Review of The Peanuts Movie (2015) by Brett H — 12 Dec 2015

The long-awaited big screen return of Charles Schultz's beloved, Peanuts characters pays loving respect to its source material and honors his legacy, introducing Charlie Brown and Snoopy to a whole new generation of children after 35 years out of the spotlight! The biggest praise I can give this film is for the gorgeous 3D animation that is intentionally down-graded to look and feel like the style of the old cartoons and it works amazingly well for young and old viewers.

The gang is all represented well, though Snoopy definitely takes center-stage and he easily steals the film from Charlie Brown with his ridiculous antics and vivid imagination. The story is the weakest aspect which is basically broken down into 3, Charlie Brown episodes stitched together by his attempts to impress a new classmate/neighbor and at times feels disjointed.

Also included is the famous Red Baron sequences with Snoopy on his doghouse squaring off against the plane, though I feel they could've cut one of those scenes out as there's a bit too much focus on them.

That aside, this is a wonderfully fun and clean animated family film that doesn't modernize the material with pop songs and social media and it actually might remind kids that it's fun to play outside! There is a hilarious lack of adults portrayed in the film, even by Charlie Brown standards, but it's part of the fun watching these characters fend for themselves.