DVDizzy Forum

My vote goes for Snoopy Come Home, with A Boy Named Charlie Brown at a close second.

Both movies demonstrate a high sense of creativity and boldness that are extremely rare in animated movies. Multiple use of colors and camera tricks were used to tell the story and enhance individual sequences for A Boy Named. It also had a progressively grand story that was not afraid to use a bittersweet ending. Snoopy Come Home featured more individual songs than many Disney features, and was generally a fun ride between the fun parts and the melancholy parts.

The music played a part in setting the overall tone of the two films, which changed when Vince Guraldi died in 1976.

Race for Your Life and Bon Voyage are much more serious in tone. Not nearly as much was used to enhance either the art or the storytelling, and as a result are much less interesting. I can only name one or two scenes from each films, all involving Snoopy that I genuinely enjoyed.

For me, Charlie Brown works best either in comic strip form or in half-hour tv specials. Most anything else feels too long sometimes, especially some of the hourlong tv specials. "I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown" feels especially padded out. However, I've always had a soft spot for Snoopy, Come Home, it's probably my favorite of the four feature films. I wish CBS/Paramount would release the other two Peanuts films on DVD. I still need to get A Boy Named Charlie Brown, actually.

albert

I think I've only seen Bon Voyage and Snoopy Come Home.

And I was an *avid* Peanuts fan.

I watched Snoopy Come Home a lot as a kid, so that's my pick. I had it recorded off Disney Channel (Back when it was commercial free).

A Boy Named Charlie Brown is okay, but the spelling bee is probably the highlight of it for me.

I don't think I ever saw Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown or Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown.

Race for Your Life and Bon Voyage are the only two I've seen and they bored me to tears.

Race For Your Life, was probably the best.

Still waitn' for the DVD, Paramount.

jpanimation wrote:Race for Your Life and Bon Voyage are the only two I've seen and they bored me to tears.

God bless your soul.

JPA's a major snob. But, I guess we have to live with 'im.

Lazario wrote:JPA's a major snob. But, I guess we have to live with 'im.

Well, he ain't alone... I've never been a big fan of Peanuts. I like Snoopy and some of the characters, but I've never been so emotionally interested into the franchise like some people have.

My problem tends to be that the characters are at times too self aware or very deep into their archetypes. I admit at times it can be charming, but most of the time it's obnoxious and wish it would progress rather than just extend the same jokes over and over.

In fact, last year when I saw "Snoopy Come Home", I loved the music, but the rest of the story I felt was mainly OK. I felt it tried to be sad for the hell of it.

But whatever, I can see why people like the series, and I respect that.

Archetypes? I'm not sure the movies and shorts were made to be seen that way. They're not real stories. You're not necessarily meant to become emotionally invested. If you do, great. But look at the shorts, for example. The utter brilliance of the original Christmas special is astounding. Those aren't real characters. If anything, they're like children who are reactions to adults. I think the movies probably operate on the same level (with that mentioned, I could use a refresher viewing of all of them but I know that will just make me more rigid on my point of view). Most of the characters are, if anything, void of emotion. Not intelligence- emotion. Certainly, believable emotion.

I must be the only one that prefers A Boy Named Charlie Brown. Someone on Youtube did a really good analysis on it recently...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJPpbx1qDQg