Movie Review: The Peanuts Movie

Steve Martino’s "The Peanuts Movie" will bring Snoopy and Charlie Brown’s gang to a new dimension. Literally.

Released last month with Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays on the line, the 92-minute CGI film portrays two romantic quests. In the human world, Charlie Brown (voiced by Noah Schnapp) falls in love with his new neighbor, the Little Red-Haired Girl (Francesca Angelucci Capaldi.) He will try to impress her in different ways—learning new dancing skills, writing a book review of Lev Tolstoi’s "War and Peace"—but will also fail miserably again and again. And again. When it seems that the “lovable loser” Charlie Brown will finally have his moment of glory—his schoolmates idolatrize him as they think that he got the perfect grade in a tough test—the kid with the most famous yellow shirt worldwide confesses that everything was just a mistake. But his perseverance, sweetness and honesty pay off at the end of the movie when the Little Red-Haired Girl makes a cute confession.

Despite following or referring to some famous Peanuts episodes, like the Halloween and Christmas TV specials, "The Peanuts Movie" does not display one of the most transcendental moments in Charlie Brown’s life—his first kiss with the Little Red-Haired Girl. This absence might be a hint for the plot of a potential Part 2 though. 

In the fantastic novelistic world of Snoopy—where the dog’s red house becomes a World War I plane and he is a war aviator—the beagle also falls in love with a poodle called Fifi. But his archenemy, the Red Baron, kidnaps her and Snoopy will look to rescue his darling. As it usually happens in the TV episodes, Charlie Brown’s pet steals the spotlight with his wit, braveness and sense of humor. That Martino tried to be faithful to Charles M. Schulz’s imagination is undeniable but as some film critics have pointed out, it remains to be seen whether future movies will adapt some references of the Peanuts universe to more contemporary audiences.

Two more things to consider if you are planning to leave the movie theater before the credits roll. Remember that running gag in which Lucy van Pelt tricks Charlie Brown with the football? Don’t miss the opportunity to see the alledgely most famous scene in the Peanuts world in 3-D. And if you want to know what happens with the Red Baron eventually, you might want to get through the four minutes of the ending credits.