I decided to update my drawing of Spike from 2019. The original is no more, but the review that was attached to it remains.
Pencil... The Desert Tone by Venus. It's not a coloring pencil, despite its name.
I used a Mitsu-Bishi 'Uni' H to draw this card.
Below is the review, as I wrote it in 2019.
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Anyway, we're looking at a very strange entry in the Peanuts universe: "It's the Girl in the Red Truck, Charlie Brown" (1988).
This special blends live action with animation, which is unique for 'Peanuts'. Additionally, this special isn't about the main characters from the comic strip. Rather, it focuses on Spike (Snoopy's brother) and his experiences with adult human characters made specifically for this special ...which is itself unique for the franchise, as adult humans otherwise have not had important roles in 'Peanuts'.
What about Charlie Brown---he's in the *title, yes?
Get this: Charlie wasn't supposed to appear in this special at all! Charlie Brown makes only a brief cameo here, with the sole purpose of introducing us to Spike. Schulz (the creator of Peanuts) thought this cameo with Charlie Brown to be unnecessary, believing any who'd watch this special would already be **familiar with Spike.
*Funny thing about the Peanuts specials (of which there are several dozen), is almost every one of them has 'Charlie Brown' in its title, regardless of the character's significance to the plot. "Peanuts" appears in only five titles, each of which is a documentary rather than an animated special ('The Peanuts Movie' doesn't count as a special/doc).
Source: [REDACTED] (as of 1/16/2019)
EDIT (01/14/2022): The above material had been moved or deleted.
**Spike and Olaf were the only two of Snoopy's seven siblings I could name without researching.
Is this special any good? Here's what some involved in its creation had to say:
Schulz: "I wanted this to be my Citizen Kane, but it's not"
Miller (director): "I never shot so much plain brown dirt in my life"
...and production supposedly took "four years" and cost "millions of dollars". ^^
Our puppy tale begins somewhere in Needles: a Californian desert ...whereat someone has carefully placed some fake, hollow cacti. Within one of these resides Spike: shown arising from a night of slumber. What proceeds is some cutesy animation of Spike cooking his breakfast.
For those who don't know, Spike neither talks nor has any inner monologues, so those scenes in which he appears by himself rely on sight gags and music to keep interest. The animation here is solid---the cells don't conflict too much with the live backgrounds. Concisely, the blend here is more convincing than that of Yoram Gross's 'Dot' series, yet not as seamless as that produced by Disney (this special and Disney's '*Roger Rabbit' were released almost concurrently, hence comparisons were made by some critics of the time).
*I'm probably the only furry alive who hasn't seen said movie (all the way through), but I digress.
After a tumbleweed steals Spike's breakfast (yes, that's a thing that happens), the title card and some credits are shown.
One credit of interest is that of Jill Schulz, the daughter of Peanuts's creator. Jill plays the role of Jenny: the girl in the red truck. :3
After the opening credits, we cut to the fully-animated world of Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Charlie ambles over to Snoopy's doghouse to bring him a letter,
CHARLIE BROWN (to Snoopy): "Guess what---you got another letter from your brother Spike, who lives in the desert"
The two proceed inside the big house, as the letter has to read indoors for some reason. Most of what's read provides excuse to pad the movie with sight gags pertinent to Spike's life in the desert. Only two significant items are mentioned: Spike listens to a how-to-speak-French tape, and he's become infatuated with a woman (Jenny) who habitually drives by in her little red truck.
The French tape is plot-relevant, albeit...
TAPE (each English sentence is repeated in French): "Good morning Gentleman. The lesson begins. Is that a dog? Yes, sir: that is a dog. Is that a dog? No. That is not a dog: it is a cat"
The visuals show Spike waving at the passing Jenny when 'dog' is mentioned, and focuses on Jenny driving by when 'cat' is mentioned.
Yup... a dirty joke in a Peanuts cartoon.
As Fate would have it, Jenny's truck breaks down where Spike was sitting in wait for her. Jenny exits her truck for to inspect under its hood. She notices Spike sitting adjacent, his tape still going.
TAPE (w/French): "Good morning, Miss. May I offer you some assistance?"
