Live blogcast of It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

It starts at 8pm tonight on ABC:
It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

7:58 Safari crashes as I try to upload an image from the movie. Obviously the powers that be do not want this blogcast.

8:02 Automakers are trying to capitalize on Snoopy's appeal by advertizing their crappy products.

8:04 Finally, the movie starts. Beautiful orange and purple colors.

8:06 Snoopy appears, walking on all four - apparently in an earlier stage of Snoopy evolution. The ghosts in the opening credits remind me that I played more pacman than I should have as a young beagle.

8:08 Lesson number 1 for the blog: "There are 3 things you should not discuss with other people: Religion, politics and the great pumpkin".

8:10 Two major subplots have emerged: a. There is a party and b. There is a great pumpkin whose arrival may or may not be imminent.

8:14 The dumb blonde is being all unliberated.

8:15 Snoopy is going to the party dressed as a WWI flying ace. Trendy green hat, nicely setting off the red scarf.

8:17 The dumb blonde, having no interests of her own, is ready to follow the potential husband to whatever stupid pumpkin-welcoming event.

8:22 Snoopy is being supercool, flying his doghouse and being all warlike. His doghouse is shot down by the terrorists above the French countryside.

8:25 Charlie Brown is made to model for a pumpkin, suggesting that his head looks like a pumpkin. Kids can be cruel.

8:28 Snoopy is giving a bipolar tour-de-force performance, accompanied by piano.

8:29 Snoopy is very moody. Snoopy may be a chick.

8:31 Dumb blonde throwing a tantrum over the lack of material wealth, perpetuating stereotypes about dumb blondes.

8:36 Lucy is my favorite character (after Snoopy).

8:37 The party is over, the great pumpkin never showed up. Pretty good movie, overall.

8:38 There's another movie! You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown! Very relevant to current events.

8:40 Snoopy appears as his alter ego, Joe Cool, attempting to impress chicks by handling a water fountain. Math is not one of his strong subjects. It is obvious that the artistic types that make movies like this do not appreciate Math, treating it as a bad experience that gets your ass kicked out of school and your foot painfully caught by a notepad.

8:44 Lucy is some Rove-type character, trying to get her no-good brother Linus elected. Lucy is such a positive role model for girls.

8:46 There is a clear chain of command. Snoopy is the assistant to the assistant to the campaign manager, and recruits Woodstock as his assistant. One would say Snoopy is the postdoc and Woodstock the RA. There is no one below Woodstock.

8:48 Snoopy is very handy with audiovisual technology.

8:52 Linus' opponent is a bland inarticulate blond character. Blond characters get a bad treatment in this body of work.

8:54 Lucy is keeping the candidate honest.

8:55 Snoopy attempts to upstage Linus in a photoshoot. Uncharacteristically self-centered of Snoopy.

8:57 Linus blows his 99% lead by bringing up the great pumpkin issue, which is apparently unpopular with his base. Obviously his base has no environmentalist sensibilities.

9:00 The voting system has some issues with vote secrecy. The blond character brings about his own downfall.

9:02 Exciting news: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is coming up in November, along with the world premiere of He's a Bully, Charlie Brown! The Martinoz Center blog will be bringing you a live blogcast of that hot event too. Good night and good luck.