Snoopy y Charlie Brown: Peanuts, La Película

I saw "The Peanuts Movie" last night, and I thought it was superb! I grew up in the 80's, and so I was familiar with the Charlie Brown gang, but only through vague recollections. I had of course read a few of the comic strips over the years, and I'm confident that I saw the TV specials a few times, but I was still a bit fuzzy on the details of things like Snoopy and his battles with the Red Barron, the names of certain characters, and the gist of how different aspects of the series fits together into a competent narrative.

I'm crystal clear on that now, as this movie does a wonderful job of weaving together the many separate concepts of the Peanuts series. I really fell in love with the franchise by watching this film, and I can see how it will be very rewatchable.

My only criticism is that the film does cram a bit too much into its ninety minutes. It all comes together nicely, but it was clear that the script was trying to accomplish a LOT in this movie. It felt almost as though nothing was left for a sequel, but I suppose the idea was to introduce as much of the series as possible. The slightly crammed feel of the film is the only reason I didn't give it a perfect ten stars. But it's fantastic, even if a bit overdone!

A little red-haired girl has moved across the street from Charlie Brown. He sees her and falls in love. He wants to ask her out or impress her but everything he tries fails. Meanwhile Snoopy is in his doghouse plane fighting the Red Baron for cute little poodle Fifi.

I was expecting the worst when this was announced. I'm glad to announce that I was wrong. This is a charming, amusing and excellent update of the Peanuts. Actually there's no updating of the characters and their world. They still use phones and typewriters, No computers, cells or such exist here. The animation is now all CGI but manages to retain the charm of the hand-drawn originals. The aerial battles between Snoopy and the Red Baron are VERY well-done. The voices are now done by actual children and not adults like the previous ones did. Also there's no crude humor or violence--this is VERY G rated. Even better it has messages that say be yourself and don't give up no matter what. And of course it has a big old happy ending! Warm, amusing and perfect for the whole family. Recommended.

I was unsure at first because of the animation style, it was much more modern than the charming animation style of the 60s and 70s specials. However, despite the 3D CGI animation style, the original charm of the cartoon specials remained intact. I liked how the animation didn't seem as finished just like the original Peanuts specials. In the film, just like in the specials, the trees and other plants in the background remained static. Even when it was supposedly windy. This film, like many of the Peanuts specials, had two storylines: A Charlie Brown storyline and a Snoopy storyline. In the Charlie Brown storyline, the film deals with Charlie trying to work up enough nerve to talk to the Little Red Haired Girl. In the Snoopy story, Snoopy finds an old typewriter and works on writing a novel. His novel deals with the World War I flying ace trying to save his crush Fifi from the clutches of the evil Red Baron.

This movie featured many in-jokes from the specials and comic strips. The typical Peanuts sentimentality was also present as were the lack of adults. The wonderful Peanuts music was present throughout the film. I wish they wouldn't have included a modern song, but it doesn't detract too much from the film. There were also bits of the comic strip that popped up throughout the film and also the fun 60s style graphics that would also appear periodically. It was such a fun film, I will definitely be purchasing my own copy.

I read that this film was written in complete cooperation with Charles M. Schulz's widow and the other members of his family. Schulz' son and grandson wrote the screenplay and apparently the Schulz family had to have approval over all aspects of the film. They also used archive sound recordings of Bill Melendez' Snoopy sounds for Snoopy's "voice" in the film. I did think that the Peppermint Patty voice was slightly off. The other Patty (who normally has brown hair and wears an orange dress) in this film was blonde and wore a green dress. Neither of the Pattys inaccuracies affected my enjoyment of this film.

I loved the Peanuts half hour TV specials as a kid, particularly Halloween and Christmas. I make my kids watch them each year and they enjoy them. We have also watched at least one fuller length movie made some time ago (about a spelling bee?) that ran a little too long. Before the specials even existed I loved the Peanuts comic strips. This movie handled the characters great, no complaint there. I just got part way through and said okay where are we going with this and how much is left. So maybe the bottom line is Peanuts is more effective in small doses than in a full length movie. They seemed to realize that in having a short movie to start and keeping the running time down. Of the story lines the best (and the one that could be enjoyed the longest) was the Snoopy WWI theme. But the bottom line is that it may be hard to make this work for an hour or more no matter how you do it, even if you have stupendous graphics. In any event, nice to see a new generation of Schulz's carrying the torch.

P.S. In watching some of the older shows recently, I remembered that the best of the TV shows was where they basically just strung a bunch of the daily cartoons together, rather than tell a traditional story. Charles Schulz was a cartoon genius, and had a penchant for running a series of consecutive strips on the same subject, sort of a continual story with a daily punch line, which is directly transferable to the screen. Maybe they could go back to that format next time around?

Blue Sky hasn't had a great track record. The Ice Age movies and the Rio films are okay at best but somehow they managed to really shine with The Peanuts and bring the strip justice. That probably has something to do with the fact that this film was actually written by Charles Schulz's son Craig. All the characters are here with their personalities intact and voiced by some really good kid actors. I didn't once think to myself that these kids don't sound like The Peanuts. The parts involving Snoopy's adventures against The Red Baron are also quite engaging almost like something out of Duck Tales or Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers. I think this is a good film any fan of Charlie Brown will love and those of you unfamiliar with the material, this is probably a great place to jump onto.