A Charlie Brown Christmas Production Cels.
Photo: Heritage Auctions, Dallas

A group of production cels and the original key master pan production background from the iconic 1965 Charlie Brown Christmas special headlines the “Animation Art” sale at the Dallas-based Heritage Auctions.

“A Charlie Brown Christmas is, quite simply, one of, if the the most influential TV cartoon special in all of history,” Jim Lentz, director of Animation Art at Heritage Auctions told AFP. “This year marks the 50th anniversary of the special, which has shown every year since it first debuted on December 9, 1965.”

A Charlie Brown Christmas Production Cels.
Photo: Heritage Auctions, Dallas

Estimated to sell for over $35,000, the cel features the entire cast of Peanuts, taken from the iconic scene where Charlie Brown says his flimsy christmas tree “Is not all bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love.”

There’s plenty more holiday themed lots, including a 1966 cel from a key scene of Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Estimated to sell for over $5,000. In the scene, the Grinch discovers that the residents of Whoville are still celebrating Christmas despite the fact that he stole all of their gifts.

Doctor Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) Grinch Production Cel.
Photo: Heritage Auctions, Dallas

Lentz described it as “an incredibly rare hand-painted 16 field production multi-cel setup taken from a key scene from the classic animated holiday special.”

Also hitting the auction block is a production cel from Disney’s 1983 Mickey’s Christmas Carol. The hand-painted cel depicts Donald Duck as Scrooge McDuck, borrowed from Ebenezer Scrooge of Charles Dickens’s legendary book. The artwork is estimated to sell for over $5,000.

Mickey’s Christmas Carol Uncle Scrooge Production Cel.
Photo: Heritage Auctions, Dallas

A Hanna-Barbera at King’s Island publicity cel and drawing from 1970 is going under the hammer, too. The hand-painted oversized cel features over 40 animated Hanna-Barbera characters. The one-of-a-kind artwork was part of a Christmas poster used at the Kings Island Amusement Park, and is estimated to sell for over $5,000.

Other highlights from the sale include Pluto’s christmas tree chip from a 1952 Disney cartoon, estimated at over $1,000, and a 1933 Disney Night Before Christmas Santa Claus production cel, estimated at $1,000.