Does 'The Peanuts Movie' retain the spirit of Charles Schulz's characters?
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Molly Driscoll Staff writer
Charles M. Schulz鈥檚 Peanuts gang is coming to the big screen with the upcoming film 鈥淭he Peanuts Movie,鈥� which will be released on Nov. 6.
Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, and Snoopy originated in a comic strip by Mr. Schulz which ran for nearly 50 years. Reprints are still published daily in most American papers. On television, the characters are remembered for such holiday specials as 鈥淚t鈥檚 the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,鈥� 鈥淎 Charlie Brown Thanksgiving,鈥� and 鈥淎 Charlie Brown Christmas.鈥澛�
New cartoon specials have been broadcast in recent years, including 鈥淗appiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown鈥� and 鈥淗e鈥檚 a Bully, Charlie Brown.鈥�
When it was announced that a new film about the characters was coming to movie theaters, many fans feared Hollywood would mess up this beloved property.聽Fans of books by Dr. Seuss and the group Alvin and the Chipmunks, for example, have seen the characters adapted in such critically panned movies as 2000鈥檚 鈥淗ow the Grinch Stole Christmas,鈥� 2003鈥檚 鈥淭he Cat in the Hat,鈥� and the 鈥淐hipmunks鈥� series, which will include a fourth movie coming out this December.
Not only were these movies received negatively by critics but reviewers complained of contemporary pop hits that seemed shoehorned in and risqu茅 jokes being inserted into the stories, as when the Cat in the Hat (Mike Myers) made inappropriate remarks or when Alvin and the Chipmunks鈥� friends the Chipettes performed 鈥淪ingle Ladies.鈥�
That doesn鈥檛 seem to be the case for 鈥淧eanuts,鈥� however. A trailer released this summer had fans feeling optimistic and now critics are saying the feel of the original cartoons is there in the new 鈥淧eanuts鈥� movie. writer Peter Debruge wrote, 鈥淭he late Charles M. Schulz almost surely would have appreciated the result, which presents a wholesome, goody-goody view of childhood emotional challenges,鈥� though he did call the story 鈥渟lender.鈥� Alonso Duralde of wrote that the film is 鈥渁 kid movie through and through, but care has been taken not to disrupt the gentle timelessness of the TV cartoons 鈥� the plot, such as it is, mainly exists as a framework for beloved 'Peanuts' tropes 鈥� it nonetheless respects the importance of failure and disappointment that Schulz always included in his storytelling.鈥� And Michael Rechtshaffen of the found the movie to be 鈥渁 delightful romp that captures the spirit of the adored 65-year-old comic strip 鈥� [those behind the movie] have ... brought the Peanuts gang into the 21st century without betraying that crucial, fondly nostalgic element 鈥� thoroughly engaging.鈥�
