Snoopy's Reunion (1991)

Argos, the Winter Lamb, Jackie the Eagle...how much more will we be expected to bear? Amid the stack of crises in front of us daily, one would hope we'd be spared the crisis of witnessing cute-ass animals in distress, but alas, not in this cold world. At the start of this weekend, I had to seek refuge in the form of the Peanuts TV special "Snoopy's Reunion." Despite my home more or less being a shrine to the famed beagle, I had not yet seen this feature, the premise of which is to reveal the very genesis of Snoopy and his siblings at Daisy Hill Farm. Turns out that the puppies like to occupy their time shredding shit up as a family bluegrass octet, jamming seemingly nonstop in the barn. I cursed myself when, minutes into the special, the pups at the farm grow increasingly distraught as they are taken one-by-one to their forever homes. Perhaps this was not the balm to soothe exposure to cute animal agony I so desperately sought. Snoopy is adopted by...a girl named Lila?..?? Ah, but we soon find out that the obvious slumlord managing Lila's apartment complex makes an abrupt reversal of the building's pet policy, and now Snoopy must be returned to the farm. Enter Charlie Brown. To my relief, we learn that all turns out for the best, and despite a blue Snoopy longing for his kin, the reunion promised in the feature's title restores happiness and suggests to us a truth about the strength of familial bonds both near and far.

This is the First Family of my dreams: