The Peanuts Gang is Back Again

Hey everyone. I handed off the Hall Director on Duty phone off to the next person on the schedule, so I treated myself by going out to see the Peanuts Movie. The movie ended up being exactly what I needed, but also exactly what I expected from a Peanuts movie.

When I was seeing video ads about the Peanuts Movie over the past few weeks, I thought about another part of my childhood that had gone through a big reboot: the Muppets. I think the Muppets and Peanuts have similarities, like having uplifting messages, a variety of characters, and a deep connection to their creator even today.

Now that I've seen the Peanuts Movie, I feel that Peanuts and the Muppets took different approaches in their modern reboots. The Muppets used the reboot to change and cater themselves more to a modern audience with modern issues, while the Peanuts stayed largely unchanged in an almost timeless fashion.

I've seen the two recent Muppet movies and while I haven't seen full episodes of the The Office-style sitcom, I've watched some clips and seen gifsets on Tumblr. It's not as evident in the movies, but it seems pretty apparent in the TV show that they are have the humor fit in with the current culture. This includes jokes about members of Dr. Teeth's band being on drugs in the past, and Fozzie being approached by gay men on an online dating website after misinterpreting the word 'bear'.

The Peanuts movie on the other hand felt like another story in the life of Charlie Brown. The movie makes references to holiday specials and other themes from the cartoons and comic strips, including the occasional copy-paste of a few lines between characters. (For example, Snoopy licking Lucy and her calling out for hot water and other items like in Great Pumpkin.) The movie didn't try to touch on modern issues and the only time I noticed a difference in technology was Snoopy finding his typewriter in a dumpster and then a scene where Snoopy and Woodstock try to figure out what it is.

I'm not going to say that one reboot was better than another, but they certainly took their newest cinematic releases in different directions. Since both Peanuts and the Muppets are so strongly associated with their creators, I do think the newest movies/shows will be compared to movies/shows from when the original creators were alive. When the first Muppets movie came out, I remember reading criticism of the change in tone and how the original Muppet company wouldn't include fart jokes as part of the schtick. I haven't heard of reviews about the new TV show and while I bet there are very entertaining moments, it seems pretty evident that the Muppets have changed since the days of Jim Henson. The Peanuts, on the other hand, felt true to what we know about the characters and when the movie ended, I thought that if Charles Schulz was making Peanuts today, this would be the movie he'd make. The biggest change that stood out was the soundtrack included some classic pieces by the Vince Guaraldi Trio, but most of the music seemed to be more closely resembling a typical soundtrack with standard instrumental pieces.

So like I said before, I'm not saying one is better than the other and I have really enjoyed what I've seen of the new Muppets and new Peanuts. Also, so much of this is based on my opinion and my thoughts may be different from everyone else. In any case, both series build off of their source in different ways and you should just go and watch all of the movies. Don't worry, my blog will still be here.

(Also, I think the casting people for the Peanuts Movie did a fantastic job of finding kids that sound just like the Peanuts characters from the 60s, 70s, etc. However the best decision was having Snoopy and Woodstock voiced by archival recordings of Bill Melendez, who was the voice of the two characters from 1963 to 2008. After seeing so many Peanuts movies, TV specials, and other appearances, it just clicked that Snoopy was still Snoopy, if that makes sense.)

Alright, I've rambled on enough. I could go on for longer, but sleep is also important. Tomorrow will be World Kindness Day and that's important enough to have it be the sole focus of a whole year, so let's make the most of tomorrow.

DFTBA