Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus and the rest of the beloved “Peanuts” gang make their big-screen debut, like they’ve never been seen before, in state of the art 3D animation. Charlie Brown, the world’s most beloved underdog, embarks upon an epic and heroic quest, while his best pal, the lovable beagle Snoopy, takes to the skies to pursue his arch-nemesis, the Red Baron. From the imagination of Charles M. Schulz and the creators of the ICE AGE films, THE PEANUTS MOVIE will prove that every underdog has his day.
The Blu-ray comes with a set of bonus features as well, with the highlight being the half-hour making-of featurette “You’ll Never Grow Up Charlie Brown.” The featurette is relatively short, it covers a lot of ground in surprising depth, ranging from observations about Peanuts and its creator to details on the creative decisions behind translating the comic strip to CGI.
The rest of the bonus features are shorter, but a lot of fun. “Snoopy’s Sibling Salute” is a brief look at the famous beagle’s siblings from the comic strip, all of whom make a cameo appearance at the end of the movie. Six “Snoopy Snippets” are quick and thoroughly amusing animated shorts. Meghan Trainor’s “Better When I’m Dancin’” gets a music-and-lyrics video along with a look behind the scenes of the live-action music video. I’m a bit puzzled why the latter is included when the actual music video isn’t, but at least YouTube is willing to be the new MTV. A “Get Down with Snoopy and Woodstock” music video comes dangerously close to the kind of update-for-modern-sensibilities that would have sunk the movie as a whole; while I like the mild acid jazz remix of the classic “Linus and Lucy” theme, the modern urban colloquialisms don’t fit as well. Three brief featurettes allow director Steve Martino to teach kids how to draw Snoopy, Woodstock, and Charlie Brown, while “Snoopy’s Playlist” lets you jump straight to the musical moments in the movie. All the movie’s original trailers are included, which is a home video bonus feature that I always appreciate and hope is making a comeback. The combo pack includes a DVD and your choice of an iTunes or UltraViolet digital copy, and the current gift set release packs in a small Snoopy World War I Flying Ace plush doll.