The Peanuts Movie

Once you hear that familiar Vince Guaraldi track at the beginning of The Peanuts Movie, you know you've come back to a familiar, relaxing place. But the movie soon expands beyond that to take us to the world of Charlie Brown and friends, a place that feels familiar, looks new, but is very much home.

The plot of the film is simple: Charlie Brown, the poster child for lovable eternal losers everywhere, finds out that a new student has transferred into his school. She arrives and it's love at first sight. Charlie Brown then vows to make an impression on her.

The movie is animated in 3D, and one of the largest concerns I had before seeing the film is if the iconic look of Charles Schulz' strip would be preserved. To my relief, The Peanuts Movie visually satisfies.

The voice cast sounds familiar  too, and the voices of Snoopy and Woodstock are sampled from clips of the late Bill Melendez, who voiced both characters (and directed a great number of the TV specials as well.) While the film does pay a few tributes  to the jazz stylings of Vince Guaraldi, it does away with a smaller scale soundtrack and goes for a more orchestral composition, along with a few contemporary songs. The musical aspect of the previous feature films are mostly gone too.

While the tribute to the characters is pretty much solid, there are a few things from the original movies and specials that are irreplaceable now that Charles Schulz is gone. Schulz wrote the dialogue for the earlier feature films, and the dialogue for this new film doesn't quite have the save level of sophisticated humor as the strips or the old feature films. In (for example) A Charlie Brown Christmas we'd get dialogue about the over commercialization of Christmas and references to several artists, poets, musicians and philosophies. In this film,aside from a line lifted here and there from earlier films, much of the dialogue is simplified. Maybe it's to cater to the young audience?

And most importantly, the ending. While a mainstream ending has been done before in Charlie Brown, some of the best conclusions to the Charlie Brown specials and feature films were the most bittersweet or poignant; where Charlie Brown or Snoopy suffered devastating setbacks, but, as Linus said in 1969's A Boy Named Charlie Brown, "the world didn't come to an end."

And yet, a lot of the franchise's (or in that case, Charlie Brown's) appeal is due to the fact that we can relate to the kid. There's a little bit of Charlie Brown in all of us. There's a little bit of that kid who falls madly in love with someone who doesn't seem to notice him back. There's a little bit of that kid who thinks the whole world is conspiring against him. And, there's a little bit of that kid who stands up every time he's knocked down.

All things considered, The Peanuts Movie is a highly entertaining flick. Those seeking a nostalgia trip, including fans of the original series, will likely be satisfied. For the young (or young at heart) new to the film or franchise, it's a worthwhile time to spend a couple of hours in the cinema.