It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown

Directed by:	Phil Roman
Written by:	Charles M. Schulz
Release date:	April 9, 1974
Running time:	30 minutes
Preceded by:	It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown
Followed by:	Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown
Availability:	It's The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown iTunes, It's The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown DVD, It's The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown Deluxe Edition DVD, Peanuts 1970's Collection, Vol. 1 DVD, Charlie Brown Collection: Volume 1 DVD (Region 4: Australia/New Zealand)

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 as she is busy with mixing the paints, 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 tries to toast one (which cannot fit inside a single slot), and roasts it and the remaining seven (while still in the carton) in the oven. On the third and final attempt, when she is asked to boil the eggs, she misunderstands and inadvertently 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, he gets his snout stuck and the birdhouse breaks into pieces, requiring a return 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 (with a banner "displaying 246 days until Christmas". meaning next Christmas).

Linus insists that 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 grumpy about it and goes to see Snoopy to fight him. However, Snoopy stops the fight before it can start by giving Lucy an alarming but charming kiss on the cheek.

Voice cast

• Todd Barbee – Charlie Brown
• Stephen Shea – Linus van Pelt
• Melanie Kohn – Lucy van Pelt
• Lynn Mortensen – Sally Brown
• Linda Ercoli – Peppermint Patty
• Jimmy Ahrens – Marcie

Uncredited

• Greg Felton - Schroeder
• Bill Melendez – Snoopy/Woodstock

Quotes

• Peppermint Patty: Marcie! You've made egg soup!? (screams)
• Sally Brown: It's Easter and they already have that Christmas decorations up!
• Charlie Brown: Good grief.
• Linus van Pelt: I can't believe it.
• Lucy van Pelt: I told you. It's the gift-getting season.

Soundtrack

1. "Peppermint Patty" (laid-back vamp)*
2. "Easter Theme"
3. "Piano Sonata No. 3 in C Major" (Beethoven)
4. "Snoopy & Woodstock" (an up-tempo re-working of "Mystery Theme") N
5. "Linus and Lucy"
6. "Woodstock's Dream" (actually "Tisn't the Season")
7. "Background #1"
8. "Easter Theme"*
9. "Woodstock's Dream"
10. "Snoopy & Woodstock" (an up-tempo re-working of "Mystery Theme") N
11. "Background #2"
12. "Kitchen Music" (slow version)
13. "Linus and Lucy"
14. "Woodstock's Pad"
15. "Woodstock's Dream"
16. Minuet in G Major, BWV Anh. 116 (Bach) ["Music Box Dance"]
17. "Background #3" (actually "Woodstock's Dream" again)
18. "Kitchen Music" N
19. "Linus and Lucy"
20. "Linus and Lucy"
21. Symphony No. 7, op. 92, second movement (Beethoven)
22. Symphony No. 7, op. 92, first movement (Beethoven)
23. "Background #4"
24. "Linus and Lucy"
25. "Easter Theme"

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.
• This special was nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Special (as was Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown). The award went to Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus, which was directed by Bill Melendez.
• The song from the music box scene is "Minuet in G Major (BWV Anh. 116)" by Johann Sebastian Bach.
• The song in the egg distributing scene is "Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92" by Ludwig van Beethoven.
• This is one of a few times Snoopy speaks in a Peanuts special; he happily shouts "Hey!" when he approaches the Bunny Wunnys in his dream.
• This is the first special Schroeder voiced by Greg Felton.
• This is the only special Peppermint Patty voiced by Linda Ercoli.
• The hopping beagle with the Easter basket sequence can be seen during the opening credits from The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show.
• This marks Marcie's 4th appearence in a Peanuts TV Special; following after "There's No Time for Love, Charlie Brown", "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" & "It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown".
• Charlie Brown would have had an egg if Snoopy had thrown one less egg on the ground when he first arrived.

Goofs

• All of the furniture inside of Woodstock's birdhouse disappears after the birdhouse is destroyed.
• When the Peanuts Gang goes to the shopping mall and sees all of the Christmas decorations, Lucy says to Linus, "I told you. It's the gift-getting season." She did say this earlier in this special, but when she was talking to Schroeder, not Linus.
• After Snoopy, Peppermint Patty, and Marcie were having fun dancing to the music, the music box with the angel blowing his horn on the left has disappeared.
• When Snoopy shouts "Hey!" while approaching the Bunny Wunnys in his dream, his mouth does not move.
• While Lucy is pulling out the eggs for their Easter Egg hunt, all of the eggs in her basket are solid colors, but after they are taken out of the basket, they are colored elaborately.
• One hat that Snoopy tries on in the mall turns from brown to purple after it lands on the ground.
• While in the mall, the gang is taking one escalator up while Snoopy takes another one down. As they do this, we see them cross paths, even though they are going in different directions.
• While they are visiting the mall, there is a sign that proclaims that there are 246 days until Christmas. This would mean that the date during which the events take place is on April 23, 1974, with the latest possible date being April 25, which is extremely rare. Also, since Easter was on April 14, 1974, Sally is looking for a new pair of shoes nine days after.

External links

• It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown on the Internet Movie Database.
• It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown on the Big Cartoon Database.
• It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown on AllMovie.