Did catch it last night, and it's a very well done experiment. I call it that because it's kind of a reboot of the whole thing with the little red haired girl's first intro and they obviously want to do more of these. The humor is present thanks to Schulz's progeny writing it, but it's a lot of callbacks to classic gags from the comics and cartoons. Noah Schnapp who played C.B. deserves some kind of award for getting eerily close to how the character sounded in the 60s specials though. Fun fact: he played the son in Bridge of Spies.
Did catch it last night, and it's a very well done experiment. I call it that because it's kind of a reboot of the whole thing with the little red haired girl's first intro and they obviously want to do more of these. The humor is present thanks to Schulz's progeny writing it, but it's a lot of callbacks to classic gags from the comics and cartoons.
Loved it. Simple plot and simple ideas, but some fairly good exploration of childhood/adult themes within that. It was a LOT funnier than I expected. Snoopy and Woodstock stole the show and then some.
Took my nephews to see this yesterday. They loved it (they're 7 and 3). I thought it was adorable - very faithful to the comic strip, and funny as well. Nephews are totally into Peanuts now, we're having fun introducing them to the books and TV specials.
To quote Patton Oswalt, "What kind of a psychotic *******...?"
I haven't ready many reviews for this, but I don't think this reviewer quite got it. The movie is not about Charlie Brown trying to win over a girl's affections. That's all very much surface. The movie is about Charlie Brown, who wants people to like him, learning to have confidence in his good qualities. The movie is full of Charlie Brown doubting himself, picking himself up with positive thoughts, and appearing to stumble and fail, when in fact, he is learning something new about himself or others and displaying good character. Is it realistic that he's ultimately rewarded for that? Maybe not, but it's not like Charlie is just a sadsack all the time and then happens to be rewarded for it. He's actually kind of positive about things even when he's doubting himself; things just don't go his way. But that's life. He isn't always just "Woe is me". He's "I don't know about this, but I think I can because of this or that". I found it a refreshing portrayal of the character.
Honestly, the one weak point for me was the complete lack of devleopment for most supporting characters. We learned very little about Linus, Lucy, Sally, etc beyond their classic "gags" and "catchphrases".
So obviously with this being a decent success, maybe Blue Sky could try making more GOOD movies for a change? NOPE! They're going right back to making ******** next year with Ice Age 5: Now There's Aliens and ****!
This is getting ridiculous! This company have proven with Ice Age 1 AND Peanuts that they CAN make good movies when they have the right people in charge; they just don't wanna put effort into their other work most of the time! And to perfectly describe this company's mindset right now, I'll let this meme from Phelous sum it up:
So obviously with this being a decent success, maybe Blue Sky could try making more GOOD movies for a change? NOPE! They're going right back to making ******** next year with Ice Age 5: Now There's Aliens and ****!
This is getting ridiculous! This company have proven with Ice Age 1 AND Peanuts that they CAN make good movies when they have the right people in charge; they just don't wanna put effort into their other work most of the time! And to perfectly describe this company's mindset right now, I'll let this meme from Phelous sum it up:
The first seed for The Peanuts Movie, which debuted to a strong $44.3 million debut this past weekend, was unknowingly planted seven years ago with a little CG reel that will never see the light of day.
John Cohen, working for Fox Animation in 2008, reached out to Craig Schulz, the son of Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, about making an animated feature film based on the Charlie Brown comic strip. Of course, since the iconic cartoonist died in 2000, the family has been flooded with requests for a movie adaptation, but unanimously turned them down, worried that Schulzs legacy would be affected by a bad movie. Still, Schulz agreed to see the short film Cohen and Blue Sky Studios had made showing CG-animated versions of the iconic characters.
"The [Schulz] family didnt like it at all," says Schulz with a laugh. "They thought the animation was terrible and Snoopy was all wrong."
But Schulz was impressed with how Blue Sky had designed the backgrounds the snow, the trees, the clouds and the ice. "I saw how beautiful it could be if they could get the characters right," he says.
Schulz was working on a Peanuts TV movie at the time, but, after showing the script to his son Bryan Schulz and his screenwriting partner Cornelius Uliano, the three decided to write a feature instead. They showed it to the rest of the Schulz estate family, and got their blessing. Then, instead of shopping it around to studios, they went directly to Fox and Blue Sky. They brought the script to director Steve Martino, who had worked on that 2008 CG reel for Blue Sky, and had helmed Dr. Suess Horton Hears a Who! that same year.
