calvinnme
Sometimes the Peanuts cartoons can be a little corny, but I really liked this one. It was actually a little sad, even for Charlie Brown. Poor guy, why can't he ever win anything? In this particular film, Charlie Brown feels like a loser because he can't get his kite to fly, he can't play baseball and can't seem to do anything right. Of course, people like Lucy, Violet and Patty (not to be confused with Peppermint Patty) have to make sure he knows how much of a loser he is, even going as far as to sing a song called "Failure Face" to him. There is another scene of Charlie Brown visiting Lucy for psychiatric help and she reiterates how much of a loser he is. She even shows him a slide show she made to pinpoint every moment that Charlie is a failure. In an attempt to overcome his inferiority complex and to prove to the other kids that he's not a loser, Charlie Brown decides to enter the school spelling bee. He ends up doing really well wins the school bee (Yay for Charlie Brown!). He is sent to a bigger spelling bee (I'm assuming he's either in a state spelling bee or perhaps a city wide spelling bee?), via the bus and even stays in a hotel. He runs himself ragged trying to study. Linus had given Charlie Brown his blanket as a good luck charm for the bee and then has a nervous breakdown being without the blanket. Snoopy and Linus ride the bus to find Charlie Brown and retrieve Linus' blanket.There are of course some funny Snoopy scenes: Snoopy plays "The Star Spangled Banner" on a record player to start of the baseball game and later he has a funny ice skating/ice hockey scene. Snoopy also plays the jaw harp to help Charlie Brown write a song to learn all the basic spelling rules ('i' before 'e' except after 'c'). This film had all the delightful trademarks of a 1960s film: montages, bright colors, Simon & Garfunkle-esque maudlin sounding music. It was really fun. One thing that made me laugh was that one of Charlie Brown's words in the spelling bee was "fussbudget." This film also brought up all kinds of questions that I suppose I should ignore, because it's a cartoon and it's Peanuts:-Why is Charlie Brown, an 8 year old, riding a bus alone to the city and staying in a hotel room alone? -Why is Linus riding the bus (kind of alone) accompanied by a dog to the city to find Charlie Brown? -Why aren't any of the Spelling Bee participants' parents in the audience? The audience is entirely children. -How does Snoopy have such a long extension cord to reach all the way from his doghouse to the baseball field to play his record player? -Snoopy's doghouse has electricity?-How does Snoopy's back not hurt sleeping on the top of his doghouse?Oh well, I guess it's just best to lose yourself in Peanuts' world full of whimsy and absent of all parental supervision.
mrturk182
With only one day until The Peanuts Movie comes out, I'm writing about the first big- screen adventure the Peanuts gang took for today's review: the 1969 animated feature, A Boy Named Charlie Brown. This is where the unfortunate characteristics of our hopeless protagonist, Charlie Brown, are on full display. The beginning features every unlucky situation he's ever used to. He can't fly a kite, he can't win a baseball game, and he can't kick a football. The one person that loves to mock him of his shortcomings, Lucy Van Pelt, suggests that he not necessary suffers from a lack of luck, but rather from a lack of confidence. Taking her advice into consideration, he ends up winning a class spelling bee, and the next thing he knows, he's traveling to New York to compete in a national spelling bee. The wonderful thing about Charlie Brown is that he resembles a lot of hopeless people with a lack of confidence out there, and I've definitely been in these similar situations many times. This makes A Boy Named Charlie Brown that more special, because on top of its colorful animation, funny writing, original sound effects, and charming soundtrack, its story aims to make our hero relatable to as many of us as possible and provide a little hope for us in the most downer situations.
PeachHamBeach
Yep, that's what I said: this cartoon feature-length film featuring the beloved "Peanuts" gang is, like the comics of Schulz, a very realistic and intimate look inside the human psyche, not just of Charlie Brown, but of the Van Pelt kids.Charlie Brown believes he's a complete loser. Albeit, 6-8 year olds may not usually consciously form such a concise opinion of themselves, but, like the comic strip, Charlie Brown's voice is not only that of a perceptive adult, but of the inner child left behind. I don't know why people believe childhood is such a wonderful time. It SHOULD be. By rights, it ought to be our most precious, sacred, worry-free time, and adulthood ought to be the bummer. But in reality, childhood, when adults tower over you controlling your life and people your own size pick mercilessly at you for being the least bit different, is a time we look forward to leaving behind us, but unfortunately drag along with us for the rest of our days. I am now in my late 30s, and stressful career and all, health problems and all, I'll gladly move forward. I'd never revisit childhood, not for a million dollars! Charlie's kite won't fly right, his baseball team is on a 99 game losing streak, and he can't even get his toy boat to sail in the bathtub. He feels miserable, unwanted and depressed. He seeks out the advice of wanna-be psychiatrist Lucy, all the while knowing that Miss Van Pelt is one of his biggest antagonists. She eagerly points out everything wrong with him and how hopelessly dumb and worthless he is, which is what abusive people do when they, deep down, hate themselves worse than they could ever hate you, but need to use you to build up their own meager self esteem. The one trait that spells doom for Charlie every time is his own admission that he believes himself a failure. That only makes Lucy and the other mean girls Violet and Patty, feel more powerful.Desperately seeking self-worth, Charlie Brown decides to try out for the school spelling bee. First he wins against his home classmates, then he wins Spelling Champion of his school. Is this not a victory? Indeed it is, but instead of finding that self worth, and basking in the victory, Charlie dreads his next task, the National Elimination spelling bee in the big city. He berates himself for "getting himself into this mess," and not only makes himself sick with stress and worry, but exhausts himself studying all night before the competition, refusing even to take a nap, fearful that he will let the kids back home down if he doesn't use every minute for study. So it's no wonder he misspells a simple word like "beagle".Second place, 1st runner up, the last to be eliminated. Do these things spell "loser"? You would think not, but naturally, poor lovable self-doubting Charlie Brown thinks its worse than if he had just been beaten earlier, or had never even made it out of his school contests. He took a risk, put himself out there, tried something out, and the results were not what he wanted. Now he feels like a failure as usual and is afraid to ever do anything again, because the humiliation he feels is unbearable.The one "peanut" who seems to genuinely route for Charlie, without any selfish motives, is Linus. If Charlie would open his eyes, he would see that he has at least one true friend in the world, someone who believes in him and doesn't think of him as a total loser just because he didn't win first in the national bee. He even gave Charlie his beloved security blanket for good luck. Somehow, he coaxes Charlie Brown out of his shell of fear and humiliation.The ending is realistic. Things seem not to have changed much since the spelling bee. Snoopy and Linus are still Charlie's closest frients, Lucy is the same ol' conniving meanie yanking the ball away just as Charlie is about to kick it.But Charlie IS changed. Even though he didn't win first place, he has returned home someone new, someone who takes risks and tries new things and works very hard toward a goal, and even though you'll never hear Lucy and the mean girls admit it, this is his victory.Deep down, at some point in our lives, "we're all a boy named Charlie Brown."
