"KEEP BUSTIN'."

The Peanuts Movie

tn_peanutsTHE PEANUTS MOVIE is a 95% respectful and pure tribute to the American institution that is the comic strip Peanuts by Charles Schulz and its animated adaptations by director Bill Melendez (especially 1965’s A Charlie Brown Christmas and 1966’s It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown). With surprisingly little compromise or update it brings all the characters back to the screen in recognizable form. It doesn’t add new characters or celebrity voices or make them talk like smartass sitcom shitheads, or try to make some kind of meta commentary about what Peanuts represents, or give some origin story about how Charlie Brown got his dog or the first time he tried to kick a football, or some joke pointing out that it’s weird that he seems to only have one hair on the front of his head and two on the back… basically, it doesn’t do any of the one hundred dumbass things that you can guarantee almost any asshole who would make this movie would think was a good idea. Luckily, those assholes were busy trying to ruin The Muppets or something when this was made.
mp_peanutsThe story is a little light for feature length, but in my opinion this has always been the case with Charlie Brown. The strips stretch out into vignettes that can beautifully fill 22 minutes or whatever. I think some of the movies were good, from what I remember, but none are as beloved as those first two holiday specials. Those are the pure uncut shit right there. Short and sweet.

This one is written by Schulz’s son and grandson and one other guy who wrote and directed some live action shorts and that’s it. The story is kind of a greatest hits mostly based around Charlie’s crush on the unnamed “little red head girl.” He’s spectacularly awkward but, instead of the usual comedic doing-horrible-things-that-later-he’ll-have-to-confess-to, keeps doing the right thing (like telling everyone the truth when he’s mistakenly given credit for something).

Along the way of course you have the kite-eating-tree, Lucy’s psychiatry booth, playing baseball and all that stuff, plus lots of specific little tributes, like re-creating the same goofy dance moves from the Christmas special. All of the characters are there, though everybody but Charlie is kind of off to the side, with Linus just being the supportive friend, not getting his own story. Also, like in the specials, there are tangents about Snoopy’s fantasies of being a fighter pilot in WWI. No, they don’t work in a joke where he’s walking in slow motion in front of a sunset holding his helmet. They don’t play “Highway to the Danger Zone” or something like you’re supposed to do. They didn’t make a modern cartoon. They just made a Peanuts movie.

Though I think the story isn’t entirely engaging the whole time I was pretty much blown away by the animation, especially coming from Blue Sky, the studio that mostly does those mediocre ICE AGE movies. On a technical level this is an A+. They have ingeniously translated the squiggly ink drawings into three dimensional computer animation by staying very true to the look, the expressions, the poses and the angles of the characters even while giving them realistic hair and clothing textures and other details. They could’ve made them look weird like TINTIN or horrifying like GARFIELD if they gave them human-like eyes. Instead they keep the dots. They use line animation for the eyes and mouths, as well as motion lines (and they find other excuses for 2D animation, for example in thought balloons). And they always show the characters from the angles that Schulz drew them at.

Check this out:

still_peanuts

See, it’s like his head is sculpted out of plastic, but his facial features are drawn on. Then it looks like a real coat, real string, a real hat. Note that the hat is on sideways, but you know it doesn’t literally mean he’s wearing it like Flavor Flav. It’s just that that’s how Schulz would draw it when his head was at that angle, so that’s how they do it. And it totally works.

Basically, this is computer animation imitating stop motion imitating Melendez’s cell animation imitating Schulz’s comic strips. And in 3D it looks like a Viewmaster. (If you don’t like 3D it’s probly not essential but if you do I definitely recommend that route.)

The same director and studio did HORTON HEARS A WHO!, which did a similarly impressive translation of iconic drawings to detailed three dimensional characters, in that case the drawings of Dr. Seuss. Unfortunately it took Seuss’s very simple story, which made up a few minutes of the movie, and buried it in a completely un-Seuss-like modern comedy thing with the shy elephant doing wacky poses and imitations and shit. This one is way more in the spirit of the original characters and stories.

