The Peanuts Movie

Charlie Brown, a clumsy and socially awkward young boy, is often looked down on by his peers, especially Lucy Van Pelt, who views him as a failure; his only means of emotional support are his anthropomorphic dog, Snoopy and Lucy's younger brother, Linus. One day, Charlie Brown is smitten with a new red-haired girl in his class (whom he nicknames the "Little Red-Haired Girl"). Viewing this as an opportunity for a fresh start, Charlie Brown decides to change himself in order to get the Little Red-Haired Girl to notice him. On that same day, Linus brings in a red model plane for show and tell. Charlie Brown tries to test it out, but when he touches the propeller, the plane flies everywhere, causing havoc. Charlie Brown enters a talent show at his school, planning to perform a magic show act. On the day of the show, however, Charlie Brown decides to sacrifice his act in order to help his sister Sally with hers, causing him to be humiliated in front of the entire school. Later, Charlie Brown practices for a school dance, hoping that he can impress the Little Red-Haired Girl with his moves. At the dance, Charlie Brown attracts praise for his skills until he accidentally causes a sprinkler to be set off, causing the dance to be cut short. The next day, Charlie Brown is partnered with the Little Red-Haired Girl to write a book report. When she is called away for a week to deal with a family illness, Charlie Brown decides to write the report alone, on the collegiate-level novel War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, to which he writes a comprehensive report. At the same time, Charlie Brown finds he is the only student to get a perfect score on a standardized test taken earlier that school year. His friends and the other students congratulate him, and his popularity begins to climb. However, when he goes to accept a medal at a school assembly, Charlie Brown learns that his test papers were accidentally mixed up with Peppermint Patty's, prompting him to reveal the mistake and decline the medal, thus becoming unpopular again. Subsequently, his book report is accidentally shredded by Linus' model Red Baron triplane, causing Charlie Brown and the Little Red-Haired Girl to fail the assignment and making the former give up on his attempts to improve himself. Meanwhile, Snoopy writes a novel about his World War I Flying Ace persona trying to save his girlfriend Fifi from the Red Baron with help from his bird friend Woodstock, using the key events and situations surrounding Charlie Brown as inspiration to develop his story. Snoopy, in the end, manages to defeat the Red Baron and save Fifi. On the last day of school, Charlie Brown is surprised when the Little Red-Haired Girl chooses him for a pen pal (as part of a school project during the summer). Linus encourages Charlie Brown to tell the Little Red-Haired Girl how he feels about her before she leaves for the summer. Working up his courage, Charlie Brown meets the Little Red-Haired Girl just as she is about to leave on the bus for summer camp and asks her why she has chosen him in spite of his previous failed attempts to try and impress her. The Little Red-Haired Girl explains to him that she admires his compassion, honesty, and bravery. This causes the other kids, including Lucy, to congratulate Charlie Brown, finally accepting him as a true friend. Linus's plane then falls in the pond, as it is defeated by Snoopy. ==Voice cast==

voiced Charlie Brown Credited • Noah Schnapp as Charlie Brown • Hadley Belle Miller as Lucy Describing the Little Red-Haired Girl, Capaldi says: "She's very nice and kind and has a great heart. She really does like Charlie Brown, but he has no idea, because he's shy and awkward." • Venus Omega Schultheis as Peppermint Patty • William "Alex" Wunsch as Shermy • Kristin Chenoweth as Fifi, Snoopy's love interest. Chenoweth created "a series of conversational-like sounds" to create Fifi's language, using Melendez's Snoopy recordings as a guide, and making his sounds more feminine. Chenoweth previously starred as Sally in a 1999 Broadway version of the Peanuts musical ''You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown'', for which she earned a Drama Desk Awards and a Tony Award. • Bill Melendez as Snoopy, Snoopy's Siblings and Woodstock (from archival recordings). Woodstock and his bird friends are part of Snoopy's Beagle Scouts, who serve as the World War I Flying Ace's (Snoopy's) repair crew. Uncredited • Chris Wedge as Scrat (Blue Sky Studios logo sequence only; unlike the Ice Age films where Wedge is credited.) ==Production==

