#schroder

The Peanuts Movie was made by the late Blue Sky Studios. While Craig Schulz, Sparky's Son, had made a script and fine tuned it with his own son Brian Schulz, the Schulz family were understandably protective of their property. While you could find snoopy on just about everything product wise and still can from waffle irons to gatcha products inexplicably featuring his obscure brother olaf

When it comes to the creative side their VERY protective of their father's creations. It's why Specials stopped for a time after his death and why it took a while for them to get going again under apple. Given how wildly the specials cold fluctate from masterpice to happy new year charlie brown, I understand completely.

So Blue Sky got the call as they'd enjoyed their adaptation of horton hears his neighbors in bed.... but since that couldn't be released they really enjoyed their adaptation of Horton Hears a Who, their respect to seuss. From what I can tell things went smoothly: The Schulz family kept a cloes eye on production and Blue Sky had no issue with it. Release wise the film was a sizeable hit, as you'd expect for peanuts well merchandised and even had a decent tie in song in Meghan Trainor's Better When I'm Dancin.

The only thing production wise it missed was a sequel and that's likely because the Schulz family, while loving the film, likely didn't want to push it or just shove one out, and didn't get around to approving another before disney ate blue sky and spit out it's gay masterpice Nimona because of course they did and of course it backfired horribly. But that's a story for another time.

Peanuts was Easily blue sky's greatest creation, commerically and finacially> Their films weren't awful, but they were often stuck making ice age after ice age after ice age. Robots is excellent, rio is decent, rio 2 is bleh but has a kristin chenowith solo and what is love to buoy it a bit. They didn't really get to stretch their muscles creatively that often, and this film shows what they coudl do when really allowed to flex their animation muscles. It's also a good segue into the animation itself.

The Peanuts Movie is one of the most gorgeous animated films period and one of the most stylistic done in CGI. It blends the mediums: It's still done in computers, but has a flat 2d style to match the comic and strips. The characters are still fully 3d and can move in three dimensions but it has a charming 2d astetic to it. Before the big painted boom brought on by spiderverse, this was easily the most i'd seen CG films stretched, and ten years later it still holds up. It perfectly captures sparky's style while being visually stunning. The characters feel llike someone squeezed paint directly into the outlines, like they just hopped off page. It has this almost watercolor look to the color palettes, not to the degree of say the wild robot, as sparky has it the colors are smooth, but their a lot more vibrant than the strip's syndacate coloring or the specials faded colors. The latter isn't bad, it's got it's own charm, but Director Steve Martino found the best way to evolve the look. Martino also directed Horton Hears a Who, the second ice age and was art director on robots and is thankfully being brought back for the sequel. This film is truly majestic and I love it's style so much.

In terms of the comic and specials it uses a bit of everything but veers more twoards the 70's when the designs were finished, with the cleaner promotoinal designs of the 80's mixed in as they couldn't do Sparky's line style in this style. Lines had to be a bit cleaner.

Character wise it goes for a best of peanuts type of deal and to my delight, especially being even more into peanuts on this watch, it loops in all but two of the series main characters in some form or another. We'll get to whose missing out and why later. The main cast has who you'd expect in Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Sally Linus, Lucy, Schroder, Peppermint Patty, Marcy and Franklin, but gives Violet, a major character for the first two decades and Patty and Shermy, two of the characters in the very first strip who quickly and literally faded into the background, supporting parts.

This also includes Pigpen who schulz hated for seemingly being one note... ironically missing that the later arc where he took peppermint patty out showed the kid had WAY more two him than just being proof child services wasn't much of a thing when he was introduced.

It's an arc I really wish would get a revisit or adaptation at some point. The two have great chemistry.. though the film did find an even better partner for him.

