Taking Charlie Brown's advice to take some books to read rather than just eating and sleeping, Snoopy heads off to the library with Charlie Brown's library card and borrows a magic book, and after having some fun testing out his newfound abilities (and getting his doghouse destroyed by the angry cat next door), he decides to put on a magic show, labeling himself "The Great Houndini", and performs several magic tricks (most of which do not succeed as expected), but when he turns Charlie Brown invisible and is about to revert him, a rainstorm occurs and ends the show early.
Charlie Brown laments his predicament, believing that he is now a lost soul condemned to roam the Earth, but he soon grows to enjoy his new state when he realizes he can successfully kick Lucy's football without her usual instinct to pull it away. This infuriates Lucy so much that she orders Snoopy to change him back, lest she pound him. Scared about this, Snoopy decides to get to work at Lucy's behest and tries to find something to help him revert Charlie Brown, before eventually perfecting it. Going out into a grassy field where Lucy has set up another place kick, he eventually blasts Charlie Brown with the counterspell, rendering him visible again (though he is too focused on kicking the football to realize). This allows Lucy to successfully pull the ball away, causing the now-visible Charlie Brown to fall flat on his back.
Not humiliated about that failure in the slightest, however, Charlie Brown declares that he finally kicked that football, despite Lucy arguing that he didn't. She then makes the mistake of insulting Snoopy, which offends him so much that he levitates her high into the air (just like what he did to her in the magic show), then dances back home with Charlie Brown. A few moments later, Linus comes by and lassoes Lucy by the leg with his blanket, pulling her back down, and also heads home along with her.
It's Magic, Charlie Brown contains examples of:
- Brick Joke: Snoopy levitates Lucy in the air during his magic act, and does the same to her once she insults him and his magic abilities.
- Continuity Nod: Near the end of the special, after Charlie Brown is made visible again, Lucy greets him with "Welcome home, Charlie Brown", much like she did at the end of A Boy Named Charlie Brown.
- Creative Closing Credits: Linus brings Lucy back down to the ground with his blanket after the latter has been leviated into the air by Snoopy. She's visibly annoyed about this.
- Credits Gag: The title and the creator's credit appear on clouds caused by Snoopy practicing his magic tricks, while the Lee-Mendelson/Bill Melendez credit appears and falls apart after Snoopy's house gets destroyed by the cat next door.
- Cursed with Awesome: Charlie Brown, while unhappy with his invisibility at first, soon grows to enjoy it when he realizes that he can successfully kick Lucy's football.
- The Dog Bites Back: Charlie Brown, taking advantage of his invisible state, manages to kick the football from Lucy and mocks her about it. He even makes her hold it in place so he can kick it again.Charlie Brown: What's the matter? Did you lose something? Is this yours?
(Charlie Brown shoves the ball into Lucy's hands, then forces her arm out to hold the football, then kicks it again)
Charlie Brown: (laughs victoriously to the tune of "Ring a Ring o' Roses") - Happy Dance: Charlie Brown and Snoopy happily dance back home after the beagle uses his magic powers one last time to leave Lucy stranded in the air.
- Invisible Jerkass: Charlie Brown has a brief but mild Jerkass moment when he taunts Lucy after kicking her football.
- Invisible Main Character: Guess who gets turned invisible by "The Great Houndini"...
- Karma Houdini Warranty: After so long, Lucy gets what's coming to her twice; Charlie Brown kicks her football, and Snoopy raises and strands her up the air for insulting his magic.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The blue-shirted boy who heckles Snoopy gets shut up by the beagle twice. Notably, he gives up on heckling after this.
- Levitating a Lady: Snoopy levitates Lucy in the air during his magic act, and does the same to her once she insults him and his magic abilities.
- Lovely Assistant: Sally becomes this for the magic show.
- Magicians Are Wizards: Snoopy manages to make Charlie Brown genuinely disappear during the magic show, and later finds a counterspell and brings him back.
- Magic Wand: Snoopy uses one during the magic show.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Averted and zig-zagged across both ends of the scale. Most of Snoopy's magic tricks fall under mundane due to him messing them up in some fashion. The tricks that do work though are treated as genuine magic (and even Snoopy looks utterly shocked when the invisibility trick works).
- Mythology Gag: The ghost costume Snoopy puts on Charlie Brown bears a resemblance to the latter's costume from It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, minus the extra holes.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: While she isn't actually a villain and is more of just a crabby jerkass, Lucy encourages Charlie Brown to go onstage for the disappearing trick. She would later come to regret it when the now invisible Charlie Brown manages to punt the ball out of her hands.
- Oh No You Didn't: This is Lucy's response to Charlie Brown saying that he finally kicked the football.Lucy: Oh no, you didn't. I just pulled it away!
- Pull a Rabbit out of My Hat: The "rabbit" in question actually Woodstock wearing bunny ears.
- Punny Name: Snoopy's stage name is a portmanteau of "Houdini" and "hound", which becomes more clever once you realize that beagles are hounds.
- Reveling in the New Form: After being turned invisible during the magic show and remaining that way when said show is suspended by rain, Charlie Brown starts off bemoaning his invisibility, but the moment he sees Lucy with her football and decides to have a little fun with her (i.e. successfully kicking the ball from her after God-knows-how-many failures), he decides being invisible isn't so bad after all since that means he can now kick the football without Lucy pulling it away to tease him. In fact, he's even more than happy to expect Lucy to hold the football for him to kick again without the risk of falling on his back... at least until Snoopy undoes his invisibility once he starts running up.
- Security Blanket: Linus' blanket gets cut into pieces by Snoopy, but he somehow gets it back and later uses it to lasso a floating Lucy to the ground.
- See the Invisible: After being turned invisible, Charlie Brown's silhouette is visible through the rain. Later, Snoopy tries covering him in clay to make him visible, then putting a sheet and tie on him.
- Spell Book: Snoopy purchases one from the library, and looks through it to search for magic tricks. He later consults it again while finding a cure to Charlie Brown's invisibility.
- Stage Magician: Snoopy becomes one for the magic show, donning the stage name, "The Great Houndini".
- Stealth Pun: The ending scene with Lucy being levitated into the air by Snoopy? It's a hidden reference to The Beatles song, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".
- Taken for Granite: Non-magical variation. Snoopy coats Charlie Brown in clay in an attempt to make him visible, and hardens the clay with a hairdryer. However, Charlie Brown only succumbs to this trope for a few seconds before he easily breaks off.
- Tempting Fate: The invisible Charlie Brown, while walking down the sidewalk, says "Boy, I hope she's setting up the football again! I would sure like to kick it again!". Guess what happens just as he is about to do a fifth kick...
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Charlie Brown finally manages to kick Lucy's football four times since she is unable to see him because he's still invisible. He still brags about finally kicking the ball even after he falls back-first, courtesy of Snoopy bringing him back.Lucy: You can't prove it, Charlie Brown. No one will believe you!Charlie Brown: Snoopy knows I did it! He made it possible!Lucy: Why, that stupid dog of yours couldn't disappear himself out of a paper bag!
- Unexplained Recovery:
- Snoopy's doghouse is destroyed by the cat next door at the beginning, yet is back in one piece the next time we see it.
- Linus' blanket gets cut up into pieces by Snoopy and somehow is back to normal later on in the special, though it might probably be just a spare blanket.
- Visible Invisibility: Charlie Brown uses the completely invisible variation, then briefly goes into the partly transparent variation after Snoopy hits him with the counterspell.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Non-character variation. Lucy's football disappears after she pulls it away from Charlie Brown.
