In 1969, Peanuts was secure on top of its throne as the #1 comic strip in the country. The humungous success of A Charlie Brown Christmas had led to four more primetime specials. Peanuts books were available at bookstores and Peanuts toys were available at toy stores. The off-Broadway musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown was drawing huge crowds. The (unauthorized) song "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron" had peaked at #2 on the Billboards charts. About the only genre of entertainment that Peanuts hadn't conquered was movies.
Making the jump to the big screen was risky. Writing a 25-minute special was one thing, but a 90-minute movie was quite another. In addition, Disney largely had a stranglehold on American feature animation at the time. By my estimate, there had only been six full-length animated features produced by a major animation house other than Disney in the 32 years since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs had premiered, and none of them had been particularly successful. However, CBS, which aired the specials, was wiling to take a chance, and the network's feature film division, Cinema Center Films, released A Boy Named Charlie Brown in December, 1969.
Charlie Brown is, of course, a loser. He can't fly a kite. He can't win a baseball game. He can't even look at clouds right, as he sees a ducky and a horsy while Linus sees the stoning of St. Stephen. Redemption comes when, after being egged on by Lucy, (original) Patty, and Violet, he enters his class's spelling bee and surprisingly wins. Then, he pulls another upset and wins the school bee. Charlie Brown is relieved that the bees are finally over, only to learn that his victory meant he was going to compete in the national bee in New York.
The main plot only takes up about half the running time, and doesn't really even kick in until the half-hour mark. Even after the spelling bee plot takes off, there's still a lot of filler, including the playing of one of Beethoven's sonatas, supposedly by Schroeder, but in reality by classical pianist Ingolf Dahl. There's also a long sequence of Linus searching New York for his blanket after Charlie Brown accidently loses it. Indeed, it wouldn't surprise me at all if this had started out as a script for a special, only to be greatly expanded for feature film length.
Vince Guaraldi would write the score, but it was mostly made up of cues from prior specials. Much more prominent on the soundtrack were the songs written (and, in one case, performed) by Rod McKuen, a prominent poet and musician of the era. Guaraldi and McKuen, along with John Scott Trotter (who wrote another song heard in the movie, "I Before E"), Alan Shean, and director Bill Melendez would share an Oscar nomination for Original Song Score, which is, to date, the only Oscar nomination the Peanuts franchise has earned (they would lose to The Beatles for Let It Be).
This would be Melendez's first feature film, after having directed the previous Peanuts specials and several animated shorts. Much of the voice cast returned from the specials, including Charlie Brown's voice Peter Robbins, in what would be his final outing as Charlie Brown. However, there were several newcomers, including Linus's voice, Glenn Gilger, who voiced Linus in this and the special It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown, before apparently retiring, and Lucy's voice, Pamelyn Frerdin, who would do live-action and voice roles throughout the 70s.
While challenging Disney's dominance of animation was risky, it was one that paid off. The film, which played through 1970 in may markets, would gross a respectable $12 million, most likely becoming the top non-Disney animated film ever at the time. While Disney's near-monopoly on feature animation wouldn't completely disappear for another 30 years, more American-produced animation begin to be made and released into theaters.
Even though there was way too much filler and the original songs weren't all the great, A Boy Named Charlie Brown is still a solidly entertaining movie. Over the next decade, Charles Schulz, Bill Melendez, and Lee Mendelson would, in addition to making numerous specials, would also make three more feature films. Peanuts didn't quite conquer the movie world, but Schulz's creations would give it a good shot.
Next week: We meet Snoopy's original owner in Snoopy, Come Home.
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