Is there already a thread on this?
By the way, the film was, in a word, perfect. Or close to it.
By the way, the film was, in a word, perfect. Or close to it.
"Peanuts" review thread
- Thread starter Flying Spaghetti Monster
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I haven't seen it (I'll wait for Pay-Per-View or whatever), but it looks really good. Which is pretty shocking for a revival these days.
I haven't seen it yet (Tuesday night after work, I think is when I'll go), though I did read the kids novelization last month. (Which was a strange experience to experience the Peanuts characters through prose, I have to admit.) I thought the story was basically right and hit the right notes, except for the ending. I understand why the story ended that way, though --
-- it doesn't feel like Schulz to me at all. (There are a few other issues -- the characters in Schulz don't all attend the same school, nor are they all in the same grade, but from a production standpoint I can understand why the film makes that change, as it affords them the opportunity to have the familiar faces together more often and have them interact more. That doesn't bother me as much as the ending.)
Reading the novelization first probably helped to temper my expectations; I'm thinking of this as an Ultimate Peanuts or an Elseworlds Peanuts. To be clear, I fully expect to like the movie when I see it.
At some point, Charlie Brown has to succeed at something, and since the problem of the film has been Charlie Brown's inability to connect with and speak to the Little Red-Haired Girl, it follows that, in the final act, Charlie Brown will overcome the problem and achieve his goal
-- it doesn't feel like Schulz to me at all. (There are a few other issues -- the characters in Schulz don't all attend the same school, nor are they all in the same grade, but from a production standpoint I can understand why the film makes that change, as it affords them the opportunity to have the familiar faces together more often and have them interact more. That doesn't bother me as much as the ending.)
Reading the novelization first probably helped to temper my expectations; I'm thinking of this as an Ultimate Peanuts or an Elseworlds Peanuts. To be clear, I fully expect to like the movie when I see it.
I'm afraid I find the animation style too off-putting in the clips I've seen. It's trying to feel like 2D and 3D and stop-motion all at once, and the dissonance of those styles is too jarring for me. I might like it better if the frame rate weren't quite so low and jerky.
^Beat me to it. I love the Peanuts in general (wasn't planning to see the movie), but this is one of those times that makes me wonder why we're not allowed to talk about James Bond here....
I sometimes wonder why we don't have a separate Comics and Animation forum, but so much of SF/F film and TV these days is comics-based that there'd be too much overlap. (In my own browser, I keep forgetting that I have the Arrowverse Wiki and the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki filed with my film/TV bookmarks rather than my comics/animation bookmarks.)
But Peanuts features a sapient, anthropomorphic dog with manual dexterity and a doghouse that's apparently bigger on the inside than the outside. I'd say that qualifies it as SF/fantasy.
But Peanuts features a sapient, anthropomorphic dog with manual dexterity and a doghouse that's apparently bigger on the inside than the outside. I'd say that qualifies it as SF/fantasy.
I saw the movie in 2-D and the animation style actually worked very well on the big screen.
I think the thing that pleased me most about the movie were the voice actors. Everyone sounded just as you remember them from the original holiday specials.
The movie suffered, I thought from the attempt to keep to the pace of the comic's 3 panel style. You'd get a scene that was beat-beat-beat, then switch to a new scene. It got jarring after a while and interrupted the story telling.
Snoopy's bits were good, but also distracting. I wish they had worked him into the main narrative more and cut some of the side adventure stuff.
And of course, for the real Peanuts fan, there is a moment of blasphemy at the end of the movie.
They showed the little red haired girl's face!!!
That's far too broad a definition for my tastes...those things belong in their own genre with other humorous comic strips and cartoons that sometimes feature funny animals; it dilutes the meaning of SF/fantasy to include them here.
And if one wants to be more inclusive, there are plenty of elements in Bond films to qualify them as SF/fantasy.
I just saw it with the kids and it was enjoyed by all--Yes there is that moment of blasphemy but it is a cute lesson at the end. A lot of re-used jokes from the past reworked for a new generation of kids, and if it renews interest in Peanuts for young kids again than that is great.
