The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Thread!

[minor muppetz]

Currently watching Snoopy Come Home on ABC Family, and just started wondering, was the scene where Charlie Brown tells Linus about how he first got Snoopy based on an existing strip? The same basic scene appears in Life's a Circus, Charlie Brown as well, so I'm willing to bet it is.

 

[D'Snowth]

Currently watching Snoopy Come Home on ABC Family, and just started wondering, was the scene where Charlie Brown tells Linus about how he first got Snoopy based on an existing strip? The same basic scene appears in Life's a Circus, Charlie Brown as well, so I'm willing to bet it is.

I'm not entirely sure, but I do believe in some cases, not all obviously, but some, the plots and premses used for like some ofthe movies, specials, shorts from the series and such were adapted from the strips.

I too was watching yesterday, and I was reminded of how much I love the Peanuts movies because Charles Schulz never tried to outdo himself or his art in them: so many animated movies that are based on smaller projects always try to outdo themselves and make them look so much bigger and better than what they were before, but the Peanuts movies have the exact same quality (animation-wise, story-wise, character-wise, etc) as the specials... it's almost like watching extended specials the quality is so identical, even down to the closing credits where people are credited for "Graphic Blandishment" instead of "Animation".

 

[minor muppetz]

I too was watching yesterday, and I was reminded of how much I love the Peanuts movies because Charles Schulz never tried to outdo himself or his art in them: so many animated movies that are based on smaller projects always try to outdo themselves and make them look so much bigger and better than what they were before, but the Peanuts movies have the exact same quality (animation-wise, story-wise, character-wise, etc) as the specials... it's almost like watching extended specials the quality is so identical, even down to the closing credits where people are credited for "Graphic Blandishment" instead of "Animation".

I feel like A Boy Named Charlie Brown (and maybe Snoopy Come Home) gave a little bit more effort. ABNCB seems to be very artsy, has a number of cool split-screen scenes, has that cool piano piece from Schroeder, and has the amazing skating scene with Snoopy.

Paw Dugam recently reviewed Snoopy Come Home as part of Music Movies at http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/teamt/paw/music-movies/33364-snoopy-come-home and mentioned that the movie was an experiment to make it more like Disney, by having the music done by the Sherman Brothers instead of Vince Gualdi and including singing from a few people who've sung in Disney productions. And I like the first two better than the later movies, which weren't musical and didn't have the same cool credits sequences as the first two (though it seems the movies included images of almost the entire staff in the credits).

Man, there's been behind-the-scenes books on A Charlie Brown Christmas and It's The Great Pumpkin, I wish the movies would get behind-the-scenes books.

I was watching A Charlie Brown Christmas, and I just now noticed that we never see how the Christmas play turns out or even see them rehearsing scenes. We'll never know if Charlie Brown was a good director!

 

[minor muppetz]

I was watching Be My Valentines, Charlie Brown this morning, and does anyone else think the ending with the girls giving Charlie Brown a late valentine is a little awkward?

In the scene, Violet, Lucy, Sally, and Frieda all give Charlie Brown a valentine, but Violet is the only one talking in the scene, and when Schroeder goes off at them, it looks like he's only directly talking to Violet. He points at Violet, Violet makes some facial reactions, and the others don't seem to react (they just seem to be there). I know it's based on a strip where only Violet gave Charlie Brown a late card, and it seems to be better that others are there (though I would have put in Patty instead of Sally), but it's still kind of odd.

It's also interesting that Violet is the one to do the talking. She was one of the meaner girls to Charlie Brown, and I don't think she was in the strip as much at that point (or was she?). And it is interesting how she seemed to have a big part in that special, interacting with Linus a few times about what to give a male teacher, and being concerned about whether Charlie Brown got a valentine. But it somehow seems it'd be better if Lucy was given the "Violet" role in that end scene, even though she was known to be meaner (or perhaps Pepperment Patty could have been the one to present a valentine).

 

[CensoredAlso]

In the scene, Violet, Lucy, Sally, and Frieda all give Charlie Brown a valentine, but Violet is the only one talking in the scene, and when Schroeder goes off at them, it looks like he's only directly talking to Violet. He points at Violet, Violet makes some facial reactions, and the others don't seem to react (they just seem to be there).

You can't always dissect animation too much because sometimes it's just a matter of they didn't draw reactions for them because they were on a budget.

Btw I LOVE how Schroeder puts Violet in her place.

 

[Drtooth]

It's also interesting that Violet is the one to do the talking. She was one of the meaner girls to Charlie Brown, and I don't think she was in the strip as much at that point (or was she?). And it is interesting how she seemed to have a big part in that special, interacting with Linus a few times about what to give a male teacher, and being concerned about whether Charlie Brown got a valentine. But it somehow seems it'd be better if Lucy was given the "Violet" role in that end scene, even though she was known to be meaner (or perhaps Pepperment Patty could have been the one to present a valentine).

