Fifteen years after the death of cartoonist Charles Schulz, The Peanuts Movie becomes a tricky proposition — how to retain the spirit of the original comic strip while introducing the characters to a new generation.
So it’s a pleasant surprise that the first feature adaptation of Schulz’s characters in 35 years find a happy medium that sidesteps its pitfalls with an amusing charm.
The story finds the children enjoying a suburban snow day when a new red-haired girl moves into the neighborhood. She immediately catches the eye of sad-sack Charlie Brown, who’s far too shy to even make eye contact, even though he has the support of his friends and loyal dog Snoopy, whose mischievous antics include a series of daydream diversions depicting airborne battles with the Red Baron.
It’s the fifth Peanuts film overall but the first without Schulz, who oversaw all previous adaptations of his characters from strip to screen with longtime animator Bill Melendez. Yet the screenwriting team includes Schulz’s son and grandson, who no doubt wanted this loving tribute to preserve his legacy.
Although this latest adventure is in cash-grabbing 3D, the simple original animation style stays mostly intact despite the transition from drawings to computers, with an example being the exaggerated round heads and facial features.
Like its predecessors, the story is thin and predictable at feature length, but it has plenty of nostalgic staples, from Charlie Brown’s attempts at kite flying and football kicking, to Lucy’s psychiatric help stand, to Pig Pen’s perpetual dust cloud, to the incomprehensible teacher, to Snoopy’s antiquated typewriter, to Marcie’s glasses and Schroeder’s piano. Even the voices (from a new group of kid actors) sound mostly the same, and there’s not a cell phone or video game to be found.
As directed by Steve Martino (Horton Hears a Who), the pace is too frenetic to allow much room for the gentle wisdom and melancholy moods of the source material. Perhaps that’s a kid-friendly product of the times. At least there are wholesome and heartfelt lessons about self-esteem and following your dreams.
The latest revival of a sacred property from the past turns out better than most. After all, this installment could have put Charlie Brown and friends into space or on a road trip, or mashed them up with the Family Circus, or thrown them into a godforsaken origin story. Good grief, indeed.
