THE PEANUTS MOVIE MOVIE (2015)

As a film that seeks to reinvigorate the Peanuts' feature film franchise, I felt that it succeeded in it’s mission to appeal to those of us who grew up with the original films in the theatres and the various TV specials. What I saw were as many adults in the theatre most of whom did not have children as children themselves, who were seeing the Peanuts’ characters on the bigscreen for the first time. It’s been about 35 years since the last Peanuts film was in theatres but the franchise has been kept alive by the reprints of the old Charles Schulz comic strips in newspapers (yes, there are those of us who still read those), various books and the perennial TV specials still being aired on network TV. It frankly was like revisiting a long lost friend or old home week with it’s message of selflessness, one’s own self worth, the perennial fear of whether you are loved and accepted and honesty, themes all playing key roles in the story. The film was directed by Steve Martini with a script by Craig & Bryan Schulz (Charles Schulz’s son and grandson, respectively) and Cornelius Uliano. A lovely score by Christoph Beck also features the original music of Vince Guaraldi (who scored all the original TV specials and films) and a couple of lovely songs written and performed by Meghan Trainor all add to the quiet charm that this wise little film has to offer.