This week, nostalgia reigns on the big screen as the Peanuts gang return to the big screen in ‘Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie’. This time out, Charlie Brown tries to work up the courage to overcome his flaws in order to talk to the new girl in his class; The Little Red Haired Girl, while Snoopy discovers a typewriter and, in writing an adventure story, gets swept up into his own imagination.
Here at Movies.ie, we are big fans of the Peanuts gang, so we have gathered together 10 facts about ‘Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie’ that you really should know.
1. Source Material
‘Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie’ is based on characters by Charles M. Schultz, who began life in a syndicated comic strip in US newspapers. The comic strip ran from 1950 until 2000, and this movie has been released to coincide with the 65th anniversary of the comic strip’s debut.
2. Firsts
Peanuts creator Charles M. Schultz died the day before the final strip of the comic was published in February 2000, and ‘Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie’ is not only the first Peanuts movie since his death, but also the first in 35 years.
3. True to the comic
Although ‘Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie’ is computer animated, various steps were taken with the animation to emulate the original look and feel of the comics and the previous animated specials. This was done to stay true to the low quality hand drawn animation that the Peanuts television specials were known and loved for.
4. Dedication
In an interview with The Washington Post, Director Steve Martino said he and the animation team spent over a year looking at Charles M. Schulz’s original drawing style to help translate the “hand-drawn warmth… into the cool pixel-precision of CGI” without the fear of something getting lost in translation, such as “how the dot of an eye [conveyed] joy or sorrow so efficiently”
5. Staying in the family
The script for ‘Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie’ created in 2006 by Charles M. Schulz’s son and grandson Craig Schulz and Bryan Schulz.
6. Director
Steve Martino was chosen as director because the Schulz family was impressed with his 2008 big screen adaptation of the Dr. Seuss novel ‘Horton Hears a Who!’.
7. In with the old
Since there are so many characters in the Peanuts world – over 50 were introduced throughout the comic strip and TV specials – this new film does not introduce any new characters, instead sticking with Charles M. Schultz’s originals.
8. Mining the past
As well as no new characters being brought in, the movie also features classic locations that fans will recognise, such as Charlie Brown’s skating pond, his house, “the wall” and Lucy’s psychiatrist booth, each retaining their look from the comic strip. As well as this, despite being outdated technology, rotary phones and typewriters are seen, as well as Lucy’s psychiatrist booth still costing a 5c.
9. Listen up, Charlie Brown
Adult characters in the film still have their classic “wah-wah” sound. These are made by a trombone with a plunger mute, as in previous Peanuts media, courtesy of New Orleans jazz musician Trombone Shorty.
10. When can I see ‘Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie’?
‘Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie’ is released in Irish cinemas on December 21st 2015
Watch the trailer below…