The Peanuts Movie

I think the late Mr. Schulz would be proud of this film, or at the very least, would have approved the direction the filmmakers have taken to make this movie as true to his imagination as possible.

The Peanuts Movie, based on the comic strip characters created by Charles M. Schulz, takes a fun and straightforward approach at reintroducing Charlie Brown and Co. to the masses and places them into a story ripped straight out of your childhood. Charlie Brown, the big-hearted clutz of the group, has become smitten with the new girl in town, simply named the Little Red-Haired Girl, and as with most stories involving Charlie Brown, he has no confidence in himself, no courage or bravery to speak of, no luck outside of being unlucky, and no support save for his always reliable and trusty dog, Snoopy, to make his dream of talking to his new crush come true. Thus begins Charlie’s attempt to prove himself to the Little Red-Haired Girl in any way he can; his numerous attempts usually ending in some sort of failure on Charlie’s part, but hey, failure is all part of picking yourself up and try, try, trying again until you make it!

A simple moral to imbue in children no doubt, but what makes this film so much more effective at giving this kind of a message is the fact that Charlie Brown is at the center of it. No other character I can think of is so flawed on the outside but so full of hidden determination and unknown potential on the inside. Charlie is such an everyman character that it’s next to impossible to not put yourself in his shoes, to feel what he feels, to root him on even after his umpteenth failure. You’d think that by now Charlie would take all of his mishaps to heart and just believe in himself, but then again, this wouldn’t be a Peanuts movie if anything Charlie did came easily.

I use the words simple and straightforward a lot when I describe this film and rightfully so. The bare bones and straight line of a story doesn’t have any real twists or turns, no real danger or tension, or even any typical action scenes like every other film, and in fact, mostly because of this, The Peanuts Movie succeeds in a way I haven’t seen in a long time. With it’s simplistic take on a problem I have no doubt many people have dealt with before, this movie allows itself to be about its characters making an impression as opposed to the story taking all of the glory. For the most part, everyone in the Peanuts roster sees their time in the spotlight, each little nuance and character relationship we know from previous incarnations are all present and accounted for, everyone feeling right at home in this new computer generated world, and boy, what a world it is.

I don’t know what the filmmakers did or how long it took for them to come up with this animation style, but holy helmets is this a beautiful movie to look at! The combination of full 3D animation and 2D line-work seemingly drawn on top of certain parts of this digital world is downright brilliant and amazing to look at. The textures are detailed but not in a way that makes the film look realistic, and are only sparingly used in a way that further brings to life the world Charlie Brown and his friends live in. In fact, outside of the Red Baron sequences (I’ll get to them in a bit) the film is shot like a traditional 2D film, many scenes set up to mimic those on a 2D plane, the 3D camera movement very limited and only used when needed. All of this coupled with some great child actors in the voice over roles makes this movie shine in all the right spots.

But for all of the good things Peanuts has going for it, namely its simplicity and tried and true storyline, it suffers a bit from possibly being too simple and tried and true. There’s nothing wrong with the way the filmmakers came at this film, they captured Peanuts’ timeless spirit perfectly, but its pretty clear because they decided to go this simplified route that they didn’t have enough material, story or otherwise, to fill an entire movie. Case in point: Snoopy’s imaginary exploits with the notorious Red Baron in which he finds himself flying his doghouse high above the ground to try and woo Fifi, a pink poodle, and save her from the clutches of the evil World War I era fighter plane, felt a bit stretched and unnecessary.

At first I enjoyed these short sequences, it gave Snoopy and Woodstock something to do, but the more they popped up and the further away they diverged from being connected to the main plot, I found myself wondering why we kept taking these detours when I just wanted to find out what shenanigans Charlie Brown was up to in pursuit of his lady love. The scenes were fun and more “modern” than anything in the film (if that makes sense), but they seemed more fit to be the animated short that played in front of the film instead of the filler that inadvertently screwed up the pacing of the actual film. Granted, they did end up loosely tying into the main plot, but I think everyone would have benefitted from cutting some of these scenes and just using Snoopy when needed instead of extended something that needn’t be longer than a few fun appearances at most.

Other than that, there’s a point in the film where Charlie Brown catches a big break that changes the way his friends and classmates look at him (in a good way) that didn’t feel completely right or even earned. I won’t spoil what happened, but for the way they treat him and the type of character he is, this plot device seemed a bit lacking. The true reveal of this moment was pretty obvious, especially if you paid attention early in the film, and adds to Charlie’s honest and warm heart, but up until that reveal it seems a bit shoehorned in. Late in the movie Charlie ends up doing something else that earns everyone’s praise that feels much more in line with his character, so I wish the filmmakers found a better way to go about the similar situation from the beginning of the movie the way they did at the end.

A great take on an old classic, The Peanuts Movie does just about everything right in regards to updating a beloved franchise without veering into the hyper active and somewhat edgy realm of today’s kiddie films. It has the heart of a Pixar film and an animation style to die for, all the while maintaining the simple and fun spirit of these timeless characters.