After A Charlie Brown Christmas, this one came along the next fall. While it is not quite the first one, it has some good moments. Of course when this was made, Halloween was more of a trick or treat holiday as this one was originally sponsored by Dolly Madison, the maker of cup cakes. This high point of this one is Lucy talking about wearing a costume to match your personality.

Snoopy has his first major World War 1 Flying Ace segment here and it is effectively woven into the story. As a Halloween Special, Linus is always waiting for the Great Pumpkin & it is consistent with Linus that he makes a negative remarks about Santa believers. After all, in the previous Christmas Special, Santa is not mentioned in his speech of what Christmas is all about.

The Halloween party, which is a bigger staple today than ever is here though if this were to be updated, Snoopy could decorate his dog house with Halloween Lights, like he did with Christmas lights in the other special. While it is not Christmas, it did help build Charles Schultz resume so that he would do lots more television & movies with the Peanuts gang.

...but now that I think about it, it's one of the only Halloween specials I can think of as well!

The Charlie Brown specials vary in quality quite a bit, though in general I think that the older ones are the best. One of the first, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is about the best and "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" about the second best. I say second because in one way the previous installment was better--it was more poignant and deep. Their Halloween special is simply fun...although I remember as a young child having my heart break for poor Charlie Brown when folks kept giving him rocks on Halloween while Trick-or- Treating.

Overall, well made, really neat animation and a lot of fun. This one is a classic and is worth seeing with your family year after year...after year.

Halloween is approaching and Linus is convinced that the Great Pumpkin is coming. His sister Lucy is infuriated with him. Even Charlie Brown doesn't believe him. Snoopy laughs at him. Charlie Brown's sister Sally adores Linus and willingly waits with him at the pumpkin patch instead of going on her first trick-or-treating. Charlie Brown is excited to be invited to a party for the first time in his life. Everybody is going to Violet's party after trick-or-treating. Snoopy is his imaginary WWI flying ace alter-ego. Sally's rant at the end is both adorable and hilarious. This is such a sweet Charlie Brown special. It's missing the big compelling message of the Christmas special. Nevertheless, this is just a fun charming Halloween tradition.