Recap / Film Reroll A Charlie Brown Christmas

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Paulo starts a hockey team! Andy plays backgammon! Lisa distributes hats!

Episode 150 of Film Reroll. Based on the 1965 Christmas special, and is also the Grand Finale of Joz’s Charlie Brown holiday triptych.

Another crazy year is starting to wind down in Hennepin County, Minnesota. Pumpkin gods have been observed, houses have been burned, and local businesses have been victim to random dog appearances. And with Christmas just around the corner, there is hope yet that the year might end on a calm note.

And Lord knows Charlie Brown could use a win; the holiday blues are bearing down on him hard this year, and he’s having trouble with identifying the meaning of Christmas. Not even the prospect of helping put on the holiday pageant is helping him out. All he wants is for the season to finally start making sense for him, and it seems like he can't find a clear-cut answer. Can he possibly learn the true meaning of Christmas?

Or will Violet learn it instead?

Starring Andy Hoover as Charlie Brown, Paulo Quiros as Lucy Van Pelt, Lisa Kopitsky as Snoopy, and Joz Vammer as the Dungeon Master.

Followed by The Fifth Element.

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Tropes:

• Aborted Arc: Early on, Lucy gets the idea of forming an ice hockey team. But once Joz reminds Charlie Brown of the upcoming holiday pageant, ice hockey gets cast aside.
• Adaptational Villainy / Early-Bird Cameo: In Lucy's idea for the pageant, one of the Wise Men turns out to actually be Judas, having shown up to betray Jesus at his birth.
• Adaptation Deviation: It's implied in the special that the tiny tree Charlie Brown finds in the tree market is the only real tree available. Not only does Joz state here that there's several real trees, but the one Charlie Brown does purchase is a big and healthy one.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Rerun is among the participants of the holiday pageant, when his first canon appearance in the animated specials was It’s Arbor Day, Charlie Brown.
• Adapted Out: There's no mention of the decoration contest that Snoopy partook in during the special.
• Ambiguous Situation: After Violet goes off on her conquest for war and vengeance in regards to her house burning down, the idea is floated that she might know of Snoopy's hand in the incident, but it's never made clear.
• An Ass-Kicking Christmas: The idea Lucy has to finish out the first act of the holiday pageant is a giant battle in Rome.
• Artistic License – History: The immediate sign of trouble for the holiday pageant is that Lucy wants to start with the birth of Jesus... and also have John the Baptist present. Although she quickly happens upon the idea of doing the pageant In Medias Res^note starting with John the Baptist getting chased by a Roman soldier, that's just the sign of things to come. Not only does Judas show up at Jesus' birth, having disguised himself as one of the Wise Men, but we have a World War I flying ace being sent to conquer Rome.
  Lucy: (whispering; to Linus) Hey, Linus, Linus, is this historically accurate?
  Linus: Um, it's- it's... taking liberties.
• Behind the Black:
  • Discussed: After one too many bad rolls early on in the campaign, Lisa starts to suspect that Kara snuck into her house and touched all of her dice in order to curse them.
  • While Charlie Brown pulls Lucy off to the side to try and talk her into doing a less-commercialized holiday pageant, it soon comes to light that while they were talking, Violet had gathered all of the girls and left the auditorium.
• Berserk Button: Downplayed: Charlie Brown is vehemently against the notion of a pink metal Christmas tree.
• Bile Fascination: invoked Almost literally: In response to Charlie Brown spewing on the ice, Linus and Sally both cheer him on, with Snoopy even busting out some pom-poms.
• Book Ends: The final part Film Reroll's Charlie Brown triptych ends the same way the first part did: everyone needing to come together to put out a fire at Violet Grey's house.
• Butt-Monkey: Discussed: Charlie Brown fully understands the possibility of earning Lucy's ire due to abandoning her ice hockey team plan in order to prioritize finding the meaning of Christmas, and anticipates it.
• Call-Back: As Lucy starts to pull together an ice hockey team, she explicitly states they need an alcoholic lawyer to coach them, before pivoting to making Charlie Brown do it.
