Movie Review
The Peanuts Movie
The new Peanuts movie is sensational. It is absolutely classic Peanuts. They have not wrecked Peanuts by making it a 21st century melodrama that deals with issues of various sorts.
Charlie Brown crushes on a red-headed new girl (her name never revealed; she is always drawn and developed as a distance character, admired by Chuck from afar) who moves across the street, but he's so shy and considers himself so insignificant, he isn't able to approach her. So he spends the whole movie trying to find ways to do so. The winter dance is coming so he gets help from Snoopy, his loyal pet dog, on how to bust a move. Another opportunity comes when he draws her name from a bowl for a book report (War and Peace is his selection), putting it together while she's away tending to a sick grandma. When Charlie supposedly makes a perfect score of 100 on a big test, he becomes a school celebrity, but this could be a case of mistaken success as his paper and Peppermint Patty's got mixed up as they rushed to turn it in on the teacher's desk. Meanwhile, a companion to Chuck's travails with trying to earn the attention/affection of the new girl is the dreamed up fantasy of Snoopy, typing away on a found typewriter in a garbage (he is tossed in there by Lucy who orderly informs him that no dogs are allowed in class with the students) bin about his attempted rescues of a foxy fighter dog as The Red Barron (at the school, a toy red baron plane is flying loose, at one point ruining Chuck's book report which he stayed up all night to prepare!) poses a threat. Woodstock, the bird buddy of Snoop, often critique's the dog's work much to its dismay.
The animation in this movie may've bagged the 2-D and made 3-D instead, it is just amazing. The backgrounds are just breathtaking in the red baron scenes because it showed it unlike the Charlie Brown Halloween where the flying scenes only showed the sky. Charlie Brown and his friends may look a bit simplistic, but it's OK. The animation showed that they could bring peanuts to Computer Animation. It looks almost flawless and maybe even a bit hand drawn. So you've got to look into this great texture of hair and backgrounds, it's that amazing.The animation was wonderful and the nod to scenes from the previous holiday specials was lots of fun to recognize and rehash in the theater experience.
The characters in this movie are unforgettable just like the classics. The side characters like Lucy and Snoopy are just hilarious and fun to watch even if they are just 2-D. The main character, Charlie Brown is 3 dimensional and he try's to accomplish his goals. He's also lovable because he shows helpfulness and honesty. Then there's the little red haired girl whose face was revealed for the first time since the 1977 Charlie Brown short, "Its your first kiss, Charlie Brown". Even though they revealed her unlike the comic strips, she's still really cute, and uses her very few lines in the movie to tell Charlie Brown about how she liked him for who he was, which was sweet. The voices are mostly done by unknowns but it still awesome.
If you're a fan of Charlie Brown and Snoopy, go watch this movie, Even people who never watched the Peanuts cartoons or read the comics should watch it. The only people I don't recommend it to are those who hate Peanuts because even though its modern, its still Peanuts. One additional detail I would like to make is the fact that we never see one cell phone nor computer in the movie. This shows that the environment stayed around the 1960s era. So go watch it, it's a treat.
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