A Boy Named Charlie Brown

infobox film
name = A Boy Named Charlie Brown

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caption = "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" DVD cover
producer = Lee Mendelson
director = Bill Meléndez
writer = Charles M. Schulz
starring = Peter Robbins
Pamelyn Ferdin
Glenn Gilger
Andy Pforsich
Sally Dryer
Ann Altieri
Erin Sullivan
Lynda Mendelson
Christopher DeFaria
David Carey
Andy Pforsich
Bill Meléndez
Hilary Momberger
music = Vince Guaraldi (score)
Rod McKuen
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ingolf Dahl
John Stafford Smith
distributor = National General Pictures
released = December 4, 1969
runtime = 86 minutes
language = English
imdb_id = 0064107|

"A Boy Named Charlie Brown" is a 1969 Academy Award-nominated animated film, produced by Cinema Center Films and Lee Mendelson Films for National General Pictures and directed by Bill Meléndez, it is the first feature film based on the "Peanuts" comic strip. It was also the final time that Peter Robbins voiced the character of Charlie Brown. (Robbins had voiced the role for all the Peanuts television specials up to that point, starting with the debut of the specials, 1965's A Charlie Brown Christmas)

Plot

Prior to the credits, Charlie Brown, Linus and Lucy look at some clouds on a hill. After hearing Linus' thorough description, Charlie Brown had second thoughts about seeing a "duckie and a horsie".

Then, after the credits, we first see him flying a kite into the air. However, no sooner does he get it in the air, then it crashes. He angrily decries his obtained bad luck, and throws it to Lucy who is passing by. "Anyone who can fly this kite is a genius", he angrily proclaims. As she carries it off, Lucy tosses it to Snoopy, and no sooner does the kite string touch his paw, then it is carried aloft.

Soon afterward, Charlie's first little league baseball game of the season approaches, and Charlie Brown eagerly goes to the local baseball field, only to find the pitcher's mound covered with dandelions. The girls on the team demand that he not cut them down, proclaiming that they have a right to live and they also make Charlie look cute. Soon, the game starts, and the team sadly loses the game of the season for the very first time. Dejectedly, Charlie Brown walks home and takes a bath, thinking on his mysterious bad luck. As if to add insult to injury, he places a sailboat in the bathtub, which ultimately sinks due to punching a hole in it.

Later on that day, Linus shows up, and plays tic-tac-toe in the dirt by the front porch of Charlie Brown's house. Linus tries to cheer Charlie Brown up, stating that people learn more from losing than from winning. "I guess that makes me the smartest person in the whole world", Charlie replies, sarcastically. Linus takes the tone of voice, and tells Charlie Brown that if he keeps thinking he's a loser, it won't help. Positively, Linus tells Charlie Brown that he's sure that someday he will win. Unfortunately, just as Linus tells this to Charlie Brown, Linus wins the tic-tac-toe game. Linus sheepishly grins as Charlie Brown glares at him.

The next day, Charlie Brown stops by Lucy's Psychiatry Booth. Lucy tells Charlie Brown that she can help him point out his faults better than anyone else. Taking him to her place, Lucy reveals a slide projector and a screen, onto which slides showing Charlie's myriad faults will be displayed. However, the 'evidence' doesn't help Charlie Brown at all, and makes him feel even more miserable. Walking off, Lucy mutters, 'wait until you get my bill.'

On the way to school the next day, Linus encounters Charlie Brown, who tells him about the slideshow that Lucy showed. As they near the playground, Lucy jokingly comes up to Charlie Brown, and explains that the school is having a spelling bee, and laughs at the thought of him volunteering. Linus, however, thinks that entering the spelling bee is a good idea. His opinion is met by more laughter by Lucy, Patty & Violet. Later in class, Charlie Brown nervously volunteers, and manages to beat the other kids in the class. The next day, he will be going up against the other kids in the school. Filled with determination, he, Linus & Snoopy go home and study through the dictionary. As they study, they sing a song about "'I' before 'E,' except after 'C'".

