Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie (UK Rating: U)
Last month it was the game, The Peanuts Movie: Snoopy’s Grand Adventure, and now, at long last, Charles M. Schultz’s iconic cartoon strip, Peanuts, arrives on the big screen for the first time. After previews over the past few weekends, Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie arrives in cinemas on Monday, 21st December, perfectly timed for Christmas.
It’s a film that’s very aware of its heritage. Several generations of the Schultz family have been involved its making, and the director, Steve Martino, even worked on the movie in the same office where Schultz himself drew one of the most popular cartoon strips of all time. Some of those original drawings even put in an appearance at the start and end of the film, yet that respect for heritage doesn’t wholly translate at the cinema, certainly as far as the animation is concerned. Made by the people behind the Ice Age series, it uses the same style of digital animation: exceptionally clean, to the point of sterility, and with none of the hand-drawn charm that characterised the original. Peanuts fans will, however, be pleased to know that all of the running gags and storylines they know and love are all still there. Charlie Brown’s misadventures flying a kite, and his constant falling for Lucy’s “kick the ball” trap; Snoopy using his kennel as a plane to chase the Red Baron; Beethoven-obsessed Schroeder playing his tiny piano and they just keep on coming.
The story, such as it is, follows Charlie Brown’s first experience of falling in love. The object of his affection is the little red-haired girl who joins his class at school, and he spends most of the film trying to pluck up courage to speak to her – with help from Snoopy, of course. His faithful beagle has his own storyline, however, pursuing the Red Baron to rescue the love of his life, Fifi. Essentially, it’s all about overcoming enemies, internal and external, and fears.
The makers have clearly decided that this is very much for a young audience, so the original loses out again by being dumbed down. All of Schultz’s gently satirical digs, as well as his literary and philosophical references – the reason why Peanuts was so beloved of students – have been rubbed out. It’s clearly been assumed that today’s youngsters will be familiar with Snoopy and the gang: a huge assumption and a flawed one. For most British children, this will be the first time they have seen the characters, so all those running gags won’t strike a single chord, and, as they have been brought up on all-action superheroes, the gentle adventures of a shy boy and his slightly leftfield dog, may well be too wordy. Their parents, however, are more than likely to see it from another perspective, remembering the cartoon and the TV shows with affection, so it will be a case of them dragging the children along to see the film, rather than the other way round.
