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A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969 film)
Encyclopedia
A Boy Named Charlie Brown is a 1969 animated film
, produced by Cinema Center Films
, distributed by 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
.)
's first Little League
baseball game of the season approaches, and he eagerly goes to the stadium; the game starts, and the team loses the first game of the summer season. Charlie Brown walks home musing that they always lose the first and last games of the season - and all the ones in between. Later on that day, Linus
shows up at the front porch of the house and 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 is a loser, it will not help. Positively, Linus tells Charlie Brown that he is sure that someday he will win. The next day, Charlie Brown stops by Lucy
's Psychiatric Help
Booth. Lucy tells Charlie Brown that she can help him point out his faults better than anyone else [This session includes a classic football "kick"]. At her house, Lucy reveals a slide projector and a screen, onto which slides showing Charlie Brown's myriad
faults will be displayed. However, the 'evidence' does not help Charlie Brown at all, and makes him feel even more miserable.
On the way to school the next day, Linus encounters Charlie Brown, who tells him about the slide show 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 and insults by Lucy, Patty
, and Violet, which sets Charlie's mind to volunteer. 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, and Snoopy
go home and study through the dictionary. With Snoopy's accompaniment, Linus and Charlie sing about some spelling rules. As the school-wide spelling bee kicks off, Charlie's mind is filled with all sorts of words, rules, and doubts, as he is feeling the pressure of his class watching him take on the best spellers in the school. It soon comes down to Charlie Brown, but when Snoopy, who is outside playing a jaw harp, plays the song that helped Charlie Brown remember spelling tips, it clears his mind and Charlie Brown wins the Bee. The kids cheerfully follow him home, singing a song titled "Champion Charlie Brown".
Later on, at Charlie Brown's house, Lucy proclaims that Charlie Brown (with his newfound fame) must have an agent
, which she would naturally be the best. The others recommend that Charlie Brown should start studying again, which confuses him, given that he just won the spelling bee. The others tell him his victory in the school spelling bee has given him the privilege to take part in the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. Charlie's feelings about his victory immediately turn, as he finds 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 generously, albeit reluctantly, hands Charlie his blanket for good luck. The kids cheer Charlie on as the bus pulls away. Back at home, Lucy finds Linus suffering 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, an exhausted Charlie Brown opens on his door and is greeted by the enthusiastic Snoopy. Linus, however, passes out. As he comes back to consciousness, he explains to Charlie Brown that he is dying without his blanket. Charlie tells him that he is not 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 in the dark. As they continue 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 is not there. Angrily, he storms back to Charlie Brown's hotel room to tell him.
Back at the hotel, as Linus continues to suffer from withdrawal, Charlie Brown dresses for the contest. As Charlie Brown shines his shoes, Linus stares in shock: the cloth he is using is Linus's blanket. Linus dives for it, ecstatic to have it back. The three then set off for the spelling bee. Charlie Brown goes backstage while Linus and Snoopy take their seats in the auditorium where the spelling bee is to be held. Charlie Brown waits for the contest to begin. Back at home, the rest of the gang are tuning in to the spelling bee, which is being broadcast on television. One-by-one, the other contestants leave the spelling bee, until it is just Charlie Brown and one other boy. Charlie Brown is then disqualified for misspelling, of all words, "beagle
" as "B-E-A-G-E-L". Everyone lets out a huge scream; besides it being a relatively simple word, Snoopy is himself a beagle. Sadly, Charlie Brown returns home, along with Linus and Snoopy. When they get home in the nighttime, no one is there to greet them.
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 sees Charlie Brown lying in bed. When Linus mentions that the other kids missed him at school, he replies that he is not going back to school again. 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 notice something, Charlie Brown? The world didn't come to an end." As Linus shuts the door, Charlie Brown thinks for a moment, gets dressed, and then goes outside where the other kids are still playing marbles, jumping rope, and holding a football for him to kick. Just as Linus said, he still has his whole life ahead of him to prove he is a winner.
("M-A-Y-S" while thinking of baseball legend Willie Mays
), thus confirming Violet
's prediction that he would make a fool of himself. Charlie Brown then screams at his teacher in frustration, causing him to be sent to the principal's office (A few gags from that storyline, however, were also used in You're in Love, Charlie Brown
).
