History WesternAnimation / ABoyNamedCharlieBrown

''A Boy Named Charlie Brown'' is a 1969 American animated film, the first ever feature film based on the ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' comic strip. It was directed by Bill Melendez and was produced by Lee Mendelson Films and the Creator/{{CBS}} network's film division, Cinema Center Films, for National General Corporation. This was also the final animated ''Peanuts'' production to feature Peter Robbins as the voice of Charlie Brown. (Robbins had voiced the character for all of the ''Peanuts'' television specials up to that point, starting with 1965's ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownChristmas''.)

* PantyShot: Frieda's panties are shown for a split second when she and all the other kids cheer for Charlie Brown winning the school's spelling bee.

* MistakesAreNotTheEndOfTheWorld: When Charlie gets second place in a spelling test because he misspelled "beagle", every positive thing he gained over the course of the movie is lost in a second. Linus bluntly reassures him that "the world didn't end" and that he's still got the rest of his life to live.

* SecondPlaceIsForLosers: Played ridiculously straight, even for this trope. Not only does everyone ignore that he got second place in the national spelling bee, they completely ignore that he won State!

* BetterByADifferentName: Since Bill Melendez had worked at [[Creator/ColumbiaCartoons UPA]] and brought a bunch of UPA animators with him when he started his own production company, and clearly took a lot of his style cues from UPA's early LimitedAnimation work, this can be thought of as the unofficial third UPA feature film (after ''[[WesternAnimation/MrMagoo 1001 Arabian Nights]]'' and ''WesternAnimation/GayPurree'').

This film is not to be confused with an unsold 1963 TV documentary about Charles Schulz and the strip, including the soundtrack album with music by Music/VinceGuaraldi that was originally titled ''Jazz Impressions about A Boy Named Charlie Brown'', but shortened to the name of the documentary.

* NotableOriginalMusic: Singer/songwriter/poet Rod [=McKuen=] contributed three original songs: "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" (which he also sang), "Failure Face", and "Champion Charlie Brown". He wrote a few more that didn't get used. And there was one other song, "I Before E (Except After C)." Averted with Vince Guaraldi's score; he didn't actually write any new music for the film, settling for fully orchestrated versions of his older ''Peanuts'' music.

** Everyone makes mistakes and fails sometimes, but it’s okay, because you’ve got your whole life ahead of you and it’s not the end of the world.
** You can never truly fail if you never stop trying.

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: Charlie's bus is one or two hours away from New York, indicating he lives somewhere in New Jersey, Connecticut, Long Island or somewhere around Yonkers or White Plains.

* BigApplesauce: Charlie Brown travels to New York City to compete in the National Spelling Bee.

* MediumBending: Snoopy plays hockey with silhouetted live-action hockey players.

* RougeAnglesOfSatin: Towards the end of the film, [[spoiler: Charlie Brown mispells "beagle" and "beagel", which looks similar to the word "bagel" when written out]].

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a_boy_named_charlie_brown_40.jpg]]

* EpicFail: The word that costs Charlie Brown the spelling bee championship? Beagle. As in, ‘’the breed that his dog Snoopy is!’’

** Charlie Brown is shown thrice getting subjected to the football trick onscreen. (The second time was on an instant replay.)

** Three times it looks like Snoopy's getting a glass of water for Linus, but instead Snoopy drink them each time.