User Reviews

Peppermint Patty rigorously trains for an upcoming figure skating competition with Snoopy serving as her tough coach and Marcie deputized as her reluctant costume designer. Director Bill Melendez, working from a pleasant and witty script by Charles M. Schulz, relates the delightful story at a snappy pace, creates and sustains an engagingly breezy tone, and milks the amusing sense of good-natured dry humor for a few solid laughs (it's a total hoot to see a crabby and exacting Snoopy put Patty through her paces and the sequence with Patty and Snoopy standing up to a team of belligerent bully hockey players is quite funny). Naturally, the trademark sweet and warm Schulz sensibility is very evident here, with the single most lovely, precious, and touching moment occurring when Woodstock whistles the music for Patty over the microphone at the big skating event after Snoopy accidentally breaks the cassette player. The nice jazzy score by Ed Bogas and Judy Munsen keeps things bubbling along. The animation is really bright and colorful as well. Well worth a watch for Peanuts fans.

"She's A Good Skate, Charlie Brown" is not as well-known as, say, "A Charlie Brown Christmas." But this "Peanuts" special includes a special moment that I will always remember.

In this special, Peppermint Patty is training for a local figure skating competition. She spends hours at a frozen winter pond, practicing her skating routines, with Snoopy, her "skating coach," barking and snarling orders. Snoopy's little bird friend, Woodstock, watches from the side of the pond, caught up in the beauty of Patty's skating.

On the night of the competition, Patty skates out on the ice at the local ice rink. But as she is about to begin her routine, the tape containing her music breaks. Just as Patty is about to be disqualified, Woodstock saves the day. He steps to the microphone in the announcer's booth, and whistles a beautiful rendition of Puccini's "O Mio Babbino Caro." (A professional bird whistler, Jason Serinus, was used for this.) Patty does her routine, and wins the competition.

When Woodstock whistles Patty's music, it is a poignant and deeply moving moment. You get the idea that Woodstock is a little guy with hidden reserves of spirit and a tremendous heart.

Who would have thought that Tom-boy Peppermint Patty, the girl with the 95 mph fastball could be such a lovely figure skater. And who would have known that silly and fun-loving Snoopy, the dog who pretends he's a WWI fighter pilot could be such a demanding coach. Such is the case in "She's a Good Skate Charlie Brown". This is one of the more memorable Peanuts adventures , not so much for the usual sight-gags, and banter, but for the wonderful climactic scene at the skating competition when Woodstock the bird steps up to the microphone and takes over for a broken cassette player allowing Patty to perform a beautiful and graceful program on the ice. Between the spellbinding and haunting melody and the amazing skating motions wonderfully captured in animation form (you would think you were watching the Olympics)...you know you are seeing something truly special...a highlight of the "Peanuts" series.

Peppermint Patty is hands down my favorite characters in Peanuts. She is one of the funniest characters in the comics, (Though Snoopy is the funniest hands down.) Plus she is a character that I can relate too as I too had trouble at school when I was a kid. When I first heard about this special back in December of last year, I decided to give it a watch. And personally, I love it.

The story is pretty good for what it was especially since it was based on a storyline in the comic where Peppermint Patty trains for an ice skating competition with the help of Snoopy and Marcie. (both the special and the comic storyline have VERY different outcomes but good stories in their own way.) I will admit though that there a couple of points in the story that are rushed but doesn't hurt the special in anyway The animation is great. It sticks true to the Peanuts Style and the skating animation which was done by rotoscope is really well done.

While Snoopy and Peppermint Patty had some of the funniest moments. The best moment in the special hands down goes to Woodstock for whistling "O Mio Babbino Caro" during a certain event at the end; Which believe it or not is a major plot point in the special. I don't want to give to much away on what happens. You have to see it for yourself.

This is also the first special to use adult voices, which a lot of Peanuts fans might not like, but personally I'm okay with it. I really don't see why that is a bad thing nor do I see it hurt the quality of the special Overall, She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown is a really great special that is worth the watch. It's a shame that it has been overlooked cause in my opinion, it is one of the good ones. I bet it is because many Peanuts fans feel that the specials from the 60's and 70's are the best and the 80's, 90's and 2000's special dipped in quality. To which I say, "Have you guys watch "What Have We Learned Charlie Brown?" and Why Charlie Brown, Why?" those are some of the best specials and their from the 80's and 90's respectively.

But as for She's a Good Skate, this is a great and yet overlooked special that is worth the watch if you're a fan of Peanuts and/or a fan of Peppermint Patty.

"She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown" is an animated short film from over 35 years ago and as always with the Peanuts, it runs for over 20 and under 30 minutes. Also as many other times, this one here was nominated for an Emmy. The win, however, went to a fairly unknown film called "Carlton Your Doorman" by Lorenzo Music, the voice of Garfield. Back to this one here, Roman directed and Schulz wrote it like so many other times. I have to say that i not only do not like peppermint, but also that this film confirms my theory that Peppermint Patty is among the least memorable Peantuts regulars and not interesting enough for her own film. Usually, they have one character of the gang in the spotlight with the others being supporting players and usually they used references from other films to create a movie around this character like with Linus and his blanket for example, but it seems like they did not really have a clue what to do with Patty, so they turned her into an ice-skater. The story is uninteresting, yep predictable. Not a good watch. Sorry Pats, you will never be my favorite. Not recommended.