Happiness is The Peanuts Movie!

I guess it was about a year ago that I got some pretty fantastic news:  there was going to be a Peanuts movie.  You really don’t know what that meant to me.  When I was a child, I read the Peanuts comic strip in every newspaper I could get my hands on.  I had several books.  Of course, I watched A Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown every holiday season, but during the rest of the year, I watched A Boy Named Charlie Brown; Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown; Snoopy, Come Home; and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don’t Come Back!!).  Those four were the movies that I watched over, and over, and over, and over again.  If any of those were on TV and I was awake, you can bet I was watching.  In case I haven’t been clear enough, I LOVED Charlie Brown and his movies.  Even now, just thinking about them makes me happy.

Yeah, so I was pretty thrilled to hear there was going to be another movie featuring some of my very favorite characters ever created.  A huge smile immediately spread across my face, I told several people, and I might even have done a little Peanuts-inspired dance.  The excitement was palpable.  For about five minutes.  At that point, I started having visions of the modern adaptations of other beloved childhood cartoons and started to get very nervous.  With their base and unclever humor, inexplicable changes to formerly charming characters, and questionable casting choices, those movies were hugely disappointing, and they weren’t even things I wanted my kids to watch.  The Peanuts Movie was much more important to me, and I knew I’d be devastated if it were filled with fart jokes.  In general, the Peanuts franchise has done a great job of staying true to Charles Schulz’s vision, so I did have some hope, but I was still a mix of excited and scared when I walked into the theater for the screening.

Well, I will not keep you in suspense.  The Peanuts Movie made me very happy!  Not one fart joke!  (People really need to stop with those.)  There’s a reason the Peanuts characters have endured for 65 years:  they’re each perfectly imperfect in the most relatable ways.  You can see parts of them in you and in people you know.  They’re fun, they’re unique, and they’re us.  In the new movie, they still are all of those things, only now they’re in 3D.

With or without the 3D option, I really love the animation style they used here.  It’s definitely modern, but it’s soft and beautiful and never gets too “real”.  Yes; the characters have a new, more modern look, but you can still feel Charles Schulz in these new renditions.

In The Peanuts Movie, you’ll get to see your other favorite characters doing what they do best.  Lucy is as bossy as ever and she’s still fawning over Schroeder, who only has eyes for Beethoven.  Blanket-toting Linus is the wise and supportive friend we remember, even when smitten Sally gets in the way.  Peppermint Patty snores her way through class, while Marcie is still the brains of the operation.  Snoopy and his loyal friend Woodstock fly into a world of fantasy where they battle the Red Baron and rescue the fair Fifi.  As for Charlie Brown, he’s spends most of the movie trying to get the attention of the Little Red-Haired Girl, whom we get to hear speak for the first time ever.  Just as you might expect, attempts to win the Little Red-Haired Girl’s affection result in humiliation for our favorite lovable loser, but in the end Charlie Brown learns something about himself that most of us already know.  And I was glad I had a tissue in my purse.

Admittedly, there aren’t a lot of new things going on in this movie, but I think that’s okay.  To me, The Peanuts Movie is a wonderful introduction into the world of Charlie Brown, and whether you need one or not, you can’t help but enjoy it.  I also see it as a starting point for more adventures, and that’s a great thing for both new and old fans.  (I’m really crossing my fingers that there will be more adventures!)  The Peanuts Movie is fun, familiar, new, charming, heartwarming, sweet, beautiful, and I would watch it over, and over, and over again if I could.

You might be wondering if Charlie Brown finally gets to kick that football.  You’ll have to see the movie and find out!  It’s in theaters now, and you can grab tickets online at Fandango.com.