. Of course, the next special, "Why, Charlie Brown, Why?" gets the Peanuts Animated Canon back on track with its handling of its hard-hitting subject matter, and is not saddening for puerile reasons. This one, however, remains a strange anomaly.