"The Peanuts Movie" Review

The Peanuts Movie is a revisit to the world of the classic Charles Schulz comics following the adventures of Charlie Brown and the ensemble cast of kids that live in his town. The film, based on a number of the classic comics and presented in an episodic fashion, follows Charlie Brown's many attempts to impress the new kid in school, the Little Red-Haired Girl, through dancing, good grades, magic shows, anything. The story is paralleled by a fantasy story being played out by his dog Snoopy, who imagines himself as a legendary pilot on a desperate journey to win the heart of a female dog pilot. What follows from this are classic Peanuts shenanigans told with a lot of warmth and a beautiful, inventive 3D style of animation.

And I could really stop the review there. There's not a whole lot to unpack with this film, and I don't think anything otherwise would be the point. One of the only criticisms of this film that I've heard is that the story is pretty light, the stakes aren't very high, and it never reaches any truly lofty comedic, dramatic, or adventurous heights. But, in a way, doing anything else wouldn't be conducive to the sentiment of honoring the original Peanuts comics and TV specials. The Peanuts comics have always been simple stories of the lovable, luckless loser Charlie Brown and his feeble attempts to shed his rep of being a failure, and his low-key, unrealistically articulate interactions with his friends, and this film is a full celebration of that.

I was happily surprised to see how little, if any, modernization this film shoehorned into the Peanuts world. With the exception of a modern-sounding pop song by Meghan Trainor that comes in about halfway through the movie (which didn't bother me at all and I think actually works fairly well), this is Peanuts at its most cinematically untouched. Director Steve Martino, of whom I'm hearing that this movie was a passion project of sorts, must have had a very good grasp on the elements of the Peanuts comics that made them so charming in the past to leave their best elements unchanged. The dialogue (some of which are directly pulled from the comics and TV specials), character interactions, slapstick, humor, progression of the plot, and even the animation are not just homages to the best parts of classic Peanuts, but a full embracing of them.

On that note, I've been a fan of the art style of The Peanuts Movie since the first teaser trailer was released. It's computer animation, but featuring lines and framerates that mimic the crude two-dimensional animation styles of the original cartoons while adding an extra layer of believability to them by placing them within fully-realized three-dimensional worlds. And the 3D in this movie is actually worth the extra price. I saw this film in 3D almost on accident, but was very happy with how they utilized 3D's ability to accentuate depth of field in film, making the characters really pop and the environments feel real. The snowflake effects in particular were a joy to look at. Visually the film is great at marrying the feeling of classic 2D cartoon animation styles with modern 3D detail and technology.

Now, for those of you who have already looked below at my grade for this film (because if you're like me, you definitely have), you may be thinking it's pretty low considering my lack of complaints with the film. And there's good reason for you to think that - I think the film is a visual treat, is charming, and a perfect embodiment of the classic Peanuts comics and TV specials. But this is also one of those films where the sum of its parts isn't all that beguiling. I didn't come out of this movie jumping for joy or super excited to tell people to go out and see it, and I'll honestly probably never go out of my way to watch it again without a child present, but it's about as good as a cinematic adaptation of Peanuts could be, which is a very good thing.

Overall, this movie is not earth-shattering, groundbreaking entertainment. It's not particularly funny or insightful, and at its worst it's not even remotely boring or upsetting. But it is charming, beautifully animated, sweet fun for adults while being perfect for kids, and built with care for its characters, which is the very essence of the original Charles Schulz comics. Regardless of its actual quality as a film, if the goal of The Peanuts Movie was to celebrate the great work of Schulz, it pretty much nails it.

Grade: B+