Review of The Peanuts Movie (2015) by Dondiego O — 10 Dec 2015

Twentieth Century Fox Animation that brought us Ice Age and a short featuring Scrat in space as the opening act reintroduces the Peanuts gang in 3D. Throughout the years of Peanuts specials the cast has regularly been replaced to keep the voices sounding young.

The music at the school dance and the fact that Charlie Brown takes a bin of recycling out to the curb at his house are some of the few modern touches that I noticed. The characters don't suddenly use cell phones.

Snoopy writes his own hero story fighting the Red Baron of WWI. From his doghouse fighter-plane he must save the poodle Fifi (Kristin Chenoweth is the one celebrity attached to this project). Charlie Brown gets all flustered over his new crush, the Little Red-Haired Girl.

This movie is like Linus' comfy blanket. Pretty much every part of the story and the relationships between the characters have been done before. There is nothing new except the 3D animation. The point is that there are still universal themes that modern kids can identify with in Charles M.

Schulz's creation. Parents and grandparents get a throwback experience. From what I observed Thanksgiving week at the multiplex, kids were laughing and into it too.