In my opinion there’s one aspect of THE PEANUTS MOVIE that’s really holding it back, and that’s the music. Don’t worry, the famous Vince Guaraldi jazz songs do show up. Obviously you got “Linus and Lucy” a few times, and there’s some “Skating” and they have some Christmas scenes so they’re caroling “Christmas Time Is Here” for a bit. But the majority of the movie does not use that type of sound. Instead they have a generic orchestral score by Christopher Beck (THE SKULLS II-III, GARFIELD 1-2, THE PINK PANTHER 1-2). It’s not that it’s so bad, but it’s completely undistinguished, and it fucks with the unique Melendez vibe that every other department is working so hard to capture. There’s obviously alot of sentiment in Peanuts, but when Charlie Brown is talking about feeling like a loser, or when something is finally going right for him, and there’s an orchestra reminding us how we’re supposed to feel about it, it feels a little less like that beautiful pumpkin patch sincerity that Schulz created and more like Oh, this is the emotional part. I see what they’re doing here.

I don’t think it will bother most people, or they won’t be able to put their finger on it, but I think it was a big mistake to use a score like that. I know you can’t have Vince Guaraldi, but you could certainly hire a solid jazz trio to do a take on that style. In fact you’d sell more soundtrack albums guaranteed. Somebody on this movie even has their foot in the jazz world because they got Trombone Shorty to do the “voices” of the adults. They coulda done this up right.

And I’m afraid there is one other thing I need to address about the music. When we saw that trailer set to “Teenage Wasteland,” we all wondered the same thing: oh shit, are they seriously gonna put rock or pop music on a Peanuts movie? For most of the movie they did not. But a couple times they did. Mostly in a dance scene, and on the end credits. It could’ve been way worse. But still.

I don’t want to be too negative, because the quality of this movie is pretty miraculous. We as a human civilization have been dreading for decades that some Hollywood sicko was gonna eventually get their mitts on Peanuts and make us all angry. I think at one point Chris Columbus was gonna do it in live action. Imagine that shit. We avoided it.

But for all the passion and care and sensitivity and hard work that went into creating a faithful tribute to the works of Schulz and Melendez, there is at least one slimy no good motherfucker somewhere in the chain of people making this movie that needs to be singled out and shamed. I don’t know who it is, I don’t know how it happened, but there has to be someone there who is responsible. They had the Schulzes doing the screenplay and Paul Feig as a very protective producer, and he went to the executives and showed them how they were going to meticulously, gorgeously translate the style of the drawings and Melendez’s movements into tasteful three dimensional computer animation, they were going to use real kid voices, and archive recordings of Melendez doing the weird sounds that Snoopy and Woodstock make, and they were going to avoid modern pop culture references or technologies or slang or trendy styles of comedy, or some kind of plot where they have to save the world, and they were gonna use some of that Vince Guaraldi Trio music that everybody loves…

And that’s when somebody, some horrible bastard, said “Yeah yeah, I like all that, and I’m gonna let you do all that, but let me tell you what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna bring in Jamie Sanderson, Breyan Isaac, Miles Beard, Vincent Venditto, Teemi Brunila, Thomas Troelsen, Jimmy Marinos, Mike Skill, Wally Palamarchuck and Frederick Hibbert to write the song ‘That’s What I Like’ by Flo Rida featuring Fitz. And what’s that gal that does ‘All About That Bass.’ Get her in here. I can’t sell this without some Flo Rida and some the-lady-that-did-‘All About That Bass.'”

Because nothing’s sacred. That is how these people think. That is what we are dealing with here. They always get their way. And they are living among us, free, ready to strike at any moment.

Sure, there are worse crimes. There is murder. There is arson. Actually, no… this is a type of arson. But this anonymous decision maker at Fox or wherever, they are so god damn clueless that they will never know what they did was wrong. They will die having no idea. They think they did the right thing, it would never occur to them not to do that shit. These are the people that control our culture. They probly don’t know enough about what they’re doing to cite the precedent of Flash Beagle:

which at least is campy and representative of a specific era, and goes all in. This is different, this is an obviously-trying-to-be-timeless movie with some horrible overproduced computery pop music vomit just popping up out of the blue a couple times, simply because somebody had to stop the movie from being pure. They did it for the benefit of no one. There is not some parent or teen babysitter watching this going “Oh, thank God, there’s an awesome song during this dance part, I love Flo Rida.” There is not somebody who went to see it because of one of those songs. There is not somebody who bought the soundtrack album of orchestra and jazz and thinks it makes alot of sense when those two songs pop up. They have no value. Only cultural pollution.

And don’t lay some kind of Be Realistic, That’s Capitalism For You, Charlie Brown trip on me. You’re right, if THE FORCE AWAKENS has a song called “Before I Wake” by 2 Chainz featuring Adam Levine on the end credits, the world will not end. But still, fuck you. We as a society can demand some sort of basic level of taste and decency from all humans. There is a social contract.

