The Peanuts Movie review: Just like Inside Out, this nostalgic animation film strikes a chord

For those of us who grew up on Charlie Brown comic strips The Peanuts Movie is a delightful trip down memory lane. Surprisingly the film’s transparency of thought and directness of execution are never a hurdle to its unconditional efficacy. The 3D animation film directed by Steve Martino (who earlier did up the delightfully cool-to-freezing atmospheric pleasures of Ice Age) is a disarming homage to the spirit of childhood adolescence. The film’s mood of laconic introspection reminds one of Richard Linklater’s outstanding coming-of-age drama Boyhood while the splashy colours and flashy frames echo Karan Johar’s Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, though the sexual undercurrents of Johar’s sprightly saga are dwindled down to a sexual innocence in the pre-pubescent world of Charlie Brown. [caption id=“attachment_2543840” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A still from The Peanuts Movie. Youtube screen grab.[/caption] Imagine if Rahul from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai was an endearing loser rather than a cocky quipster. Charlie Brown is a lovable bumbling creature of the suburbia battling underage angst with a kind of valiant vitality that instantly connects him to all of us who went through the fear of the rejection. And it’s not just about the new girl in town, simply called the Little Red-Haired Girl. (Imagine if Rani Mukherjee in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai was wholesome rather than sexy). It’s about the fear of being left behind in races that are both immediate and existential. The film’s dark subtext hovers enticingly over the supple sensuous surface never jumping out of its inner world to submerge the film’s blithe spirit. Beautifully fusing nostalgia and the teen-dream flavour from films like Grease, The Peanut Movie encapsulates the anxieties of its wobbly hero and makes sure that the message—namely, it’s okay to stumble, fall and create havoc as long as you can admit your shortcomings — gets across without delving into dynamics of sermonising. The narrative benefits immensely from Christophe Beck’s colourful camerawork which captures the spirit of the original comicbook characters of Charles Schulz. (Schulz’s two grandsons have written the film). As far the spirit of adolescent ambivalences go, The Peanut Movie ranks as high as Inside Out, the other remarkable animation film of the year. This week as the nation waits for the double explosion next week at the box-office, this animation fill will gently remind you that cinema without live actors is capable of being more evolved and sorted than Schulz had ever imagined when he first conceived of Charlie Brown, his friends and his faithful dog Snoopie. They are all here. Thankfully. To provide the comfort of the familiar and the joy of the known.