In keeping up my record of watching all the movies on Apple TV, I landed on "Who Are You, Charlie Brown?" a documentary about Peanuts and its creator, Charles Schulz. Generally, I thought it was fine, but unlike other documentaries I couldn't overcome my disinterest in the subject matter to make the viewing worthwhile.
Charlie Brown (Tyler James Nathan) is asked to produce a piece of homework, a 500-word essay on "who he is". Sent into an introspective funk, he asks his friends and schoolmates what they think of him. These animated sections are intercut with a documentary about Charles Schulz, utilising archive footage, with new talking head style interviews with his friends, family and pop culture fans to explore who he was.
The biggest issue I had with this documentary was me. I know who the Peanuts characters are, and I've maybe seen that Halloween animated film a few times - but as Kevin Smith says "Peanuts is ingrained into American Pop culture" and I'm not American. What I'm saying is, I didn't approach this with much in built affection for his creation and, capable as though this documentary was, it never really inspired much within me.
It's well made though. The conceit works, with the looping narrative of Charlie Brown exploring who he is, mixed in with the information we get about his creator. The talking heads are a mixed bag, some seeming like Peanuts had a genuine effect on their life and others, who I don't recognise, who seem prepared to say that they liked it and not much else. The insights from the family are best, and the footage of Schulz himself. It's quite emotional when he talks about giving up the strip as he's dying of colon cancer.
It's an affectionate look at his life and work, mixed in with a new cartoon. Apart from the odd moment though, it's not honest or surprising enough to stick with me or convert me to an uberfan.
