The Peanuts Movie

''The Peanuts Movie'' (known in some countries as ''Snoopy and Charlie Brown: A Peanuts Movie'') is a 2015 American computer-animated comedy film based on Charles M. Schulz's comic strip ''Peanuts'', produced by Blue Sky Studios and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It is the fifth full-length ''Peanuts'' film and the first in 35 years. The film is directed by Steve Martino from a screenplay by Craig and Bryan Schulz (Schulz's son and grandson, respectively), and Cornelius Uliano, and stars the voices of Noah Schnapp as Charlie Brown and, via archival recordings, Bill Melendez as Snoopy and Woodstock. The film sees Charlie Brown trying to improve his odds with the Little Red-Haired Girl, while Snoopy writes a book where he is a World War I Flying Ace trying to save his fellow pilot and love interest Fifi from the Red Baron and his flying circus.

Development of the film began in 2006, six years after the death of Charles Schulz and the final release of the last ''Peanuts'' comic strip. Craig Schulz, the son of Charles, pitched a film idea to his son, Bryan Schulz. Twentieth Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios announced development of a computer-animated film in October 2012, with Steve Martino directing, due to his faithfulness to the style of Dr. Seuss in the film, ''Horton Hears a Who!'' (2008), also produced by Blue Sky. Numerous elements from the comic strip were featured in the film, such as Charlie Brown's skating pond, his house, "the wall" and Lucy's psychiatrist booth, as well as the Snoopy and Woodstock voice tracks from Bill Melendez. The soundtrack was composed by Christophe Beck, with contributions by Meghan Trainor and David Benoit.

''The Peanuts Movie'' premiered in New York City on November 1, 2015, and was released in the United States five days later. It grossed $246 million worldwide against a $99 million budget to become the 7th highest-grossing animated film of 2015. The film was met with generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for the animation, voice acting, and faithfulness to the source material. It received nominations for the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Animated Feature, and was the first Blue Sky Studios film to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, but lost to ''Inside Out''.

Plot

When the Little Red-Haired Girl moves into the neighborhood, Charlie Brown becomes infatuated with her, though worries his long-running streak of failures will prevent her from noticing him. After Lucy tells him he should try being more confident, Charlie Brown decides to embark upon a series of new activities in hope of finding one that will get the Little Red-Haired Girl to notice him.

Helped by Snoopy and Woodstock, he performs a magic show act in the school's talent show; however, he is forced to drop his act in order to help his sister Sally with hers. Charlie Brown then signs up for the school dance and gets Snoopy to teach him. At the dance, Charlie Brown attracts praise for his skills, but he slips during his performance. This sets one of his shoes to hit the sprinkler, causing the dance to be cut short and the students to look down upon him once more.

Charlie Brown is partnered with the Little Red-Haired Girl to write a book report. When she is called away for a week to deal with a family illness, Charlie Brown decides to write the report alone, on the collegiate-level novel ''War and Peace'', to which he writes a comprehensive report. At the same time, Charlie Brown finds he is the only student to get a perfect score on a standardized test taken earlier that school year. His friends and the other students congratulate him, and his popularity begins to climb.

However, when he goes to accept a medal at a school assembly, he learns the test papers were accidentally mixed up, and that Peppermint Patty was actually the one who got the perfect score. Saddened that his sudden popularity was all for nothing, Charlie Brown reveals the mistake and declines the medal, thus becoming unpopular again. To make matters worse, his book report is accidentally shredded by Linus' model tri-plane, causing him to admit to the Little Red-Haired Girl that he has caused them both to fail the assignment.

Meanwhile, Snoopy writes a novel about his World War I Flying Ace persona trying to save Fifi from the Red Baron with help from Woodstock and his friends, using the key events and situations surrounding Charlie Brown as inspiration to develop his story. He acts out his adventure physically and coming across Charlie Brown and the gang several times along the way. Snoopy, in the end, manages to defeat the Red Baron by kamikaze and save Fifi.

Before leaving school for summer, Charlie Brown is surprised when the Little Red-Haired Girl chooses him for a pen pal. Linus convinces Charlie Brown he needs to tell the Little Red-Haired Girl how he feels about her before she leaves for the summer. Racing to her house, he discovers she is about to leave on a bus for summer camp. He tries to chase the bus but is prevented from reaching it. Just as he is about to give up, Charlie Brown sees a kite fall from the Kite-Eating Tree. The string becomes entangled around his waist and sails away with him. Amazed to see Charlie Brown flying a kite, his friends follow. Upon reaching the bus, Charlie Brown finally asks the Little Red-Haired Girl why she has chosen him in spite of his failures. The Little Red-Haired Girl explains she admires his selflessness and determination, calling him an honest, caring, and compassionate person. As a result, everyone congratulates Charlie Brown for his efforts, hard work, and for being a true friend.

