A Boy Named Charlie Brown

A Boy Named Charlie Brown is a 1969 American animated musical comedy-drama film, produced by Cinema Center Films, distributed by National General Pictures, and directed by Bill Melendez. It is the first feature film based on the "Peanuts" comic strip. It is also the final time that Peter Robbins voices the character of Charlie Brown (Robbins had voiced the role for all the Peanuts television specials up to that point, starting with the first recorded special, which also had the title "A Boy Named Charlie Brown", in 1963), and it uses most of the same voice cast from the 1969 TV special, "It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown", replacing only the actors playing Sally and Schroeder.
The film was well-received and a box-office success, grossing $12 million. "Snoopy Come Home" came in 1972 as a standalone sequel.
Plot.
When Charlie Brown's baseball team loses the first Little League game of the season, he becomes convinced that he will not win anything. Linus encourages him to maintain a positive attitude and suggests that people learn more from losing. When Charlie Brown remains morose ("That makes me the smartest person in the world", he says), Linus assures him that he will eventually win at something, but makes a liar of himself by beating Charlie at a game of tic-tac-toe. That night, Snoopy has a nightmare where he is a World War I flying ace, and is shot down while fighting an aerial battle with an unknown enemy (possibly the Red Baron), and he takes over Charlie Brown's bed. Charlie Brown notices Snoopy in his bed and Charlie says: "Why can't I have a normal dog like everyone else?" (The same punch line was used in Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown, where Snoopy wildly drives his motorcycle.) The next morning, when Charlie Brown stops at Lucy's psychiatric help booth, she prepares slides to show him all of his faults; the experience only leaves him more depressed. On the way to school the next day, Lucy jokingly suggests that Charlie Brown enter the school spelling bee. However, Linus considers it a good idea and encourages him despite the jeers of Lucy, Violet, and Patty.
Charlie Brown nervously enters the spelling bee and defeats the other children in his class when he spells "insecure", a word he considers his trademark. As Charlie Brown studies for the school championship, he and Linus sing a spelling mnemonic ("I Before E") as Snoopy accompanies them on a Jew's harp. In class the next day, Charlie Brown freezes when challenged with "perceive", but he recovers when Snoopy plays the song's accompaniment outside the school. Crowned champion, the other kids cheerfully follow him home and sing ("Champion Charlie Brown"). Lucy proclaims herself his agent, and when his friends suggest that he continue studying, he is confused. They tell him that he must now take part in the National Spelling Bee in New York City, and he is again filled with self-doubt. As Charlie Brown leaves, Linus reluctantly offers him his blanket for good luck, and the other kids cheer for him.
Back at home, Linus suffers terrible withdrawal after being separated from his blanket. Unable to withstand it, he pleads with Snoopy to go to New York City and help him recover it. The two meet with an exhausted Charlie Brown at his hotel room, and he apologizes for not knowing where he left Linus' blanket. As Linus checks the New York Public Library in vain, Snoopy engages in a fantasy ice-skating routine. The two reunite and return to Charlie Brown, only to find him absentmindedly using the blanket as a shoe-shine cloth. Linus joins Snoopy in the audience as Charlie Brown competes; the other children watch the contest at home on television. One-by-one, the other contestants are eliminated until only Charlie Brown and one other boy remain. However, after correctly spelling several words, Charlie Brown is eliminated when he accidentally misspells "beagle" as B–E–A–G–E–L.
Depressed, Charlie Brown returns home, along with Linus and Snoopy, but unlike the crowd of people that saw them off, no one is there to greet them when their bus pulls in. They trudge home, and the next day, Linus visits Charlie Brown. Sally tells him her brother has been in his room all day with the shades down and refuses to see or talk to anybody. Linus tells Charlie Brown that the other kids missed him at school and that his baseball team finally got their first win of the season, but Charlie Brown says he will never return to school again. As Linus leaves, he now points out that the world did not end despite Charlie Brown's failure. Charlie Brown thinks for a moment, gets dressed, and goes outside. He sees the other children playing, and when he spots Lucy as she plays with a football which is the same one he failed to kick earlier, he sneaks up behind her to kick it. She pulls it away (the same scene was reused in It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown), and welcomes him home and the two look at us before the screen fades to black.
Cast.
Shermy appears in this film but doesn't have a speaking role. Peppermint Patty and 5 others also appear in silent roles.
Production.
The film was partly based on a series of "Peanuts" comic strips originally published in newspapers in February 1966. That story had a much different ending: Charlie Brown was eliminated in his class spelling bee right away for misspelling the word "maze" ("M–A–Y–S" while thinking of baseball legend Willie Mays), thus confirming Violet's prediction that he would make a fool of himself. Charlie Brown then screams at his teacher in frustration, causing him to be sent to the principal's office (A few gags from that storyline, however, were also used in "You're in Love, Charlie Brown").
Music.
"A Boy Named Charlie Brown" also included several original songs, some of which boasted vocals for the first time: "Failure Face", "I Before E" and "Champion Charlie Brown" (Before this film, musical pieces in Peanuts specials were primarily instrumental, except for a few traditional songs in "A Charlie Brown Christmas".) Rod McKuen wrote and sang the title song. He also wrote "Failure Face" and "Champion Charlie Brown".
