'Bon Voyage Charlie Brown' was, as has been noted, a labor of love for Schulz, who had been in Britain and France as an American soldier during World War II. Charlie Brown, his alter-ego in the strip, steps in to make the pilgrimage back to those stomping grounds, some 35 years on, and while generations have been swapped little has changed: this works, if only unintentionally, for verisimilitude, as most of the provincial areas of France had changed little from 1945 to 1980.
Not that there is no suspense of disbelief required: children of that age are unlikely to be going on an exchange program to a country in which they speak not the language, and if anyone is going to be chosen for such an adventure it is not the decidedly un-studious Peppermint Patty. Snoopy's game is stepped up, as it tends to be in many (but not all) TV specials: in the comic strip his "human" side is portrayed as more of a Walter Mitty complex, so he wouldn't be seen driving an actual car and any references to flying first-class would be ambiguous about the "fantastical" aspect (the Wimbledon bit is maybe up in the air, considering his athletic prowess and tournaments with Molly Volley).
Not to be too nit-picky. Snoopy's and Woodstock's antics, oscillating between the ridiculously competent and the blissfully clueless, are as amusing as ever. For an American such as myself whose hobbies long included planning for and fantasizing about travel throughout Europe (eventually this fantasy turned into a permanent move and I have lived in Paris for 12 years now), this is a fun little travelogue. I saw this movie when I was 10 or 11 and always imagined I'd have the same "feels" of the gang's initial discoveries of England and France when someday I went over there. When I finally came over here ten years on, I largely did.
And while the mix of Charlie Brown, Linus, Peppermint Patty and Marcie in France seems unlikely, the foursome's respective personalities bounce off and complement each other quite well, generating just the right mix of conflict and cooperation to face the real challenge. The stakes, however, are higher here than they usually are in the simplistic, closed childhood world the characters inhabit in the script. I won't spoil the ending except to say that the tone may surprise those for whom 'Peanuts' canon is first and foremost its eponymous comic strip, but there's enough nuance and letdown to "keep it real."
'Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown' is among the better animated adaptations and it is certainly the best of the feature-length films, first of all for the fairly intelligent subject matter and for striking the right balance between staying true to the strip's world and characters while changing what needs to change to bring a "big" story from intro through action into conclusion ('Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown' got this latter right; sadly, 2015's 'The Peanuts Movie' leaned too far away from the source and was rather thin plot-wise). Older children and adults who like travel and have fond memories of 'Peanuts' will get right into this.
Not that there is no suspense of disbelief required: children of that age are unlikely to be going on an exchange program to a country in which they speak not the language, and if anyone is going to be chosen for such an adventure it is not the decidedly un-studious Peppermint Patty. Snoopy's game is stepped up, as it tends to be in many (but not all) TV specials: in the comic strip his "human" side is portrayed as more of a Walter Mitty complex, so he wouldn't be seen driving an actual car and any references to flying first-class would be ambiguous about the "fantastical" aspect (the Wimbledon bit is maybe up in the air, considering his athletic prowess and tournaments with Molly Volley).
Not to be too nit-picky. Snoopy's and Woodstock's antics, oscillating between the ridiculously competent and the blissfully clueless, are as amusing as ever. For an American such as myself whose hobbies long included planning for and fantasizing about travel throughout Europe (eventually this fantasy turned into a permanent move and I have lived in Paris for 12 years now), this is a fun little travelogue. I saw this movie when I was 10 or 11 and always imagined I'd have the same "feels" of the gang's initial discoveries of England and France when someday I went over there. When I finally came over here ten years on, I largely did.
And while the mix of Charlie Brown, Linus, Peppermint Patty and Marcie in France seems unlikely, the foursome's respective personalities bounce off and complement each other quite well, generating just the right mix of conflict and cooperation to face the real challenge. The stakes, however, are higher here than they usually are in the simplistic, closed childhood world the characters inhabit in the script. I won't spoil the ending except to say that the tone may surprise those for whom 'Peanuts' canon is first and foremost its eponymous comic strip, but there's enough nuance and letdown to "keep it real."
'Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown' is among the better animated adaptations and it is certainly the best of the feature-length films, first of all for the fairly intelligent subject matter and for striking the right balance between staying true to the strip's world and characters while changing what needs to change to bring a "big" story from intro through action into conclusion ('Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown' got this latter right; sadly, 2015's 'The Peanuts Movie' leaned too far away from the source and was rather thin plot-wise). Older children and adults who like travel and have fond memories of 'Peanuts' will get right into this.