User Reviews

Out of the four "Peanuts" Christmas specials, this is probably the best since the first. Like the other two, it's mainly a collection of strips taken straight from the comic and animated. This time, though, they've actually taken strips they can form a cohesive story out of. The focus this time is Rerun, younger brother of Linus and Lucy, and his desire to get a dog for Christmas. Rerun is a sweet character (sometimes almost too sweet), but he's genuine in his affection.

Some viewers complain about the segment where Rerun makes a joke about taking a girl to Paris and winds up getting accused of harassment. (The word "sexual" is never used.) Other reviewers actually said this would cause Charles Schulz to spin in his grave -- since Schulz himself wrote the strips that this segment is based on, I highly doubt that.

Nothing will ever approach the greatness of the original "Charlie Brown Christmas," but out of the ones that have come out since then, this is the cream of the crop.

Linus and Lucy's younger brother Rerun likes to play with Snoopy. He has adventurous rides on the back of his mother's bike. The Van Pelt kids have a combative chemistry. Snoopy has a few brothers including Spike. "Happiness is a warm Puppy." Rerun would like a dog of his own. His mother refuses. Spike sends Snoopy a letter and in the return letter, Rerun proposes to take Spike in as his dog.

It has the charm of the Charlie Brown shows with the Van Pelts taking the lead from Charlie Brown. Rerun is actually funny and the Van Pelt kids are hilarious together. Essentially Rerun takes the lead from Charlie Brown except he's more assertive. He even says "Good Grief!" It's a charming special but it lacks a good Christmas message unless it's for the SPCA. Snoopy is funnier than ever and there is Spike in this one.

Out of the four "Peanuts" Christmas specials,this is probably the best one of them all since the original "A Charlie Brown Christmas" first aired in 1965. The other "Peanuts" specials were ""Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales",and the heartwarming classic, "It's Christmas Time Again,Charlie Brown". But "I Want A Dog For Christmas,Charlie Brown" was totally different from the rest of the pack. The producers carefully went by the collection of creator Charles Schulz' "Peanuts" comic strip and animated it,and from there may a cohesive storyline from it. Produced and animated by the team of Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez(the same team responsible for many earlier classic Peanuts cartoon specials)it originally aired as a hour-long special for ABC. ABC debuted this special in prime time on December 9, 2003 and it has aired annually ever since. This special aired three years after the untimely death of its creator Charles Schulz,who passed away in 2000.

Usually,these holiday "Peanuts" cartoon specials run no more than a half-hour,but this special was the first hour long Charlie Brown program to aired a full hour. This 2003 animated special reunites the rest of the Peanuts gang and the yuletide season. In this installment, Linus and Lucy's younger brother,ReRun(taken for the comics)is having some stress issues. He goes to Charlie Brown's faithful and resourceful beagle Snoopy for attention and fun,since ReRun doesn't have a dog of his own and he desperately wants one for Christmas. However,Snoopy has other plans,which don't include ReRun. So,Snoopy invites invites his canine brother from the Southwest,Spike to visit. After ReRun has been given the responsibility of handling his newfound pet,hijinks and hilarious situations ensumed. The voice talents are brilliant here which includes the superb performance of Jimmy Bennett as ReRun. Bill Melendez still does Snoopy's yelps and other voices,while the rest of the voice talent includes Adam Taylor-Gordon(Charlie Brown),Ashley Orr(Lucy),Nick Price(Schroder),Corey Padnos(Linus),and Hannah Leigh(Sally). ABC airs this special annually. Out of all the Peanuts specials,nothing can replace the classic "A Charlie Brown Christmas",but this one comes pretty close but comes on sweet.

This 40-minute TV special tells the story of Rerun, Linus and Lucy's very cute younger brother (I loved the scenes with him stuck on the back of his mother's bicycle). As the smallest child he feels left out of playing around with the other kids and wishes for a dog for Xmas. He starts a great friendship with Snoopy but Charlie Brown is reluctant to let him go. I felt so sorry for Rerun. He's just so desperate for attention, to be taken seriously. He's got a lot of love inside him and needs a best friend to let it all out. Jimmy Bennett's voice acting is spot-on and makes him so real.