" and "Champion Charlie Brown" (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 movie 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 special
s 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 A Charlie Brown Christmas
) and "Baseball Theme" (first heard in Charlie Brown's All-Stars
). Guaraldi and Trotter were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score for their work on A Boy Named Charlie Brown.
The 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.
The French language version replaces Rod McKuen's vocals with a French version sung by Serge Gainsbourg
, "Un petit garçon nommé Charlie Brown".
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 most 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 the audience 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, 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
influence, wherein actual photographs appear 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.
. Time
praised its use of "subtle, understated colors" and its scrupulous fidelity to the source material, calling it a message film that "should not be missed".
.
DVD debut in anamorphic widescreen
on March 28, 2006, by Paramount Home Entertainment/CBS Home Entertainment (co-producer Cinema Center Films was owned by CBS). The DVD has more than six 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, CED Laserdisc, Japanese DVD) 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. Warner Home Video
did not release the movie on the boxset Peanuts 1960's Collection as the four feature films were not included in the WB/Peanuts deal.
The special was also released to Video Now disc playable on Video Now personal video players.
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
, produced by Cinema Center Films
Cinema Center Films
Cinema Center Films was the theatrical film production division of the CBS television network. Founded in 1967 , its films were distributed by National General Pictures. CBS closed the unit in 1972; its last film was the Peanuts animated musical Snoopy Come Home...
, distributed by National General Pictures
National General Pictures
National General Pictures was a Distribution and Film production company which was active between 1967 and 1973. NGP produced nine motion pictures inhouse and was the distributor of eighty films....
, and directed by Bill Meléndez
Bill Melendez
José Cuauhtémoc "Bill" Meléndez was a Mexican-American character animator, film director, voice artist and producer, known for his cartoons for Warner Brothers, UPA and the Peanuts series...
, it is the first feature film based on the Peanuts
Peanuts
Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...
comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
. It was also the final time that Peter Robbins
Peter Robbins (actor)
Peter Robbins is a former child actor best known for his voice-over work as Charlie Brown in the 1960s.-The original Charlie Brown:...
voiced the character of Charlie Brown
Charlie Brown
Charles "Charlie" Brown is the protagonist in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.Charlie Brown and his creator have a common connection in that they are both the sons of barbers, but whereas Schulz's work is described as the "most shining example of the American success story", Charlie...
(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
A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas is the first prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was produced and directed by former Warner Bros. and UPA animator Bill Melendez, who also supplied the voice for the character of Snoopy...
.)
Plot
Charlie BrownCharlie Brown
Charles "Charlie" Brown is the protagonist in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.Charlie Brown and his creator have a common connection in that they are both the sons of barbers, but whereas Schulz's work is described as the "most shining example of the American success story", Charlie...
's first Little League
Little League
Little League Baseball and Softball is a non-profit organization in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, United States which organizes local youth baseball and softball leagues throughout the U.S...
baseball game of the season approaches, and he eagerly goes to the stadium; the game starts, and the team loses the first game of the summer season. Charlie Brown walks home musing that they always lose the first and last games of the season - and all the ones in between. Later on that day, Linus
Linus van Pelt
Linus van Pelt is a character in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. The best friend of Charlie Brown, Linus is also the younger brother of Lucy van Pelt and older brother of Rerun van Pelt. He first appeared on September 19, 1952; however, he was not mentioned by name until three days later....
shows up at the front porch of the house and 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 is a loser, it will not help. Positively, Linus tells Charlie Brown that he is sure that someday he will win. The next day, Charlie Brown stops by Lucy
Lucy van Pelt
Lucille "Lucy" van Pelt is a fictional character in the syndicated comic strip :Peanuts, written and drawn by Charles Schulz. She is the main bully and the older sister of Linus and Rerun. Lucy is a crabby and cynical eight-year old girl, and often bullies the other characters in the strip,...
's Psychiatric Help
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
Booth. Lucy tells Charlie Brown that she can help him point out his faults better than anyone else [This session includes a classic football "kick"]. At her house, Lucy reveals a slide projector and a screen, onto which slides showing Charlie Brown's myriad
Myriad
Myriad , "numberlesscountless, infinite", is a classical Greek word for the number 10,000. In modern English, the word refers to an unspecified large quantity.-History and usage:...
faults will be displayed. However, the 'evidence' does not help Charlie Brown at all, and makes him feel even more miserable.
