by Sophia Caneira ’29 on October 30, 2025
A&E - Film & TV
With Halloween just around the corner and Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts turning 75 earlier this month, it seems only fitting that we count It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966) among the best spooky movies to watch this season. Growing up, A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) was the most frequently watched of the Peanuts movies in my house, but the Halloween tale deserves no less attention.
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown follows all of your favorite Peanuts characters on Halloween night. The movie surrounds Linus’s unwavering faith in the Great Pumpkin, a being he believes will appear on Halloween in the nearby pumpkin patch, despite the skepticism of his friends. He decides to wait in the pumpkin patch all night and tries to get others to join him. Meanwhile, Charlie Brown is ecstatic at the thought of going trick-or-treating, but ends up disappointed by the spoils.
It’s the Great Pumpkin was nominated for four Emmys. It features the talents of Peter Robbins as Charlie, Christopher Shea as Linus, and Sally Dryer as Lucy. The movie presents a whimsical jazz score and the iconic “Linus and Lucy” theme by composer Vince Guaraldi.
Like many kids’ movies, It’s the Great Pumpkin goes a lot deeper than just childhood fun. Linus’s endearing belief in the Great Pumpkin despite everyone else’s doubts is perhaps a testament to the concept of faith woven throughout not just this Peanuts film, but also in A Charlie Brown Christmas, which explores the true meaning of Christmas as a Christian holiday. When Sally is infuriated by the absence of the Great Pumpkin after Linus convinces her to stay in the pumpkin patch with him, she mourns over the fact that she could have gotten money, chocolate, and candy if she had chosen to go trick-or-treating instead. Perhaps this begs the question: what’s more valuable—material goods or the spirit of faith?
After Sally’s outburst, Linus asks Charlie, “You’ve heard of the fury of a woman scorned, haven’t you”? This is the kind of reference you probably wouldn’t understand as a kid (unless you were already a playwright enthusiast by five or six), which is partially what makes the film appealing to teenagers and adults alike. It’s timeless. Linus’s wisdom and philosophy across these movies are ageless. So many cherished characters—Schulz’s Charlie Brown and co., A. A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh, Michael Bond’s Paddington, and others—have such insightful, comic, and relatable philosophies of life.
Speaking of being relatable, one of the later scenes focuses on the relationship between brother and sister. In the middle of the night, Lucy wakes up and sees Linus’s bed empty. She goes out to look for him and finds him, of course, asleep and shivering, in the middle of the pumpkin patch. She brings Linus back to bed, demonstrating her love for her brother. I have a sister and no brothers, but I imagine this is an accurate depiction of the everyday brother-sister dynamic. There are always moments of disagreement, but in the end, they are still siblings.
I am pleased to inform all those with short attention spans that It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is only 25 minutes long. So, if you get bored of scrolling on TikTok, or if you (like me) don’t enjoy the typical scary Halloween film, certainly give this classic movie a try.