This leads me to the question, who was this movie intended for? Is it nostalgia for people over forty that remember PEANUTS in its heyday? Would those people really spend the money to see a 90 minute version of those 30 minute shows?
For Kevin, it was complete mystery. A typewriter? What is that? Why do the girls all wear dresses? Why does that phone have a cord? Kids young enough to be interested in the antics of eight year olds can't make enough quick translations to see the world of Peanuts as anything less than mysterious. They are too young to get quaint.
The one thing that still might work is that most kids can identify with Charlie Brown and his insecurity. But 90 minutes of this and he seems more self-pitying than sympathetic.
Argh!
13 comments:
I think this new PEANUTS movie is aimed at adults who grew up in the Charles Shultz era seeking nostalgia. As your grandson pointed out, this is not a kids movie even though it's about kids.
Patti, I still read Peanuts though I didn't know there was a movie based on the comic strip. I'll be watching the film.
I will probably see it. Or have Lana bring it home from the library that is.
In our classroom (severely-autistic students), we read a current-events newsletter each week. The topics are academically-appropriate explanations of something happening in the popular culture. This week the story was about the Peanuts movie and, even as we were reading it, I kept wondering who would want to see the movie being described as "even though Charlie Brown is bullied* by Lucy and even though Snoopy never defeats the Red Baron, they both stay strong in trying to achieve their dreams." Yikes!
*Newsletter's word.
I agree that it is aimed at the nostalgic audience of Peanuts readers, but will they plunk down money to see it if they don't have a grandchild to see it with?
I doubt it.
I also loved Kevin's baffled responses to typewriters, phone cords, and girls in pants. It reminds me of when my kids were small and we were watching an old movie and one of them asked, "What was that big circle in the center of the phone?" After we explained, she said, "Oh, that's why we say DIAL a number. I never understood that before."
The typewriter was especially interesting to him. How it made a noise, how the paper came right out. I think he saw it as an improvement in some ways. And, of course, the dial reference must be strange.
It just opened Prashant. Probably get there soon.
It hasn't gotten good reviews, and you are right to question the target audience for it. I know I have no interest in seeing it, though I will still watch the TV specials if I happen upon one. Charlie wishing the little red-haired girl would notice him is romance? Really? Maybe a minor childish crush, but romance? Nah. I doubt this will be successful enough to warrant further attempts.
The entire movie was about getting her to go to a dance with him, be in pen pal, do a book report. Truly there was no plot beyond this.
Peanuts is my all-time favorite comic strip, so I'll probably watch this when it comes out on DVD, but it doesn't look very good to me. I just don't like computer-generated animation on properties that I'm used to seeing in traditional animation. The negative reviews saying that the movie isn't politically correct enough are just stupid, though.
What a disappointment! It's an interesting question, too, to ask what the movie's really about in the first place. Without a real plot, a movie just tanks.
I think this was all about nostalgia. Their real misstep in making a movie to capitalize on nostalgia was going with cheap computer animation, which I don't think anyone particular likes.
I think it needed a holiday theme too. Something to anchor it more than romance.
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