Review of The Peanuts Movie (2015) by Filipeneto — 17 Dec 2018

Anyone knows the "Peanuts", Charlie Brown and his dog, Snoopy. Even those who do not like comics have seen or know the drawings of the late Charles Schulz. Of course, I'm no exception and I can even say that, along with the Disney characters (Mickey, Donald Duck etc.), this was one of my first contacts with the comic book universe.

In this film, entirely in CGI, we can see all the characters of the comic strip, as Charlie Brown lives his first love and tries to catch the attention of his beloved doing something remarkable, and failing round with every attempt. The film ends well, of course, and it may be more appealing to adults who already know and love the characters than they do for more childish audiences, who will see and like it, but may not yet know the characters. For adults, and for connoisseurs, the film is enjoyable because it strictly respects the comic strip. The characters have not changed at all. They are as they should be, as Schulz imagined and designed them. Even the stroke and the color were respected, without any attempt to modernize or rethink the drawings. Something that we have not seen and that we miss, for example, in films like "Tintin: the Secret of the Licorne", of 2011, that raised so many expectations to gore them almost entirely next.

I had few expectations when I first started watching this movie. I thought I was going to be too childish, or that I was going to run over the legacy of the original creator. I'm glad I was wrong. Although not too adult to take away children, it is faithful enough to the original material to please everyone and also captivate the affection of adults.