After the runaway success of A Boy Named Charlie Brown, it seemed like the future of the Peanuts franchise was not on the small screen but on the big. Charles Schulz decided a storyline from August 1968 would be a good one to adapt for the next movie, which would focus on Snoopy. While one television special would be produced between the release of A Boy in late 1969 and the release of the next movie, most of Bill Melendez's staff would be devoted to working on this project, aimed for a 1972 release. All the ingredients were in place for another commercial triumph.
Alas, it was not to be. For a variety of reasons, most beyond the control of the filmmakers, Snoopy, Come Home ended up being a flop. Even though two more Peanuts films would be released over the next eight years, it was now clear that Peanuts would only be an occasional visitor to the moviehouse, with production resuming on the TV specials soon after this wrapped.
Like A Boy Named Charlie Brown, the action meanders around for quite some time at the beginning before the proper plot finally kicks in. Snoopy is, of course, far more independent than most dogs, a trait that annoys Charlie Brown to no end as he comes and goes as he pleases, mostly seeming to come home mostly to get fed. However, Snoopy is finding it harder and harder to go places, as an increasing number of "No Dogs Allowed" signs are popping up, resulting in him getting kicked out of the library and off of a beach. This leaves him nothing better to do than get into a fight with Linus over his blanket and to box Lucy. Finally, after nearly 20 minutes (of an 80 minute movie), Snoopy gets a letter in the mail, from a blonde girl in a hospital. Immediately upon reading, he and Woodstock (making his animated debut, a fact greatly emphasized by the film's advertising campaign) sets out to visit her, leaving poor Charlie Brown completely in the dark about what's going on.
The girl, as it turns out, is Lila, who we learn late in the movie was Snoopy's original owner. Unfortunately for Snoopy and Woodstock, every method of public transpiration is part of the "No Dogs Allowed" cabal, requiring the two to make the journey by foot. This leads to what I suspect is supposed to be the comic highlight of the film, where the dog and bird are rather forcefully "adopted" by a young girl who wants to be a pet owner in the worst way, literally. The segment takes up 8 minutes (in an 80 minute movie), but feels at least twice as long.
The problem as an adult viewer is that much of the storyline could have made a pretty good 25 minute special, but stretched out more then three times that, the material feels really thin, especially the film's last 20 minutes, when Snoopy makes a decision that will obviously be reversed by the film's end, but the script has to sell us that it is really going to stand.
Despite the previous music team of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, including Vince Guaraldi, getting an Oscar nomination, Schulz, Mendelson, and Melendez decided to distinguish the movie from the specials by hiring different composers this time around, namely Richard and Robert Sherman. The brothers had been Disney's in-house musicians throughout the 60s, winning Oscars for the score of Mary Poppins and the original song "Chim Chim Cher-ee" from the same film. They had recently become free agents, and clearly Schulz hoped they might repeat their magic. They didn't. The songs and score are almost completely unmemorable, save for the repeated low-bass bellowing of "No Dogs Allowed!" by Thurl Ravenscroft, best known today for singing "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch".
Music aside, the rest of the special does resemble a TV production more than a feature film, other than its length. That's not a big surprise, as most of the team from the specials (including future Peanuts directors Phil Roman and Sam Jaimes) worked on this. Chad Webber made his debut as Charlie Brown in this, going on to voice the role in You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown and There's No Time for Love, Charlie Brown. Indeed, much of the voice cast would make their Peanuts debuts in this movie, then stick around for a while.
According to Wikipedia, this film only grossed $245,000 during its theatrical run, a sharp drop after the roughly $12 million that A Boy Named Charlie Brown made. Box office figures from that time period are notoriously unreliable, so I tend to think this made more than that, but it didn't come close to equaling the success of Boy. Like the previous movie, this was produced and distributed by Cinema Center Films, CBS's attempt to get into movie production. During its five-year history, it had some success, with its most memorable movies being Little Big Man and Scrooge. However, it was mostly a flop factory, and some estimates suggest it lost a staggering-for-the-time $30 million over its five-year existence. Early in 1972, CBS announced it was pulling the plug, allowing production on the films already rolling to continue, but not authorizing any additional films. Snoopy, Come Home, released in August, would be the studio's final film. Basically being an orphan film, advertising was probably slim and theater owners probably quickly regulated the film to kiddie matinees, which would explain why the box office was so much smaller. Paramount (two decades away from becoming part of the same conglomerate as CBS) would acquire the feature film rights to the franchise and make two more Peanuts movie in 1977 and 1980. Meanwhile, Snoopy, Come Home, like A Boy Named Charlie Brown, would become a Saturday afternoon staple on TV.
I really wished I liked Snoopy, Come Home better. This would be the one feature film centered around him, but I think the character may work better as a supporting player than as the star. The film is cute and has a few moments, but never really rises above that.
Next week: It's time for summer camp and a dangerous raft race in Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown.
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