59 years today since "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" was released back in 1966. On the surface, it might appear like a whimsical cartoon about a young kid’s belief in the Halloween version of a Santa-like entity. However, the animated short isn’t a mockery of Linus but more of a sincere depiction of his innocence. At its core, it's a deeper exploration of disappointment, the several different forms that faith can take, perseverance, small acts of kindness, and holding on to hope despite failure.
The scenes where Linus promises to put in a good word for his friends with the Great Pumpkin, even after they mock him, when Lucy thinks to ask for extra candy for him because he missed trick-or-treating, and later goes to find him, brings him home and tucks him into bed, highlight Schulz’s characteristic avoidance of cynicism in favour of a more tender approach, even when tackling darker, melancholic themes.
According to his longtime collaborator Lee Mendelson, Charles Schulz always felt badly about the reality that many children from disadvantaged families don’t always get what they wish for during the holidays. Something that partly shaped Linus’s unshakeable belief in the Great Pumpkin, his enduring hope, and the underlying message: “You keep going, and you don’t give up.”