It's all harmless fun, if not completely indisposable. I've made it a Xmas tradition already as well as the other seasonal Charlie Brown specials.

While "I Want a Dog for Christmas" has it's flaws and may not totally live up to the old "A Charlie Brown Christmas", it nonetheless manages to hold a special place in my heart and has remained a staple for my family's Christmas viewing for three years running.

I can remember being in the philosophical Rerun's position, both for wanting a dog -- for years and years until I was able to get one when I was in my teens, and also for and also for being treated as the "baby" in the family. Seeing other members of Snoopy's family was a treat.

I felt the script could have been a little tighter, but I think it is far from being dreadful.

Following the death of Charles M. Schultz, there can be no original Peanuts ANYTHING. So we're basically left with animating old strips. This can get tedious since pretty much all dialogue has to actually "fit" in four panels.

Anyway, as Rerun appeared relatively late in the Peanuts run, and was a minor character, there haven't been many animated skits featuring the tyke. Basically all he does is ride on his mom's bike.

In this special, I was completely drawn in by the incredible voice acting. I was close to crying for the kid when he's begging the sun "PLEASE DON'T MELT MY SNOMAN" It was so cute.

It's hard to believe that this film is from 2003! It has the look and overall feel of the originals from the 60s and 70s - a really good Christmas cartoon movie. If you do like the originals then you should like this 2003 because it's just as good.

In this one, Lucy and Linus' little brother Rerun wants a dog for Christmas but his parents will not allow him to have one because it's a lot of work caring for a dog. Rerun starts bugging Charlie Brown to play with Snoopy and eventually Snoopy's brother Spike comes to stay with Rerun and his family for awhile.

Really cute, fun movie for the entire family.

10/10

'I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown' is simply put, a very sweet film. Its honestly just one of the sweetest Peanuts specials released.

Starring the Van Pelt kids (Lucy, Linus, and Rerun) and Snoopy this special is really all about Rerun and his pursuit of getting a dog for Christmas. This ends up involving Snoopy so you get to see the usual luster Snoopy brings to all scenes!

From Rerun's dialogue to Snoopy and his siblings who all make some cameos, this special produces some peak adorableness of the Peanuts gang. Although the music is just average, the animation feels authentic and entertaining.

Its a good Peanuts special and worth watching as a change up to the original 1965 Christmas special.

This is awful. There is no real story line here. Instead, it is a series of jump cuts from one joke to another. You can almost picture the four panel strips that the jokes were originally presented in. While some of the material is funny, the scattered nature of the "plot" really detracts from your enjoyment. Yes, I know it is a "cartoon", so my disparaging of a lack of a plot may seem overblown. However, I challenge you to compare this to "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and I believe you will understand my point.

I am not sure what the running time is, but the network managed to cram in a lot of commercials over the hour.

Charles Schulz is terribly missed by all of us Peanuts fans. This is an excellent posthumous work. Main theme is Rerun's search for a dog for Christmas, but we get to see each of the main Peanuts characters doing their thing in a Christmas setting. Not all the Charlie Brown specials have been outstanding through the years, but this one can be put right up there with the best. Kudos. 9/10

It's obvious Charles Schultz had already passed on when this was made. It is definitely no good ol' Charlie Brown. The character, Rerun, doesn't fit in the Peanuts line up. The regular characters have no weight in the film and seem strange and out of place. I would highly recommend any of the older Peanuts classics, but this shouldn't even exist. The movie doesn't flow well either. It is almost like standup, or a series of newspaper comic strips strung together. They are not even funny. One of the things that bothered me about the Rerun character is simply bad manners. The old Peanuts characters were typically respectful of their homes and parents. This character shows none of that.

This one pales in comparison to the original Charlie Brown Christmas. This movie is lacking a lot. In fact it is lacking all the the originals have in them, MEANING.

This has its cute moments, and some humor in it. It just isn't the same though. Charles Shultz you are missed!!!

I do not recommend this one

Peanuts still makes me smile after all these years. This new animated feature was very good. For the big Peanuts aficianados, you'll recognize a lot of the gags are from the weekly strips themselves, some dating back to the 1960s. It was done very well and I very much enjoyed it.

