Peanuts have had a long and fruitful run in the comics, on TV, and even in film, but we’ve seen less of them in recent years, especially after the passing, a quarter of a century ago, of creator Charles Schulz. So when something fresh comes along, every Peanuts fan clutches their blue security blanket tight, wondering if this will be what brings back magic.
Peanuts Presents: A Summer Musical, arriving on Apple TV+ next month, might be that moment, and mainly because the trailer goes where no Peanuts content in memory has gone before.
Peanuts Presents: A Summer Musical, arriving on one of the best streaming services on August 15, is, at least based on the trailer that dropped this week, a somewhat familiar Peanuts tale. The gang is back at Summer Camp, which is in danger of shutting down, and Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Franklin, Peppermint Patty, and Snoopy must band together and find a way to save it. The twist for most people is that it’s a musical, Peanuts’ first in almost 40 years.
As animated by Wild Brain, the movie hews closely to Schulz’s original pen-and-ink style and the look and feel of some of Peanuts’ classic TV specials, but with some notable exceptions. The imagery is more dynamic and, thanks to shading, all the characters have just a little more dimension. It’s not at all CGI-level like the somewhat poorly received 2015’s The Peanuts Movie (it was good, you just have to give it a chance), but it’s still noticeable. It’s a look that was first introduced when Apple TV+ launched the “Snoopy Presents” series.
“It was to be a bridge between The Peanuts Movie full CGI, and the simple 2D style of The Snoopy Show series. We created this hybrid that we referred to as “enhanced 2D” – it was created by lighting effects and digital enhancements,” Schulz’s son (and an executive producer for the movie), Craig, told me via email.
However, 44 seconds in, the trailer reveals a decision that was so startling, I caught my breath: there was the briefest on-screen representation and even a little animation of Peanuts characters as they looked in 1950, when Schulz first started penning the iconic strip.
You’d be forgiven for not noticing. I suspect most people watching the trailer assumed that animation studio Wild Brain simply made a random decision to try and depict the characters as they might have looked when they first started attending their beloved camp. In reality, all the characters are exactly as they appeared in the first decade before Charlie Brown adopted his signature round head and Snoopy grew from an impish puppy into the man-about-town dog he is today.
Turns out they had used that style once before in an Apple TV+ Peanuts special I missed.
“The 1950’s style kids had not been used until we did the Snoopy Presents: One-of-a-Kind Marcie [2023] special and introduced Carlin and some other kindergartners. This was the first time my father’s original 1950’s style cast has been put to animation. It was my son Bryan’s idea, and one of my favorite moments in the film,” Craig Schulz told me via email.
Even so, I was so caught off guard by the images and, honestly, moved, that I barely paid attention to the rest of the trailer. I had to go back and see how the Peanuts kids appear to pull together in actions and song.
Peanuts Presents: A Summer Musical may also bring the magic because, it’s also written, in part by Charles Schulz’s son, Craig, and grandson, Bryan, and it includes all the familiar tropes like Schroeder playing his tiny piano, Sally’s bouts of frustration and anxiety, Charlie Brown losing, Snoopy being incredibly cool, Pig Pen being dirty, and adults sounding like trombones.
A little side note here. When I spoke to original A Charlie Brown Christmas TV producer Lee Mendelson in 2015 about how they first developed the adult “voices,” he told me:
“We chose not to show the adult. So I asked our music director, Vince Guaraldi, ‘Would there be some instrument we could use as a sound to emulate what an adult might sound like to a kid?’”
Guaraldi, on instinct, drafted a trombone player.
Everyone who heard the instrument’s “wah wah” sound loved it, including Peanuts creator Schulz, who said simply, “That’s great.”
Perhaps this new musical special will also be great. I have high hopes, especially considering how even just the trailer gave me all the feels.
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