The Peanuts Movie (2015)

Starring: Noah Schnapp
Grade: A-

It’s good to see this blockhead back in action.

I’m not going to talk a lot about the personalities of these well-known characters to explain this plot. You know the whole deal by now because let’s be honest, there’s a good chance that the reason you’re watching this is because you already like Charlie Brown. If you’re familiar with the characters, nothing has changed. Charlie Brown (Schnapp) is a loser, Lucy (Hadley Belle Miller) is a bitch, Linus (Alex Garfin) is a good friend with decent advice, Pig Pen (AJ Teece) is a hillbilly, etc.

You know the Peanuts gang by now and just like most specials/films about this group of young classmates, the story follows Charlie Brown as he tries to navigate through life. As he tries to build up his confidence, he has to fight at every turn to try and avoid embarrassment. Unfortunately, the world seems to be conspiring against him.

Summary

In the wintertime, as the kids get the day off from school because of a snow day, Charlie Brown tries to fly a kite and fails. As he ponders life, everyone sees that a new student has moved into town, the Little Red-Haired Girl (Francesca Capaldi). The kids get to school the next day, and they have to take a standardized test. During the test, Charlie Brown basically falls in love with the Little Red-Haired Girl at first sight. He forgets everything once she drops her pencil, and it rolls over to his seat. Last second, he finds out that himself and Peppermint Patty (Venus Omega Schultheis) are the only people not done with the test, so they both panic, fill out any random answer, and turn it in. Charlie Brown accidentally touches Patty’s hand as they turn in the tests, and she accuses him of trying to flirt in front of the whole class. He tries to change the subject by introducing himself to the new girl, but he fumbles his own name and runs out of the classroom.

Not a great start.

He really likes this girl, and she lives right across the street from him. His dog Snoopy tries to help him by forcing him to go to the house with a flower in hand, but he gets scared last second and hides in a bush. At this point, what else can you do but seek psychiatric help? He goes to Lucy, who has her little psychiatric stand set up for five cents. Honestly, she’s selling herself short here because she could get A LOT more if she wanted to. She ends up giving him a book entitled “10 Ways to Become a Winner”. This sets Charlie Brown up for a lot of ups and downs, as he tries to impress the Little Red-Haired Girl. This includes participating in the talent show, learning how to dance, and other things. He’s aided by his sister Sally (Mariel Sheets), Snoopy, and of course Linus. However, even with their help, achieving his goals of becoming a better version of himself and hopefully gaining the confidence to talk to the new girl becomes increasingly difficult. A monkey wrench is thrown into it all when he later finds out he got a perfect score on the test he guessed on, resulting in everyone thinking he’s a genius.

At the same time, Charlie Brown’s dog Snoopy goes on his own little misadventures as he daydreams about fighting the Red Baron pilot, as well as falling in love with female dog Fifi (Kristin Chenoweth), in a World War II scenario. He gets the idea after seeing Linus’s toy plane fly by him and after hearing that Charlie Brown is in love. As the story goes on around Snoopy, he types up his own little story on his typewriter.

My Thoughts:

In terms of doing the source material justice, The Peanuts Movie is really able to capture the simplicity and innocence of Charles M. Schulz’s beloved characters. What’s good about this film is that it’s very different to other animated movies of the last five to ten years. It’s not action-packed, they don’t have an annoying side kick, or an over-the-top villain to chase them either. This is just a bunch of grade school children living life and one specific child that seems to have it harder than anyone. I do respect the Charlie Brown series and enjoyed a lot of the old TV specials the Peanuts gang have starred in over the years. With that being said, if you’re familiar with these specials, you know how slow-paced everything is.

This movie is not for a hyperactive kid.

This is for Charlie Brown fans of all ages and maybe, mature 4th graders? A bored 6th grader? In all honesty, it’s hard to say who I would recommend The Peanuts Movie to. Technically, it’s for kids but I can’t confidently say today’s kids would enjoy the slower style of a film like this.

They don’t do any risky jokes or say anything too thought-provoking, so if an older kid watches it, they may not find it that interesting. If you go too young, they might not understand the nuances of the conversation or appreciate the plight and realistic, anxiety-riddled thought process of Charlie Brown. It doesn’t need to be said, but I’ll say it anyway: Charlie Brown and him just trying to understand the world, will always be a relatable character that translates to any age. It just may be hard for some to pay attention to it to really appreciate it. The entirety of The Peanuts Movie is about the new girl coming to town, and how Charlie Brown wants to impress her. Sadly, he seems to embarrass himself at every turn. Has that not happened to all of us at some point? This is the relatability of Charlie Brown.

I understand everyone loves Snoopy, but not only is he kind of a dick in this movie, but his “Red Baron” sequences mean absolutely nothing to the main plot. Though the animation for it is very good, you could’ve excluded those scenes entirely, and it would’ve been the same movie. I understand that you have to break up the monotony of Charlie Brown’s adventures because it would be pretty boring if it was just him fucking everything up for an hour and a half, but could the dog do something that is actually relevant? Snoopy is obviously a huge part of the popularity of Peanuts (he’s arguably more popular than Charlie Brown himself). They should’ve given him more to do, or at least something important to do in general.

It was funny as hell when he threw that typewriter at Lucy though. That’s been a long time coming!

The Peanuts Movie might not be the most exciting animated film, but it’s nonetheless a good one. It’s very sweet and good-natured and really does the Peanuts gang justice through its animation, story, and humor. I can’t say that it’s for everyone, but certain age groups and fans will appreciate the film and the message it sends. I just could’ve done without the filler content from Snoopy. The story could’ve been a little bit bigger too to make it feel more movie-worthy but then again, they couldn’t take any chances because they wanted to make it as similar to Charles M. Schulz’s comic strips as possible, so I get it. Based off of what happened in the story though, there’s no reason why this couldn’t have been a much smaller production as a whole.

How the hell was the budget for this movie $99 million?