So shame on you, whoever you are who made that happen. Disgrace. I curse you to wake up one morning knowing what you did and having to listen to those two songs on repeat for two months straight or until you release a public statement of apology. The rest of us are trying to enjoy this world, and you’re out there trying to pull this shit. Good grief.

THE PEANUTS MOVIE is okay though otherwise. I enjoyed it.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 9th, 2015 at 12:11 pm and is filed under Cartoons and Shit, Comic strips/Super heroes, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

39 Responses to “The Peanuts Movie”

  1. When the first trailers came out, I was really surprised at how good the animation looked, as well as feeling faithful to the original strips and TV specials/movies. Blue Sky has definitely upped their game in the years since ICE AGE, as their stuff lately has looked rather good. But you can tell they paid extra attention to detail not to GARFIELD this up. I’m definitely curious as to how this looks in 3D now.

    I’m disappointed they went for a conventional orchestral score, but not surprised. It must have been an afterthought on the part of the producers or the studio, especially if it’s as generic as you said it was. A piano-bass-drums trio scoring your multi-million dollar film is not going to sit well with someone at the studio, even if there is precedent to how well it worked previously. The Guaraldi material worked because that kind of bluesy somber piano told the story as much as the animation did. An entire string orchestra trying to tell you the same thing just does not work.

    I’m glad you liked it, and glad that the reviews are as good as they are. But honestly, and especially now that he’s getting back into animation with his next film, I wish Wes Anderson was given a shot at doing this.

  2. The Original... Paul

    November 9th, 2015 at 12:48 pm

    Vern:

    “And don’t lay some kind of Be Realistic, That’s Capitalism For You, Charlie Brown trip on me. You’re right, if THE FORCE AWAKENS has a song called “Before I Wake” by 2 Chainz featuring Adam Levine on the end credits, the world will not end. But still, fuck you. We as a society can demand some sort of basic level of taste and decency from all humans. There is a social contract.”

    And finally you understand how I felt when the credits of GI JOE: RISE OF COBRA started to roll and that fucking Black-Eyed Peas song kicked in. Way to sully the integrity and purity of that film too, assholes!

  3. Gonna see if I take my niece to see it on Wednesday morning. TBH it’s one of the only movies I’ve been looking forward to as of late. The others being THE REVENANT, HATEFUL EIGHT, CREED, POINT BREAK (yeah you read that right!) and THE GOOD DINOSAUR.

  4. I wept like a bitch. Waiting for the think piecers to label CB the ultimate insincere “nice guy”, or point out the problematic nature of Snoopy kissing Lucy without consent.

  5. I still have to defend at least 50% of the ICE AGE movies. 1 & 3 are seriously great. That’s all. PEANUTS starts here on christmas, so I don’t have anything else to say. But I’m glad that it apparently is good.

  6. Crushinator Jones

    November 9th, 2015 at 2:14 pm

    My son loves “Shoopy” but he’s too little to see this. I can’t wait to show it to him later, though.

  7. OK, I got a question for Vern and anyone else who watched this movie.

    Does it …. work? I mean, I respect that they kept it faithful to its roots. If there was any way to do this, that was the way. But “Peanuts” began in 1950! The world it depicts just seems so radically different from the world we live in today. I don’t think today’s youth, or even my own childhood, really had a lot in common with the world of the Peanuts characters, who are from Schultz’s own youth in the 30’s as much as the 50’s. I mean, does their vision of childhood really even make any sense in the modern setting? Or does it feel like a deliberately retro, period pastiche? Or does it survive entirely on nostalgia, either for these characters or for the “lost” America of the past?

    I mean, I guess the characters and world made sense to me as a kid, and I was born long after the world Peanuts exists in was long gone. It sure does seem pretty far removed from any modern kids’ experience, though. Will they relate to it at all? Are the fundamentals of childhood the same, even with different trappings?

  8. Oh goody— Yet another “Why Whitey Grinds My Gears” denunciation, in regards to an animated kids movie no less.

    Vern: You should admit once and for all that you’re black, and be done with it. Since I’m on the subject, who’s the tall skinny guy with the glasses in this photo?:

    https://twitter.com/mylifesacartoon/status/477968283581161472

    17 months ago, this guy (whoever he is) stood on a theatre stage in Los Angeles at that Steven Seagal-themed event and claimed to be you. At that moment, I’m guessing most of your readers were willing to accept this as the truth— that you were simply a movie critic who was also a white liberal who had issues with racism in this country. Yet time and time again since then on this website, the focus of your complaints about racism has been about that which is perpetrated against black people. Almost exclusively racism against black people.