Now i'll grant most of the side cast used aren't given massive parts. The core cast of Charlie Brown, Sally, Lucy, Peppermint Patty, Marcie, Snoopy and Woodstock affect the actual plot, while the rest are more given short gags, gimmicks or smaller supporting roles. This works though as each of them are still used well: Frieda, Violet and Regular Patty are mostly Lucy's freelance bitch squad, there to make Charlie Brown feel bad, mock him and other stuff. Freida talks about her hair, Violet is the worst, it's buisness as usual. Patty got to stand out for once at least as she gets a crush on pig pen which is the cutest thing, from mooning over him frequently to being his pen pal. Anastasia Bredikhina does a terrific job. They also become Charlie Brown's friends when he apparently scores high on a test.

Franklin has a job he's had in the specials at times: Doing what the plot needs him to. Sometimes that was being snoopy's best friend, sometimes it was rapping because the white writers thought "Say rap's a thing and we have a black character...". IN this case i'ts being a dick to snoopy telling him

NO DOGS ALLOWEEED

But it comes off harsher from him, someone who knows and hangs out with snoopy at discos, than Thurl Ravencroft. Or Lucy whose always like this. We just add it to the pile. Hes also running the talent show. So he's there he's just not really used for jokes and his friendships with Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty and Marcie aren't as present. I am glad he finally got a proper spotlight with his recent special that I need to watch when I get apple again.

Pigpen and Schroder stick to their sterytypes: Pigpin is dirty and has the great little runner with patty, Schroder is into betoven, brings him up, and Lucy won't leave him alone. I'ts one of the few poorly aged parts of peanuts they didn't sand down the edges of a bit and something I hope the film just.... politely ignores.

So with the side cast out of the way let's get into the meat of this and our hero

Your Your Own Worst Enemy Charlie Brown

The film's core emotionally and structurally is Charlie Brown. While Snoopy rules and the film has one of the best versions of him, it was the right call to switch from the original early draft plan of having Charlie Brown be the b-plot. Charlie Brown is the strip's heart: he's both why it can be melancholy and depressing but what gives him hope: life is contstantly knocking him down. He has only two friends, his sister has no respect for him and tries to steal his room any time he so much as leaves the house for more than a minute, he's clueless to Peppermint Patty and Marcie's crushes on him , pines after someone he can never bring himself to approach, and gets bullied regularly by lucy and friends. He hates himself.. and yet he has an optimism to him. He never stops trying, never stops going foward even if the world spits on him. He gets discouraged, he'll spend days in his bed at worst, but he never stops putting himself out there.

This film's plot perfect captures that while finding the right device for that, the LIttle Red Haired Girl, Chuck's eternal crush who till this movie we hadn't seen as a character before. We saw her in it's your first kiss charlie brown.. but she's really there for the titular kiss and not much else. She was more an idea of a person, the abstract personification of having a crush, where you like someone , you find them pretty, but you just don't have the courage to talk to them. The pain of unrequited love is one of the strips strongest and most accurate themes. As someone who could never get that courage and just starred wistfully and probably unintentionally creepily at women most his life, I relate to this heavily and it hurts. You know he should just make a move and end the schrodingers box of this possible relationsip, maybe even just be friends but he can never do it. Even when she moved he choked which lead to one of the few times Linus gets PISSSED at his best friend that isn't part of an unruly mob.

So making her the center of the film makes sense. They recenter things so instead of this having been gone on forever, he's just meeting her as she moves to the neighborhood. He fails at making an introduction in the cloud of other kids and despite finding her pencil, and being delighted she nibbles on it an excellent call back

Charlie Brown has an easy out to go say high to her, he has a way.. he just can't do it. It's something I didn't remember about the film it gets so perfectly: Charlie Brown has plenty of hecklers, it's pretty much violet's only function and Lucy's favorite hobby.. but his worst enemy will always be Charlie Brown. While he likely wasn't written with anxiety in mind as someone with it he perfectly tracks that self hating self sabotaging process of thinking about something and talking yourself out, of making EVERY screw up ten times bigger. Having a greek chorus in Lucy and Co to constantly rub it in dosen't help. He can't do things right so while he constantly tries, he has no confidence in himself. The film shows this juxtaposition well: he flies a kite in winter.. but only to try, because the kite eating tree hibernates and biting it just got the EPA on his ass.

He tries.. but he also crashes into everyone and Lucy of course insults him as do violet and patty. Any time he gets confidence up Lucy knocks him down.

