Basically, A Boy Named Charlie Brown falls into the genre of competition movies for children, such as Little Giants, The Mighty Ducks, and Angels in the Outfield. However, this movie is by far the most honest and felt movie to come out of the genre. Unlike all the others, which show haggard, underdog teams of non-atheletes defeating more skilled teams (most of whom are mean or cheaters), to supposedly prove that winning isn't everything and just have fun and heart (or worse, in the case of Angels, that God decides who wins in sporting events), Charlie Brown is simply involved in a spelling bee in which he, though an underdog according to his friends (they call him Failure Face), amazingly makes it to the final round in the national bee because he keeps getting words that have to do with "failure," something he is quite accustomed to! The ending is more honest than any victory celebration could have been, and leaves the viewer with a truer sense of the overall importance of these competitions.
The only real problem I have with the movie (which has some stiking animated sequences that reminded me of the Woodstock movie (the festival, not the bird)) is that the songs are pretty bad, which makes me ever so grateful that the filmmakers hired the Mary Poppins songwriters for Snoopy Come Home.
The only real problem I have with the movie (which has some stiking animated sequences that reminded me of the Woodstock movie (the festival, not the bird)) is that the songs are pretty bad, which makes me ever so grateful that the filmmakers hired the Mary Poppins songwriters for Snoopy Come Home.