"I saw how true he was to that brand and thought he could bring that to our movie," says Schulz.
By the time they were ready to present their script (then titled Snoopy vs. The Red Baron), Cohen had left Fox Animation, so the family spent two years negotiating with Fox Animation director of development Ralph Millero, setting up a unique deal that gave creative control to Craig Schulz.
"We felt we really needed somebody to be the gatekeeper on this movie," says Schulz, who produced the film along with his son. We wanted to be true to my dads legacy.
One of the main issues of negotiation was about staying true to the time and place of Peanuts, which ran from 1950 through 2000. The Schulz family did not want the story modernized the kids still use rotary telephones and Lucys therapy fee continues to be only a nickel.
"We were told that you have to have celebrity voices, you have to have hip-hop music you have to have this stuff to reach the new generation, but we kept fighting back to say if you have a good story with heart and emotion, people will love it," says Craig Schulz. "And I think thats been proven."
It did work, with the film doing strong business in its first weekend. But Schulz says there are no plans for a sequel: "We had this one movie," he says. "I'm 62 years old. I thought it would be great if in my lifetime I could see one really good Peanuts movie before somebody decides to buy the brand out and decides to make movies just to make money. For the Schulz family, everything we do is to honor my dad's work and the last thing on our want list is money. It's always about quality control and making the best things we can."
Cartoon Brew 11/17/2015: Rebooting Charlie Brown With ‘The Peanuts Movie’ Director Steve Martino With decades of cultural influence and capital beneath its hand-drawn belt, and the 50th anniversary of television’s foundational A Charlie Brown Christmas cartoon knocking at the door, Charles Schulz’s beloved Peanuts comic strip has nothing left to prove.
Scott Thill said:
However, the same cannot be said of The Peanuts Movie, Blue Sky Studios and director Steve Martino’s respectful, rewarding CGI feature. Endorsed and co-written by Schulz’s son and grandson, Craig and Bryan, The Peanuts Movie has become a critical and commercial success, as well as an Oscar entrant for best animated film of the year. Which is a quite refreshing result, considering how it could very well have come off instead like an existing property cash grab.
But this is not the case with Martino’s deft mixture of Schulz’s comic strips — whose 2D lines were literally extrapolated into 3D models manipulated by a team of animators — and the Bill Melendez-directed animatemd projects like A Charlie Brown Christmas and You’re in Love, Charlie Brown, which are heavily quoted in Blue Sky’s full-length revival. I spoke with the pleasantly surprised Martino (pictured above) by phone about The Peanuts Movie’s pressurized production, merging the worlds of 2D and 3D animation,
and why a Charlie Brown who is actually noticed and praised by the Little Red-Haired Girl who has captivated him isn’t much of a stretch
for Schulz old-schoolers and new adopters.
One change I did notice is that Schulz’s usual, for lack of a better term, cruelty was toned down.
Steve Martino: During conversations I had with Craig and Bryan Schulz, and the rest of our production and writing teams, we stood back and looked at Charlie Brown as a whole. After 50 years of comic strips, of course we remembered his tragicomic failures. But we also found strips with Charlie Brown and his sister, Sally, where she’s pestering him to write letters to Santa Claus or something else, where you could see his patience and kindness. Sure, Charlie Brown failed, a lot, but he also picked himself back up and tried again. So we decided to shine a light on all sides of him.
Charlie Brown had it rough in some of those strips and shows.
Steve Martino: Yeah, Charles Schulz always felt that failure was a lot funnier than success. But in particular, as we got to the end of our film, which is its heart, we wanted to show that Charlie Brown also had qualities that we often overlooked. And to me, this is why Schulz’s Peanuts still resonate today, when I see even my daughters strive to achieve, and hold themselves, to a barometer of success. Who is the best, who is the winner? Children today still feel that if they don’t achieve that status, then their lives aren’t successful. We still lose sight of the importance of how we interact with people, with kindness and honesty. Picking ourselves up after failures and trying again are the real qualities that make us winners. Charlie Brown allowed us to express that.
Blue Sky Brings 2D Sensibility to a 3D World for The Peanuts Movie
Animation supervisor Nick Bruno, art director Nash Dunnigan, lead color designer Vincent Nguyen, lighting supervisor Jeeyun Sung Chisolm and colorist Natasha Leonnet discuss the challenges of bringing Charles Shulzs iconic characters to life in the latest CG-animated feature from Blue Sky Studios.
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