A.C.’s Review: My favorite comic strip of all time has finally been made into a movie with modern day computer animation. And to its credit that is the only modern thing about the movie. The film retains its look of an earlier time such as people using rotary phones and cell phones, game boys and any modern tech is not found in the film nor is it missed. Heaven forbid the children in the movie actually go outside to play with one another.
The
basic plot of the movie is a new kid moves to Charlie Brown’s neighborhood and
she is none other than the Little Red Haired girl. The filmmakers pay a small
homage to how in the comics she is never seen. Here we never really get a good
look at her face until near the end of the movie. Anyway a smitten Charlie
Brown must find a way to befriend this girl and spends the movie seeking ways
to do just that by impressing her. Charlie Brown being Charlie Brown of course
is going to struggle admirably.
Peppered
in throughout the movie are riffs on some of the strips creator Charles Schulz
did during the 50 years he did the strip and being a huge fan I was familiar
with them all. The movie was written by Schultz son and grandson so it has the
family pedigree behind it.
Less
successful are the “fantasy” sequences of Snoopy battling the Red Baron. While
visually striking they serve as a reminder to me as to how starting in
the 1970’s Snoopy basically “took over” the strip with stories about Charlie
Brown and the Peanuts giving away to just occasionally while most of the strip
focused on Snoopy, A few examples are strips being about Snoopy as Joe Cool,
Snoopy as a Scout Leader for Woodstock and his friends…etc. The focus shifted
away from Charlie Brown to the more merchandise friendly beagle.
But
I don’t want to end the review on that note…I actually want to praise it for
the simple reason it brought back many of the original characters. Violet,
Patty, Shermy and Frieda (she of the naturally curly hair) were phased out in
the mid-sixties as the unlikable Peppermint Patty and her bespectacled
“Lieutenant” Marcie were written into the strip and dominated quite a number of
strips (until they too took a back seat to the rise of Snoopy).
I
would gladly welcome a follow up to this movie.
Best
Scene: Charlie Brown struggles to read “War and Peace” in one weekend to write
a book report due on Monday. This was one of those items lifted from the
strips.
A.C.’s Rating: Matinee
Mike's Review: I agree with pretty much everything A.C. mentioned above except for a few things. I never knew how the whole Red Baron story line came about so it was interesting seeing how it all started with a rouge toy air plane flying around the school. As for it's part in the movie it was a tad dragged out and I saw it more as a filler to the movie trying to make it longer.
I did like the throw back stuff they did. All the little bits of the classic TV specials and seeing some of the original strips worked into the movie, I thought was a great way to showcase the overall feeling and life Charles Schulz brought to his cartoon strip.
My 6 year old daughter liked the movie and I was happy it was finally a cartoon where no one died and wasn't filled with non-stop action and violence. It was nice seeing my daughter actually enjoying a movie and not be sad because someone got hurt or killed. My nephew who is starting to read ended the movie on a really funny note. At the end of the movie there was a picture with Snoopy in his WWI flying ace gear and the line "Curse you Red Baron!" and my nephew saw it and said with all his might "Curse you Red BACON!" which left all of us and the surrounding movie goers in ear shot laughing out loud.
Best Scene: The little red head girl explaining why she likes Charlie Brown.
Mike's Rating: Worth the price of the ticket.
No comments:
Post a Comment