A Boy Named Charlie Brown
After nearly twenty years on the comics pages, the gang from Charles Schulz's Peanuts strip finally came to the big screen in 1969. A Boy Named Charlie Brown
was the first feature for Chuck, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy, Sally, Schroeder
and the rest, but their animated acting chops had been well-honed by TV
specials like the holiday perennial A Charlie Brown Christmas, first aired in 1965.
The expansion to feature length gives each member of the Peanuts
gang a chance to perform his or her classic bit: Linus loses and finds
his security blanket, Snoopy dances his toe-tapping happy jig,
Schroeder play piano, Lucy yanks the football away when Charlie Brown
tries to kick it and Charlie Brown himself manages the gang’s woefully
inept sandlot baseball team. The main story has loveable loser Charlie
Brown somehow making the National Spelling Bee, where he’ll either be a
hero or a goat (we'll give you three guesses which).
The film faithfully translated the comic strip’s humor to the big
screen, adding a string of memorable songs that earned an Oscar
nomination. A popular choice in kiddie matinees for years to come, A Boy Named Charlie Brown led to three more Peanuts features and a continued string of TV specials.
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