On the way to school the next day, Linus encounters Charlie Brown, who tells him about the slide show 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
Spelling bee
A spelling bee is a competition where contestants, usually children, are asked to spell English words. The concept is thought to have originated in the United States....
, 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 and insults by Lucy, Patty
Patty (Peanuts)
Patty is a character in the comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schulz . Her closest friend is Violet...
, and Violet, which sets Charlie's mind to volunteer. 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, and Snoopy
Snoopy
Snoopy is an fictional character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. He is Charlie Brown's pet beagle. Snoopy began his life in the strip as a fairly conventional dog, but eventually evolved into perhaps the strip's most dynamic character—and among the most recognizable...
go home and study through the dictionary. With Snoopy's accompaniment, Linus and Charlie sing about some spelling rules. As the school-wide spelling bee kicks off, Charlie's mind is filled with all sorts of words, rules, and doubts, as he is feeling the pressure of his class watching him take on the best spellers in the school. It soon comes down to Charlie Brown, but when Snoopy, who is outside playing a jaw harp, plays the song that helped Charlie Brown remember spelling tips, it clears his mind and Charlie Brown wins the Bee. The kids cheerfully follow him home, singing a song titled "Champion Charlie Brown".
Later on, at Charlie Brown's house, Lucy proclaims that Charlie Brown (with his newfound fame) must have an agent
Talent agent
A talent agent, or booking agent, is a person who finds jobs for actors, authors, film directors, musicians, models, producers, professional athletes, writers and other people in various entertainment businesses. Having an agent is not required, but does help the artist in getting jobs...
, which she would naturally be the best. The others recommend that Charlie Brown should start studying again, which confuses him, given that he just won the spelling bee. The others tell him his victory in the school spelling bee has given him the privilege to take part in the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. Charlie's feelings about his victory immediately turn, as he finds 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
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Linus wishes him luck, but then generously, albeit reluctantly, hands Charlie his blanket for good luck. The kids cheer Charlie on as the bus pulls away. Back at home, Lucy finds Linus suffering 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, an exhausted Charlie Brown opens on his door and is greeted by the enthusiastic Snoopy. Linus, however, passes out. As he comes back to consciousness, he explains to Charlie Brown that he is dying without his blanket. Charlie tells him that he is not sure where the blanket could be. One possibility could be that he left it at the New York Public Library
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
. Linus and Snoopy then take off through the streets of New York in the dark. As they continue walking, Snoopy gets distracted, and ends up ice-skating at the Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th and 51st streets in New York City, United States. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. It was declared a National...
ice rink
Ice rink
An ice rink is a frozen body of water and/or hardened chemicals where people can skate or play winter sports. Besides recreational ice skating, some of its uses include ice hockey, figure skating and curling as well as exhibitions, contests and ice shows...
. Soon, he catches up to Linus at the library, who, after peering through the front doors of the closed structure, is convinced it is not there. Angrily, he storms back to Charlie Brown's hotel room to tell him.
Back at the hotel, as Linus continues to suffer from withdrawal, Charlie Brown dresses for the contest. As Charlie Brown shines his shoes, Linus stares in shock: the cloth he is using is Linus's blanket. Linus dives for it, ecstatic to have it back. The three then set off for the spelling bee. Charlie Brown goes backstage while Linus and Snoopy take their seats in the auditorium where the spelling bee is to be held. Charlie Brown waits for the contest to begin. Back at home, the rest of the gang are tuning in to the spelling bee, which is being broadcast on television. One-by-one, the other contestants leave the spelling bee, until it is just Charlie Brown and one other boy. Charlie Brown is then disqualified for misspelling, of all words, "beagle
Beagle
The Beagle is a breed of small to medium-sized dog. A member of the Hound Group, it is similar in appearance to the Foxhound, but smaller, with shorter legs and longer, softer ears. Beagles are scent hounds, developed primarily for tracking hare, rabbit, and other game...
" as "B-E-A-G-E-L". Everyone lets out a huge scream; besides it being a relatively simple word, Snoopy is himself a beagle. Sadly, Charlie Brown returns home, along with Linus and Snoopy. When they get home in the nighttime, no one is there to greet them.