In the first mid-credits scene, Lucy tries to convince Charlie Brown to kick the football once more. Charlie Brown is apprehensive, but Lucy tells him that she now understands that he is kind, compassionate, brave, and funny and that no one would pull a football away from someone with all of those qualities. Charlie Brown, convinced, agrees once more, only for Lucy to pull the football away and adds smugly that she forgot to say that he is gullible, causing Charlie Brown to smile. In the second mid-credits scene, Snoopy, Fifi, Woodstock, the Beagle Scouts, and Snoopy's siblings celebrate Snoopy's victory over the Red Baron with root beer, that is until the Red Baron shows up again and knocks Snoopy into the root beer causing him to shout "Curse you, Red Baron!" (via thought bubble). In the post-credits scene, Linus' model tri-plane finally sputters to a stop over the pond and falls straight in.

Cast

* Noah Schnapp as Charlie Brown
* Hadley Belle Miller as Lucy
* Mariel Sheets as Sally
* Alex Garfin as Linus
* Francesca Angelucci Capaldi as the Little Red-Haired Girl and Frieda. Describing the Little Red-Haired Girl, Capaldi says: "She's very nice and kind and has a great heart. She really does like Charlie Brown, but he has no idea, because he's shy and awkward."
* Venus Omega Schultheis as Peppermint Patty
* Rebecca Bloom as Marcie
* Marelik "Mar Mar" Walker as Franklin
* Noah Johnston as Schroeder
* Anastasia Bredikhina as Patty
* Madisyn Shipman as Violet
* AJ Tecce as Pig-Pen
* Micah Revelli as Little Kid
* William "Alex" Wunsch as Shermy
* Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews as Miss Othmar and the Little Red-Haired Girl's mother. Andrews' trombone provided their "wah-wah" voices, along with the voices for other adult characters in the film.
* Kristin Chenoweth as Fifi, Snoopy's love interest. Chenoweth created "a series of conversational-like sounds" to create Fifi's language, using Melendez's Snoopy recordings as a guide, and making his sounds more feminine.
* Bill Melendez as Snoopy and Woodstock (from archival recordings). Woodstock and his bird friends are part of Snoopy's Beagle Scouts, who serve as the World War I Flying Ace's (Snoopy's) repair crew.

Snoopy's siblings also appear during the end credits.

Production

Development

In 2006, six years after the release of the last original ''Peanuts'' strip, as well as the death of creator Charles M. Schulz, his son Craig Schulz came up with an idea for a new ''Peanuts'' film, which he showed to his screenwriter son Bryan Schulz. "I was happy to show my son," Craig said. "He showed me how to make it bigger—how to blow it up more—and he helped me put in structure." When presenting their film to studios, Craig stipulated that the film remain under Schulz control, saying, "We need dto have absolute quality control and keep it under Dad's legacy... You can't bring people in from the outside and expect them to understand ''Peanuts''." On October 9, 2012, it was announced that 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios were developing a 3D computer-animated feature film based on the strip, with Steve Martino directing from the screenplay by Craig Schulz, Bryan Schulz, and Cornelius Uliano. Craig, Bryan, and Uliano also produced. Craig, stating there is no one "more protective of the comic strip than myself," chose Martino as director because he showed faithfulness to literature in his adaptation of Dr. Seuss' ''Horton Hears a Who!''.

On the film's plot, Martino said: "Here's where I lean thematically. I want to go through this journey... Charlie Brown is that guy who, in the face of repeated failure, picks himself back up and tries again. That's no small task. I have kids who aspire to be something big and great... a star football player or on Broadway. I think what Charlie Brown is—what I hope to show in this film—is the everyday qualities of perseverance... to pick yourself back up with a positive attitude—that's every bit as heroic... as having a star on the Walk of Fame or being a star on Broadway. That's the tory'score. This is a feature film story that has a strong dramatic drive, and takes its core ideas from the strip." Martino and his animators 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 onveyedjoy or sorrow so efficiently". In addition to receiving the rights to use Bill Melendez's voice for Snoopy and Woodstock, Martino was also able to get the rights to archive music from previous ''Peanuts'' specials. Classic locations are featured, such as Charlie Brown's skating pond, his house, "the wall" and Lucy's psychiatrist booth, each retaining their "eternal look of the strip." Additionally, despite being outdated technology, rotary phones and typewriters are seen, as well as Lucy's psychiatrist booth still costing a nickel. Adult characters' "wah-wah" voices are represented by a trombone with a plunger mute, as in previous ''Peanuts'' media, courtesy of New Orleans

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