A Boy Named Charlie Brown - Plot

Plot

Charlie Brown's first Little League baseball game of the season approaches, and he eagerly goes to the ball field; the game starts, and the team loses the first game of the summer season. Charlie Brown walks home musing that they always lose the first and last games of the season - and all the ones in between. Later on that day, Linus shows up at the front porch of the house and tries to cheer Charlie Brown up, stating that people learn more from losing than from winning. "I guess that makes me the smartest person in the whole world," Charlie replies, sarcastically. Linus takes the tone of voice, and tells Charlie Brown that if he keeps thinking he is a loser, it will not help. Positively, Linus tells Charlie Brown that he is sure that someday he will win. The next day, Charlie Brown stops by Lucy's Psychiatric Help Booth. Lucy tells Charlie Brown that she can help him point out his faults better than anyone else . At her house, Lucy reveals a slide projector and a screen, onto which slides showing Charlie Brown's myriad faults will be displayed. However, the 'evidence' does not help Charlie Brown at all, and makes him feel even more miserable.

On the way to school the next day, Linus encounters Charlie Brown, who tells him about the presentation of slides shown by Lucy the previous evening. As they near the playground, Lucy jokingly comes up to Charlie Brown, and explains that the school is having a spelling bee, and laughs at the thought of him volunteering. Linus, however, thinks that entering the spelling bee is a good idea. His opinion is met by more laughter and insults by Lucy, Patty, and Violet, which sets Charlie's mind to volunteer. Later in class, Charlie Brown nervously volunteers, and manages to beat the other kids in the class when he correctly spells the word "insecure", which happens to be his trademark. The next day, he will be going up against the other kids in the school. Filled with determination, he, Linus, and Snoopy go home and study through the dictionary. With Snoopy's accompaniment, Linus and Charlie sing about some spelling rules. As the school-wide spelling bee kicks off, Charlie's mind is filled with all sorts of words, rules, and doubts, as he is feeling the pressure of his class watching him take on the best spellers in the school. It soon comes down to Charlie Brown, who struggles with the word "perceive", but when Snoopy, who is outside playing a jaw harp, plays the song that helped Charlie Brown remember spelling tips, it clears his mind and Charlie Brown wins the Bee. The kids cheerfully follow him home, singing a song titled "Champion Charlie Brown".

Later on, at Charlie Brown's house, Lucy proclaims that Charlie Brown (with his newfound fame) must have an agent, which she would naturally be the best. The others recommend that Charlie Brown should start studying again, which confuses him. Given that he just won the spelling bee Charlie Brown mistakenly thinks that it's all over. The others tell him his victory in the school spelling bee is only the beginning as it has given him the privilege to take part in the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee held every year in New York City. Charlie's feelings about his victory immediately turn sour, as he finds his feelings about his bad luck once again eating away at him. Soon afterward, Charlie Brown boards the bus for the trip to Manhattan. Linus wishes him luck, but then generously, albeit reluctantly, hands Charlie his blanket for good luck. The kids cheer Charlie on as the bus pulls away.

Back at home, Lucy finds Linus suffering terribly from withdrawal after giving his blanket to Charlie Brown. Finally unable to take it anymore, he pleads with Snoopy to help him go to New York to find Charlie Brown and get his blanket back. Soon afterward, an exhausted Charlie Brown opens on his door and is greeted by the enthusiastic Snoopy. Linus, however, passes out. As he comes back to consciousness, he explains to Charlie Brown that he is dying without his blanket. Charlie tells him that he is not sure where the blanket could be. One possibility could be that he left it at the New York Public Library. Linus and Snoopy then take off through the streets of New York in the dark. As they continue walking, Snoopy gets distracted, and ends up ice-skating a beautiful four-minute routine on the ice rink at Rockefeller Center. Soon, he catches up to Linus at the library, who, after peering through the front doors of the closed structure, is convinced it is not there. Angrily, he storms back to Charlie Brown's hotel room to tell him.

Back at the hotel, Linus continues to suffer from withdrawal, as Charlie Brown dresses for the contest. When Charlie Brown shines his shoes, Linus stares in shock: the cloth he is using is Linus's blanket. Linus dives for it, ecstatic to have it back. The three then set off for the spelling bee. Charlie Brown goes backstage while Linus and Snoopy take their seats in the auditorium where the spelling bee is to be held. Charlie Brown waits for the contest to begin. Back at home, the rest of the gang are tuning in to the spelling bee, which is being broadcast on television. One-by-one, the other contestants leave the spelling bee, until it is just Charlie Brown and one other boy.

Charlie Brown is then disqualified for misspelling, "beagle" of all words, as "B-E-A-G-E-L". Everyone lets out a huge scream; besides it being a relatively simple word, as Lucy points out in disgust and annoyance before turning off the TV, Charlie Brown should have been able to spell the breed of his own dog. Sadly, Charlie Brown returns home, along with Linus and Snoopy, but unlike the crowd of people that saw them off to the Big City, no one is there to greet them when their bus pulls in during the wee hours of the morning.

They trudge home and the next day, Linus goes to Charlie Brown's house, where he meets Sally. She tells him that her brother has been in his room all day with the shades down and refuses to see or talk to anybody. As Linus knocks on the door, Charlie Brown asks who it is. When Linus asks if he can come in, Charlie Brown replies morosely, "I don't care." Linus sees Charlie Brown lying in bed. When Linus mentions that the other kids missed him at school, he replies that he is not going back to school ever again.

Linus tells him that he must feel that he let everyone down by losing the Spelling Bee, but as he turns to go, he looks back and says "But did you notice something, Charlie Brown? The world didn't come to an end." As Linus shuts the door, Charlie Brown thinks for a moment, gets dressed, and then goes outside. He watches while Violet, Patty and Frieda play jumprope and Sheremy and Pigpen play marbles. When he wanders onto the baseball field, he sees Lucy playing with the football he failed to kick earlier. He sneaks up behind her to kick it, but as always, she pulls it away, revealing that she knew he was there all along. The film ends with Charlie Brown lying on the ground as Lucy leans over him and says "Welcome home, Charlie Brown."