• The Cameo: At the top of the campaign, Paulo expresses uncertainty over Woodstock coming back for this campaign, as he wasn't even in the original special. But sure enough, when Snoopy has to disguise himself as Odin to break up Violet's war cult, he winds up needing to borrow Woodstock in order to sell the disguise.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: Snooopy's costume trunk returns from Thanksgiving, and winds up being a significant plot-element: He not only tries to use it to find a top hat for Charlie Brown's snowman, but he also uses it to give everyone hats during Lucy's holiday pageant... which may or may not have helped cause the war cult subplot.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • When Charlie Brown tries to talk his way out of being strong-armed into coaching Lucy's hypothetical hockey team, she reminds him of how she did the brunt of the cooking for his Thanksgiving dinner last month, so he effectively owes her one.
  • While Lucy catches up with Violet early on in the campaign, we come to learn that Violet has developed a phobia of all things relating to fire. This winds up being important during Lucy's holiday pageant, when Charlie Brown is forced to tell John the Baptist that the Romans burnt down his house.
• Crazy Enough to Work: Upon getting clarification of Schroeder's interests^note namely that, between choosing the holiday pageant or hockey, he prefers hockey, with music, Lucy briefly toys with the idea of reworking the pageant around that^note namely, the final battle with the Romans is instead settled via ice hockey.
• Continuity Nod: Lisa deciding to retire her dice early on causes Joz to bring up how her gifted pair for Kara turned out to be cursed.
• Downer Ending: Discussed: When Charlie Brown tries to talk Lucy into reworking the pageant into being more about togetherness, he suggests ending the pageant after the first act... which, as Lucy points out, ends with Jesus being betrayed. Charlie Brown then proceeds to clarify he doesn't even want to have the betrayal in at all.
• Epic Fail: In order to try to do a hockey maneuver, Lucy talks Charlie Brown into being a cone for her so she can practice a shot... and because of bad rolls from both Paulo and Andy, what winds up happening instead is that Lucy misjudges her hockey stick swing, and causes the both of them to go spinning off across the ice.
• Forbidden Holiday: Downplayed: It turns out that Pigpen's family doesn't actually celebrate Christmas. Not much more is made about this development beyond the fact that Pigpen had never gotten a Christmas present before.
• Friendship Moment: One of Charlie Brown's goals for the holidays is to make sure he gets Pigpen a Christmas present, something he doubles down on at the end of the campaign.
• Geeky Turn-On: Lucy finally manages to get a kiss from Schroeder due to her busting out some Henry V.
• God Guise: Once Violet's mob has begun chanting in front of a burning tree, Snoopy happens upon the idea of dressing up as Odin^note by donning an eye patch, and grabbing Woodstock and painting him black to try and break up the mob.
• Gone Horribly Right: After Charlie Brown unwillingly invokes Violet's fear of fire during the holiday pageant^note due to Lucy forcing him to stick to the script, and have his character inform John the Baptist that his house was burned down, Joz rolls a Fright Check for Violet, and gets a Crit Success. While this initially means that Violet opts to lean into her turmoils and take control of her life, this swiftly derails into her amassing a majority of the performers of the pageant, forming a war cult, and setting off on a campaign of war and vengeance.
• Halfway Plot Switch: The plot of the campaign takes a sizable detour when Lucy starts to pitch her idea for the plot of the holiday pageant... which in turns results in Violet forming a cult of war and vengance.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: invoked The extended portion of Lucy explaining her idea for the holiday pageant is basically just Joz allowing Paulo to do some extended improv and exploiting some loosey-goosey historical elements.
  Lucy: Rerun!
  Rerun: Yeah?
  Lucy: You're gonna be... the king... what's his name, the King of Rome-
  Rerun: Okay.
  Lucy: Pontius Pilate, that's right, okay.
  Andy: (dawning realization) Wait a minute...
  Joz: (delighted) Paulo is running with this.
  Andy: (as Lucy) "Marcie, you're Winston Churchill."
• Immediate Sequel: It’s let slip during the intro that they recorded this campaign the day after the Thanksgiving one.
• In Medias Res: As she formulates the plot for the holiday pageant on the spot, Lucy happens upon the idea of having it be told through flashbacks, partially in order to justify having it be about Jesus' birth, but also having John the Baptist among the cast.
• In Spite of a Nail: At first, it seems like Charlie Brown is in higher spirits compared to the original special, due to continuing to ride the high from pulling off a successful Thanksgiving dinner. But then he privately admits to Pigpen that he's feeling the holiday blues.
