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Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown
Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown
	Title card for the short
Directed by	Jim Reardon
Written by	Jim Reardon
Starring	Etienne Badillo; Rich Moore; Mike Reardon; William Hanna; William Holden; Bret Haaland; Nate Kanfer; Jeff Pidgeon
Narrated by	Rich Moore
Edited by	Jim Ryan
Production; company	California Institute of the Arts
Distributed by	California Institute of the Arts
Release date	June 27, 1986;
Running time	3:19
Country	United States
Language	English

Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown is a 1986 American animated short student film written, directed, and animated by Jim Reardon while he was a student at CalArts.^[1] Bring Me The Head of Charlie Brown is black-and-white and has a rough, unfinished, hand-drawn look.^[2]

Plot

The short film is presented as a trailer for a faux Peanuts television special.^[3] A narrator describes the premise of the special: the Great Pumpkin has placed a bounty on Charlie Brown, prompting the Peanuts characters to try to kill Charlie Brown in various ways (Lucy turning a football into a bomb, Schroeder using his piano to crush him, Snoopy bites his arm off, the Kite-Eating Tree falls on him, and Linus strangles him with his blanket), until the narrator announces Charlie Brown, "has been pushed too far." Charlie Brown cuts his hair into a Mohawk, adopts a thick accent similar to Arnold Schwarzenegger, and loads several weapons. Charlie Brown and the Peanuts characters then engage in a gunfight and a montage of chaotic violence with other cartoon and pop-culture characters/figures including Popeye, Godzilla, Blondie and Dagwood, Rocky Balboa, Adolf Hitler (seen painting before being shot) and two Nazi soldiers, Mickey Mouse, and Richard Simmons. The film ends with Charlie Brown smoking in bed alongside the Little Red-Haired Girl after engaging in sex.^[4]^[5]

The film also includes several pop-culture and film references: Linus strangling Charlie Brown is a remake of Luca Brasi's death in The Godfather, Charlie Brown's Mohawk haircut is a reference to Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver,^[6] and Charlie Brown screaming, "Bitch!" after Lucy shoots him in the arm is a shot-by-shot remake of William Holden's gunfight in The Wild Bunch. "Bring Me The Head of Charlie Brown" is a reference to Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, and the end credit to Charles "Dutch" Schultz is a reference to Dutch Schultz.

Production

The song "Charlie Brown" by The Coasters plays over the end credits, which end with a note from Jim Reardon:

The creator of this picture wishes to state that he does not in any way wish to tarnish or demean the beloved characters of Charles M. "Dutch" Schulz's comic strip, Peanuts. No malice or damage to their goodwill was intended. So please don't sue me, because it will drag through the courts for years, and I haven't got a lawyer – and besides, you've already got half the money in the world, and I haven't got any. OK? ^[7]

Cast and credits

Charlie Brown – Etienne Badillo, Rich Moore, Mike Reardon, William Hanna, William Holden
Linus van Pelt – Nate Kanfer
Lucy van Pelt – Bret Haaland
Great Pumpkin – Jeff Pidgeon
Additional Voices – Ed Bell, Bruce Johnson, Mike Reardon, Bret Haaland
Narration – Rich Moore
Others – Ed Bell, Dale McBeath, Bob Winquist, Mike Giaimo, Craig Smith, Bret Haaland, Nate Kanfer, Doug Frankel, Mike Reardon, Rich Moore, Russ Edmonds, Hal Ambro, Dan Hansen, Jim Ryan, Tony Fucile, Jeff Pidgeon, Bob McCrea, Sarge Morton, Mom, Eileen, and Beverly
Dedicated to Sam "The Man" Peckinpah
"Peanuts Theme" – Vince Guaraldi
"Charlie Brown" – The Coasters (wrongly credited as The Platters)
A Jim Reardon Cartoon – Made at Cal Arts, U.S.A.