Taking the comic strip from icon Charles Schulz’s imagination and bringing it to the big screen in a 3D computer generated animated movie is a stroke of genius. What better way to simultaneously have generations who adore the cartoon celebrate their fantastic-ness, along with a new generation that has not had the pleasure of discovering them in the morning paper?
In fact, the only way most kids today know about Peanuts is those legendary holiday specials.
Blue Sky (the people behind the Rio movies and the Ice Age movies) were charged with adapting Schulz’s characters to life and given their history of brilliant CG animation, upon seeing the final product, it is a match made in heaven. They painstakingly spent years nurturing this project and working closely with the Schulz family to not only capture the visual look of the Peanuts comic strip, but the emotional tenor and heart of why so many hundreds of millions cherish this world.
The result is a glorious rendering that also has the fantastic hook of a terrific original story that plays to the history of Peanuts and also introduces our characters to those who barely know them.
Charlie Brown and his friends start The Peanuts Movie by enjoying a good old fashioned snow day. There is joy in the air on screen that is palpable and for those of us that remember snow days, director Steve Martino just nails it. Suddenly as the afternoon is winding down, a moving truck pulls in and the kids all gather… a new kid is moving across the street from Charlie Brown!
It’s the Little Red Haired Girl and to say Charlie is smitten is a gross understatement. This is a glorious opportunity to make a new friend without them having the knowledge of all of Charlie Brown’s past failures.
He’s got to show that he’s a winner and that everything he does does not necessarily end in frustration and embarrassment. Throughout the film he tries valiantly with several different means to impress her, and Charlie Brown being Charlie Brown, we can guess how it all works out. But that is the charm of the character and why so many of us can identify with him. He falls on his face (or back, especially when trying to kick a football with Lucy), and always gets back up.
The gang’s all here, from the Beethoven-loving piano playing Schroeder, to the brash Lucy, to Charlie’s sister Sally, Peppermint Patty, Linus, Marcy, Pig Pen, Franklin and of course Snoopy and his BFF Woodstock. Snoopy is still trying to be included in all the kiddie activities, like even going to school, but is always met with “no dogs allowed!”
That leads him to create a world in his imagination that those of us who are fans of the series know all-too well, his battle the Red Baron.
These battles were always a delight in the strip and even as quick breakaways in the animated network specials. But sadly in The Peanuts Movie, they feel like distractions that take us away from this terrific reality that filmmakers (including writers Bryan and Craig Schulz) have crafted for Peanuts fans circa 2015.
There is so much joy to have in watching Charlie Brown and his effort to impress the Little Red Haired Girl that we don’t need as much of the Red Baron battles as we get. The fact that The Peanuts Movie started out as a Snoopy Versus The Red Baron movie, tells us that all involved didn’t know how to trim something that was so beloved to them.
But, we can forgive it, it’s not like watching Snoopy on his own isn’t glorious fun! It’s just not necessary in this story that drives the entirety that is The Peanuts Movie.
Grade: B