A cute coincidence. Jenny asks Spike if he has a name. Spike gestures to his cassette player, which has his name on it.
JENNY: "'Spike'? Hey that's a great name. I bet it suits you, too"
*sighs*
I sigh both for the innuendo as well for the fact that Jenny can talk. She sounds fine, of course, but this is a Peanuts special---shouldn't the adults speak only *Muamua-ese?
*for those who don't know, adults effectively didn't exist in the Peanuts universe. If a gag or situation required an adult, the adult would be kept off-camera and their speech would be deliberately unintelligible (sounding something like 'Mua mua mum mua').
Anyway...
A sight gag with Spike gets the truck started. In gratitude, Jenny offers to let Spike ride with her (to who knows where). Spike accepts the invitation. After a while, the two stop at a mom-n-pop restaurant run by a woman named Molly: a friend of Jenny's ...who also knows Spike (her best customer).
We learn here that Jenny is an aerobics instructor, and has an unreliable boyfriend named Jeff. The two have a date at a roller-skate rink planned for the night.
Jenny leaves for home, taking Spike along with her.
At home we learn Jenny had a dog named Ruphy. Beyond this, we are given several minutes of unimportant Jenny-Spike interactions. Enter Jeff,
JEFF (opening front door): "Guess who!"
JENNY (to Jeff): "Where've you been; I've been waiting for you?"
JEFF: "Well, Needles isn't the easiest place to get to"
JENNY: "Yeah, but I'm worth it" *kisses Jeff*
Jenny introduces Jeff to Spike. Unfortunately, Jeff doesn't seem to appreciate Spike's presence, esp. after his attempt to convince Jenny to keep Spike outside is dismissed,
JENNY: "(Spike) likes it in here with me ...I haven't had a dog since Ruphy, and I need 'someone' to keep me company around here"
Hence the movie implies Jeff's dislike of Spike is founded on jealousy ...and any boyfriend in a movie who feels his relationship is threatened by his partner's dog is destined to serve as the villain ...and with a villain comes plot (something this 50-minute borefest needed 22 minutes to get to).
Jeff doesn't disappoint. Jeff sits with Jenny, explaining a friend of his in another town is producing a movie requiring Jazz dancers ...and Jeff has signed Jenny up for auditions,
JEFF: "...and the first auditions are next Thursday at nine o'clock. Now, I promised (my friend) you'd get there a little early to meet with him. He knows you're coming in from the desert, so if you're a little bit late that's ok---but you'd be better off getting there as soon as you can"
Can we say 'presumptuous'? It's all too much for Jenny, who is attached to both her aerobics job and desert home/friends. Jenny declines.
Followed (somewhy) by Spike, Jeff proceeds outside, monologuing about his ambitions for Jenny. Jeff's lines are mostly uninteresting (Even Spike seems bored by them), but some are just strange. A sample,
JEFF (to Spike): "You don't know how lucky you are---I know people who'd just about kill to move out here, but they have jobs that keep them in the city. It's not that they want to be there, it's that they have to be. Jenny doesn't understand that"
Well, clearly she does---she doesn't want to leave the desert (and based on Jeff's lines, he shouldn't want her to). ...Then again,
JEFF: "Jenny's been talking about leaving (Needles) now for three years---all she needs is a little push"
Contrary. Moreover, what kid would be invested in this soliloquy (or adult, for that matter)? Any who could relate to Jeff's thoughts likely wouldn't want to reflect on them via Peanuts (such is Lifetime's territory)!
Anyway, it's time for Jenny and Jeff to go on their date. Jeff remembers he doesn't like Spike after Jenny invites Spike along. Heedless of Jenny's admonishments that Spike could be hurt, Jeff insists Spike ride in the back of the truck.
I'm beginning to think Ruphy met a foul end at the hands of Jeff (this movie's dark)! D:
...Anyway
At the skating rink, Spike steps into the only pair of animation-cell skates available and rolls onto the floor ...some cute animation proceeds (we also see Jenny perform some moves---all this goes on a few minutes, though I'd rank this as the movie's best scene). The scene ends with Spike feeling forgotten by Jenny once she and Jeff begin skate-dancing together. Spike removes his skates and silently wanders into the nighttime desert.