Violet is WORSE than Lucy. She's that stuck up girl that REALLY REALLY hates Charlie Brown for no good reason. She's the one that uninvited Charlie Brown to the Halloween party. I mean, at least with Lucy, you can blame her anger and bossiness on some passive aggressive angst of not being able to get Shroeder... but Violet is just stuck up and mean outright, and I blame her (and Lucy, but mostly her) for why Charlie Brown's the pariah of the group. I shouldn't take it personally, but I was in a LOT of those situations.

That's why I like Peppermint Patty and Marcie. They clearly really like ol' Chuck on some level... sure, Patty's very aggressive and makes Chuck do things he doesn't want to... Marcie's relationship with Charlie is subtle, but there... like I always say, if you know where to look and look closely, you can see they're all but throwing themselves at him. I kinda like the Snoop Musical where PP sings Poor, Sweet Baby to him, and says, "It's not gonna happen" at the end. To me, that suggests either "You're never going to find someone like that, but I'm here" or "I love yah, but I'm no softy."

That said, I've started checking out the Kaboom series (though I don't think I'll kill myself to get it month after month like I do with some of my others), and it's pretty solid... but it seems to be pretty 60's retro. I've noticed a lot of new Snoopy and Peanuts merchandise to have that overall 1960's look to it. I really hope they start adding Peppermint Patty and Marcie to those stories. Chuck, Linus, and the two of them are my favorite humans.

And where's the love for Spike?

 

[minor muppetz]

Violet is WORSE than Lucy. She's that stuck up girl that REALLY REALLY hates Charlie Brown for no good reason. She's the one that uninvited Charlie Brown to the Halloween party. I mean, at least with Lucy, you can blame her anger and bossiness on some passive aggressive angst of not being able to get Shroeder... but Violet is just stuck up and mean outright, and I blame her (and Lucy, but mostly her) for why Charlie Brown's the pariah of the group. I shouldn't take it personally, but I was in a LOT of those situations.

I thought I read somewhere (and can't remember if it was a fan site or something said/written by Charles Schultz) that one reason Violet and Patty were written out was because they were doing things to Charlie Brown that Lucy could do on her own. I thought Lucy was meaner because of that.

I noticed an animation mistake at the end of Be My Valentine. After Charlie Brown takes his valentine card out of Violet's hand, another one is shown in the same hand. And I thought it was made clear that they only gave Charlie Brown one used valentine.

 

[Drtooth]

I thought I read somewhere (and can't remember if it was a fan site or something said/written by Charles Schultz) that one reason Violet and Patty were written out was because they were doing things to Charlie Brown that Lucy could do on her own. I thought Lucy was meaner because of that.

Yeah, like I said, with Lucy, she's got problems and she's nasty to everyone BUT Schroeder. Violet and Patty were just stuck up and trying hard to pull everyone apart by forming cliques. Plus, there's that total turn around where she becomes the inept comic relief on Charlie Brown's baseball team. Nice to see a role reversal, and having Charlie in the bossy role in those strips/cartoons.

Yeah, Lucy can do all those things those two did on their own, but in her own special way.

 

[muppet maniac]

I, too, am a fan of the Peanuts cartoons, but it wasn't until as recently as a few years ago that I got hooked on it again; until that point, I had not seen any of the animated specials and films since my early childhood (the ones I remember specifically are A Boy Named Charlie Brown, Snoopy Come Home, and You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown), and had no access to the comic strips. At that point, I could only name about 4 characters who weren't Snoopy or Woodstock. It wasn't until one night after a long day of work that I sat down to browse Youtube that I stumbled upon a clip of Snoopy laughing in the library (from Snoopy Come Home), and my reaction was that it felt like something got to me.........eventually I started looking at the other animated specials that were uploaded, and browsing the comic strips online and reading about Schulz and what he's done, that I felt a reconnection, it got to the point where I wanted to hug Snoopy so bad. In fact, I kicked myself for not noticing the Peanuts characters much during my last trip to Universal Studios Japan in 2005, but that's because Youtube didn't even exist yet.

Snoopy's my favorite character of all the characters in the Peanuts cartoons. Something about that dog - it's either his laugh, the way he dances, his eccentric personality, or all of the above. And maybe because I happen to be a dog lover as well.

I'm listening to The Royal Guardsmen's album "Snoopy and His Friends" on my Itunes right now.

 

[Drtooth]

Eh,... I think Boom's Peanuts comics are over. That's a shame.

And they JUST got Peppermint Patty into a storyline too.