Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don't Come Back!!) is a 1980 animated film produced by United Feature Syndicate for Paramount Pictures, directed by Bill Meléndez, and the fourth and final in a series of movies based on the
Peanuts comic strip.
Plot
Charlie Brown's school has accepted two French exchange students and Linus and Charlie Brown will each be going over to France as foreign exchange students with Snoopy and Woodstock in tow along with Peppermint Patty and Marcie from their school. The same day, Charlie Brown gets a letter from France that Marcie reads as an invitation to stay at a Chateau-the Chateau du Mal Voisin-"The House of the Bad Neighbor".
Upon arriving in Europe, Snoopy breaks off from the group to have his own adventures at Wimbledon to do his John Mcenroe impression while the rest of the Peanuts do sightseeing before heading off to France.
Upon arriving in France, Marcie and Peppermint Patty stay at a farm with another school student and Charlie Brown and Linus continue to the Chateau where there are no lights on and no answer at the door and must stay outside. Food and blankets are snuck outside by Violette, the young girl who invited Charlie Brown and is defying her Uncle known as "The Baron" to be hospitable to Charlie Brown and Linus. Before long, Violette is able to explain her secret and The Baron even mellows his inhospitable attitude.
Tropes
- The Alleged Car: The Blue Citeron 2CV that the Peanuts gang gets isn't exactly a dreamboat.
- Apathetic Citizens: Snoopy abandons his guard duties immediately after Charlie Brown asks him to stand watch so he [Snoopy] can hang out at the cafe all night. He also overhears The Baron the next night threatening Charlie Brown and Linus, and he....still sits at the cafe.
- Possibly justified, assuming The Baron is actually speaking French and his dialogue is simply translated for our benefit, meaning that Snoopy hears him ranting and making a commotion but doesn't understand what he's saying.
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Charlie Brown does his best to order bread from a French bakery and it isn't meant to be offending. Marcie speaks French though many times in the movie.
- Bilingual Bonus: The insults Marcie hurls at the other drivers.
- Everyone Calls Him Barkeep: Violette's uncle is known only as "The Baron".
- The Faceless: The Baron, and he talks, which is rare for an adult in Charlie Brown's world.
- Foreign Exchange Student: The premise. Charlie Brown, Linus, Peppermint Patty, and Marcie go to France for two weeks as students. In the meantime Babette and Jacques come to the US to their school.
- French Jerk: The Baron.
- Gay Paree: Inverted; half the movie is in France but not Paris.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: Patty is talking about Pierre as they are saying goodbye, "Too bad I can't give the kid a tumble."
- Also Snoopy's hand gestures at the other drivers when the car gets rear-ended.
- Haunted House: The Chateau.
- It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: The opening of the movie.
- Mood Motif: Snoopy's many jukebox songs quickly change his moods.
- The Reveal: Violette tells Linus that Charlie Brown's Grandfather Silas stayed at the Chateau during World War II and fell in love with Violette's Grandmother. After Silas was sent home he wrote to her Grandmother and even after letters stopped coming, "she never forgot the charming American".
- Sequel: The 1983 TV special What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown? has the gang visiting WWI and WWII memorials on their way back to London from France. The special earned a Peabody Award.
- Theme Tune Cameo: Snoopy whistles the movie theme and even plays it on a jukebox in the cafe.
- Title Drop
- The Voiceless: Inverted, along with He Who Must Not Be Seen. Almost every adult in this film talks, is shown or both.
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