The Peanuts Movie (AKA Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie)

Dir: Steve Martino

2015

*****

2015 was a year of disappointing revisits to favourite childhood franchises. After the over-hype of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Terminator Genisys and Jurassic World I feared for my Peanuts. The Schulz family had very wisely retained the rights to Charles M's comic strip. Many a studio have wanted to make a feature but it wasn't until Schulz's son Craig wrote a story and, along with the help of screenwriter son Bryan, approached the studios and insisted on director Steve Martino (who had impressed them with how he adapted Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears A Who!) did it ever come close to becoming a reality. The Schulz family are obviously very protective of their fathers work and it shows in this feature film. It's a lot more colourful than the Peanuts have ever been and it features more rounded animation (although it's not quite 3D in the classic sense). More importantly, the characters are the same, the interaction between them is the same, the story is reminiscent of the older comic strips and its soul is intact. This in itself is a huge relief, the wonderful story is almost a bonus, and it really is wonderful. This wasn't nostalgia speaking, this was the real deal. It may have been ever so slightly toned down for the younger audience but there were also a lot of beaming adult faces around me when I saw it in the cinema. It's rare that a film can genuinely take me back to my childhood and make me feel as I did then. The Peanuts Movie is pure joy from start to finish. Without a doubt the feel good film of 2015.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Dir: Bill Melendez

1965

*****

Very few Christmas films are essential viewing but for me, it just isn't Christmas until I've watched A Charlie Brown Christmas. As a child (and as a big child) I was nuts about the Peanuts, I had everything from Snoopy pyjamas to a Woodstock calculator (that still works). Much like the way a good war film is an anti-war film, a good Christmas film is an anti-commercial Christmas film. Here is where the film trips up somewhat. The story sees young Charlie Brown become depressed during Christmas, an emotion many can relate to at the time of the year, so he puts on the school's Christmas play in order to rediscover the spirit of Christmas. Commercialization and secularism are touched upon and although the theme leans towards tradition, peace and the season of goodwill, it does get biblical and the Gospel according to Luke is read aloud. It's funny really because even as a child I saw the Peanuts as this crazy beatnik alternative cartoon that actually touched on real issues. However, it's Christmas, the birth of Christ is really what it's all about so you can't fault them for that and besides, and this is where it trips up, the whole film was commissioned and sponsored by Coca-Cola. Hypocrisy is the real spirit of Christmas, followed closely by nostalgia and watching brilliant cartoons in your pyjamas. Merry Christmas Charlie Brown!