The Peanuts Movie facts for kids
Quick facts for kids The Peanuts Movie |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Steve Martino |
| Produced by |
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| Screenplay by |
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| Starring |
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| Music by | Christophe Beck |
| Cinematography | Renato Falcão |
| Editing by | Randy Trager |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | November 1, 2015 (New York City premiere) November 6, 2015 (United States) |
| Running time | 88 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $99 million |
| Money made | $246.2 million |
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 about the World War I Flying Ace as he imagines himself as a legend trying to save his love interest and fellow pilot Fifi from the Red Baron and his army.
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. While presenting the film idea, Bryan stated that he had full creative control on the film, so that the quality would remain under Charles' legacy. 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios announced development of a computer-animated film in October 2012, with Steve Martino directing, due to his faithfulness in the film, Horton Hears a Who!, 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, including original tracks from Vince Guaraldi.
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, with praise for the animation, voice acting, and faithfulness towards 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.
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. He tries participate in the school's talent show, helped by Snoopy and Woodstock, however he drops his act in order to help his sister Sally. Attempting to impress the Little Red-Haired Girl with his dance skills, Charlie Brown signs up for the school dance and gets Snoopy to teach him all his best moves. At the dance, Charlie Brown attracts praise for his skills, but slips and sets one of his shoes to set off the sprinkler system, causing the dance to be cut short and all the other 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. At the same time, Charlie Brown finds he is the only student to get a perfect score on a standardized test. 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 are accidentally mixed up and it actually belongs to Peppermint Patty; Charlie Brown reveals the mistake and declines the medal, losing all his newfound popularity. To make matters worse, his book report is destroyed by a Red Baron model plane, and he admits to the Little Red-Haired Girl he has caused them to both fail the assignment.
In a subplot, using a typewriter, Snoopy writes a novel about the World War I Flying Ace, trying to save Fifi from the Red Baron with Woodstock and his friends' help, using the key events and situations surrounding Charlie Brown as inspiration to develop his story. He acts out his adventure physically, coming across Charlie Brown and the gang several times along the way. Snoopy defeats the Red Baron and rescues Fifi from an airplane. When Lucy finishes reading, she calls it dumb, so Snoopy retaliates by licking her.
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 his determination, calling him honest, caring, and compassionate. The other children congratulate him as a true friend and lifts him up in the air.
Cast
- Noah Schnapp as Charlie Brown
- Alex Garfin as Linus
- Noah Johnston as Schroeder
- 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.
- Hadley Belle Miller as Lucy
- Micah Revelli as Little Kid
- Venus Omega Schultheis as Peppermint Patty
- Mariel Sheets as Sally
- Madisyn Shipman as Violet
- AJ Teece as Pig-Pen
- Marelik "Mar Mar" Walker as Franklin
- 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.
- Rebecca Bloom as Marcie
- Anastasia Bredikhina as Patty
- 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."
- 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.
Snoopy's siblings also appear during the end credits.
Music
In October 2014, it was announced that Christophe Beck would score the film. Beck stated, "With the Peanuts movies, I grew up on those specials from the '60s and '70s, that, of course, rerun to this day. I'm very fond of all that Vince Guaraldi music, so what we did was try to find spots in the film where we could sort of touch down and remind people who were watching the film that it's still a Peanuts movie, and there's still a place for that music in the film. There's a bunch of spots where we quote the Guaraldi music, or we actually re-record his pieces quite faithfully." He also added that the score would be more orchestral than Guaraldi's previous scores, which were mainly a small jazz combo. Jazz pianist David Benoit contributed to Beck's score.
On July 28, 2015, it was announced that Meghan Trainor would write and perform a song for the film, entitled "Better When I'm Dancin'". Epic Records released the soundtrack album on October 23, 2015. The 20-track album features Trainor's "Better When I'm Dancin", Flo Rida's "That's What I Like" featuring Fitz, "Linus and Lucy", "Skating" and "Christmas Time Is Here" by Vince Guaraldi, from the A Charlie Brown Christmas album, and 15 tracks of Beck's original score for the film. An exclusive edition of the soundtrack released at Target features a second Trainor track, "Good to Be Alive". The Japanese edition of the soundtrack includes "Good to Be Alive" and three more tracks from Beck's score. The Japan version of the movie also uses Japanese singer-songwriter Ayaka's "A Song For You" for the trailer and the ending instead of Trainor's, but it was released as a single and did not appeared on the Japanese edition of soundtrack album.
Video game
A video game based on the film, titled Snoopy's Grand Adventure, was released on November 3, 2015 for Xbox 360, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, and published by Activision.
Future
Although The Peanuts Movie has been described as a success and Fox was reportedly interested in making a sequel and turning The Peanuts Movie into a franchise, Fox only had the rights to make one Peanuts film. Schulz's widow, Jean, has indicated that a sequel is not imminent, stating, "This one took eight years, so maybe we'll talk again then."
See also
In Spanish: The Peanuts Movie para niños
