She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown is the nineteenth animated television special based on the Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz. The special first aired on CBS on February 25, 1980, making it the first Peanuts TV special of the 1980s, and was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program. It revolves around Peppermint Patty.
Plot[]
The special opens with Peppermint Patty practicing ice skating on a frozen pond while her coach Snoopy watches and makes grumbling noises to show his dissatisfaction with her progress. Peppermint Patty is committed to her skating practice, at one point she and Snoopy knock out a group of boys who want her to get off the ice so that they can play ice hockey. However, Peppermint Patty's dedication means that she has to get up at 4:30am to practice and, as a result, keeps falling asleep in class.
While visiting Marcie's house, Peppermint Patty notices a sewing machine. In spite of the fact that Marcie tells her that it is her mother's sewing machine and that she does not know how to use it, Peppermint Patty insists that she makes a dress for her to wear at the upcoming ice skating competition. Marcie makes a terrible dress without any sleeves that looks more like a poncho. Fortunately, Snoopy comes along, passes the dress through the sewing machine and transforms it into a beautiful creation.
On the day of the ice skating competition, all of the competitors practice together at first. The skaters leave the ice and Snoopy clears it by driving a Zamboni, something that the children in the audience enjoying watching very much.
Woodstock whistles when the cassette player malfunctions.
The first two skaters, Sandy and Mora, do very badly on their turn but the third, Evelyn, does well when she goes out and the pressure is on Peppermint Patty to outdo her. Unfortunately, as Peppermint Patty takes to the ice, the cassette of the music that she is to dance to malfunctions and the tape unravels out of the machine. Snoopy, who is also in charge of playing the music for competitors, tries to repair it, but Charlie and his friends worry that Peppermint Patty might get disqualified from the competition if the music is not fixed in time. Meanwhile, Peppermint Patty is forced to hold her opening pose longer than she expected and becomes uncomfortable. However, Peppermint Patty is saved when Woodstock steps up to the microphone and whistles the music for the girl to skate to. Peppermint Patty wins the competition.
As Peppermint Patty and Snoopy walk home, Snoopy returns to being the displeased grumbling coach. Peppermint Patty asks if he can say anything nice, which he responds to by kissing her on the cheek.
Voice cast[]
- Patricia Patts - Peppermint Patty
- Casey Carlson - Marcie
- Bill Melendez - Snoopy
- Arrin Skelley - Charlie Brown, rude hockey player captain
- Debbie Muller - Teacher, shopkeeper
- Scott Beach - Announcer
- Daniel Anderson - Linus van Pelt
- Laura Planting - Lucy van Pelt
- Jason Victor Serinus - Woodstock (whistling)
Schroeder also appears in this special, but is silent.
Skaters[]
- Mary Ellen Kinsey (as Mary Kinsey)
- Karen Hutton
- Amy Schulz
Errors[]
- Logically, the cassette would not malfunction that quickly. It may, however, have been rigged.
Notes[]
- An addendum to the film is the concluding animation associated with the credits. In clear line, an older ice skater dances in an animation composed of stopped frames. While graceful and elegant, the character does have a large nose. She is possibly an older form of Peppermint Patty, who became very good at ice skating, and beautiful despite her supposed impediment.
- This is the third Peanuts special in which adults actually speak words rather than being represented with the plunger-muted trombone sounds. The adults in question are Peppermint Patty's teacher and the shopkeeper voiced by Debbie Muller, and the skating competition PA announcer voiced by Scott Beach. This special shares a voice cast with Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (And Don't Come Back!!), which was in production around the same time and in which Muller and Beach also provide the audible voices for the adults, suggesting their presence in this special was a production choice made out of convenience.
- Woodstock whistles Puccini's "O Mio Babbino Caro" in the skating competition. Mimi would later sing this song in It Was My Best Birthday Ever, Charlie Brown.
- The special's working title was She's the Winner, Charlie Brown.
- After Peppermint Patty's remark about her hair, Snoopy gives her a red curly wig similar to Little Orphan Annie's hair. This could be a reference to the fact that Peppermint Patty's voice actress Patricia Patts played Annie in the second national touring company production of the musical Annie.
- Schulz's daughter Amy Schulz has a small role in She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown as the voice of one of the skaters in the competition.
- This special premiered in Canada on CBC the same day as it had on CBS in America. The next special to do this would be Why, Charlie Brown, Why?
- This special is mainly based on a storyline originally published in November and December 1974, which was the longest storyline in Peanuts history, lasting about six weeks. The strip has other sub-plots that were left out of the special, and other changes that were made to it for the special.
Strip from November 18, 1974.
- In the strip, after the disaster with Peppermint Patty's skating dress, Marcie's mother steps in to make the alterations, rather than Snoopy as in the TV special.
- In the strip, after Peppermint Patty gets her dress, she wants to do something about her self-described "mousy-blah" hair and decides to go to Charlie Brown's father's barber shop. Charlie Brown forgets to tell his father that Peppermint Patty is a girl. As a result, Mr. Brown gives Peppermint Patty a boy's haircut, much to her despair. To cover up the mistake, Peppermint Patty wears an afro wig several sizes too big. This scene is altered in the special, with the wig a gift offered by Snoopy and promptly refused.
- Some of the strips from the same storyline were later adapted as the episode "Like Skates on Ice" from the 2014 French TV series Peanuts.
Gallery[]
Trailers[]
She’s a Good Skate, Charlie Brown promo 1980
External links[]
- Shes a Good Skate, Charlie Brown on the Internet Movie Database.
- She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown on AllMovie.