The Peanuts Movie: A Blue Sky Production

Blue Sky Studios recently released a new teaser image for their upcoming CGI adaptation of Peanuts [1].

A very interesting art style to say the least. It has the same texture you might find on a computer generated character, but the animation itself is completely flat mimicking that of the original comics. Kind of reminds me of textured cut out animation.

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Looks kinda like a Hallmark card to me.

Interesting, though, yeah. I dunno, I'm not sure I like seeing a Peanuts production that has polished-looking animation, but hey, whatever, it's the style they're going with. I'm just wondering what in terms of plot they'd be doing.

Insert witty 'n clever quip here.

I dunno. To me, nothing can beat "Race For Your Life" but the animation looks uniquely promising. Kind of like how The Lego Movie surprised all of us, I'll try to keep an open mind.

Tomorrow they'll release a trailer for the film.

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>Blue Sky

lolfuckno

On my wave, passing oooooooon

Why not? People seemed to like Horton Hears A Who (I never saw it) and Rio was actually pretty good. I think they also did Ice Age, right? The first one wasn't too bad.

Point is, Blue Sky isn't a bad studio. And even still, if you feel they aren't up to snuff, plenty of lesser-quality studios hit surprise homers. Who ever thought The LEGO Movie would be as amazing as it was, for example?

Insert witty 'n clever quip here.

Wow, that CGI Look is actually a really cool look, and it does look pretty close to the Original Strip.

I'm impressed.

But this is Blue Sky Studios (Who've only made 3 Really Good Films and a lot of Mediocre ones). Let's see if Blue Sky can deliver a Good Story.

Excuse me, but what about Robots? Don't tell me I'm probably the only one who remembers that one, am I?

P.S. The art style looks really appealing. But hey, we've yet to see it in motion, right? I'll hold final judgments until we see the trailer or something.

@ Mattonymy: The trailer is coming tomorrow? Would you happen to have proof of that?

edited 18th Mar '14 7:06:54 AM by TargetmasterJoe

It does look nice in the vein of Yoshis Island. Of course the key point is the story because Peanuts has never really been about the visuals.

Well, that is certainly a balanced article.

This looks like a project worth paying attentions to. I'm kind of skeptical because of Blue Sky handling it (they have a very hit-or-miss track record) but who knows, this could turn out to be one of their hits. That art style looks a bit wierd though, it's got the same proportions and depth-lessness as the comic strip but rendered in detailed CG. Seeing this in motion is going to be interesting, to say the least. It being co-written by Shultz's grandson is a good sign, though, since that means they've got someone on staff who actually cares about the source material.

On a side note, the writer of that Cartoon Brew article in the OP is incredibly whiny. He's literally claiming that Peanuts is Ruined FOREVER because some big dumb corporation decided to make a movie out of it, thereby compromising its artistic integrity. Um, hello? Peanuts never had any artistic integrity. Charles Shultz was never hesitant to let corporations use his characters for advertising and merchandise. He even stated personally that there was nothing wrong with using your creations for corporate gain as long as you didn't prioritize it over making a good work.

Oh, and the Peanuts Christmas special that the CB writer brings up as an example of Doing It for the Art? It was sponsored by Coca-Cola and had product placement everywhere (Snoopy even crashes into a Coke machine at one point) until it was edited out for later releases.

The teaser trailer was actually posted in the other thread (we have two here in Western Animation) and it looks pretty good.

Trailer. The animation is very faithful to the comic strip's artstyle (as well as the animated specials) and looks stunning.

Also worth noting that two of the producers are descendents of Schultz (his son Craig, and his grandson Bryan), the former of whom seems pretty dead set on making sure the film will stay true to the source material.

edited 18th Mar '14 8:50:57 AM by Yeow95

has a clue, but it's usually not the correct one 0.55% of the time

trailer looks great. looking forward to the movie.

All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

The animation looks neat, but I've never been a huge Peanuts fan. But I'll keep an eye on it. My only problem with Blue Sky is that they really rely on sequels too much. With nine movies under their belt (counting Rio 2), there are only four original properties (five with Horton), with the rest being sequels. Hopefully they'll branch out starting with this.

I think Armid brings up a good question though, on how as this is coming out after Schulz's death if this is a project he would have necessarily worked on. I like to think that it might, considering that there were quite a few peanuts films in the past, but I don't know what his take on was on 3D.

Not quite sure what avenues they'll stretch out for a feature- perhaps it will be a series of stories like Pooh perhaps?

Also, I wasn't aware a separate thread already existed. I suppose it's only fair to close this one.

edited 18th Mar '14 9:09:04 AM by Mattonymy

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Hmmm. Guys, you do know we already have a thread for this (probably why I don't see a lot of activity on that thread)?

Also, here's the page.

As for Amid, I reiterate my view I always had of him. He doesn't like the Peanuts. Okay. Then, as the head of Cartoon Brew, he shouldn't act like a dick about it. It's 2014. His grand-children are the most suited to man this kind of film. Things changed. Get the H Ell f***** d*** sh** over it! Guh.

.... does Blue Sky Studios actually handle the script-writing??

edited 18th Mar '14 9:18:00 AM by kyun

Not sure about script writing- from the looks of it they're just overseeing the project while the rest of the Schulz family produces the film.

Also, do we have any Administrativia for thread duplication vs thread necromancy? I've seen this come up more than a few times before.

You are displaying abnormally high compulsions to over-analyze works of fiction and media. Diagnosis: TV Tropes Addiction.

Apparently, Bryan Schultz (Schultz's grandson) is writing the script. Or at least co-writing it. Amid being cartoonishly negative about a project he's never seen and doesn't really care anything about? No!

The only real complaint that springs to my mind is that there really doesn't seem to be much point in doing this as CGI. Except that these days CGI films automatically get a lot more attention, in the US anyhow, than 2d animated films. So maybe that's the reason right there. The animation technique certainly doesn't look like it'll detract from anything, or be unfaithful to Schultz's style.

Schultz had no problem with animated projects being made from his strip. He certainly put his stamp on enough of them, right? He probably just would have insisted on writing the thing, or picking out a writer himself. Let's wait and see the thing before we decide on whether Blue Sky and everyone involved should be put up against the wall and shot.

It's certainly an interesting development to say the least. It kind of reminds me of Disney's recent blend Get A Horse, where even though it used hand drawn animation and definitely harkened back to it, it was clearly overshadowed by the cgi of the short.

It's kind of like the directors are almost subtly saying "We know audiences are more interested in CGI at the moment, so even though we're going to make it look exactly like the original, we're too ashamed to have it be in 2D".

You are displaying abnormally high compulsions to over-analyze works of fiction and media. Diagnosis: TV Tropes Addiction.

can we please not bring up the "CGI vs. hand-drawn" civil war in this thread? it's getting old.

All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

I won't, but the look of the teaser kinda... ASKS for it...

we have a bajillion other threads more suitable for it. if you wanna bring it up, take it over there.

All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

My mom will probably eat this up next year, regardless of its quality.

I do remember that, though I didn't know it was a Blue Sky Production. I vaguely remember it being okay. It did at least have my one true love in it.

Insert witty 'n clever quip here.

So dare I ask why there are currently two active threads for this movie?