This is not the type of Charlie Brown Christmas movie we've come to look forward to as the holidays roll around. This is a disgrace to Charles Schultz, and I'm sure he's rolling over in his grave. The focus of the movie is on ReRun, a mistake in itself. Charlie Brown jokes have always been corny, but we loved them anyway. There was a charming humor about them. This movie is filled with thoughtless attempts at being cute, but with zero success. Lucy has lost her edge, Snoopy has no spunk, Linus is more pathetic than Schultz ever thought about making him, and Charlie Brown has lost all the lovable charm he ever had. Oh, how I long for old days, when a Charlie Brown Christmas special didn't make me sick.

Either I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown or A Charlie Brown Christmas has to be my favorite Peanuts special/TV movie! This came out the year I was born (2003). I've had a DVD of it for as long as I can remember, watched it countless times, and refuse to grow out of it as well as the rest of the Peanuts franchise. I'm well aware that Peanuts is for everybody and you're never too old for it, but I thought I'd still mention it anyway. I still love the Peanuts series no matter how many times I see it!

If you've seen this before, you know that Lucy and Linus's little brother Rerun is the main protagonist here. He's one of my favorite Peanuts characters. He has mostly minor roles, much to my disappointment. Thankfully, he's one of the main characters in the more recent Apple TV+ series, The Snoopy Show. He's a cute and funny character, and Jimmy Bennett did a spot-on job voicing him! He has some humorous and memorable dialogue here, like "Oh no! It's B of the B Day! Oh no!", "I wonder if there's any way I can get out of here," "You can talk to the moon, because the sun won't listen," and "Happiness is a warm puppy!" I've repeated some of his lines here at least once, and it's true that happiness is a warm puppy. How could one go wrong with that? If you don't know what B of the B Day is, that's short for "Back of the Bike Day." Rerun wants Snoopy to be his dog, but when Charlie Brown tells him Snoopy has siblings, including a brother Spike who is coming to visit soon, he thinks maybe Spike could be his dog. Spike stays at the Van Pelts' house for a while, but the parents don't let Rerun keep him. It sure was nice of Charlie Brown to "share" his dog with Rerun! I've got to admit that the latter and Snoopy have a great friendship; Snoopy was happy to let his friend pull him on a sled at the end. They gave some some funny moments together, like when they laugh and run around with a bag of cookies. Not only was this my first exposure to Rerun, both also my first exposure to Snoopy's siblings Spike, Andy, Olaf, Marbles, and Belle. I didn't know that they've appeared in other specials until long after I first came across this one.

After all these years, Peanuts has surprisingly never lost its charm, and this special/movie proves it! All the characters are still their same old likable selves. Bill Melendez still voiced Snoopy and was the co-director of the Peanuts specials until he died in 2008, and this has quiet, relaxing, and sometimes toe tapping jazz music that sounds similar to the music from the other Peanuts installments. Even the franchise's theme song, Linus and Lucy, and the song Christmas Is Coming from A Charlie Brown Christmas are present. Most of the scenes are based on Peanuts comics, and I've read most of them. Charles Schulz would be proud!

If you like the other three Charlie Brown Christmas specials, you'll definitely like this too! I don't know what else to say.

I've been a fan of Peanuts for as long as I can remember. Every year our family has a tradition of watching the holiday specials together. Sure, we all know what happens, but Peanuts still has the ability to get you in the mood for the season.

At least until this special came along.

Rerun always had a segment on the TV show, riding on his mom's bicycle and giving his philosphies on things. For a two minute segment, it was cute. But this new special is all Rerun, all the time. There was a reason Rerun was confined to a two minute space. Any longer and he's grating.

The special (or at least the first half hour) consists of Rerun basically complaining about being the baby of the family. Nobody includes him in anything. Mom won't let him have a dog. He's not big enough to do what he wants to do, etc.

And then he gets suspended for sexual harassment! I kid you not. He tells some girl he wants to take her to Paris and he gets suspended for sexual harassment! At that point, I switched the channel. This isn't Peanuts. It's a cheap piece of trash trying to cash in on the Peanuts empire. Charles Schulz would be spinning in his grave.

This gets zero stars from me.