So I checked out Peanuts with every mom, dad, and child this weekend so I didn’t feel outnumbered at all! Basically this is the CGI version of the classic Peanuts characters and the most important thing to say is that the CGI doesn’t overwhelm the characters and doesn’t feel out of place. In fact, most of the extravagant CG is saved for Snoopy’s WWI flying ace scenarios which seems allowable. The kids and the neighborhood have a simpler look in line with our memories.
This movie is basically follows Charlie Brown as he tries to work up the nerve to talk to the Little Red Haired Girl (who has a face and, indeed, talks now) as well as Snoopy’s psychotic break as a WWI Flying Ace as he tries to save his girl beagle from the clutches of the Red Baron. The two storylines occasionally coincide.
One thing this movie, I will happily state, does not have are fart jokes. Nothing feels updated with modern, edgy humor (I’m looking at you Chipmunks movies with your poop jokes). In fact, so much of this feels old-fashioned that it was momentarily distracting to see a bouncy house at a local fair. No cell phones, no computers, etc.
In fact, the one complaint I have about this movie is that it’s so full of self-referential pop culture references to itself that it almost becomes a snake eating it’s own tail. You can play spot the reference… there’s their crazy dancing, now they are singing Christmas carols, now Snoopy is breaking into school, there’s Joe Cool and Peppermint Patty things he’s that weird looking kid, etc. There’s so many references to the old classic cartoons, it’s almost like they forgot to have their own movie.
But there is a story here and it’s fine, it’s sweet, it’s charming. That’s the whole movie and it nailed a G rating. And that’s fine. It’s be wrong if this movie managed a PG. That’d probably be fart and poop jokes and then we’d all run around with our hair caught on fire at the sacrilege.
I just wish the movie was shorter – Peanuts for 90 minutes ran too long for this old curmudgeon. I got a little bored which, frankly, I find the 30 minute specials a little long sometimes too. Not when I was 10, but later in life.
Now pardon me while I tell these kids to get off my lawn!
Score: 76