New Peanuts movie slated for 2015 release

Comments ¹⁶

1. Mike Cope

   “We finally felt the time was right and the technology is where we need it to be to create this film.”

   Good grief! I hope it’s not a hybrid of CGI characters in a live action world like the recent MetLife commercial (see YouTube: MetLife: “First Step (Piano)”). For one thing, the onscreen adults ruined the whole spirit of Peanuts. The false 3D lighting effects are another concern.

   Call me a pessimist, but there’s something special about the animated specials that I fear will get lost in a feature length (Hollywood) film. The recent “Happiness is a Warm Blanket” special carried much of the original spirit and tradition. Though it was a mix of traditional and digital technology, it still had that slightly unpolished, spontaneous appeal.

   It’s not the technology that honour’s Sparky’s legacy … It’s the execution of the idea.

   Please don’t execute Peanuts 🙂

2. Justin Riley

   It won’t be CGI/live action like Garfield, they can’t be that stupid.

   It will be pure CGI which is the right choice.

   This plus Popeye could be the start of something. Comic strips could become a Hollywood staple like superheroes.

3. Kelly McNutt

   “It will be pure CGI which is the right choice.”

   I don’t know, Justin… I think it’s too early to claim it’s the ‘right’ choice.

4. Naus

   are they honoring Sparky, or just trying to make a quick buck?

5. Justin Riley

   @Kelly McNutt. The classical animation movie has been dead for a decade. People want Pixar. I want Pixar. You want Pixar.

   I’m not worried about the animation and I’m sure Craig Schulz is devoted to the material and will be working with a talented team.

   I predict MAGIC!

6. Eddie Pittman

   “@Kelly McNutt. The classical animation movie has been dead for a decade. People want Pixar. I want Pixar. You want Pixar.”

   @Justin Riley People aren’t making a choice of hand drawn animation over CG, they are making the choice of good stories over bad stories. Pixar has given audiences exactly that and what the Disney failed to deliver in most of their last 2d films. All you have to do is look at the success of the re-releases of Lion King and Beauty and the Beast to see this.

7. Kelly McNutt

   Justin, 3D does not automatically equal magic and I won’t speak for you but I don’t want all Pixar all the time. Personally, I think your trust is misplaced. I feel the sentiment expressed by ‘NAUS’ is closer to the mark, really.

8. Joe Engesser

   Keep it like “Happiness is a Warm Blanket” and it’ll score HUGE at the box office. Good luck, Craig!

9. birdie Birdashaw

   Is there any real reason to do a feature film, besides making tons of money? Will a treasure like peanuts translate well to a modern audience?

10. Jeff Knurek

    They need to do something with Peanuts or face the same blank stare that kids have when you ask them who Mickey Mouse is. Peanuts are basically just graphics in most kids eyes. They don’t know their personalities or stories. The Muppets knew this. Thus the new movie. It’s a an insurance policy to cash in to assure more royalties for years to come. But hopefully it be3comes more than that. Hopefully it’s the beginning of introducing a younger generation to something that was so near and dear for those of us who experienced it from the beginning.

11. Mike Lester

    Somebody more knowledgable might be able to verify but I’d wager Peanuts is the headliner for better than half the comics pages in America every Sunday. And w/ aid of magnifier you can read the copyright is around 1965.

    Logic dictates that if you want to attract a younger audience, you don’t do it w/ 45 year old content. But I get it for the same reason Bugs, Daffy and Roadrunner are still propped up.

    Today less people know Snoopy as a beloved icon of American comics than as a MetLife insurance salesman.

12. Jeff Darcy

    I’m surprised they haven’t come out with a CGI horror flick
    that has the crocs from Pearls hunting down and eating
    Snoopy. Followed by a sequel in which Calvin and Hobbs hunt down the
    crocs… The target movie demo of twenty year olds
    would eat that up.

13. Andrew Pilcher

    I feel a bit uneasy about Peanuts in 3D CGI as well. It’s always been one of those strips where the flatness of the art was one of its charms, and that equals traditional cel animation in my mind. However, I thought the same when it was announced the Tintin movie was going to be 3D, reasoning Herge’s art was all about clear lines and flat colours, and was proved completely wrong there…

14. RYAN BROWN

    If it keeps its same charm it should be a hit

15. Mike Cope

    Here’s a Sparky quote that is worth considering here …

    “I subscribe to the theory that only a creation that speaks to succeeding generations can truly be labeled as art.” – Charles M. Schulz

    Do the Peanuts strips he had a sole hand in creating speak to succeeding generations?

    Does a movie that uses the property in order to speak to the succeeding generation count?

    Unless the film’s script is a direct take from the original work, much like the recent “Happiness is a Warm Blanket” video, I fear that rather than the Peanuts characters speaking to the succeeding generation, they are simply being used.

16. Mike Peterson

    Maybe they can do for Peanuts what Disney has done with Pooh to celebrate and immortalize the work of E.H. Shepard.