As the school-wide spelling bee kicks off, Charlie's mind is filled with all sorts of words. It soon comes down to Charlie Brown, but just when it seems he won't get it, the 'I' before 'E' song enters his head, and he wins the Bee. The kids cheerfully follow him home, singing a song titled 'Champion Charlie Brown.'

With Charlie Brown's house set up as the gangs headquarters, Lucy proclaims that Charlie Brown (with his newfound fame) must have an agent, to which she feels she should be most suited for. The others recommend that Charlie Brown should start studying again, which causes him to question that, considering he just won and got his winning luck back. The others tell him that Lucy had signed him up to take part in the nationwide spelling bee. Charlie's feelings about his victory slowly subside, as he finds himself once again reading the dictionary, his feelings about his bad luck once again eating away at him.

Soon afterward, Charlie Brown boards the bus for the trip to New York City. Linus wishes him luck, but then mercifully hands Charlie his blanket for good luck. The kids cheer Charlie on as the bus pulls away. They check into the hotel.

Back at home, Linus is beginning to suffer terribly from withdrawal after giving his blanket to Charlie Brown. Finally unable to take it anymore, he pleads with Snoopy to help him go to New York to find Charlie Brown and get his blanket back.

Soon afterward, Charlie Brown hears a knock on his door. When he opens it, he is greeted by an enthusiastic Snoopy. Linus however, passes out. As he comes back to consciousness, he explains to Charlie Brown that he keeps passing out from being without his blanket. Charlie tells him that he isn't sure where the blanket could be. One possibility could be that he left it at the New York Public Library. Linus and Snoopy then take off through the streets of New York, with Linus looking here and there, painfully muttering 'it isn't here!' at every turn. As he continues walking, Snoopy gets distracted, and ends up ice-skating at the Rockefeller Center ice rink. Soon, he catches up to Linus at the library, who after peering through the front doors of the closed structure, is convinced it isn't here either. Angrily, he storms back to Charlie Brown's hotel room to tell him.

Back at the room, Charlie brown is half-sleep, from studying the dictionary. Every sentence he says, he ends up spelling the last word in that sentence ("Good morning Linus and Snoopy. Snoopy -- S-N-O-O-P-Y. Snoopy."). As Linus continues to suffer from being separated from his blanket, he sees Charlie Brown getting ready for the contest. As Charlie Brown shines his dress shoes, Linus stares in shock: the cloth he's using is Linus' blanket, Linus greedily grabs it, very relieved to have it back. The three then set off for the spelling bee.

Charlie Brown goes backstage while Linus & Snoopy take their seats at Radio City Music Hall where the spelling bee is to be held. Back at home, the rest of the gang are tuning into the spelling bee, which is being broadcast on television. One-by-one, the losing contestants leave the spelling bee, until it's just Charlie Brown and one other boy. All is going well, until Charlie Brown has to spell the word "beagle". He loses after misspelling beagle as "B-E-A-G-E-L". The gang, Linus, Snoopy & even Charlie Brown let out huge screams of anguish as it was a relatively easy word for him to spell, as well as it was a breed of Snoopy. Sadly, Charlie Brown returns home, along with Linus and Snoopy. When they get home in the nighttime, no one is there to greet them.

As they go their separate ways, Linus tells Charlie Brown good night, but he doesn't respond. The next day, Linus goes to Charlie Brown's house, where he meets Sally. She tells him that her brother has been in his room all day with the shades down. As Linus knocks on the door, Charlie Brown asks who it is. When Linus asks if he can come in, Charlie Brown replies morosely, 'I don't care.' Linus opens one of the shades, and sees Charlie Brown lying in bed. When Linus mentions that the other kids missed him at school, he replies that he isn't going back to school again. Linus tries to mention that they had a baseball game as well, and won. Charlie Brown rolls his eyes at this: his team won a game, and he was hardly there. Linus tells him that he must feel that he let everyone down, by losing the Spelling Bee. As he turns to go, he looks back. "But did you know something, Charlie Brown? The world didn't come to an end."

