Thanks for making this topic, Cats! I mean, Catspaw, your majesty.
I'll take any opportunity to talk about this movie.
Despite my mile-high expectations, this amazed me. This is Blue Sky's first particularly excellent film since
Horton Hears a Who and, not suprisingly, from the same director, Steve Martino.
It's pretty true to the characters. Franklin doesn't show his relaxed, cool side, he mostly delivers lines anyone could say, but at least he's in there. Pig Pen, it's sad how few strips and cartoons he's in and they used him hilariously. They did cutesy it up. Snoopy was more loyal and considerate than the strip but oh well, a more marketable Snoopy but still Snoopy. Charile Brown is a bit too cheery, smiling ruefully often and bemoaning his lot rather less. It was overall more optimistic than Schulz's strip which strikes chord between true nihilism and hope. Still, it still had a lot of that cynical yet happy Peanuts atmosphere. As for the actors, they all excelled. Handing a movie to kids is always a huge risk that
should be taken and boy did it pay off. Also, (spoiler) Heather (the Little Red Haired Girl) talked! AAAAH!
As for the animation, it was incredible. Just incredible. It was somewhat like stop motion in the range of movement, for instance, and the clothes have pronounced stitching like they're doll clothes. However, sometimes rangeo f motion gets broader and it also has a cg look as well, with amazing textures. There's also a lot of line drawing influence. Like the in shorts, the backgrounds are completely still. And the characters just look so perfect, so 3D and still so themselves just different in a great way. And blending animation with comic strip tricks, such as lines to indicate movement, thought clouds, etc is groundbreaking. This is animation. This is what animation can do. This is, dare I say it, Disney levels of sophistication, beauty, and excellence.
I know I've gushed about this movie enough and I actually do have some crabs real quick. Biggest? Snoopy's red baron flights are clearly flights of fantasy. In the strip, it has a Calvin and Hobbes things going. In fact, other characters even ride it, such as Peppermint Patty, Marcie, and Schroeder. Though they have a good reason for claiming they're a fantasy, it takes a bit of the fun, wonder and cleverness out of it.
Anyhow, I can't imagine anyone will read all that but it was fun just writing it. Bottom line, if you're a Peanuts fan at all or curious to see what this American institution is about, see this movie!
I agree that the Snoopy adventure parts could have been done a little differently, but since the movie was so good overall, it doesn't really bother me. Peanuts existed for so many years that the tone wasn't the same throughout all of it, and the movie does capture more of the sweetness and a little less of the "woe is me" Charlie Brown, but for the movie, I really liked it.