    Who are you, Vern? Who are you really?

  9. Yep cause God forbid that a White Guy could be really sensitive to the plights of Black Americans.

    It’s 2015. Why WOULDN’T you believe that he was the dude in Tawdry’s tweet pic?

  10. Mr. Subtlety – The PEANUTS strip always subtlely (no pun) updated with the times. From introducing Franklin in post-Civil Rights America to the inclusion of current pop culture elements. I mean I am an ’83 baby and a latino at that yet I remember reading quite a few PEANUTS collections cause they spoke to me as a late 80’s and early 90’s kid in those days. It wasn’t Calvin and Hobbes but it was effective enough. I’m guessing this movie is the same. Sticks to the fundamentals while still being able to speak clearly to the smartphone generation.

  11. Larry, what the hell are you even talking about? There’s not one word about black people in this whole review. I guess being against the Ellisification of beloved properties is just one more example of reverse-racism*.

    *not an actual thing

  12. Broddie — I mean, I guess that’s true. It just seems like so many icons of the strip — marbles, kid-organized baseball-teams, five-cent lemonade stands, kids quoting scripture, World War 1 romanticization, hell, the simple idea of these kids playing unsupervised together in the neighborhood — feel so integral to the character of the strip, and yet they’re all either quickly vanishing or totally anachronistic at this point. It’s hard to imagine how a modern movie (in 3-D!) could feature that stuff and not feel intentionally retro.

    But I mean, I was born in 83 as well, and they spoke to me the same way they did to you. So I dunno, maybe it just somehow manages to fight through the period details. You gotta admit, though, it would be kinda strange to see, I dunno, a LEAVE IT TO BEAVER movie which was supposedly set in modern times but kept all the details from the original era.

    Larry — Jesus fucking Christ dude, can you calm down? You’re really gonna pull this shit in the PEANUTS MOVIE review? That’s how you want to play this? You’re embarrassing yourself and everyone here.

  13. The Original Paul

    November 9th, 2015 at 4:39 pm

    Well personally I’ve always thought of Vern as a 22-year-old Puerto-Rican woman. And I point-blank refuse to believe anything else, no matter how many photographs you guys pull out!

    Larry – but white men are to blame for all of the world’s problems. Or are you suggesting that Zeus Carver from DIE HARD 3 got it wrong? I mean, let’s not completely lose touch with reality here.

  14. Larry, next time you tell yourself that you have a legitimate argument, go read that again. What in the hell are you talking about? I didn’t bring up race one time in this review, somehow you still fly into an angry rage at the black man. I don’t know if you seriously think that white people who notice racism are traitors, or if you think I am going to be insulted that you pretend to think I’m black, but either way you are showing your disgusting bigoted colors in a truly bizarre way.

    I wish I knew how to get through to you but you don’t even read what I write anyway, you’re seeing things in the god damn Peanuts review. Your mind’s playin tricks on you, bud. Please take care of yourself.

  15. I actually was so befuddled by Larry’s post that I had convinced myself somebody made a fake Larry post just to fuck with him and I was a sucker to fall for it. But no, the ip address seems to check out. Weird.

  16. Maybe he just really loves ALL ABOUT THAT BASS?

  17. He’s trolling you, bud.

  18. Dios mio!

  19. This review is a magic eye puzzle. If you cross your eyes just right – and poor, poor Larry seems to have done just that – the entire review is about the consistently likeable Franklin.

  20. On the issue of being overly trendy, we can go back even farther than Flashbeagle and remember that Snoopy’s bird sidekick got his name Woodstock in 1970.

    Also, “Droom Groots” is an awesome name. I saw that on the poster and figured it was the name given to Peanuts in some territories. Turns out it’s Dutch for the film’s tagline “Dream Big”.

    Speaking of which, Charles Schulz hated the title “Peanuts” which was forced on him by the syndicate. I’m pretty sure this is the first Peanuts animation to use that word in its title – every other title has been Charlie Brown this or Snoopy that, but never Peanuts.

  21. You like Franklin? What are you, black or somethin’?

  22. Nothing against Woodstock, you understand. Just a reminder that Peanuts was never so “timeless” as to ignore the contemporary pop culture of its time. It only seems timeless now because it’s old and most of us are now too young to get some of those jokes.

