Movie Review: The Peanuts Movie *Spoiler Free*

Movie Review: The Peanuts Movie Spoiler Free

If you're a fan of Charlie Brown and Snoopy then The Peanuts Movie should not disappoint. This new 3D incarnation of Charles Schulz famous characters looks both fresh and modern but also feels as if Charles himself still drew at least half of it by hand himself.

A large part of that is the film makers paying a lot of attention to how Charles actually drew his characters and incorporating those details into the CGI animation - such as eyes being on the same side of the head from certain angles when, technically they shouldn't be.

I was excited to see this movie for the animation style alone which is quite unique. In that respect it delivers in spades. If they intend to make more Peanuts films then this style is great. Much more cinematic than previous Peanuts films and, I think, preferable to any attempts at creating any full live action films of the characters.

Personally I feel the story let the movie down a little. Where the animation breaks new ground the story plays it safe with recreating classic moments from the Peanuts strips whilst using longer running themes for the story arc. Specifically Charlie Brown's infatuation with the little red haired girl (who I think is never named in the strips?) and Snoopy's World War I flying ace persona.

Which is not to say the movie was bad in any way, I just felt it could have strived for something a little bigger. I don't want to spoil the movie so all I'll say is the ending didn't really have the impact I'd hoped for to make the story memorable to me.

You'll have a great time and you'll be entertained. That's really all this film strives to do. It's kind of like a Peanuts version of Star Wars, Episode VII. It's a movie for the fans to get back on board and it'll probably attract a few new fans too. Story-wise, it plays it safe for now so that next time maybe they can do something a bit more original and bigger... well I hope so anyway.

The Peanuts Gang would be well suited to a Bad News Bears kind of story. The cinema screen isn't a three panel comic strip. Would be great to really give Charles' characters something more to do than just recreate iconic moments.

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