Development presented the film in the work-in-progress session at the 2015 Annecy International Animated Film Festival. In 2006, six years after the release of the last original Peanuts strip, as well as the death of creator Charles M. Schulz, his son Craig Schulz came up with an idea for a new Peanuts film, which he showed to his screenwriter son Bryan Schulz. "I was happy to show my son," Craig said. "He showed me how to make it bigger—how to blow it up more—and he helped me put in structure." When presenting their film to studios, Craig stipulated that the film remain under Schulz control, saying, "We need[ed] to have absolute quality control and keep it under Dad's legacy... You can't bring people in from the outside and expect them to understand Peanuts." Craig, stating there is no one "more protective of the comic strip than myself," chose Martino as director because he showed faithfulness to literature in his adaptation of Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!. Additionally, despite being outdated technology, rotary phones and typewriters are seen, as well as Lucy's psychiatrist booth still costing a nickel. Adult characters' "wah-wah" voices are represented by a trombone with a plunger mute, as in previous Peanuts media, On January 8, 2013, Leigh Anne Brodsky became the managing director of Peanuts Worldwide and was set to control all the global deals for the film. In April 2013, Fox announced that the film would be released in 3D. In October 2013, it was announced that Paul Feig would also produce. By April 2015, 75% of the animation was complete, with some footage scheduled to debut at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. Animation Martino and his animators spent over a year looking at Charles M. Schulz's original drawing style to help translate the "hand-drawn warmth... into the cool pixel-precision of CGI" without the fear of something getting lost in translation, such as "how the dot of an eye [conveyed] joy or sorrow so efficiently". Music and soundtrack , the jazz musician who is best known for his own rendition of Vince Guaraldi's "Linus and Lucy", contributed to the score by Christophe Beck. Beck stated, "With the Peanuts movies, I grew up on those specials from the '60s and '70s, that, of course, rerun to this day. I'm very fond of all that Vince Guaraldi music, so what we did was try to find spots in the film where we could sort of touch down and remind people who were watching the film that it's still a Peanuts movie, and there's still a place for that music in the film. There's a bunch of spots where we quote the Guaraldi music, or we actually re-record his pieces quite faithfully." He also added that the score would be more orchestral than Guaraldi's previous scores, which were mainly a small jazz combo. Jazz pianist David Benoit contributed to Beck's score. On July 28, 2015, it was announced that Meghan Trainor would write and perform a song for the film, entitled "Better When I'm Dancin'". Epic Records released the soundtrack album on October 23, 2015. The 20-track album features Trainor's "Better When I'm Dancin", Flo Rida's "That's What I Like" featuring Fitz, "Linus and Lucy", "Skating" and "Christmas Time Is Here" by Vince Guaraldi, from the A Charlie Brown Christmas album, and 15 tracks of Beck's original score for the film. An exclusive edition of the soundtrack released at Target features a second Trainor track, "Good to Be Alive". The Japanese edition of the soundtrack includes "Good to Be Alive" and three more tracks from Beck's score. The Japan version of the movie also uses Japanese singer-songwriter Ayaka's "A Song For You" for the trailer and the ending instead of Trainor's, but it was released as a single and did not appear on the Japanese edition of the soundtrack album. ==Release==

Premiere and theatrical release The Peanuts Movie held its premiere in New York City on November 1, 2015, and was released on November 6, 2015, in the United States on 3,897 screens. The release commemorates the 65th anniversary of the comic strip and the 50th anniversary of the TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas. The film was originally scheduled for November 25, 2015, The film was released as Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie in the United Kingdom on December 21, 2015. The Australian release date was supposed to be December 21, 2015 but was postponed to January 8, 2016. Video game A video game based on the film, titled ''Snoopy's Grand Adventure'', was released on November 3, 2015, for Xbox 360, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, and published by Activision. Home media The Peanuts Movie was released on digital platforms on February 12, 2016, before being released on DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and 4K Ultra HD a month later on March 8, 2016. The film debuted at the top of the home media sales chart for the week ending on March 13, 2016. Streaming The Peanuts Movie was released on Disney+ on August 7, 2020, following The Walt Disney Company's acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019. It was removed on February 1, 2022, due to licensing contracts with HBO Max, but was re-added on October 7. The film switches back and forth between platforms every so often. ==Reception==

