It is a strange thing to watch It's the Great Pumpkin as a parent. I'm no movie critic and only offer some insights as a parent who has been subjected to mulitple viewings of this movie the past few days. If you think that the television doesn't affect your child's learning, take note of the following:
A. your child will automatically begin using the word "blockhead"....a lot
B. your child will hum the Peanuts song...a lot
C. your child will notice the seemingly unimportant detail of Linus eating a single bit of apple and throwing the rest in the garbage
If you think that It's the Great Pumpkin is just good, old fashioned, family fun, consider the following:
A. there are no adults. In fact, a shivering and pathetic Linus is rescued from the pumpkin patch by his sister.
B. Lucy carves her own pumpkin (adeptly, I might add) with a hefty knife and then plops the innards half on/half off the newspaper
C. insults are flung far and wide, most aimed at Linus who is a blockhead (and...well, let's face it, rightly so) for believing in the Great Pumpkin. The second is the common victim - Charlie Brown, who at least gets the credit for the phrase "I got a rock" and can't even manage to have a normal costume.
D. There is a sort of violent history lesson about World War I that gets the "I don't remember that being in there" from many adults.
E. Linus presents the funny but sad commentary to Sally that, "I thought girls believed everything they were told"
However, as I watch this flick for the bazillionth time, I consider that if I were to choose any Peanuts character to be, I'd like to think I would migrate toward Linus or Charlie Brown, those who suffer through and make the attempt to live out big dreams despite the harshness of real life. However, I know that in reality I'd pick the character who was never harassed, never had trouble, and in fact, was super awesome all alone. I'd be Schroeder.
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