Observations While Watching It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

The world of animation has certain changed tremendously in the last forty years. When the characters "walk", they're basically bouncing up and down, except for when they all had their costumes on, as then they simply glided across the sidewalks. Compare that to what Spongebob does. Not that it could even be compared to a classic Peanuts cartoon in the first place, But just looking at the animation in the two, we've definitely come a long way.

And speaking of costumes, why do Charlie Brown and all his friends pull a sheet over their heads to be ghosts? Sure, Lucy puts a mask on, but it's over a sheet. Charlie Brown has a sheet with oddly too many eye-holes, and Pigpen has a sheet so dirty, that if he actually had a mother, she'd tell him to throw it in the trash when he was down, and not even bother washing it. Snoopy's the only one with a creative costume, The Red Baron.

My son was wondering what type of school these kids go to have one be a young piano prodigy and others using words even he as a 14 year old Honors student doesn't comprehend. He definitely has a point. Yet, at the same time one of them walks around so dirty he has a cloud of dirt following him around. And these kids are learning from someone that gives them instructions that sound like, "Waah, Wah waah waah Waah.

Is there something in the water or a chemical spill out there in Charlie Brown town? Why are all the male children balding? For some reason all the girls have thick, luscious hair, Luck Sally, Peppermint Patty, and of course The Little Red-Haired Girl, but the boys all have hair that consists of five or six hairs spiraling up from the top of their heads. Lines has the most full head of mail hair with about 12 hairs or so, but perhaps those are just stray hairs from his blanket.

C'mon, where are these people? As if it's not bad enough that these kids appear to all be latchkey, they not only buy their own Christmas trees and cook their own Thanksgiving dinner, their parents seemingly don't mind that they stay up all night in the pumpkin patch down the street. I still don't let the 14 year old walk around on his own after dark, so why would I let a younger kid that was still carrying around his blanket sleep in the pumpkin patch?

Finally, why do they call this tradition Trick or Treats? Isn't it called going trick-or-treating?