Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown

Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown
Genre	Animation
Based on	Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz
Written by	Stephan Pastis Craig Schulz
Directed by	Andy Beall Frank Molieri
Voices of	Austin Lux Amanda Pace Trenton Rogers Grace Rolek Shane Baumel Blesst Bowden Ciara Bravo Andy Pessoa Andy Beall
Composer	Mark Mothersbaugh
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Production
Executive producers	Craig Schulz Stephan Pastis Paige Braddock Linda M. Steiner
Producer	Margaret M. Dean
Animator	Yearim Productions Co., Ltd.
Editor	Mike Mangan
Running time	46 minutes
Production companies	Peanuts Worldwide Warner Premiere WildBrain Entertainment Schulz Productions
Original release
Network	Fox
Release	March 29, 2011 (2011-03-29) (Home video premiere) October 1, 2011 (2011-10-01) (Television premiere)
Related
He's a Bully, Charlie Brown (2006) The Peanuts Movie (2015) Snoopy Presents: For Auld Lang Syne (2021)
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Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown is the 45th Peanuts animated television special, released in 2011. It was the final network TV special based on the comic strip, before the franchise moved to Apple TV+ in 2020.^[1] The special is the first one produced without Bill Melendez on the production team, following his death in 2008. It is also the first special without the direct involvement of Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, Lee Mendelson Productions or Bill Melendez Productions (it is unknown, though, if Lee Mendelson also worked on this special).^[2] In addition, it is the first Peanuts special produced in part under Warner Bros. Television, which holds the home media distribution rights to the Peanuts specials.

The special was released on DVD on March 29, 2011, and first aired on television on October 1, 2011, on Teletoon in Canada. The special premiered in the United States on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 2011, at 8:30PM ET/PT on Fox, the first Peanuts special to air on the network; with this airing, Peanuts specials have aired on all four major networks. The first half of the film's original Fox broadcast in 2011 competed directly with a Peanuts special that aired at the same time on ABC ("The Mayflower Voyagers" from This Is America, Charlie Brown).^[3][4] The special aired again on November 23, 2012 (the day after Thanksgiving, so as not to directly compete with the other Peanuts specials) and December 17, 2013.

The program special is particularly notable in that the characters/animation are drawn in a 1950s/early-1960s style, and it uses only characters from that time period (including Violet, Shermy, and Patty), except for the inclusion of one later character, Woodstock, and intermediate-era characters Frieda, Faron, 5, 4, and 3 appearing briefly as extras; and even pays homage to the first Peanuts strip, from October 2, 1950 (when Charlie Brown has a flashback sequence).

The title recalls the 1960s Peanuts phrase "Happiness Is a Warm Puppy," which became a cultural reference.