The Peanuts Movie review

 

2015’s 7th animated film.

http://www.spacemov.com/the-peanuts-movie-full-2015-watch-movie-hdfree117/

My opinion right after watching film

My opinion right after watching the film is that it was a sweet, simple, but strong film. I do not think it is one of the greater films I have watched, but there is something about the simplicity of it that makes the film better. I was not that familiar with the Peanuts franchise, but still found a lot that was enjoyable about it.

Production

In 2006, Craig Schulz (the son of the creator of the Peanuts franchise) wanted to keep his father’s legacy alive, and had an idea for a film. He pitched it to Blue Sky sometime in the early 2010s, and the company announced the film in late 2012. They did not want to add many newcomers because Schulz felt like the legacy of Peanuts would have been ruined, so it maintained important that he was in control over the production of the film.

Story

So the story begins with the children preparing to go to school, and react to Charlie (Noah Schnapp) attempting to fly a kite in the middle of the winter, and to a new family moving in. They end up seeing that the neighbor ends up being a girl they call the Little Red-Haired Girl (Francesca Angelucci Capaldi), who enters the class, and catches anyone’s attention. Charlie ends up having this huge crush on her, and stumbles over his tests, and ends up writing his name on the wrong test to her. He ends up being embarrassed, since he could not catch her attention.

There ends up being a sub-plot point of the dog Snoopy (Bill Melendez) trying to enter the school, and everyone yells at him because dogs are not allowed. I am assuming this is a gimmick or a previous plot point for a short or a comic.

Snoopy ends up having another sub-plot, where he is having a dream about chasing a female dog named Fifi (Kristen Chenoweth). I guess that this is supposed to be a parallel of Charlie chasing after the Red-Haired Girl, but it is filler, since we get the point the film is trying to make, and the time could have been used in a better way. In another day, the Red-Haired Girl attempts to sit beside Charlie, but he crawls under the seats of the bus to get away from her. I get nervousness, but this is too over the top, and just makes me roll his my eyes. This continues when he rings her doorbell, but instantly hides in a tree when she opens the door.

Charlie ends up going to Lucy (Hadley Belle Miller) for advice when it comes to the opposite sex, and she tells him that he needs to be more confident in himself, which would be hard to do, since she sees Charlie as a failure. After seeing his sister Sally (Mariel Sheets) practice in her room for the talent show, Charlie decides to sign up for the talent show. He decides not to perform, since he sees everyone laughing at his sister, so he makes a fool of himself, to make his sister thrive in the talent show. I have to say that it is very nice of him to do that.

Charlie ends up preparing and studying a ballroom dance routine for the school dance that is approaching, and is really putting his best forth. He starts to impress everyone, but right at the end of the dance, there is a spill, which he falls on. His shoe ends up hitting the sprinklers, so the dance is now soaked, and everyone leaves.
The Red-Haired girl ends up going back east to take care of her mother for a week, and it is time for the book report. Charlie is luckily paired up with her.

He decides that getting the golden star for the Best Report will start their relationship. The test results are soon posted, and he ends up being the first person to score a perfect score. This causes the school to treat him like a genius and a celebrity. Charlie ends up choosing her favorite book to create the book report on, and ends up doing all to it by himself, so she won’t worry when she comes back.

It is the time where he gets an award for getting a perfect on the test. Right when he is on the stage to make a speech, he sees his test, and recognizes that it is not his, so he decides to be honest, and tells everyone that it is a misunderstanding.

So Charlie shows his paper to his friend Linus (Alex Garfin) the book report, who ends up liking it. The Little Red Haired Girl approaches them, not knowing that they had a book report to do. She is thankful that he did the entire thing on his own, but it is soon shattered by a red toy helicopter, causing both of them to fail the assignment. He loses all hope.

There is a bunch of filler with the dog (that lasts about 10 minutes), and we skip to the last day of school, where they are choosing pen pals. No one wants to be Charlie`s partner but the Little Red Haired Girl, which shocks him and everyone else. He cannot get it out of his mind as to why she chose him. Deciding to follow Linus`s advice to talk to her, he goes to her house, only for her mother to tell him that she is on her way to summer camp. He rushes to the bus stop before she gets on, and asks her why she chose him. She tells him that he is a good, compassionate, brave, honorable man, and that he is not the failure he sees himself as. The bus finally drives off, and people celebrate to Charlie.

You know, it has been less than a decade since I was a legit child (alright, maybe a decade), and this film brought me back to that time. Those little scenarios that were seen as so big in those days were carried all throughout the film, and used to tie into the plot point of Charlie`s courage, and impressing the Little Red Haired Girl. While I would have appreciated if there were less filler with the dog. The plot was very simple, but it was executed pretty well. The characters that needed focus on were great, and I am proud to have watched this film. It is nice to have a film bring you back to your innocent years, and make you more appreciative of your childhood.

Characters

I am not going to go through all of the characters, since there are only 2 characters that receive important focus, but I will say that as a whole (including the minor characters), they are very likable.

Charlie is a very strong character. He is very unlucky, clumsy, and kind of a coward, but he has to work through it to show all of his good traits, and finally have the courage to talk to the Red Haired Girl. A pretty strong protagonist, and it was easy to root for him, despite some of his cowardice annoying me slightly.

He is a reason why most of the filler in the film exists, so I was slightly annoyed with him. He was a supportive friend, I guess.

Honestly, she has no real character, and is more of a plot device. I know that it works in this film, but I will always appreciate a character who shows some personality.

To put it nicely, she is the same bossy, but not totally unlikable character in the comics and shows in here.

He is kind of the moral compass and the advisor to his friend Charlie. That is pretty much it.

Animation

Honestly, I am really impressed with the animation. The CGI animation was made to look flatter (like in traditionally animated films) to keep the tone of the specials and shows. I felt like the textures were very unique, and made the world look a lot better. Some people may not have liked the choices that were made regarding the animation, but I found it floundering.

Music

The music was pretty much the same that was used in the previous installments. It is by no way a bad thing, but it was expected. There is a lot of piano and classic music that was used in the show. They might have tweaked a few things here and there, but it was very similar.

Reception at Release

When the film was released on November 6th, 2015, it domestically made $126,600, 000, and made 44,600,000 internationally, which became a world amount of $172,000,000 as of December 27th, 2015. It opened at #2, but it seems like it has dropped considerably in the weeks since.

It receives positive critical reception, and seen as the highest-rated Blue Sky film. A lot of people liked it for nostalgic reasons, and had a lot of heart, while the few criticisms it had involved it being unambitious and simplistic.

Final Score

Story: 7/10

Characters: 7.5/10

Animation: 9/10

Music: 8/10

= 31.5/40 =79%

Next time…

The Best and Worst animated films list of 2015 will be posted soon.

Advertisement