Snoopy presenta: Bienvenido a casa, Franklin

Was hoping it was a series actually. Peanuts is such a family tradition and I now have a toddler who I have been able to share this with. He instantly loved it at age 2 when we celebrated Valentine's Day and watched the Valentine special while making Valentines. From there he just kept wanting to see more episodes. We are black Americans and my son is now 4 and we were so excited to have this moment. We appreciated the original music (which is what made my son love Peanuts in the first place... And we loved the Stevie Wonder and Coltrane in this special! We appreciated the backstory. CS's son did a great job in our opinion.

Charles Schulz introduced Franklin Armstrong on July 31, 1968. It's the first black character in the comic strip after a schoolteacher wrote Charles in the days following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Franklin is constantly moving from town to town following his military father. He finds his new neighborhood very weird and white. Even the dog is weird. Then there's the kid with a blanket and a pumpkin obsession.

This is his origin story. Quite frankly, it has so much compelling history tied up with his first appearance. Much of that is lost in this. His father isn't away fighting a war. This does not have the MLK assassination in the real world background. That is probably beyond the abilities of a special. This could have been an amazing addition to the franchise, but it's not special enough.

I loved this 2024 short. First off, the animation is beautiful while remaining faithful to the original drawings. Putting the spotlight on Franklin, the first and still only black Peanuts character, really made Charlie Brown's status as an outsider resonate even more. As an army brat, Franklin finds himself constantly searching for new friends every time his dad gets reassigned. When he encounters the Peanuts gang, he doesn't mesh with any of them until he partners with Charlie Brown in the local Soap Box Derby. I particularly appreciated how the creators didn't shy away from confrontations or feelings of loneliness. Franklin is my new favorite kid on the block. I found myself weeping at the end.

The current ideological cudgel doesn't stop at Peanuts either. Unfortunately. When ambitious people who are less interested in a story than a message are allowed to work on such cultural assets, nothing sustainable can emerge, just another bland snapshot. So an old figure is dug up, the main thing is colour, and the whole thing is accompanied by hardly any story, little depth and zero emotion. This one is strikingly reminiscent of Charlie himself, and I can only admonish: such "changing of the guard" should rather stay, please not the next Disney. One of the weaker short film episodes in the Peanuts cosmos.

I've heard some whining about Welcome Home, Franklin being tokenism because of how Franklin was introduced over 50 years (sitting on the opposite of the table), and what I say to that is...it's a cartoon, and you have to consider the era in which Franklin was introduced. Charles Schultz had to go through all sorts of hatred and changes to get Franklin in the cartoon, and though him sitting by himself was sad, it was simply apropos of the era. Networks also had to think about the viewership in the South, because from what I've read, they caught some serious heat, yet they still aired Franklin in the Peanuts cartoon in all of his African American glory. I watched Welcome Home, Franklin with my niece and she liked it, I liked it and we're Black. Franklin is not the weak people pleasing token some critics have described, he's a military brat who is used to constantly moving, attending new schools, sometimes all over the world...it's starting over again and again trying to make new friends and becoming comfortable immersed, in yet, another new environment. And unless a person has been down the road of military bratdom, back off. But ultimately, Welcome Home, Franklin, is about friendship. Franklin is smart and adorable. What more could anyone ask for.