  23. Majestyk- what´s wrong with you? Don´t you know that all lives matter?

  24. Can’t you guys all be honest with yourselves? Isn’t it true that sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes whitey DOES grind your gears?

  25. That’s a good point Curt, and I did consider that there would be ways for the characters to talk about contemporary adult things that would be in the tradition of Schulz (I think there might’ve been one example of that here, but I forget what it was…) But I don’t think there’s a Schulz precedent for aggressively out of place pop songs like this, and the movie is so consistent about not updating that it’s clearly something forced on them by some sick marketing asshole and not an intentional artistic choice.

  26. I think we just all experienced the internet equivalent of standing at a bus stop when a crazy and/or chemically influenced homeless person starts yelling imprecations. You’re not sure if they’re yelling at you, a nearby person based in reality or the voices in their head. You feel both offended and confused, but try to ignore the ranting.

  27. You can never ever ever, ever reason with a Blamer. Save your breath. Just walk away. Even while their yelling at you down the street, just keep on going.

  28. “Ellisification of beloved properties…”
    Bout fell-out of my freakin’ chair.

  29. grimgrinningchris

    November 10th, 2015 at 6:43 pm

    Seriously, SERIOUSLY… what the FUCK is Larry on about?
    Did this review even mention Franklin? I didn’t see it. The only two people of color (or instances of anything having to do with any people of color) in this review are of the use of Trombone Shorty (a thumbs up) and Flo Rida (a resounding, spends the whole home stretch of the review giving it a huuuuge thumbs down).

    I normally just laugh Larry’s shit off… but I am REALLY befuddled here.

    I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight if Larry cannot point out SPECIFICALLY what in hell’s shit he is even talking about!!!

  30. It was pretty great. Laughed a lot with my niece (especially Snoopy and the cupcakes and post-sprinkler Pigpen). So glad that they stuck to the traditional formula and it had some awesome messages to share. Chuck Schulz would’ve been proud.

  31. Documentary: A Little Love: The Art of Bill Melendez

    All about the "Peanuts" animator, his collaboration with Charles Schulz, the modernist flavor of his work, and his influence on the films of Wes Anderson ("R...

  32. Oh, and how can I forget…

    Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown

    Charlie Brown is on the run from the Peanuts Gang after the Great Pumpkin puts a bounty on his head in this wild ... animated student short by Jim Reardon.

  33. Amazing Larry is actually Neil Hamburger. You have all been catfished. Except instead of an internet girlfriend, you have an internet racist. Call it “racefished”.

  34. My vague memories of Peanuts stuff suggests that the strip was pretty easygoing about embroidering contemporary concerns into its style and tone as it aged. I mean, nothing shouts 1950s like pop culture takes on psychoanalysis.

    My dad thought the “Joe Cool” song from one of the 70s/80s iterations of the characters was some sort of betrayal of the essence of Schultz. “What’s with this “Welcome Back Kotter” shit? That’s not what fucking’ Peanuts is about!” he screamed at the tv. It’s a shame he didn’t live long enough for me to show him the SOUTH PARK movie.

    I seem to remember another Peanuts cartoon where Snoopy goes and lives with a girl in her condo and the rest of the kids spend the show bawling. Someone had to explain to me what a condo is and why they had an intercom system at the door. Pretty sure that was early 80s.

    Did they do anything neat with Pig Pen’s cloud of filth in 3D?

  35. Jareth, it sounds like you’re describing the film SNOOPY, COME HOME! from 1972. It probably aired on TV in the early 80s though.

    Speaking of films, the film A BOY NAMED CHARLIE BROWN had songs by Rod McKuen. I recall Leonard Maltin’s review book condeming those songs as awful.

  36. I finally saw this movie yesterday, with family.

    After the credits ended and the lights came up, I pointed out that Peppermint Patty, Marcie and Franklin lived in a different neighborhood in the comic strip and didn’t actually go to the same school as the other characters (as the movie depicted), then jokingly added “My childhood is ruined.”

    My sister didn’t realize I was joking, and she complained that my first comment about the movie was negative. I had to explain that I was kidding and that I did enjoy the film.

    Around here we so enjoy mocking and complaining about people who talk that way. I now realize it’s maybe healthier if we don’t pay them the compliment of even parodying them or acknowledging them at all. I felt bad that I’d allowed those twerps to color my perspective even ironically, and I hoped that other moviegoers within earshot didn’t also take my mock disdain seriously.

