It adapts and intertwines several comic strip arcs from The '60s, the overarching one that of Linus trying to give up his security blanket before his grandmother, who is against a boy his age carrying something childish around, arrives for a visit in a week.
It was the first Peanuts special in five years and the first produced without the leadership of Charles Schulz, Lee Mendelson Productions, or Bill Meléndez. Instead, it's produced by Warner Bros. and WildBrain, and animated off-shore by Yearim Productions in South Korea. Eschewing The Millennium Age of Animation's tendencies towards computer-assisted animation, its animation is hand-drawn on paper with hand-painted backgrounds and a piano soundtrack composed by Mark Mothersbaugh, meant to evoke the 1960's/'70s animated specials/movies as well as Vince Guaraldi's scores from the earliest specials.
Stephan Pastis co-wrote the script.
This special provides examples of:
- The Cameo: Character cameos, to be specific. When Snoopy scans the neighborhood in imitiation of a vulture, recurring character Frieda is briefly glimpsed along with her cat Faron. Early regulars Shermy, Violet and Patty have their first speaking roles in decades, Shermy even appearing in a flashback directly based on the very first Peanuts strip.
- Continuity Reboot: For the original run of Peanuts animated adaptations. Adapting strip arcs that have been adapted before, it focuses on the cast of the strip that was established as of The '60s (Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Schroder, Sally, Shermy, Patty, Violet, Pig-Pen and Snoopy), reverts Snoopy back to having less focus, and having him walk mostly quadrupedally. To make it feel like it belongs in that time period, it also emulates the visual design of the 1960s specials, giving the human cast smaller heads and Snoopy a more elongated muzzle and angular shape.
- Funny Background Event: Snoopy provides a few, as does Charlie Brown.
- Hopeless Suitor: Sally constantly tries to woo her "sweet babboo" Linus, and Lucy tries to do the same to Schroeder.
- How We Got Here: The special begins with shots of various holes being dug around parts of the neighborhood, including the pitcher's mound Charlie Brown is standing on, Lucy's psychiatrist stand, and Snoopy's doghouse, and it's because Linus is searching for his blanket that Lucy buried, and the rest of the special explains how it got to that point.
- Irony: Implied. Throughout the whole special, the cast makes fun of Pig-Pen for being dirty and a disgrace, yet he is the only one of the whole gang to reveal to be truly happy and secure in his own skin.
- Mythology Gag: One of the clips shown when Charlie Brown thinks about his insecurities is almost an exact recreation of the very first ''Peanuts'' strip.
- No Matter How Much I Beg: Linus tries this, giving Charlie Brown his blanket and telling him to hang onto it and not give it back no matter what... only to discover that Charlie Brown unceremoniously gives him the blanket back at the first hint of pleading.
- No Sympathy: Lucy throughout all of Linus' struggles when she get rid of his blanket. Best seen in her final attempt when she buries Linus' blanket mere moments after he got it back from the Air Rescue Service!
- The Nose Knows: Linus spends a vast amount of time trying to find his blanket after Lucy buries it. Snoopy just sniffs around for a few seconds and is able to dig it up almost immediately.
- Pet the Human: Snoopy, after having spent most of the special trying to snatch Linus's blanket, immediately gives it to him after finding it. Of course, he's right back to trying to steal it afterwards.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: At the climax, Linus is finally fed up with his friends' demands of giving up his blanket.Linus: AAAAAAAUGH! I need my blanket! I admit it! Look at all of you! Who among you doesn't have an insecurity? Who among you doesn't depend on someone, or something, to help you get through the day? Who among you can cast the first stone? How about you, Sally? You with your endless "Sweet Babboos"? Or you, Schroeder? You with your Beethoven, Beethoven, Beethoven?! And you, Lucy, never leaving Schroeder alone, obsessing over someone who doesn't care if he ever sees you again? What do you want?! Do you want to see me unhappy? Do you want to see me insecure? Do you want to see me end up like Charlie Brown?! Even your crazy dog, Charlie Brown. Suppertime, suppertime, suppertime! Nothing but suppertime 24 hours a day! ARE ANY OF YOU SECURE?
- Retraux: The special has Shermy, Patty and Violet having slightly more screentime, and the character and background designs are strikingly similar to how they looked in the 1960s.
- Recycled Plot: The 1983 anthology special It's An Adventure, Charlie Brown previously adapted the "Lucy turns Linus's blanket into a kite" story arc from the comics.
- Security Blanket: Linus's trope-naming blanket — what the main story revolves around.
- Slice of Life: Just like the comic strip it's adapting.
