For more months than I care to count, the cries of agony over a movie based on the Peanuts comic strips of the late Charles M. Schulz have been sounding louder than air-raid sirens. And when word got out that the film was going to be in 3-D? Good grief! Tales of raped childhoods and memories flushed like so much poop filled every means of social media at our disposal and then some. But perhaps the most shocking news of all is that THE PEANUTS MOVIE is really quite wonderful, as it honors what was most good and pure about both the strip and the various television specials that have become required viewing for many major holidays.
Thanks to some clever and faithful storytelling, the film serves a dual purpose of being a greatest hits package for older viewers, and a solid introduction to the characters in some of their most familiar scenarios for new inductees into the world of Charlie Brown, Snoopy & Co. All of the familiar friendships, crushes, adversaries and quirks are all present and accounted for.
The main story involves Charlie Brown and his having a thing for the Little Red-Haired Girl who moves in across the street; he's absolutely petrified with anxiety about even talking to her, and with adult eyes, it's much easier to see that nearly all of these characters are amusingly damaged in some way, and that they lean on each other to get through this especially awkward period of childhood. I don't think it's a coincidence that one character, Lucy, runs a pop-up psychiatrist's booth in town—all these kids need it.
There are a couple of reasons you can rest easy when it comes to going into THE PEANUTS MOVIE. One is that the creator's son Craig Schultz, grandson Bryan Schultz (both of whom contributed the screenplay, as well), and mega-fan Paul Feig (BRIDESMAIDS, SPY) all co-produced the film. If you think about it, Feig's series "Freak and Geeks" is essentially a variation of the Peanuts gang, filled with maladjusted characters each supporting or tormenting each other.
Another reason the film works is that there is almost no attempt to modernize or update the characters beyond the 3-D design and a couple of harmless music cues. These are the same beloved characters, with the same problems, neighborhood, school, and honking adults ("voiced" beautifully by New Orleans legend Trombone Shorty). Another heartbreakingly sweet touch to the film is that the voices of Snoopy and Woodstock are made up of sound cues by the late Bill Melendez, who gave voice to these characters through all of the specials. To hear those hilarious, wordless sounds again made me unexpectedly emotions. In many ways, those are part of the soundtrack of our collective childhood.
Director Steve Martino (ICE AGE: CONTINENTAL DRIFT, HORTON HEARS A WHO!) and his team made the wise decision when animating the film and deciding to go the 3-D route to make he characters' bodies three dimensional, but allowing their facial features to appear like pencil drawings moving across their heads. They've also left in a few key visual cues like thought bubbles, action lines coming off any character moving fast, and even the dotted path that indicates Woodstock's flight pattern.
Does the 3-D make it a better film? I don't think so, but it's hardly a distraction either. I can't imagine you loving THE PEANUTS MOVIE less seeing it in 2-D. The one sequences you may get a little extra thrill in 3-D is watching Snoopy's World War I Flying Ace battling the Red Baron in the clouds high above what I have to assume is Germany.
The most appropriate word to describe THE PEANUTS MOVIE is sweet. This might be the single sweetest film you'll see all year. Designed for children (with its G rating firmly in place) but knowing full well that nostalgia for Peanuts runs deep in older audiences as well, the movie works by staying faithful to what has always worked for these characters. If they make another one, they'll have to take a slightly different approach, but for this first big-screen outing, sticking with the classic model functions just great.
