The past couple of months have seen brand-new trailers drop for some of the most highly anticipated movies of 2015, including “Jurassic World,” “Pan” and “Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens.”
Beyond the ridiculously high levels of excitement surrounding each of those movies, they share another commonality: They are all sequels/prequels to beloved franchises from way back when.
But let’s not forget another classic property that’s coming to the big screen this year: Charles Schulz’s "Peanuts." Although the upcoming animated feature from Blue Sky Studios (“Ice Age”) probably won’t break the box office the way any of the other three films could when it flies into theaters Nov. 6, it’s looking more and more like it might wind up being one of the highlights of the 2015 holiday movie season.
Here are five reasons why, in a year crammed full of must-see tentpole features, “Peanuts” could be a standout for audiences of all ages.
The creative team
With a property as difficult to do right as "Peanuts," the creative team is always a good early indicator of potential quality. In this case, the team seems to be better than most movie fans could have hoped for.
Director Steve Martino (“Ice Age: Continental Drift”) already has experience translating a famous children’s author into a successful 3-D animated feature, having co-directed the well-received Dr. Seuss adaptation “Horton Hears a Who!”
The Peanuts film is also being produced by Paul Feig, the director of “Freaks and Geeks,” “Bridesmaids” and the upcoming “Ghostbusters” reboot — and an avowed Peanuts fan.
Most importantly, though, two of the people involved with the film bear the last name of Schulz: Craig Schulz and Bryan Schulz, original Peanuts creator Charles Schulz’s son and grandson, respectively. Not only are they on board as producers, but they also co-wrote the script with newcomer Cornelius Uliano, so their fingerprints will be all over it. That should help assuage the fears of fans concerned by Hollywood’s tendency to take nostalgic properties and completely botch them.
Timeless, not modern
The year 2015 marks the 65th anniversary of the original Peanuts comic strip and the 50th anniversary of the gang’s first TV special, “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” which remains a holiday classic to this day.
Martino and Co. seem very aware of the timeless appeal of Schulz’s creation and say they are committed to recapturing that, not updating it for modern tastes.
As Craig Schulz said, speaking with USA Today, “I’m way more protective than my father would have been. Our No. 1 goal was always to be authentic to his work and legacy.”
In the same article, Feig added, “Snoopy will not be rapping, no one will be twerking, we’re in good hands.”
Classic Peanuts look
A big part of being authentic to the original Peanuts comic strips is the animation style, which, as is immediately evident from just the first shot of the trailer, does a fantastic job of translating Schulz’s iconic 2-D drawings into crisp, brightly colored 3-D with minimal changes. The characters are still drawn with the same simple shapes and black squiggles for mouths, and they look as classic as ever.
It’s a far cry from other 3-D animated features, and that’s good.
According to Martino in the USA Today article, being faithful to the look of Schulz’s comic strips occasionally presented problems for the animators dealing with how to convey specific emotions with things like dots for eyes, but they eventually figured it out, he said. "A little tilt of that eye shape can give you worry. A little stretch and raise of that little dot can give you surprise."
No new characters
When fans think of the Peanuts gang, they think of specific characters: Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Woodstock, Lucy, Peppermint Patty, Linus, etc.
Those are the classic Peanuts characters, and they’re also the only ones that will appear in this. The filmmakers made a conscious decision not to pull a “Muppets” and introduce an entirely new character, opting instead to draw exclusively from the roster of characters created by Schulz for his comic strips.
This is just one more way “Peanuts” is keeping things classic rather than trying to appeal to a specific demographic.
The voices
Finally, one last detail that should get old-school Peanuts fans excited is news that the movie will use archival recordings of Bill Melendez, the original actor who voiced both Snoopy and Woodstock, instead of recasting the parts.
Disney’s 2013 Oscar-nominated short “Get a Horse!” did something similar (to excellent effect), featuring old recordings of Walt Disney as the voice of Mickey Mouse.
Combined with the unique art style and classic characters, it’s this kind of thing that makes it feel like “Peanuts” isn’t just a weak cash-grab but is instead an actual labor of love on the part of the filmmakers.
Jeff Peterson is a native of Utah Valley and studied humanities and history at Brigham Young University. Along with the Deseret News, he also contributes to the film discussion website FilmInquiry.com.