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 sees Charlie Brown lying in bed. When Linus mentions that the other kids missed him at school, he replies that he is not going back to school again. 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 notice something, Charlie Brown? The world didn't come to an end." As Linus shuts the door, Charlie Brown thinks for a moment, gets dressed, and then goes outside where the other kids are still playing marbles, jumping rope, and holding a football for him to kick. Just as Linus said, he still has his whole life ahead of him to prove he is a winner.
Cast
- Peter RobbinsPeter Robbins (actor)Peter Robbins is a former child actor best known for his voice-over work as Charlie Brown in the 1960s.-The original Charlie Brown:...
as Charlie BrownCharlie BrownCharles "Charlie" Brown is the protagonist in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.Charlie Brown and his creator have a common connection in that they are both the sons of barbers, but whereas Schulz's work is described as the "most shining example of the American success story", Charlie... - Pamelyn FerdinPamelyn FerdinPamelyn Ferdin is a former American television and film child actor, active both in live action and as a voice actress in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s and has since appeared in several voice acting roles as late as 2009...
as Lucy Van PeltLucy van PeltLucille "Lucy" van Pelt is a fictional character in the syndicated comic strip :Peanuts, written and drawn by Charles Schulz. She is the main bully and the older sister of Linus and Rerun. Lucy is a crabby and cynical eight-year old girl, and often bullies the other characters in the strip,... - Glenn Gilger as Linus Van PeltLinus van PeltLinus van Pelt is a character in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. The best friend of Charlie Brown, Linus is also the younger brother of Lucy van Pelt and older brother of Rerun van Pelt. He first appeared on September 19, 1952; however, he was not mentioned by name until three days later....
- Andy Pforsich as SchroederSchroeder- People :* Andreas Schroeder, a German-born Canadian poet, novelist, and nonfiction writer* Barbet Schroeder, a Swiss movie director and producer* Bill Schroeder, an American football player* Bill Schroeder , an American baseball player...
- Sally DryerSally DryerSally Dryer is a former child actor best known for her voice-over work in the 1960s.-Career:...
as PattyPatty (Peanuts)Patty is a character in the comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schulz . Her closest friend is Violet... - Bill MelendezBill MelendezJosé Cuauhtémoc "Bill" Meléndez was a Mexican-American character animator, film director, voice artist and producer, known for his cartoons for Warner Brothers, UPA and the Peanuts series...
as SnoopySnoopySnoopy is an fictional character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. He is Charlie Brown's pet beagle. Snoopy began his life in the strip as a fairly conventional dog, but eventually evolved into perhaps the strip's most dynamic character—and among the most recognizable... - Ann Altieri as Violet
- Erin SullivanErin SullivanErin Sullivan was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives, serving from 1998-2002. Her district consisted of much of lower Cuyahoga County, Ohio. She was preceded by Tom Patton.-External links:*...
as Sally BrownSally BrownSally Brown is the younger sister of Charlie Brown in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles Schulz. She was first mentioned in early 1959 and throughout a long series of strips before her first appearance in August 1959.-Appearance:...
- Lynda MendelsonLynda MendelsonLynda Mendelson is a former child actress noted for providing the voice of "Frieda" in several Peanuts animated films during the early 1970s. Later in life she has worked behind the scenes in various capacities within the film production industry...
as FriedaFrieda (Peanuts)Frieda is a character in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles Schulz. According to Schulz, Frieda's character was inspired by his longtime friend Frieda Rich, a local artist whom he met while taking classes at the Art Instruction Schools in Minneapolis, Minnesota...
& The Different Girl - Christopher DeFariaChristopher DeFariaChris DeFaria is an American production manager and producer of television and movies, with credits including Cats & Dogs, Watchmen, and Looney Tunes: Back in Action...
as Pig-PenPig-Pen"Pig-Pen" is a character in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. He is a young boy who is, except on very rare occasions, very dirty.-History:"Pig-Pen" is a nickname, invariably written in quotation marks in the strip... - David Carey as 2nd Boy
- Guy Pforsich as 3rd Boy
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 mazeMaze
A maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage through which the solver must find a route. In everyday speech, both maze and labyrinth denote a complex and confusing series of pathways, but technically the maze is distinguished from the labyrinth, as the labyrinth has a single...
