The Peanuts Movie *** (2015, voices of Noah Schnapp, Bill Melendez, Hadley Belle Miller, Alexander Garfin) – Movie Review

Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy (Hadley Belle Miller), Linus (Alexander Garfin), Peppermint Patty, Pig-Pen and the Peanuts gang make their big-screen debut in charming, smartly designed, state of the art 3D animation, based on the comic strip by Charles M Schulz.

Noah Schnapp provides the voice of Charlie Brown, who embarks on a quest to gain the affection of The Little Red-Haired Girl, (Francesca Angelucci Capaldi), newbie in his class at his school, while his best pal, beagle Snoopy (Bill Melendez), takes to his typewriter and in the book he’s writing, takes to the skies to pursue his arch-nemesis, the Red Baron.

From Blue Sky Studios, the creators of the Ice Age films, it is very gentle, old-fashioned retro stuff, with its typewriter and old phones, but it has a lot of quirky, oddball downhome Americana charm. The comic strip brought lovingly to life, it is a nice nostalgia-fest, and certainly looks good in its old-style poster colours. Although it might mystify non-Peanuts viewers, who could puzzle endlessly over the significance of the peculiar Red Baron ideas, even if we know they are meant to parallel Charlie’s quest.

And it is a shade plot-light and repetitive, with not quite enough material for its 90 minutes. All it is, is will Charlie Brown get the girl and will Snoopy destroy the Red Baron. We all know the answers to those questions, but the way we get to those answers is still quite sweet anyway. And only Scrooge would take against Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Their cute factor is a winning hand.

Steve Martino, the director of the Dr Seuss adaptation Horton Hears a Who! (2008), directs The Peanuts Movie and the descendants of the creator, Bryan and Craig Schulz, are the writers. 

Charlie Brown does his book report on Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Charles M Schulz’s favourite novel.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Movie Review

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