Snoopy et les Peanuts: Le film

I can't imagine a Christmas or a Halloween without the mention of a young boy trying to lead his school friends in a school play or debate the existence of the Great Pumpkin. This young man is everyone's favorite blockhead, Charlie Brown. Yes, Charlie, Snoopy and his friends from Peanuts have created such a timeless look at childhood while maintaining a deep philosophical moral. The comics and television specials are something that I'm sure everyone has seen at least once. The newspapers and television networks still run Peanuts because their morals never fall out of style and everyone seems to feel nostalgic whenever it's mentioned.

I'm a big fan of Peanuts and hold these characters to such a high standard because creator Charles Schulz took it just as seriously. I think a lot of people have felt like Charlie Brown at one point, wondering how life can be such a good thing when their own failures seem to cloud ones happiness. It may seem downbeat, but Peanuts felt real despite having an exaggerated world where adults are never seen. To top it off, the writing still came off as funny as it's simplicity only added to the appeal. The Peanuts Movie takes our classic characters to the big screen on a personal journey.

Carefully never stating a time nor a setting, we open in the beginning of December where we see Charlie Brown is still trying to fly his kite. If you know the comics, he fails and it becomes a part of the "kite-eating tree", though this time, he seems to be tired of always failing. His sister Sally and his friends Linus, Lucy, Schroder, Peppermint Patty, Marcie and the rest of the gang know Charlie well enough that they always seem him as a klutz. Things change when they notice a new kid is moving right across from Charlie.

Sensing his first feelings of puppy love, Charlie decides that he wants to change himself to start fresh with the new little Red-Haired Girl. After a session with Lucy (and paying her the usual five cents), he tries several new things like trying to win a talent show or a dance contest. He also deals with a sudden popularity when he sees that he delivers a perfect score on a recent school-wide test. On the sidelines, Charlie Brown's dog Snoopy gets caught up in his own imagination as he continues to fight the Red Baron in occasional plane dog fights.

As a computer animated movie, I was worried that the simplicity of Peanuts would be compromised. I can safely say that The Peanuts Movie stays true to the nature to the classic comics…for the most part. To start, the animation is amazing. Unlike something like Pixar or DreamWorks, Fox's Blue Sky Studios have found a best of both worlds by giving the world of Peanuts an upgrade while still feeling like a hand drawn work of art. Another big plus are the voices. Unlike the TV specials where the child voices were always wooden and stilted, the kids portraying the characters can actually act. Pretty well too considering the challenge.

Story wise, it does feel like the kind of plot that Schulz would have given; something simple and emotional for Charlie Brown while leaving the highly imaginative side story to Snoopy. I do feel though that while The Peanuts Movie is smart, the deep philosophical dialogue is not that prominent for something more of a crowd-pleaser. I do understand however that while the comics and TV specials were allowed to do their own thing, they've now got to play by movie rules, and it does so well enough that even Schulz would have been proud to have his name on the picture.

I'll give this eight Snoopys on his doghouse out of five. The Peanuts Movie is a tribute to one of the most iconic set of characters created for the newspapers. It's defiantly something that everyone will appreciate, though I'd say start with the comics and TV specials first before seeing the movie.

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 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.

While a film based off the beloved "Peanuts" comic strip in 2015 will appear a desperate cash-in for money-hungry Hollywood at a time where $1 billion grosses are now reasonable goals for some films, thanks to the participation of Bryan and Craig Schulz, the grandson and son of the late "Peanuts" cartoonist Charles Schulz, respectively, the humor and original spirit of the original product is still very much in tact. With warm animation that delightfully mimics the look of the comic, while bringing computer animation into the picture.

"The Peanuts Movie" is a beautiful little film, one that doesn't predicate its existence entirely on the nostalgia and warmth provided by the original comic strip and one that doesn't get so blindsided by the glitz of Hollywood excess that it abandons its roots. Our story focuses on Charlie Brown, everyone's lovable blockhead, who is usually found attempting to get his kite off the ground or avoiding being the laughingstock of his whole neighborhood. He also spends a great deal of time with his friends, such as Linus, Peppermint Patty, Marcie, Sally, and of course, Snoopy and Woodstock.

Charlie's whole world is turned upside down, however, when a beautiful new girl, known only as "Little Red-Haired Girl," moves into the neighborhood and is placed in Charlie's class. As usual, Charlie finds himself overcome with his klutzy nature and personal insecurities to make any kind gesture towards the apple of his eye. In effort to make himself hipper and more admirable, Charlie begins to read a book maps out the ten ways to be successful.

When Charlie and the Little Red-Haired Girl get paired up to do a book report together, and the Little Red-Haired Girl is out of town visiting her sick grandmother, Charlie motivates himself to do the book report by himself to impress his crush. Peppermint Patty informs him one of the greatest books of all time is a book called "Leo's Toystore" written by "some guy" named "Warren Peace," to which Charlie tracks down the book, reads the behemoth of a novel, and emerges determined to write one of the greatest book reports ever.

This should give you some sort of idea of what you're in for with "The Peanuts Movie." Also thrown into this charming story are many scenes involving Snoopy flying on his airplane with two goals in mind - taking down the infamous Red Baron fighter jet and winning the heart of the gorgeous poodle Fifi. It's a tireless pursuit, and it's one that is interjected in the film prolifically enough to really feel like a diversion to the fact that this is a story that would've probably been better suited for basic cable with a runtime of about seventy minutes. These are the scenes that really appear to be filler and work to distract from the more interesting and relatable story at hand. However, the "Peanuts" strips and specials were always cut from a rather slight cloth, so perhaps these sequences do indeed work to serve the better part of the spirit.

Nonetheless, I'm not one to complain when a product of the past gets its fair treatment on the big screen and that's precisely what "The Peanuts Movie" gets: a very fair, very funny, thoroughly charming revitalization of characters that, to many, feel like old friends, created with unique animation that effectively blends styles of the past and present thanks to Blue Sky Animation. This film would be an ideal pairing alongside Disney's "Winnie the Pooh" from 2011, both of which together would make for a lovely introduction to film for young audiences thanks to their warmness and genial spirit and humor.