("M-A-Y-S" while thinking of baseball legend Willie Mays
Willie Mays
Willie Howard Mays, Jr. is a retired American professional baseball player who played the majority of his major league career with the New York and San Francisco Giants before finishing with the New York Mets. Nicknamed The Say Hey Kid, Mays was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979, his...
), thus confirming Violet
Violet (Peanuts)
Violet Gray is a fictional character in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.Violet has shoulder-length dark hair, and she frequently wears green dresses...
's prediction that he would make a fool of himself. Charlie Brown then screams at his teacher in frustration, causing him to be sent to the principal's office (A few gags from that storyline, however, were also used in You're in Love, Charlie Brown
You're in Love, Charlie Brown
You're in Love, Charlie Brown is the fourth prime-time animated TV specials based upon the popular comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It originally aired on CBS on June 12, 1967...
).
Music
A Boy Named Charlie Brown also included several original songs, some of which boasted vocals for the first time: "Failure Face", "I Before E Except After CI before e except after c
"I before E, except after C" is a mnemonic rule of thumb for English spelling. If one is unsure whether a word is spelled with the sequence ei or ie, the rhyme suggests that the correct order is ie unless the preceding letter is c or the combination is being pronounced as an 'A' , in which case it...
" and "Champion Charlie Brown" (Before this film, musical pieces in Peanuts specials were primarily instrumental, except for a few traditional songs in A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas is the first prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was produced and directed by former Warner Bros. and UPA animator Bill Melendez, who also supplied the voice for the character of Snoopy...
.) Rod McKuen
Rod McKuen
Rod McKuen is an American poet, songwriter, composer, and singer. He was one of the best-selling poets in the United States during the late 1960s. Throughout his career, McKuen produced a wide range of recordings, which included popular music, spoken word poetry, film soundtracks, and classical music...
wrote and sang the title song. He also wrote "Failure Face" and "Champion Charlie Brown".
The instrumental tracks interspersed throughout the movie were composed by Vince Guaraldi
Vince Guaraldi
Vincent Anthony "Vince" Guaraldi was an Italian American jazz musician and pianist noted for his innovative compositions and arrangements and for composing music for animated adaptations of the Peanuts comic strip...
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 special
Television special
A television special is a television program which interrupts or temporarily replaces programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Sometimes, however, the term is given to a telecast of a theatrical film, such as The Wizard of Oz or The Ten Commandments, which is not part of a regular...
s 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 A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas is the first prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was produced and directed by former Warner Bros. and UPA animator Bill Melendez, who also supplied the voice for the character of Snoopy...
) and "Baseball Theme" (first heard in Charlie Brown's All-Stars
Charlie Brown's All-Stars
Charlie Brown's All-Stars is the second prime-time animated TV special based upon the popular comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was the second such TV special to be produced by Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez , and originally aired on the CBS network on June 8, 1966...
). Guaraldi and Trotter were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score for their work on A Boy Named Charlie Brown.
The segment during the "Skating" sequence was choreographed by American figure skater Skippy Baxter
Skippy Baxter
Lloyd Valdemar Baxter , better known as Skippy Baxter, is an American figure skater. He won two medals at the 1940 United States Figure Skating Championships: a bronze in men's singles and a silver in pair skating with Hedy Stenuf...
. A segment during the middle of the film, in which Schroeder plays the second movement of Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata
Piano Sonata No. 8 (Beethoven)
Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13, commonly known as Sonata Pathétique, was written in 1798 when the composer was 27 years old, and was published in 1799. Beethoven dedicated the work to his friend Prince Karl von Lichnowsky...
, had piano performed by Ingolf Dahl
Ingolf Dahl
Ingolf Dahl was a German-born American composer, pianist, conductor, and educator.-Biography:Born in Hamburg, Germany to a German father and a Swedish mother, his birth name was Walter Ingolf Marcus. He studied with Philipp Jarnach at the Hochschule für Musik Köln...
.
