The great Vince Guaraldi is best known for his iconic compositions and performance from Charles M Schultz’s beloved Charlie Brown Christmas Special (1965). He continued to write exciting and clever music for 16 more ’Peanuts’ TV specials over the next 12 years of his career, as well as the score for Chuck’s first feature length movie: A Boy Named Charlie Brown. The Dean Thiessen 5-tet is paying homage to the Christmas-spirit origins of his career as well as the most catchy ear-worms in the years that followed. After the set, there will be a brief intermission, then enjoy the movie.
Dean Thiessen – piano
Bonnie Northgraves – trumpet
John Nicholson – flute
Bella Fedrigo – bass
Tyler Murray – drums
About the film: A Boy Named Charlie Brown (Bill Melendez, 1969, 85 min)
Charlie Brown enters — and wins! — the school spelling bee contest and is sent to compete in the nationals… The first Peanuts movie makes the most of the opportunities afforded by the big screen format: it’s a much more sophisticated piece of visual storytelling than the TV specials. Vince Guaraldi contributed the instrumental score (much of it drawn from the TV pieces), while John Scott Trotter and Rod McKuen also contributed songs. All three composers were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song, though they lost to the Beatles’ Let It Be.
A practically perfect screen equivalent to the quiet joys to be found in almost any of Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts comic strips.
Vincent Canby, New York Times
A triumph cinematically, packed with stunning visuals and supplemented by an outstanding musical score.
Patrick Galvan, Our Culture
Co-Presented with
Dec 20
1:30 pm
VIFF Centre, VIFF Cinema
Open to youth!
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Saturday December 20
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Credits
Executive Producer
Charles M. Schulz
Producer
Lee Mendelson, Bill Melendez
Screenwriter
Charles M. Schulz
Editor
Robert T. Gillis, Chuck McCann, Steven Cuitlahuac Melendez
Original Music
Vince Guaraldi
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