• Joins to Fit In: Variation: Upon realizing that Schroeder's a hockey player, Lucy decides on the spot to organize a hockey team in order to convince him to join.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: After Charlie Brown (regretfully) informs John the Baptist about the Romans burning his house down, Joz decides to roll a Fright Check for Violet, and manages to hit a Crit Success. This results in her deciding to sing Flight of the Valkyries... which, in addition to Snoopy giving her a Viking helmet to wear, causes her to realize this is what her life was guiding her towards... which causes her to rally all the kids^note outside of Charlie Brown and Lucy, who were privately conversing when this happened to follow her back to her burned down house, and then instigate a cult-like ritual involving burning down a Christmas tree in the name of war and vengeance.
  Violet: THE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS IS WAR AND VENGEANCE!
• Kill It with Fire: As part of Violet's campaign at the remains of her house, she has Peppermint Patty, Marcie, and Heather bring over a Christmas tree, and set it up in her front lawn... so she can set it on fire.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Out of frustration and defeat in regards to trying to find a hat, all Snoopy can do is ball up one of Sally's headbands, and lazily throw it at the base of Charlie Brown's snowman.
• Lady Land: Discussed: As Lucy eventually clocks, Violet's war cult is composed entirely of girls.
• Lost Aesop: invoked “Did we learn anything?” “I don’t know.”
• Madness Mantra: "War. Vengeance. War. Vengeance. War. Vengeance."^note Not helping matters is the fact that this was edited into the background of the climax of the campaign, and put on a loop.
• Money Dumb: Upon being informed she doesn't have a budget for the pageant, Lucy incorrectly assumes she has bottomless reserves of cash, even though the players and Joz accurately point out that she isn't in charge of the budget.
• Must Make Amends: A large part in Snoopy deciding to dress up as Odin in order to break up Violet's war cult is the fact that it's incredibly likely this came about due to him sharing his hats with everyone during the pageant, which potentially caused everyone to become possessed. Also, there's the fact that this whole ordeal came about due to him accidentally causing Violet's house to burn down in the first place.
• My God, What Have I Done?: While Lucy has some guilt over Violet Jumping Off the Slippery Slope^note but clearly not enough, as she eventually decides to join in, Snoopy feels ten-times worse; not only does he suspect the hats he gave everyone during the pageant caused them to become possessed by the Norse goddesses of war, but it's also his fault Violet's house had burnt down to begin with.
• Named by Adaptation: Variation: While the later Peanuts special It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown established that the Little Red-Haired Girl's actual name was Heather, Joz decides to just use that name here for simplicity after Lucy adds her to the cast of the pageant.
• Never My Fault: When Linus tries to suggest his quest for a Christmas tree could be his own personal Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown shoots that down hard by pointing out that it was because everyone was focused on finding him and Sally due to his Great Pumpkin bullshit that Violet's house burnt down to begin with. And when Snoopy tries to agree with that stance, Charlie Brown points out he also had some involvement (but he's not sure how).
• Not Brainwashed: Variation: Unlike everyone else in Violet's mob, Lucy wasn't actually consumed by the notions of war and vengeance. She was just along for the ride.
• Not so Dire: After a particularly bad IQ roll to understand the meaning of Christmas early on, Joz announces that the next person Charlie Brown talks to about it will be the one he listens to without fail. Whatever that person says, that will cement the idea of Christmas for him. So naturally, that winds up being Linus.
• Off the Rails:
  • In-universe, Lucy's idea of how to tell the story of Jesus' birth very subtly takes some liberties, what with the exploitation of flashbacks and name dropping any and all Biblical figures, all of which culminate in the following line:
    Lucy: (to Snoopy, dressed as the Flying Ace) Inspired by John the Baptist, World War I pilot Snoopy, you're going to try and conquer Rome!
  • Meanwhile, within the narrative of the campaign itself, the climax sees Violet creating a war cult, and burning a Christmas tree at the ruins of her home, all to honor the "true" meaning of Christmas: "War. Vengeance. War. Vengeance."
• Oh, Crap!: After Violet winds up forming what is ostensibly an angry mob in order to seek vengeance for her burnt house, Snoopy starts to suspect the worst, and begins actively contemplating skipping town.