The film also features a Jew's harp
Jew's harp
The Jew's harp, jaw harp, mouth harp, Ozark harp, trump or juice harp, is thought to be one of the oldest musical instruments in the world; a musician apparently playing it can be seen in a Chinese drawing from the 4th century BC...
, which Snoopy plays to help Charlie with his spelling.
The French language version replaces Rod McKuen's vocals with a French version sung by Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg, born Lucien Ginsburg was a French singer-songwriter, actor and director. Gainsbourg's extremely varied musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorize...
, "Un petit garçon nommé Charlie Brown".
Art Design
A Boy Named Charlie Brown, while directed and produced by the same team of Bill MeléndezBill Melendez
José Cuauhtémoc "Bill" Meléndez was a Mexican-American character animator, film director, voice artist and producer, known for his cartoons for Warner Brothers, UPA and the Peanuts series...
and Lee Mendelson
Lee Mendelson
Lee Mendelson is an American television producer. He is best known as the executive producer of the many Peanuts animated specials....
, who were responsible for all the Peanuts television specials (Phil Roman
Phil Roman
Philip Roman , is an animator. He is the founder of animation studios Film Roman and Phil Roman Entertainment. Roman is of Mexican American descent....
directed later TV specials starting around the mid 1970s), has many different aspects that most the specials did not explore in a visual sense. The film itself has moments where there is rotoscoping
Rotoscope
Rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over live-action film movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films. Originally, recorded live-action film images were projected onto a frosted glass panel and re-drawn by an animator...
prevalent, as in the sequence when Snoopy skates, and the audience can see silhouettes of real hockey players behind him. Some backgrounds have a very pop art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
kind of feel which was very reminiscent in much of the animation style of the late 1960s, as in "The Star-Spangled Banner
The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships...
" 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
Fantasia (film)
Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are...
.
There also seems to be a strong Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
influence, wherein actual photographs appear to have been painted over in semi day-glo psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
colors. Melendez, who had previously worked with Bob Clampett
Bob Clampett
Robert Emerson "Bob" Clampett was an American animator, producer, director, and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes animated series from Warner Bros., and the television shows Time for Beany and Beany and Cecil...
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.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
cartoon called The Big Snooze
The Big Snooze
The Big Snooze is a 1946 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by an uncredited Bob Clampett, his final cartoon for Warner. Its title was inspired by the 1939 book The Big Sleep, and its 1946 film adaptation, also a Warner release. The Big Snooze features Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, voiced as...
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 TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
praised its use of "subtle, understated colors" and its scrupulous fidelity to the source material, calling it a message film that "should not be missed".
Awards
The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song ScoreAcademy Award for Original Music Score
The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...
.
DVD release
This film made its Region 1DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
DVD debut in anamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen, when applied to DVD manufacture, is a video process that horizontally squeezes a widescreen image so that it can be stored in a standard 4:3 aspect ratio DVD image frame. Compatible playback equipment can then re-expand the horizontal dimension to show the original widescreen...
on March 28, 2006, by Paramount Home Entertainment/CBS Home Entertainment (co-producer Cinema Center Films was owned by CBS). The DVD has more than six minutes of footage not seen since the 1969 test screening
Test screening
A test screening is a preview screening of a movie or television show before its general release in order to gauge audience reaction. Preview audiences are selected from a cross-section of the population, and are usually asked to complete a questionnaire or provide feedback in some form. Harold...
and premiere
Premiere
A premiere is generally "a first performance". This can refer to plays, films, television programs, operas, symphonies, ballets and so on. Premieres for theatrical, musical and other cultural presentations can become extravagant affairs, attracting large numbers of socialites and much media...
. The footage consists of new scenes completely excised from earlier home video releases (VHS, CED Laserdisc, Japanese DVD) 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
Instant replay
Instant replay is the replaying of video footage of an event or incident very soon after it has occurred. In television broadcasting of sports events, instant replay is often used during live broadcast, to show a passage of play which was important or remarkable, or which was unclear on first...
thereof). This also includes extended existing scenes. Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video is the home video unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., itself part of Time Warner. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video . The company launched in the United States with twenty films on VHS and Betamax videocassettes in late 1979...
did not release the movie on the boxset Peanuts 1960's Collection as the four feature films were not included in the WB/Peanuts deal.
The special was also released to Video Now disc playable on Video Now personal video players.