
Snoopy continues to get more and more adventures. This is unfortunately one of the weaker Peanut specials though and the famous dog’s charisma is not enough to save it this time. One of the main problems here is the fact that the romance is the main plot so Snoopy is a little out of character and none of the usual gags are present this time around. The special takes itself too seriously and when you consider the fact that Snoopy has already fallen in love several times, this plot is already a little old. Snoopy’s brother makes his debut here, but he is a fairly unlikable character. Ah well, let’s launch into this.
Snoopy has fallen for a dog so he wants to immediately be married. First he has his farewell party with the rest of the Peanuts gang. Everyone gives him a good bone and Snoopy prepares himself. It’s not as if he is going anywhere, but the status quo will change quite a bit so everyone will have to get used to his new role in society. The nerves start to get to him though and the special gets a little odd here. My personal take on it was that Snoopy already knew that the other dog was not going to go through with the marriage as she had already fallen for someone else. The special implied that it was Snoopy’s brother for a little while as a mild flirtation happened earlier, but in the end it was just a random dog who was never shown. Seeing as how it was Spike who the dog fell in love with in the comic, I feel like the animators made the switch at the last second. It made more sense to end like it did in the comic although I’m glad that it didn’t as it wouldn’t do Spike any favors. I already don’t care for the character, you can imagine how much worse he would be if this had happened. It certainly would have been a very somber ending.
Luckily, Snoopy’s a class act and a tough dog to boot. He gets over the failed marriage right away and goes back to eating his cake and just having a generally good time. His charismatic personality is why everyone loves Snoopy and it helps him get through tough times like this special. That being said, it was still not enough to make me actually say that the special was all that good. A romance plot like this one needs a solid subplot to help compliment it or some more dilemmas. There just wasn’t much to this special, but maybe it helps that the subplot was about Spike. Why don’t I like Spike? Well, he looks rather mean, but we can get past that I suppose. The problem is that he sounds noble in the letters, but then comes across as incredibly unsympathetic to Snoopy’s plight and the fact that he definitely seemed like he had come just to mess things up. He tried hard in the race that he entered, but it simply wasn’t to be. He would either need more personality in order to move up the characters charts or some kind of character design upgrade. Something to show that he’s still a nice guy beyond the gruff exterior because otherwise…he’s just a guy with a gruff exterior who doesn’t seem friendly at all.
As always, the animation is rather consistent with the other Peanut specials. There is certainly nothing to complain about here although the blushing on Snoopy was a little much. Animations like to exaggerate the blush effect many times, but I always found it to be rather off putting. People don’t look anything like that in real life. As for the soundtrack, it’s rather ordinary here. There isn’t a whole lot to say about it, the regular tunes will be familiar at this point, but because of that it is also easy to forget that they even exist. I suppose it is better than having bad tunes though.
Overall, This Peanuts special wasn’t able to hold up very well to the test of time. The main problem is that the poorly written romance plot left little room for the human characters to have much of a presence. As cool as Snoopy is, it’s also very important to have Charlie Brown and the gang help out a lot since their personalities are always pretty fun to see. It’s a team effort that makes the Peanuts specials successful and ones that focus on a single plot like this tend to leave something to be desired. It’s another case altogether when everyone is involved in the single plot like the next special that I’m about to review. That is an example of how to get the full cast involved in an interesting way. If you’re going to watch a Peanuts special, I’d advise you to skip this one.
Overall 5/10