A Charlie Brown Christmas 4K (1965) Ultra HD 2160p REMUX

Christmas lights may be twinkling red and green, but Charlie Brown has the Yuletide blues. To get in the holiday spirit, he takes Lucy's advice and directs the Christmas play. And what's a Christmas play without a Christmas tree? But everyone makes fun of the short, spindly nevergreen Charlie Brown brings back - until the real meaning of Christmas works its magic once again.

A Charlie Brown Christmas 4K (1965) Ultra HD 2160p REMUX Review

A Charlie Brown Christmas 4K Blu-rayUnited States 1036 16 21
+ It's Christmas Time Again, Charlie Brown / It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown / 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + UltraViolet
Warner Bros. | 1965 | 3 Movies, 6 Cuts | 73 min | Not rated | Oct 31, 2017

A Charlie Brown Christmas 4K (Blu-ray)
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FAMILY
ANIMATION
COMEDY
HOLIDAY
SHORT

Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1, 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.33:1

Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)

Subtitles
English SDH

Discs
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD-66, 1 BD-50)
UV digital copy
Digital copy
4K Ultra HD

Playback
Region A (B, C untested)

Price
List price: $22.29
Amazon: $17.96 (Save 19%)
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TV show rating
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8.3
IMDbRotten Tomatoes
207 ratings.

Blu-ray rating
4K 4.0 of 5 4.0
Video 4.0 of 5 4.0
Audio 3.5 of 5 3.5
Extras 1.8 of 5 1.8
Based on 1 user review

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A Charlie Brown Christmas 4K (TV) (1965)


A Charlie Brown Christmas 4K Blu-ray delivers stunning video and solid audio in this excellent Blu-ray release

Christmas lights may be twinkling red and green, but Charlie Brown has the Yuletide blues. To get in the holiday spirit, he takes Lucy's advice and directs the Christmas play. And what's a Christmas play without a Christmas tree? But everyone makes fun of the short, spindly nevergreen Charlie Brown brings back - until the real meaning of Christmas works its magic once again.

For more about A Charlie Brown Christmas 4K and the A Charlie Brown Christmas 4K Blu-ray release, see A Charlie Brown Christmas 4K Blu-ray Review published by Michael Reuben on October 22, 2017 where this Blu-ray release scored 4.0 out of 5.

Director: Bill Melendez
Writer: Charles M. Schulz
Starring: Peter Robbins, Tracy Stratford, Christopher Shea, Cathy Steinberg, Chris Doran, Karen Mendelson

» See full cast & crew

A Charlie Brown Christmas 4K Blu-ray, Video Quality 4.0 of 5 1080p 4.5 of 5

(Note: Screenshots accompanying this review have been captured from the remastered standard Blu-ray.)

All three of the Peanuts specials on the UHD of A Charlie Brown Christmas are based on new 4K scans of the hand-drawn animation's original camera negative. The work was performed under the auspices of Peanuts Worldwide LLC, which controls all of the Peanuts animated properties and was the motivating force behind this release, with Warner serving as distributor. For unknown reasons, the 2160p, HEVC/H.265-encoded UHD of Christmas is the only 4K holiday reissue that Peanuts Worldwide has graced with a new Blu-ray disc—and the comparison is revealing. With the same 4K scan as their shared origin, the Blu-ray and the UHD exhibit equally good levels of sharpness, clarity and detail, and both masters have been expertly cleaned of any dirt, damage or age-related wear. The only real difference between them is the HDR encoding that gives the UHD's image a slightly (but only slightly) enhanced color intensity, which is especially noticeable in Christmas' seasonal theme and decor and in Flashbeagle's flamboyant disco setting. Christmastime Again shows the least difference between the two versions. HDR also provides the UHD with slightly (but only slightly) improved contrast and highlights, enhancing what little sense of depth the original animation has to offer. In short, the UHD is a minor visual upgrade over the Blu-ray, but either disc provides a fine viewing experience.

The decision to offer widescreen versions of all three specials will no doubt alarm some fans, because it exemplifies an unfortunate trend in the creation of HD presentations of material originally framed for 1.33:1 broadcast. (See, e.g., HBO's reformatting of The Wire.) Although I haven't tried to compare every scene, the 1.78:1 presentation of Peanuts appears to be a simple matter of matting the 1.33:1 image at top and bottom, cutting off slightly more above than below. In some scenes (but not consistently), a sliver of additional picture information is visible at the left and right. While it's surprising how effectively these programs translate to widescreen, an occasional shot is obviously too tight, and some scenes lose entire elements from the composition (e.g., the auditorium seats when Linus recites the Gospel from the stage; see screenshots 18 and 19). Regardless of one's attitude toward "modernizing" aspect ratios of television programs (or any other material), the producers of these discs should be commended for including the "classic" versions, which have obviously been prepared with equal care and attention. Traditionalists are free to ignore the widescreen option in favor of the "classic" versions. If you're going to translate NTSC TV into widescreen for home media, this is how it should be done.

This morning I turned on the television to find something with just the right atmosphere for opening Christmas presents. But in the 500-channel universe, could I find the Queen, or the Pope, or anything? I could find practically anything but Christmas.

The most inappropriate programme on wasn't the infomercial for the miracle juicer, no, it was the annual Parade of Expensive Children's Merchandise direct from Disneyland, in case there were some kids left who hadn't coerced a Mickey, or Terk, or Pumbaa from their beleaguered parents. One of the French channels did have a service from Notre Dame in Paris which was the right sort of thing, with an actual church and choir, but it was entirely in French. But then I found "A Charlie Brown Christmas" on one of the stations.

Once upon a time, "Charlie Brown" was just a prelude for its television viewers, most of whom would be attending church closer to Christmas Day. Nowadays, it's probably more than just the prelude; it's likely to be the whole concert.

Thank goodness Charles Schulz and company did such a fine job of crafting this programme back in 1965. Thirty-five years later, Charlie Brown is still as earnest and sympathetic as ever. He was even decrying the commercialization of Christmas back then, decrying in the wilderness, it seems.

Vince Guaraldi normally gets a lot of credit for his music, but there is far more to the show than just that. It is extremely well-written with a lot of charming and funny lines. I particularly like Linus as "an innocent shepherd", but even Snoopy as a penguin is sure to get a big laugh.

But at the midway point in the programme, the tone changes from quality seasonal fun to something very sincere and deeply held. Linus delivers his heartfelt sermon from the pulpit (the school stage). The Peanuts gang renews its faith (in Charlie Brown, at the very least). The congregation assembled there together raises its collective voice in the recessional hymn "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" as we bid them farewell and take our leave. It is these parallels from the church service, I feel, that contribute to the strong emotion many of us experience whenever we view this small triumph of television programming.

Would I say that everything in the story conforms to a higher design conceived by Charles Schulz? I won't hazard a guess, but I do like to feel that he felt a little touch of divine inspiration with this one.