Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown didn't do too much business during the summer of 1977, but the new specials and reruns of old specials were still drawing good ratings on CBS, not to mention that the comic strip was still hugely popular and the various Peanuts merchandise was still flying off store shelves. So Paramount decided to try again to recapture the success that A Boy Named Charlie Brown had had in 1969. For the fourth straight movie, the narrative would revolve around characters taking a trip. And this time, instead of going to the National Spelling Bee or camping, the gang (or at least a few members of it) were going all the way to France.
During World War II, Charles Schulz had been stationed in France, and sometime during the 1970s, he returned to the area, which inspired him to come up with a story centered around a villa he had spent some time at during the war. Like Race for Your Life, Bon Voyage Charlie Brown (and Don't Come Back!!) is largely a new story, with only a handful of gags recycled from the comic strip. The story Schulz came up with was, I think, easily the best of the four feature films. Unfortunately, much of its impact is diluted by Schulz's interest in writing vignettes and largely neglecting the overarching story until the last few minutes of the film.
Like in the last film, Schulz wastes no time in getting to the main story, though there are plenty of delays once the main plotline has been established). In the cold open, we see a young girl examine an old military satchel that appears to have once belonged to an S. Brown before sitting down to write a letter. We then cut to Charlie Brown's school, where Linus introduces the class to two exchange students from France before announcing that he and Charlie Brown will be the other half of the exchange. This comes as news to Charlie Brown, who wasn't even aware he was under consideration for the program (after showing some impressive leadership qualities in Race for Your Life, he rather regresses back to being rather a clueless dunce in this one). In due time, he learns that Peppermint Patty and Marcie are also going, and he invites Snoopy to tag along, who promptly seems to pack primarily sporting equipment.
For fans of characters other than those five (and Woodstock), you're pretty much out of luck with this one, as Sally is the only other character who gets much to do, and even she disappears once they're at the airport. Lucy ends up with just one line, though it happens to be the subtitle (did you think anyone else would say that?). Schroeder is silent, and Franklin is nowhere to be seen.
After some hijinks at the airport and on the plane (where Snoopy has booked a first-class ticket), they arrive in London, from, in the pre-Chunnel days, they would catch the (now defunct) hovercraft across the English Channel. But first, we have Snoopy playing (and losing) at Wimbledon (at which he is somehow a member), the gang being befuddled by British food, and most importantly, adults heard and seen, a rarity for the franchise.
The gang finally arrives in France a half hour into the movie (which is only 75 minutes long), where Snoopy drives their rental car to the small town they'll be staying. There, Peppermint Patty and Marcie are dropped off at the home of Pierre, a local boy, while the rest are off to the Chateau du Mal Voisin, where Charlie Brown, via the letter seen being written in the cold open, had been invited to stay. However, that translates into "House of the Bad Neighbor), and Pierre is quite worried about them, as the Baron who lives there does not like outsiders. Indeed, when Charlie Brown, Linus, Snoopy, and Woodstock arrive, they discover the place is dark and locked, and they have to take shelter in a stable.
The mystery of the Chateau, who the mysterious girl that sent the letter is, and why she invited them, is easily the most intriguing part of the film. Unfortunately, Schulz isn't particularly interested in exploring that part of the story, mostly ignoring it in favor of school hijinks and Peppermint Patty's complete belief that Pierre has fallen head over heels for her, completely missing that he and Marcie have taken to constantly holding hands.
Indeed, the entire climax is rather rushed through during the last 15 minutes of the film making for a rather disappointing and abrupt conclusion. I really wish there could have been another 10-15 minutes to truly flesh this story out (for example, there are numerous mentions that of Baron's hatred of outsiders, but the script never explains exactly why he does), either in additional running time, from cutting some of the superfluous gags, or both. It's a shame, too, both because the explanation is pretty interesting and the climatic fire sequence is surprisingly frightening.
Vocal duties were handled primarily by the voice cast of the specials at the time. Charlie Brown was voiced (for the final time) by Arrin Skelley, who had played the character since It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown in 1977. Linus is Daniel Anderson, who had also been playing the role since First Kiss, and who also retired after this. Patricia Patts played Peppermint Patty and Casey Carlson played Marcie. She was the only one of the main four cast members to stay with the franchise after this, voicing Marcie and other characters through 1982's A Charlie Brown Celebration. This is the only credit for Pascale de Barolet, who played Pierre. Most of the adult voices were provided by Scott Beach, who had played announcers in two prior specials and also had a long career playing relatively small parts in major films (he apparently was friends with George Lucas, as he either appeared or was heard in THX 1138, American Graffiti, and Star Wars). Bill Melendez, who of course, directed this along with Phil Roman, as usual provided the various noises of Snoopy and Woodstock. One interesting thing about this one is that it used previously recorded songs, most notably the 1944 song "Rum and Coca-Cola", though I can't tell if the Andrews Sisters' version was used. Music was otherwise provided by the franchise's house composers at the time, Ed Bogas and Judy Munsen. One nice touch, retained from the earlier films, was showing pictures of the crew during the closing credits.
It's hard to find much in the way of reviews of the movie from that time period, probably because I suspect it was only lightly reviewed back then. That's because Paramount didn't really put much effort behind the film's release, and it was quickly regulated to the kiddie matinee market. Estimates are that the film grossed only a bit over $2 million during its entire theatrical run. I haven't been able to find any definitive information as to why this was the final feature film for 35 years, if it was Paramount or Schulz himself who decided to pull the plug, or if it was a mutual decision, but grosses like that, which were awful even for 1980, largely played a big part in the decision. At any rate, after this, Schulz, Melendez, and Lee Mendelson, spent the rest of their careers concentrating on TV specials, including 1983's What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown?, which acts as a sequel and epilogue to the movie.
By 1980, the drop in quality among the TV specials was beginning to become noticeable, so it's not too surprising that the feature films weren't so great, either. Watching all four of them convinced me that Schulz's writing worked best in shorter form. Vignettes work fine for TV speicals, but for feature films, they distract from the overall story. Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don't Come Back!!) proved to have a prophetic title, but the next generation of Schulzs would crack the feature film formula.
Next week: We wrap up the summer, the movies, and perhaps this entire column by jumping ahead to 2015 and The Peanuts Movie.
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