Jenny and Jeff soon notice Spike is missing and begin searching, albeit Jeff's not too concerned,
JEFF (to Jenny): "Look, Jen, it's not like he's lost or anything---I mean, he lives out here---the whole desert's his home"
Returning to Spike, he finds himself being shot at by coyote hunters.
Jenny and Jeff (on the road, in the truck) hear the gunshots. Despite Jeff's protests, Jenny pursues the hunters, believing they are a danger to Spike. Jenny somehow catches up with the hunters. Parking her truck next to those of the hunters, she observes Spike high on a hill, shielding himself behind a rock.
...This scene is stupid. Without telling the hunters she's parked beside to STOP FIRING, Jenny climbs up the hill to rescue Spike ...as the hunters CONTINUE TO FIRE (I guess they think Jenny's a coyote, too?). It's not until Jeff begins climbing after Jenny that the coyote hunters cease fire and drive away (hurriedly). D<
Anyway, Spike is brought down from the hill and the three return to the truck, no worse for the wear.
Getting this over with: Jenny thinks Jeff's a hero. Spike sees he has no chance with Jenny and so takes his leave (Jenny's ok with this---it's Spike's choice). Jenny and Jeff reconcile about the audition,
JEFF: "...I shouldn't have set things up like that. You're right---my timing was wrong. I just got carried away, confusing what's right for you for what's right for me. I'm sorry"
JENNY: "I miss you, you know? Every time you go back to the city, I miss you ...Jeff, what are we going to do?"
I pause the dialogue here to express an observation:i t might be the upload, but it's at this point the audio changes, as if what is rest the scene was voiced-over (additionally, the lip movements here don't match the words). Proceeding,
JEFF: "...In a couple of years when one of us has made our first million, we'll come back to (the desert) and retire in our own little house"
Jenny concedes.
As regards Spike,
JEFF: "You don't think we ought to look for Spike?"
JENNY: "We don't have to; I already know where he is"
JEFF: "Where's that?"
JENNY: "Out there: home"
Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm unsure whether the adults haven't been speaking some refined form of Muamua-ese this whole time..
Either way, the movie ends with Spike sitting outside his cactus, before a campfire. The credits roll; Spike wants a drink (as do I). :3
What word would best summarize my thoughts on this movie? 'Pointless' comes to mind---rather incongruous for a movie shot in a place called 'Needles'. Oh there are less ironic candidates, including: useless, unasked-for, unavailing, aimless, worthless, etc., but why make this difficult---why put more effort into the review than that which went into its subject's script?
Most kids would probably enjoy the animation, but the (quote-unquote) 'plot' gets in the way. This movie would have been better without the human characters---just let the film be a series of visual gags with Spike! Again, I cannot imagine many kids watching this who would be more interested in Jenny-Jeff than in Spike, and most adults interested in Peanuts specials don't want to see adults/adult scenarios in them.
"You know, I never noticed any of that innuendo until now. Now I won't ever forget it. This movie... this movie... It's pure nepotism. It was a vehicle for Schultz's daughter and that's why all the usual conventions are thrown out. It's Peanuts used in service of someone rather than being allowed to be its own thing. Whenever this sort of thing happens the movie suffers. It tries, it tries so hard, you can see. But this is not what the writer is good at. It's like asking Steven Segal to play a fluffy bunny, you're going to get pap because the person producing it just Does Not Know how anything should be done. They know cliches as we all do, but not even how to make them PASSABLE cliches. In the end I can have some respect for it, in ANY other movie Jenny would be with the dog. (Bee Movie... BEE MOVIE. I GOT the innuendo there! I didn't want to, but I did!) But I can't help but feel that this is not planned but merely the result of ineptitude; the writer simply didn't know that evil boyfriends are supposed to lose the girl in the end and just did what was more sensible than cliche. I have a deep, DEEP dislike for anything Peanuts, growing from childhood but this... it's so un-nutty that it doesn't even trigger my standard response. My mind does not accept it as part of canon"
