It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown is the twelfth animated television special based on the Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz. It was the fourth Peanuts TV special to be based around a holiday, following A Charlie Brown Christmas, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown was first broadcast on CBS on April 9, 1974.
Plot
The special opens with Marcie arriving at Peppermint Patty's house to paint eggs for Easter. While Peppermint Patty is not looking, Marcie fries the eggs, thus making it impossible to paint them. Marcie's inability to understand how to make Easter eggs forms a running gag throughout the special. Each time the girl cooks the eggs in a different way and exasperates Peppermint Patty. On the second attempt, Marcie waffle-presses four eggs, unsuccessfully toasts one, and roasts the remaining seven in the oven. On the third and final attempt, when she is asked to boil the eggs, she cracks them into a pot of boiling water and inadvertently makes egg soup.
Woodstock wakes up feeling cold in his nest. Snoopy gets him a birdhouse which Woodstock converts into a luxurious apartment (furnished with a television, some artwork, a sunken bed, carpeting, a lounge chair, a vase, lamps, and a quartet-speaker stereo system). When Snoopy tries to look inside, the birdhouse breaks into pieces, requiring a trip to the shopping mall to buy a new one.
Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Sally, Linus and Lucy meet Peppermint Patty and Marcie in the street and go to the shopping mall together. The children are shocked to see that, although it is not yet Easter, the department store is already displaying Christmas decorations.
Linus insists that it it is not necessary to prepare for Easter because the Easter Beagle will do it for them. None of the other children believe him, except for Sally, although she is skeptical at first because she remembers when the Great Pumpkin failed to show up on a previous Halloween.
Lucy prepares for an Easter egg hunt by hiding some painted eggs outside. She is not aware that Snoopy is following her and picking up the eggs.
On Easter morning, Snoopy arrives as the Easter Beagle. He carries a basket of painted eggs and tosses an egg to everybody. However, when he gets to Charlie Brown he finds that he has run out of eggs. Snoopy gives an embarrassed smile and hands the boy his now empty basket.
Lucy realizes that the beagle took her eggs. Ten weeks later she is still angry about it and goes to see Snoopy to fight him. However, Snoopy stops the fight before it can start by giving Lucy a kiss on the cheek.
Voice cast
- Todd Barbee - Charlie Brown
- Stephen Shea - Linus van Pelt
- Melanie Kohn - Lucy van Pelt
- Greg Felton - Schroeder
- Lynn Mortensen - Sally Brown/Violet/Frieda
- Linda Ercoli - Peppermint Patty
- Jimmy Ahrens - Marcie
- Bill Melendez - Snoopy/Woodstock
Notes
- Charles Schulz once said in an interview that the bunnies Snoopy dances with are none other than the Bunny Wunnys from Snoopy's favorite storybooks.
Goofs
- All of the furniture inside of the Woodstock's birdhouse disappears after the house is destroyed.
Trailers
Trailer for the special's release on VHS by Hi-Tops Video. Fully licensed video from Wikia Video Library.
Trailer for the special's release on DVD by Warner Home Video. Fully licensed video from Wikia Video Library.