Twentieth Century Fox Animation, Blue Sky Studios, Feigco Entertainment,
Noah Schnapp, Hadley Belle Miller, Alexander Garfin, Mariel Sheets, Venus Schultheis, Rebecca Bloom, Noah Johnston, A.J. Tecce, Francesca Capaldi, Bill Melendez
Charlie Brown is back in this new 3D feature film with all the Peanuts gang. This goes back to the roots and the beginning of the peanuts gang and is about their adventures in school and out. A new neighbor moves in across the street from Chuck and Snoopy and it turns out to be a little red haired girl. Charlie Brown is smitten, and tries his best to impress her. but Charlie has nothing but bad luck. Snoopy, meanwhile, along with Woodstock and company and his new girlfriend set out to write the worlds greatest novel about his adventures fighting the evil Red Baron. This is a flash back to our youth that is brought to us with all the greatest new technology and techniques.
This is a stunning 3D film. All of the gang is there, and though they’re presented in a new way with 3D Pixar style computer generated characters, they never looked better. There were many adults in the audience, including me, that laughed out loud numerous times as the humor was really poignant and just really funny. We took my 7 year old grandson with us, and although he liked the movie, he told us it was a bit boring and too slow. Imagine this coming out of a 7 year old boy, but he knows what he likes. The problem for him, of course, is that it the nostalgia and the warm memories of Charlie and Snoopy that bring such pleasure to the older folks. The kiddies are aware of Snoopy and the gang, but don’t get the fuzzy warm memories that we have. When I was in college, the only comic strip our paper carried was Peanuts, and we literally ran to the newspaper stand to get our copy every morning turning to the last page first to check out what Charles Schultz had written for us. In those days the strips continued the story for weeks and weeks on end, and it was a pleasure to see them every morning. That’s why I think the adults may love this film way more than the kids. Just don’t be devastated if your kids don’t get as excited afterward as you do, as they are just too young to get it. Still, the story is very well told, and though it is slow developing, that’s the way Peanuts always was. For kids who are used to Iron Man and their doses of Saturday cartoons that are all action, they won’t get the relationship stuff that good kid friends have when there are no adults around. One elephant in the room. Prior to his death, Charles Schultz insisted that Charlie Brown die with him. Charlie Brown, after all, was Sparky Schultz, and he couldn’t bear for anyone, even his son, to create new stories without him. I don’t know what the agreement was, or how this was done, but one thing that stood out like a sore thumb was the title screen where it said, “by Schultz”. It seemed really odd, and though there wasn’t much original here, but more background of the original comic strip, I felt a little like maybe we were cheating on Charles Schultz, final wish by watching this. Then I realized that he is gone, and his estate belongs to his family, and it’s up to them how they honor his wishes. Perhaps it was only the daily comic strip that he wanted to stop, and I sure he would have loved this homage to his original characters. Whatever the case, I really loved it and was very glad to see it. This is a true G rated film, good for everyone, and very much worth seeing. If you get a chance to see it on the big screen with the reclining seats, in 3D, please do it. If you have fond memories of Peanuts at all, you’ll love this as much as I did.
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