• Only Sane Man: The liberties Lucy's taking with the holiday pageant winds up causing Charlie Brown to hit his breaking point, and try and talk her into realizing Christmas should be about peace and togetherness, not fear and fire.
• Pet the Dog:
  • While trying to help out with Charlie Brown's snowman, Snoopy happens upon the idea of stealing loose buttons from the kids by the frozen lake. However, everyone agrees that Violet should be left out of this idea.
  • Charlie Brown winds up bonding with Pigpen for a bit while he makes his snowman; not only does Pigpen contribute by "giving" it a tie^note drawing it on and suggesting Charlie Brown take a "mind photo" of it, but Charlie Brown decides it's his mission to get him a Christmas present.
  • Even though she's strong-arming him into coaching her hockey team, Lucy takes a moment to acknowledge that Charlie Brown did in fact make a good snowman.
• Reality Subtext: invoked After the campaign wraps, Lisa comes forward and admits she actually experienced the same thing Violet did in her own life, as she had her own home burn down while she was taking a math final in high school.
• Rummage Fail: Snoopy's attempts at helping Charlie Brown out with his snowman are severely lacking: In lieu of a carrot, he finds a broken pine cone, and instead of a top hat, he winds up only managing to dig out a derby.
• Sarcasm Mode: When Lucy strong-arms him into being the coach for her hypothetical hockey team and finding them an opposing team to play against, Charlie Brown sarcastically promises to reach out to his "enormous network of contacts" before bluntly pointing out that he doesn't know anyone.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Upon getting first glance at Violet's war cult, and her setting up shop at her burned-down house, Snoopy starts suspecting Violet might know about his involvement, and briefly contemplates going back to his dog house, gathering up his things, and skipping town.
  • The second Violet has a Christmas tree set on fire, Charlie Brown decides it's time for him to take Sally home.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: After Snoopy decides to be the referee for Lucy's hockey team, she decides to make it clear she can provide some treats in exchange for favorable refereeing. And due to Lisa failing a Will roll, Snoopy decides to make a silent agreement.
• Sequel First: Inverted: The very first Peanuts special becomes the Grand Finale of Film Reroll’s triptych.
• Shout-Out to Shakespeare: Lucy, still wrapped in the madness of Violet's war cult, starts to belt out a modified passage from Henry V even after everyone else snaps out of it; this in turn nets her a kiss from Schroeder:
  Lucy: O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
  The brightest heaven of invention!
  YMCA for a stage, children to act
  And parents to behold the swelling scene!
  Then should the warlike Violet, like herself[-!]
• Spoof Aesop:
  • What's the real meaning of Christmas? "Don't be in a cult."
  • If you don't want your home to burn down, don't take a math exam.
• Take a Third Option: While the others are trying to find out where the majority of the pageant members ran off too, Lucy decides to ask Schroeder if he prefers the pageant, or doing hockey. His response? "Hockey. But music."
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Unlike in the special, Charlie Brown winds up having enough money to afford a big, healthy Christmas tree, which he and Linus wind up setting up back at the Brown's residence, which winds up helping Charlie Brown feel a little better about the holidays.
• Trauma Button: As she admits to Lucy, Violet has (understandably) developed a fear of all things relating to fire.
• Twisted Christmas: If you haven't picked up on it yet, the back-half of the campaign sees Violet snapping and starting a war cult in honor of "the true meaning of Christmas".
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Two-fold:
  • Lucy's ideas for the plot of the holiday pageant wind up inadvertantly causing Violet to go off the deep end and start a campaign of war and vengeance against whatever caused her house to burn down.
  • As Snoopy kept giving everyone hats during the pageant, the fact that almost all of the kids took part in Violet's campaign causes Snoopy to suspect the hats being the root cause for what's transpiring.^note And of course, he remembers all too well how Violet's house burnt down in the first place...
• Where It All Began: The climax for the campaign takes place at the same location that the triptych's subplot with Violet Grey effectively began: her burned-down home.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Right at the top of the campaign, Charlie Brown winds up having an incident ice skating, causing him to go spinning on the ice fast enough to make him vomit.