For many movies marketed towards children, there is an underlying message curated especially for adults to appreciate. “Inside Out,” “The Lego Movie” and “Toy Story 3” are all good examples of movies that brilliantly capture a duality between childlike merriment and adult melancholy, and as a result, these films are universally praised.
However, “The Peanuts Movie” is not a movie with dual message. It is a children’s movie through and through, with goofy jokes, a playful plot and a running time of just under 90 minutes. Its connection to adulthood is less poignant than contemporary children’s films — instead, “The Peanuts Movie” is full of nostalgia due to the source material it is attached to. However, by knowing exactly what it wants to be, “The Peanuts Movie” is still a resounding success.
When the Little Red-Haired Girl moves in across the street from perennial failure Charlie Brown, he vows to do anything that he can to become a winner and thereby win her heart. Each time Charlie Brown tries to succeed, something goes awry — his shirt gets stuck in a door, he accidentally sets off the school’s sprinklers and so on. As the school year passes, Charlie worries that he will never get the chance to prove himself, or even get to talk to his boyhood crush.
It’s a simple plot meant for a young audience, but it’s a surprisingly moving one — despite not making a concerted effort to reach an adult audience, the straightforward, melancholy story still speaks to the child inside every adult.
“Sometimes it feels like the whole world’s conspiring against me,” Charlie Brown groans. When he’s talking about the Little Red-Haired Girl, he says, “She has a pretty face, and pretty faces make me nervous.” Teachers talk to him in gibberish “wah-wah” sounds. When someone mentions that they know what kind of person Charlie Brown is, he asks, “An insecure, wishy-washy failure?”
Does Charlie Brown go to the University, or is it that the way everyone feels at some time or another?
“The Peanuts Movie” is a pleasure to watch. Its message to never give up in the face of failure is heart-warming and universal, and the mouthpiece of this message, Charlie Brown, remains iconic and charming. What’s more, the beautiful graphics, which are a mix of both comic book-style sketches and detailed CGI, expand on Charles Schulz’s work without dishonoring it. The movie may not aspire to the profundity of recent children’s movies, but if the eternal glee of watching Charlie Brown try to kick a football is any indication, that may be the movie’s greatest asset.
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