It took Hollywood years and years of convincing the Schulz family to turn the beloved Peanuts cartoon strip into a film. Now that The Peanuts Movie has arrived, it’s a moment of a small celebration for two reasons – firstly because fans finally get to see their favourite comics on screen, and secondly because the film is genuinely very good. The film immediately introduces us to the world of Peanuts - a suburban neighborhood where a kid named Charlie Brown (Noah Schnapp) constantly fumbles his way towards becoming a baseball pitcher. There’s also his kid sister Sally (Mariel Sheets), her buddy Linus (Alex Garfin), and his sister Lucy (Hadley Miller) who has a bone to pick with Brown. She also kind of digs Schroeder (Noah Johnson) a piano expert. On the other side there’s Patty (Venus Schultheis), her pal Marcie (Rebecca Bloom), and the Red Haired Girl (Francesca Capaldi) who has recently moved next door. Snoopy (Bill Melendez), the pet dog of Charlie is miffed about his shyness to talk to the Red Haired Girl, and the dog himself has a thing for the poodle Fifi (Kristin Chenoweth). [caption id=“attachment_2542118” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The Peanuts Movie. Screengrab[/caption] As these colorful characters bounce and collide into one another as the film progresses from winter to summer – making it an absolutely breezy watch. The best thing about the film is how delightfully old fashioned it feels compared to the snazzy, pop-culture fused animation films of today. It doesn’t match the visual grandeur or the emotional punch of some of Pixar’s films, but it does have very lovable characters and really fun moments. Surprisingly, the film also contains a hefty statement on children trying to identify themselves in a chaotic world. Director Steve Martino, who earlier made Horton Hears a Who knows how to keep the balance between servicing fans of the cartoon strip and getting newer audiences to become familiar and ultimately fall in love with the characters in the Peanuts world. The icky sweet coyness of Charlie when it comes to talking to the Red Haired Girl is minded for laughs and also a heartwarming launch pad for a budding romance between the two. Most of the big laughs are courtesy of Snoopy who tries his best to get Charlie to speak to the girl while he himself goes over the top in his attempts to impress Fifi. There’s enough slapstick to get kids into fits of laughter, and there’s smart enough writing to plaster a smile on the adults’ faces. The biggest challenge of transferring a comic into a movie is giving voices to the character, because every person hears a different voice reading comics. So it’s quite amazing that the voice acting in this film actually feels just right for the film. It’s also commendable how faithful the film remains to the source material – and newcomers finding the material funny is only a testament to the timelessness of Schulz’s work. In a world full of unwanted sequels, The Peanuts Movie makes you yearn for more movies of its universe. A lot of present adults grew up in the world of Peanuts, it’s about time the torch was handed over to the today’s kids.
The Peanuts Movie is a moment of a small celebration for two reasons – firstly because fans finally get to see their favourite comics on screen, and secondly because the film is genuinely very good.
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Written by Mihir Fadnavis
Mihir Fadnavis is a film critic and certified movie geek who has consumed more movies than meals. He blogs at http://mihirfadnavis.blogspot.in. see more