Let's be fair here, you can't really blame me for having negative expectations for a 2015 CGI-based Peanuts movie from the go. The franchise having been handled by, shall we say, less than ambitious franchise-handlers for decades and now being given to the third-rate sequel-spewing Dreamworks wannabes Blue Sky Studios? I couldn't stand it. The Head Beagle must have been sleeping on the job, or worse, had his job outsourced to the Chinese. After disconcerting reports about "meme-laden" trailers from associates of mine I wouldn't even give them that chance to shatter my belief in humanity like a tree shatters a kite.
Anyway, one random day (the Sky was Blue that day so it was fate I guess LOL #SerendippityDoo) was at the library to get stuff. The Peanuts Movie was there on the front shelf, and it was free to borrow since the library was a library and library stuff is free at the library, and I figured it couldn't be worse than Linus rollerblading for fifteen minutes so I figured what the hey. I'm a magnanahieronymous kind of guy.
...From the moment I heard the unexpected strains of Vince Guaraldi's music open the movie, my armor of cynicism came flying off faster than CB's clothes after a line drive. My low level of expectations was exceeded to the point it looked like an ant from my new sky-high vantage point of uplifting movie awesomeness. The characters were on point, the CGI conversion had lost none of the Schulz charm, and it just took me back to when I was a kid (when I ironically wasn't watching Peanuts because I was busy watching A Goofy Fucking Movie fifteen times in a day) just having fun watching a Big Damn Movie. You couldn't have forced the smile I wore for its entire runtime If you'd stabbed me in the nutsack with a weaponized marshmallow. And that's disregarding the fact that marshmallows make for terrible shivs.
Granted, it's still marred a fair bit by the seemingly requisite rapid-fire pace of everything; a symptom of contemporary animated films in its vein having fear of being perceived as "boring" and "slow." Guys, motocross cars move at a more leisurely pace than this. I could have also done without what's-her-face... the "All About That Micropterus" lady. Can't stand people waving their piscaphilia in my face. But these are all concessions that can be made if the movie itself is good. ...which it is, if you hadn't caught onto that already.
It's a love letter to everything Peanuts, and with its uncharacteristically upbeat tone, offers a kind of alternate universe resolution for the "longest-running story ever told by a single person" (and now these guys, I guess). Long-term fans and newcomers alike should walk away satisfied and then some.
You're a good movie, The Peanuts Movie!
Let's be fair here, you can't really blame me for having negative expectations for a 2015 CGI-based Peanuts movie from the go. The franchise having been handled by, shall we say, less than ambitious franchise-handlers for decades and now being given to the third-rate sequel-spewing Dreamworks wannabes Blue Sky Studios? I couldn't stand it. The Head Beagle must have been sleeping on the job, or worse, had his job outsourced to the Chinese. After disconcerting reports about "meme-laden" trailers from associates of mine I wouldn't even give them that chance to shatter my belief in humanity like a tree shatters a kite.
Anyway, one random day (the Sky was Blue that day so it was fate I guess LOL #SerendippityDoo) was at the library to get stuff. The Peanuts Movie was there on the front shelf, and it was free to borrow since the library was a library and library stuff is free at the library, and I figured it couldn't be worse than Linus rollerblading for fifteen minutes so I figured what the hey. I'm a magnanahieronymous kind of guy.
...From the moment I heard the unexpected strains of Vince Guaraldi's music open the movie, my armor of cynicism came flying off faster than CB's clothes after a line drive. My low level of expectations was exceeded to the point it looked like an ant from my new sky-high vantage point of uplifting movie awesomeness. The characters were on point, the CGI conversion had lost none of the Schulz charm, and it just took me back to when I was a kid (when I ironically wasn't watching Peanuts because I was busy watching A Goofy Fucking Movie fifteen times in a day) just having fun watching a Big Damn Movie. You couldn't have forced the smile I wore for its entire runtime If you'd stabbed me in the nutsack with a weaponized marshmallow. And that's disregarding the fact that marshmallows make for terrible shivs.
...Point is, s'was, s'was good is what I'm sayin'.
Granted, it's still marred a fair bit by the seemingly requisite rapid-fire pace of everything; a symptom of contemporary animated films in its vein having fear of being perceived as "boring" and "slow." Guys, motocross cars move at a more leisurely pace than this. I could have also done without what's-her-face... the "All About That Micropterus" lady. Can't stand people waving their piscaphilia in my face. But these are all concessions that can be made if the movie itself is good. ...which it is, if you hadn't caught onto that already.
It's a love letter to everything Peanuts, and with its uncharacteristically upbeat tone, offers a kind of alternate universe resolution for the "longest-running story ever told by a single person" (and now these guys, I guess). Long-term fans and newcomers alike should walk away satisfied and then some.
...Unless you're even more of blasé douchebag than I, in which case, may the Great Pumpkin have mercy on your soul. I jest, of course. You obviously don't have one!