As for the 3D, I was pleased that the movie was actually filmed for 3D--I like the idea that you can focus on any area of the screen while you're watching and it is "mostly" in focus. It is the "converted" movies that are awful for me.
As for the 3D, I was pleased that the movie was actually filmed for 3D--I like the idea that you can focus on any area of the screen while you're watching and it is "mostly" in focus. It is the "converted" movies that are awful for me.
Oh, definitely. I'm surprised they don't get counted here. Starlog magazine -- whose subtitle was The Science Fiction Universe -- routinely covered Bond films.
She's been a fixture of the marketing campaign for the film, and they've shown her face-on many times online and in social media. They did their research, as her look is consistent with the one time she appears on panel (May 25, 1998).
I never said she looked incorrect, just that it was apocryphal to the comic strip (barring that one appearance) to show her face.
That's because it's 3D now; they figured Schulz just didn't have the ability to rotate the image.
It might seem like blasphemy to show her face, but this is a different medium form the comic strips.. it's a film.. and it has different rules for story telling.. one of them being a payoff at the end.
For what it's worth, everything that's not the comic strip is apocryphal. Schulz didn't consider the cartoons canon, even though he wrote them.
Nor did I say that you said she looked "incorrect" in her appearance. Rather, I thought I was pointing out that it really wasn't "blasphemy" for the movie to do something Schulz had done -- show us the Little Red-Haired Girl. No, Schulz didn't show us her face, but he did show us what she looked like, and I read an article a few days ago about how the filmmakers used that one panel as their guide in designing her.
Plus, the cartoons had their own version of the Little Red-Haired Girl -- Heather -- who looks very different than Schulz's one on-panel drawing of her. Schulz's LRHG looks a bit like Lucy in profile and hair style, while Heather has long, straight hair. Schulz didn't consider Heather binding on him when he decided to draw the LRHG as Daisy to Snoopy's Jay Gatsby. (I have that strip blown up and hanging on my cubicle wall at work; first, the LHRG appears, and second, Snoopy quotes Fitzgerald.) It doesn't bother me that the LRHG doesn't really look like the character I grew up with on television.
Plus, the cartoons had their own version of the Little Red-Haired Girl -- Heather -- who looks very different than Schulz's one on-panel drawing of her. Schulz's LRHG looks a bit like Lucy in profile and hair style, while Heather has long, straight hair. Schulz didn't consider Heather binding on him when he decided to draw the LRHG as Daisy to Snoopy's Jay Gatsby. (I have that strip blown up and hanging on my cubicle wall at work; first, the LHRG appears, and second, Snoopy quotes Fitzgerald.) It doesn't bother me that the LRHG doesn't really look like the character I grew up with on television.
So.... Some people think that "anything that isn't strictly human and normal-based using live-action" counts as Sci-Fi/Fantasy? I think the Peanuts clearly are more suited for General Fiction discussion as there's virtually no meaningful Sci-Fi/Fantasy elements in it in either the classical or modern sense.
Anyway, co-worker saw this the other night with his family and he liked it. He's about my age so would likely be more familiar with the Peanuts characters than his child. We grew up in a time when the Halloween and Christmas specials were "must see" ones during those times of the year. He's not one too often speak well of movies but liked this one.
I'll have to check it out at some point as it does seem interesting and more-or-less faithful to the Peanuts.
But, Sci-Fi/Fatnasy?! Really?!
Anyway, co-worker saw this the other night with his family and he liked it. He's about my age so would likely be more familiar with the Peanuts characters than his child. We grew up in a time when the Halloween and Christmas specials were "must see" ones during those times of the year. He's not one too often speak well of movies but liked this one.
I'll have to check it out at some point as it does seem interesting and more-or-less faithful to the Peanuts.
But, Sci-Fi/Fatnasy?! Really?!
I put it in sci fi because the old thread for the announcement was here too.. well maybe I started that one. The thing is.. no one at the time complained.
Honestly I didn't give it too much thought.
Honestly I didn't give it too much thought.
I can't believe that somebody brought this word...
...into a Peanuts discussion.
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