    Speaking of nitpicks … as much as I enjoyed Vern’s rant on the subject, I had no problem with the music, not even the couple of pop songs. Perhaps if I was more familiar with current pop music I would then have the correct level of outrage that such-and-such artist was allowed anywhere near Peanuts. If it was gangsta rap or Marilyn Manson I would understand being upset, but the couple songs in the movie were low-key and not particularly out of step with the tone of the movie. And someone behind me was humming along to the end-credits song, so not everyone was taken out of the movie by it.

    It’s understandable to wish that the whole movie had the Vince Guaraldi-type sound that the old Mendelson/Melendez cartoons had. But we already left the Melendez aesthetic just by having 3D CGI visuals and a faster-paced, gag-every-other-second tone – to me it wasn’t a big deal that the music was a little different too.

    Don’t get me wrong – I like the Melendez cartoons and grew up with them. But as an adult I guess I wasn’t wedded to the idea that any new Schulz adaptation must use the style they established. (One cool thing I noticed in the movie was that the thought-balloon fantasy sequences were 2D animation that imitated Schulz’s squiggly drawing style more closely than the cleaner lines of the Melendez cartoons were able to.)

    A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS etc. are great, but in a sense they’re like Richard Donner’s SUPERMAN or the Judy Garland WIZARD OF OZ – they’re adaptations that have become more famous and beloved than the actual source material, so it can be upsetting when someone else has a slightly different interpretation of the same source material.

    Actually, one major liberty taken by the Melendez cartoons – which I’m surprised this movie stuck with – was having Snoopy be mute. A lot of humor in the strips came from Snoopy’s irreverent inner thoughts, but Melendez and company (I’m sure with Schulz’s approval) chose to make him a totally nonverbal character like Harpo Marx or Chewbacca. Though the new movie did slightly get around this by putting Snoopy’s WWI fantasy inside his other fantasy of being a novel writer, allowing one of the kid characters to narrate his thoughts.

    Anyway, I think it’s sweet that the Blue Sky gang had enough respect for the Melendez aesthetic to keep so much of its sound – including Melendez’s voice as Snoopy and Woodstock, as well as the trombone effects to represent adults, but I also would have been fine with trying something different.

    One final thought … Where was Lucy’s and Linus’ little brother, Rerun van Pelt? He was added to the strip after the best-known TV specials were created, so perhaps the filmmakers pulled a Chuck-Cunningham-from-HAPPY-DAYS and hoped the audience didn’t remember him. But at least he appeared in the authentic Schulz cartoon panels that scroll by in the end credits (he’s the Linus lookalike holding a baby bottle).

  37. Finally watched this the other day. What really surprised me is how well the voices match up with the original specials. I’m in total agreement now with Vern about the choices in music. At the very least the pop music could have gone away and it wouldn’t have affected the quality at all. It tries to modernize the story, when the world it’s set in doesn’t feel that way at all.

    I watched the PBS documentary I linked here earlier afterwards. It paints Shulz as a bit of a tortured artist, and doing some looking up after I guess the family was not at all happy with how it came out. Nonetheless interesting to see some of the people who you can see may have acted as catalysts for some of the characters. Especially interesting that he worked with someone named Charles Brown, who’s shown to have some of Charlie’s features.

  38. The music didn’t bother me really. I was glad that’s ALL they did to modernize it. Compare to a movie I saw the same day, Ryuhei Kitamura’s LUPIN III. THE PEANUTS MOVIE went about it’s adaptation with the belief: Peanuts is cool despite it being ‘retro’! Kitamura’s LUPIN movie went about it’s adaptation with the belief: Lupin III is cool… even though it’s ‘retro’… Thus he mostly remade the remake of THE ITALIAN JOB and made a horribly generic ‘modern-Hollywood-style’ heist caper movie (with a few weird touches here-and-there) instead of a cool and fun (and good) retro-style caper I can’t help but feel most fans would have preferred.

    When they first announced a PEANUTS movie and Blue Sky (the guys who made the awful ICE AGE movies, not the guys who made the VECTORMAN video games for Sega Mega Drive/Genesis) was going to make it, I had already written off (sadly not because I’m past the age of 30 and really shouldn’t care about such things anymore). So yeah I really enjoyed it and like the dead kid plot-line in GRAVITY or some eye-rolling romance subplot in most movies I like, if that’s ALL they had to do to get it made, I’ll be forgiving.

    I second the recommendation for that PBS documentary as well.

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