The instrumental tracks interspersed throughout the movie were composed by Vince Guaraldi and arranged by John Scott Trotter (who also wrote "I Before E"). The music consisted mostly of uptempo jazz tunes that had been heard since some of the earliest "Peanuts" television specials aired back in 1965; however, for "A Boy Named Charlie Brown", they were given a more "theatrical" treatment, with lusher horn-filled arrangements. Instrumental tracks used in the film included "Skating" (first heard in "A Charlie Brown Christmas") and "Baseball Theme" (first heard in "Charlie Brown's All-Stars"). When discussing the augmentation of Guaraldi's established jazz scores with additional musicians, Lee Mendelson commented, "It wasn’t that we thought Vince's jazz couldn't carry the movie, but we wanted to supplement it with some 'big screen music.' We focused on Vince for the smaller, more intimate Charlie Brown scenes; for the larger moments, we turned to Trotter's richer, full-score sound." Guaraldi's services were passed over entirely for the second "Peanuts" feature film, "Snoopy Come Home", with Mendelson turning to longtime Disney composers, the Sherman Brothers, to compose the music score.
The segment during the "Skating" sequence was choreographed by American figure skater Skippy Baxter. A segment during the middle of the film, in which Schroeder plays Beethoven's "Sonata Pathétique", had piano performed by Ingolf Dahl.
The film also features a Jew's harp, which Snoopy plays to help Charlie with his spelling.
The French-language version replaces Rod McKuen's vocals with a French version sung by Serge Gainsbourg, "".
A soundtrack album with dialogue from the film was released on the Columbia Masterworks label in 1970 titled "A Boy Named Charlie Brown: Selections from the Film Soundtrack". The first all-music version of the soundtrack was released on CD by Kritzerland Records as a limited issue of 1,000 copies in 2017, titled "A Boy Named Charlie Brown: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack".
Art design.
"A Boy Named Charlie Brown", while directed and produced by the same team of Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelson, who were responsible for all the Peanuts television specials (Phil Roman directed later TV specials starting around the mid-1970s), has many different aspects that most of the specials did not explore in a visual sense. The film itself has moments where there is rotoscoping prevalent, as in the sequence when Snoopy skates, and bleached-out silhouettes of real hockey players are visible behind him. Some backgrounds have a pop art feel, similar to much animation of the late 1960s, as in "The Star-Spangled Banner" sequence, where the images are purposely chaotically edited, or the sequence where Schroeder plays Beethoven on his piano, which effects a surrealistic quality similar to Disney's "Fantasia".
There also seems to be a strong Andy Warhol influence, wherein actual photographs appear to have been painted over in semi day-glo psychedelic colors (this is particularly evident during the film's closing credits). Melendez, who had previously worked with Bob Clampett on cartoons back in the 1940s, also uses garish colors in some sequences, which takes its cues from many Clampett backgrounds, particularly a Warner Bros. cartoon called "The Big Snooze" which was directed by Clampett and which Melendez had also worked on. Many backgrounds are also rendered in watercolor, or simple pen strokes, or fine lines, or sometimes all three at once. There are scenes where colors will change solidly and erratically, as witnessed by the Snoopy "Red Baron" sequence in the film. Perspective and horizon points are showcased in the "I Before E" scene. Split screen is also used to much effect in "A Boy Named Charlie Brown", as well. But even with all these theatrical enhancements, at its core, the film still has the look and feel of many of the Peanuts television specials.
Reception.
The movie premiered at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City, only the third animated feature to play there after "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937) and "Bambi" (1942).
The film was well received by critics and holds a 95% rating at Rotten Tomatoes based on 19 reviews.
"Time" praised its use of "subtle, understated colors" and its scrupulous fidelity to the source material, calling it a message film that "should not be missed." "The New York Times" Vincent Canby wrote: "A practically perfect screen equivalent to the quiet joys to be found in almost any of Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts comic strips. I do have some reservations about the film, but it's difficult—perhaps impossible—to be anything except benign towards a G-rated, animated movie that manages to include references to St. Stephen, Thomas Eakins, Harpers Ferry, baseball, contemporary morality (as it relates to Charlie Brown's use of his 'bean ball'), conservation and kite flying. "
The movie was a huge success at the box office, earning $12 million. In its first week at Radio City Music Hall, it grossed $230,000, including a record $60,123 on Saturday, December 6. In its second week, it grossed $290,000 which made it number one in the United States.
A 1971 Associated Press story argued the success of "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" "broke the Disney monopoly" on animated feature films that had existed since the 1937 release of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". "The success of 'Peanuts' started a trend", animation producer Fred Calvert told the AP, "but I hope the industry is not misled into thinking that animation is the only thing. You need to have a solid story and good characters, too. Audiences are no longer fascinated by the fact that Mickey Mouse can spit."
Accolades.
The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score, but lost to The Beatles' "Let It Be".
Home media.
"A Boy Named Charlie Brown" was first released on VHS and Betamax in July 1983 through CBS/Fox Video, before seeing another VHS, Betamax, and LaserDisc release in 1984, then several more in 1985, September 26, 1991, February 20, 1992, and 1995 by CBS Home Entertainment through 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, and May 29, 2001 through Paramount Home Entertainment, before making its Region 1 DVD debut in the original 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio on March 28, 2006, by Paramount Home Entertainment/CBS Home Entertainment (co-producer Cinema Center Films was owned by CBS). The DVD has more than six minutes of footage not seen since the 1969 test screening and premiere. The footage consists of new scenes completely excised from earlier home video releases (VHS, CED Laserdisc, Japanese DVD) and TV prints — most notably, a scene of Lucy's infamous "pulling-away-the-football" trick after her slide presentation of Charlie Brown's faults (and her instant replay thereof), as well as extending existing scenes. The film was released on Blu-ray on September 6, 2016, along with "Snoopy Come Home". The film earned $6 million in rentals.