[Voice] Cast: One of the fun things about the Peanuts animated series and specials are that there's a rotation of children doing the voices. Slight variance is expected and welcomed. All the kids in this case were familiar enough. Only Bill Melendez, voice of Snoopy and Woodstock was reused (I'm assuming through archived sound files since he's been dead for 7 years).
Plot: This follows a school year in the lives of the Peanuts gang as Charlie tries to impress the Red Haired girl who just moved in across the street.
Thoughts:
I need to add a disclaimer here. Peanuts is not something beloved to me. I like it. I've watched the Christmas Special many times. I've read some comic strips now and again. But it's not a huge part of my childhood. I don't even think I've seen It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. I have no vested interest in this movie being good or bad or true to the spirit of the thing.
That disclaimer is important, because this movie is very much for the fans. I can't imagine anyone who loves Peanuts not enjoying this. All the characters get their familiar beats. All the classic gags are back (Lucy's psychiatry stand, Charlie and the kite, Lucy pulling away the football, Snoopy vs. the Red Baron, etc.).If you make a checklist of all the references you want to see before seeing the movie, it'll all be marked off. Even the overall story is a mix of familiar stories from Peanuts. As a loving homage to all of Charles Schultz's characters, it couldn't be much better.
This looks great too, which I figure was hard to pull off. Hand drawn aesthetics don't always translate well to CG, which tends to clean things and smooth them out too much. Blue Sky Studios did a great job transitioning Peanuts to a more modern look without taking away the distinctive look.
Here's the less popular thing I have to say. I found this movie to be pretty dull. There isn't much of a story to it. It's more of a relaxed pace that's about the smaller stories than the big one. A lot of that requires heavy investment in the characters or else it's just meandering to the end. If all you need to make a scene worth it is Schroeder playing his piano in his desk, that's great. If that doesn't mean much to you, that's a problem. I was reminded a lot of the Mr. Peabody and Sherman movie from last year. I was certain that the movie was up to more than I was catching on to, but that still left my experience pretty dissatisfying. This is all a choice, of course. The studio decided to stay true to the material as opposed to targeting outsiders. One decision isn't any better than the other. It sure makes it hard for me to talk about or come away feeling great about it though.
Elephant in the Room: But did they include <insert beloved Peanuts reference>? I mean, probably. I don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of Peanuts, but it certainly seemed like it was doing a ton of fan service up front and in the margins.
Movie Theater LVP: This has to go to the mother who sat behind me and narrated the movie for her son for the first 20 minutes of the movie. Her kid was amazingly well behaved. She, on the other hand, kept making asinine comments like "That's Schroeder" or "Now they're going to school" or "Woodstock was funny right there". I almost moved seats when she was doing it during the previews but told myself that surely she'd stop when the movie began. Nope. Thankfully, she got tired of doing it after about a half hour. When I go to a family movie on a Sunday afternoon, I know what I'm getting into. I'm fine with some loud kids. They're kids. The parents have no excuse.
To Sum Things Up:
For lifelong fans of Peanuts, it's a loving tribute to Charles Schultz's work. To the less familiar, it's still pretty good, though at times a little dull.
Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend
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