Dave’s Top 5: Peanuts Movies
The Peanuts movie opens this weekend. Are you taking the kids to see it? Or, like me are you using your kids to go see it?
James Bond films. Batman comic books. Dick Tracy's Crimestoppers notebook in the newspaper comic pages... right next to Peanuts. I have to confess that while I was catching up on the latest Dick Tracy adventure, I was always checking in on other newspaper comic strips like Annie and Charlie Brown in Peanuts. Like most kids, I think Charles M. Schulz's Charlie Brown knew what I was going through as a kid.
Charlie Brown and Peanuts weren't just newspaper comic strip characters. They were television and movie stars, too! They started out with TV Specials and then moved up to feature films!
Since The Peanuts Movie opens this weekend, I thought I would share my Top 5 Peanuts Movies. Share your favorites in the comments.
- YouTube screen capture of the Peanuts gang in Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (And Don't Come Back) 1980
YouTube screen capture of the Peanuts gang in Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (And Don't Come Back) 1980 5Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (And Don't Come Back) 1980
The last time The Peanuts gang was in theaters was 1980! Charlie Brown, along with Snoopy, Woodstock, Linus, Peppermint Patty and Marcie all head to France as foreign exchange students. Snoopy trashes Wimbledon like he's John McEnroe. Charlie Brown has a mystery letter written in French from a girl named Violet. Will he find love on a distant shore? It's a fun, wacky movie, and while there's no critic score, the movie gets an 81% viewer score at Rotten Tomatoes.
- YouTube screen capture of Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown to punt in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, 1973
YouTube screen capture of Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown to punt in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, 1973 4A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving 1973
What are the holidays without the Peanuts gang? At our house Thanksgiving is about a couple movies: the classic, original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. It's Thanksgiving, and Charlie Brown and his little sister, Sally, are heading off to their grandmothers. Peppermint Patty invites herself over to the Browns for Thanksgiving dinner. Wackiness ensues as the guest list keeps growing and growing. Thanksgiving dinner is popcorn and toast, but a lot of thankfulness. Like most holiday specials on TV this is an annual staple. The movie earns a 73% viewer score on Rotten Tomatoes.
- YouTube screen capture of Lucy and Linus picking their pumpkin in It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, 1966
YouTube screen capture of Lucy and Linus picking their pumpkin in It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, 1966 3It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown 1966
Nothing captures what it's like to be a kid than the Peanuts Halloween special, It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. He tries to go as a ghost but cuts too many eye holes! The running gag is that all he gets from trick-or-treating is a rock! Linus spends the entire night in a pumpkin patch waiting for The Great Pumpkin, who is supposed to be a Halloween version of Santa. The cool thing is, in this special, more is going on with the other characters, like Linus. It's more than a one-joke special, with Snoopy for comic relief. Audiences agree with an 84% Rotten Tomatoes score.
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A Charlie Brown Christmas 1965
If you're looking for a way to really keep Christ in Christmas, Linus Van Pelt helps with A Charlie Brown Christmas. Charlie Brown is suffering from the holiday blues, looking for the meaning of Christmas. This is an all-time class right up there with It's A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. The first television-holiday special from 1965 earns both a 92% critical score and 86% viewer rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
- YouTube Screen capture of A Boy Named Charlie Brown, 1969
YouTube Screen capture of A Boy Named Charlie Brown, 1969 1A Boy Named Charlie Brown 1969
This is the greatest Peanuts story ever! Which is why it's at Number One! If it weren't for bad luck, Charlie Brown would have no luck at all. Somehow he manages to steal back failure from success. And yet, here he manages to win the local spelling bee that sends him on the grand, final National Championship! It all hinges on one, simple word... There are a couple of cool side stories, like Linus and his blanket and Snoopy skating. What's great is that Charlie Brown represents his entire school and hometown and has everybody rooting for him right up to the end. A Boy Named Charlie Brown earns both a 94% critics score and an 84% viewers score at Rotten Tomatoes.
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