As Linus shuts the door, Charlie Brown thinks for a moment, and then turns on the light. Getting dressed, he then goes outside. Just as Linus said, his still has his whole life ahead of him to prove he's a winner. Outside, there are kids jumping rope and more. As he walks through a field, he sees Lucy playing with a football. As he watches, she holds it as if waiting for someone to kick it. Charlie Brown begins to sneak towards the ball, and just as he's about to kick it, she pulls it away, causing him to land flat on his back. As she walks over to him, she smiles and says 'Welcome home, Charlie Brown."

Production

The film was partly based on a series of "Peanuts" comic strips originally published in newspapers in 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'd make a fool of himself, and then yelled at his teacher in frustration ("Why do I have my head on my desk, ma'am? BECAUSE I BLEW THE STUPID SPELLING BEE, THAT'S WHY!"), causing him to be sent to the principal's office. (A few gags from that storyline, however, were also used in the 1967 special "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" (sung by Lucy and the other girls to discourage Charlie Brown from entering the spelling bee), "I Before E Except After C" (sung by Charlie Brown and Linus while studying for the spelling bee), and "Champion Charlie Brown" (sung by the entire cast after Charlie wins the school spelling bee). (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 entire feature were composed by Vince Guaraldi and arranged by John Scott Trotter (who also wrote "I Before E Except After C"). 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 its original form in 1965's "A Charlie Brown Christmas"), "Baseball Theme" (first heard in its original form in 1966's "Charlie Brown's All-Stars"), and others. Guaraldi and Trotter were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score for their work on "A Boy Named Charlie Brown".

The animated Snoopy 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 the second movement of Beethoven's "Pathetique Sonata", had piano performed by Ingolf Dahl.

The film also features a Jew's harp, which Snoopy plays to help Charlie with his spelling.

Art Design

"A Boy Named Charlie Brown", while directed and produced by the same team of Bill Meléndez 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 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 you can see silhouettes of real hockey players behind him. Some backgrounds have a very pop art kind of feel which was very reminiscent in much of the animation style of the late 1960s. Many sequences have a strong visual feel to them, 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 kind of approach where actual photographs seem to have been painted over in semi day-glo psychedelic colors. 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 TV specials.

Reception

The film was well received by critics and holds a 93% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. TIME Magazine praised its use of "subtle, understated colors" and its scrupulous fidelity to the source material, calling it a message movie that "should not be missed".

Awards

The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score.

DVD release

This film made its Region 1 DVD debut in anamorphic widescreen on U.S. DVD on March 28, 2006, by Paramount Home Entertainment/CBS Home Entertainment (co-producer Cinema Center Films was owned by CBS). The DVD has about 5 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" and "CED Laserdisc") 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). This also includes extended existing scenes.

Production credits

*Created by Charles M. Schulz
*Co-Directed by Maurice Noble
*Story by John Dunn
*Voice of Snoopy: Robert Towers
*Co-Produced by Bill Meléndez
*Executive producer Charles M. Schulz
*Camera: Dickson/Vasu, Wally Bulloch
*Editing: Bob Gillis, Chuck McCann, Steve Melendez
*Design::Ellie Bonnard, Evert Brown, Jan Green, Bernard Gruver, Ruth Kissane,:Ed Levitt, Charles McElmurry, Al Shean, Dean Spille
*Recording
**Mix: Producers' Sound Service, Don Minkler, Bill Mumford
**Music Recording: United Recorders, Artie Becker
*Voice recording: Radio Recorders, Sid Nicholas
*Animation::Maggie Bowen, Bob Carlson, Ken Champin, Herman Cohen, Manuel Perez,:Lew Irwin, Sam Jaimes, Gerry Kane, Bror Lansing, Bill Littlejohn, Don Lusk,:Bob Matz, Barrie Nelson, Ken O'Brien, Spencer Peel, Jay Sarbry, Virgil Ross,:Bob Brandsford, Tom Ray, Ben Washam, Frank Smith, Hank Smith, Russ von Neida,:Rudy Zamora, Frank Braxton, Phil Roman, Alan Shean, Richard Thompson
*Negative cutting: Alice Keillor
*Music supervision: John Scott Trotter
*Skating routines by: Skippy Baxter

External links

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* [http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releases/peanuts-pictures.html Peanuts Pictures at DVD Active]