YMMV / Happy New Year, Charlie Brown

• Awesome Music: "Musical Chairs". Who knew that Peppermint Patty could sing her heart out whilst still keeping the rhythm that allows her to win? It later got included in the World of Snoopy read-along story "Snoopy's Birthday Party".
• Franchise Original Sin: The story in this special is admittedly based off of one from the comics, where Charlie Brown had to read Gulliver's Travels over a break. That said, not only is that book a lot shorter and easier than War and Peace, the storyline involved Charlie continually procrastinating on his assignment, an element that wasn't adapted here.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: A common criticism with this special. It's always a Foregone Conclusion that Charlie Brown will fail, but assigning him (and him alone) to read War and Peace takes it up a notch in the cruelty department, the Kafka Komedy is cranked up on him a lot more towards the end, and during progression scenes featuring Charlie Brown that don't feature talking, the special has the audacity to play music straight out of a crime drama to make things seem needlessly dour for him.

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