Box office The Peanuts Movie grossed $130.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $116 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $246.2 million. After three weekends, it opened to a total of 49 markets where it had the second biggest opening of 2015 in Mexico ($3.1 million) and debuted in the U.K., Ireland and Malta at No. 2 with $5.5 million (including previews) behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens. One of the final markets was Australia where the film opened on New Year's Day 2016, earning $2.6 million in its first week. Critical response The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported approval rating and an average rating of based on reviews, making it the highest-rated film produced by Blue Sky Studios. The site's consensus states: "The Peanuts Movie offers a colorful gateway into the world of its classic characters and a sweetly nostalgic – if relatively unambitious – treat for the adults who grew up with them." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100 based on 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". On CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. Peter Debruge of Variety gave similar sentiments, especially praising the animation of the film. Alonso Duralde of TheWrap felt the film made a nice transition to 3D, saying, while the film might not reach "the melancholy of earlier films... it nonetheless respects the importance of failure and disappointment that Schulz always included in his storytelling". He did, however, feel that Peanuts purists would take issue with a few things in the film, such as seeing and hearing so much of the Little Red-Haired Girl, who was always off-panel in the comic strips, and Peppermint Patty acknowledging that Snoopy is a dog and not a child with a big nose (even though, unbeknownst to him, Marcie told her that Snoopy was a beagle in the latter years of the strip). Pete Hammond from Deadline Hollywood admitted his trepidation about translating the characters from 2D to 3D, but enjoyed the film overall, only criticizing the amount of fantasy sequences involving Snoopy. Brian Truitt of USA Today gave the film three out of four stars, proclaiming the film "is all about simplicity, and what the plot lacks in nuance and complexity is made up for with relatable characters whom people have spent a lifetime watching. The movie is a testament to Charlie Brown's place in pop culture and a showcase for a new generation bound to fall in love with its perennially insecure star". Neil Genzlinger from The New York Times named the film an NYT Critics' Pick, calling it "the most charming and the most daring experiment in human genetics ever conducted". However, he also showed concern for the modern children's audiences who may or may not only know the Peanuts gang from the holiday specials. Scott Mendelson from Forbes was more critical of the film, saying there was "nothing objectively wrong with The Peanuts Movie", but as he personally was not a fan of the Peanuts comic strip, that made him "anti-Charlie Brown", loathing each time Charlie Brown failed in the film. Joe McGovern from Entertainment Weekly was also not as receptive, giving the film a grade of C+, and criticizing the animation, stating, "Even if you assume that Schulz always wanted his frozen pond reflecting lustrous light and Snoopy frolicking in a lavish Hayao Miyazaki world, the animation steroids injected into the aesthetic here nonetheless shrivel the great melancholy that's so key to the comic's endurance". Vadim Rizov of Filmmaker Magazine criticized the film's unfaithfulness to the comic, saying "The Peanuts Movie celebrates well-known character quirks, but it completely trashes the spirit of the strip. An unavoidable necessity? I'm forced to conclude this is perhaps the case, but it's still infuriating." Christy Lemire of Rogerebert.com gave the film a mixed-to-positive review, praising its "immersive authenticity" and "warm-hearted humor" but finding the narrative to be a simple "series of vignettes" that settles into a lull. Nancy Churnin of The Dallas Morning News gave the film a positive review, calling it a "terrific" translation of the source material that successfully interweaves Charlie Brown's moral quest with Snoopy’s aerial fantasy sequences. The Associated Process, writing for The Denver Post, also gave the film a positive review, lauding it for its "sophisticated animation" and a "wholesome appeal" and noting its success in balancing a "real world" story of childhood hurdles with Snoopy’s "high-flying adventure." Nick Schager of IndieWire gave the film a "B" rating, describing it as a "respectful and intermittently funny" tribute that successfully bridges the gap between old and new, though he noted that the narrative is primarily a "series of brief comedic vignettes" that interweaves Charlie Brown's path to confidence with Snoopy's "fanciful quest" against the Red Baron. Matt Greene and Cole Schneider of the Panama City News Herald gave the film contrasting reviews; Greene called it a "truly funny all-ages romp," while Schneider argued that while the plot "remains a slice-of-life," the film's tone was "too happy" compared to the original comic. Sandie Angulo Chen of The Washington Post gave the film a positive review, calling it a "sweet little gift" that masterfully captures the spirit of the original characters while balancing grounded themes of youthful angst with Snoopy's imaginary "Flying Ace" flight scenes. Accolades, awards and nominations ==Future==

Although The Peanuts Movie was considered a success, and Fox was reportedly interested in making a sequel and turning The Peanuts Movie into a franchise, the company was only granted the rights to one Peanuts film. Schulz's widow, Jean, indicated in November 2015 that a sequel was not imminent, stating, "This one took eight years, so maybe we'll talk again then." Blue Sky Studios shut down in 2021, meaning they would not produce a sequel. In August 2023, Craig, Schulz's son and co-producer of the film, stated that another theatrical film was not "off the table". In November 2023, it was announced that a new Peanuts film was officially in development. The plot would revolve around Charlie Brown and his friends on an adventure to the Big City. While not a sequel to The Peanuts Movie, Steve Martino returned to direct, with a script by Karey Kirkpatrick from an original story by Craig Schulz, Bryan Schulz and Cornelius Uliano; while Bonnie Arnold was set to serve as producer. The film, titled Snoopy Unleashed, will be a joint-venture production between WildBrain Studios and Peanuts Worldwide and will be released exclusively on Apple TV. ==See also==