Lucy is done well in this film, played excellently by Hadley Belle Miller. The cast for this film is excellent with Noah Schapp, good ole charlie brown, going on to stranger things fame. Most of the cast are and remain unknowns, but perfectly fit Peanuts habits of hiring chidlren. Lucy is as usual the worst, constantly knocking down charlie brown, saying he has a failure face (Another sly call back this time to a song from the first movie), and being the weight on his back. She's also seen wordlessly making fun of him to the little red haired girl.

Yet they dial back the bullying just enough. She's not a physical bully, and her meanness to charlie brown comes less off as doing it for sport and more because he either honked her off (the ice skate disaster) or she's Lucy. A friend of mine who also loves peanuts and likes Lucy got me to like the character more. I didn't a lot of the time because Lucy can be cruel, abrasive and her primary interactions before her youngest brother rerun was bumped up to the main cast was being terrible to Charlie Brown, who i relate to and is constantly depressed, and Linus, who is usually just minding his own business.

It's easy to forget a lot of Lucy's terribleness.. is just her having no filter. It dosen't make it okay, but she calls it like she sees it. Linus is also honest with Charlie Brown about his foibles, but is gentle, trying to encourage him and nudge him. I love his line in this flim that "he's gotten where I am today by ignoring what my sister says". Lucy.. just constantly says the worst things that are already on repeat in his head.

It works because Lucy isn't defanged: she still mocks charlie brown behind his back, has no faith in him, insults him regularly and tells him THEIR ALL GOING TO LAUGH AT YOU in some way shape or form every chance she gets. Yet she dosen't slug him or go out of her way to torture him. It's just a part of her life: water's wet, charlie brown's a looser and i'm going to remind him of that. It allows her to be herself. A lucy whose JUST nice to charlie brown isn't an honest lucy, but a lucy who say ruins a whole game just to spite him like the specials had her or bullies him constantly got tiresome. It's why I prefer the 70's: the bullying gets tone down a little but isn't removed entirely, so it still feels raw and real. Violet and Patty also think nothing but arne't hte active bullies they were in the comic, especailly violet.

This allows for a nice ballance: Charlie Brown has reasons he is genuinely insecure, but also can't ever push past them. He belives what Lucy says instead of his supportive ride or die, and it holds him back. He can't just be honest.. because he can't love himself enough to see she might like him for charlie brown. To good ole charlie brown there's nothing to love or even like about him. He HAS to be someone to even talk to this person.

So the film has Charlie Brown undertake a bunch of plans to make himself stand out and be worth her, never realizing he already is. If that isn't depression I don't know what is.

So the film smartly breaks this up into smaller plots, all continuing the same arc and genuine goal, but allowing the film to not tie itself to just ONE set piece and leaving room to play with each idea.

Snoopy rides shotgun for all these endeavors and out of all of the cast snoopy is the most diffrent from his usual self, while still being a nice combo of his comic and animation selfs. Combining the two is tricky as whiel they have the same personality, Snoopy in the comics is in his head, constantly narrating.. but his animated self is a mime. So his flights of fancy got cut down a bit or had to be purely visual.

The film splits the diffrence: he still can't talk but he's a LOT more visually expressive and you get a lot more about his man about town has seventy diffrent personas self. He mostly sticks to just snoopy, leaving the red baron stuff to the b plot, but we get that vibe: he serves as charlie brown's assitant, his dance coach, and later his study friend, all roles that feel like one's he'd tackle just with a world's greatest tacked on front. It's not even his first time coaching someone for a big event

In the comic Snoopy dosen't HATE the round headed kid who brings him food, and is there for him once or twice, but tends to treat him like a roomate he rarely wants to talk to more than an owner and friend

He spends more time with Peppermint Patty hanging out than he does his boy. So it's a big departure.. but one I felt works. In a normal peanuts story him ignoring charlie brown and not being emotoinal support is an easy joke, but since Linus is straight and to the point, adn while not super prominent still great when he does show up here, he needs someone whose more a hype man. Peppermint Patty does that at time, but if you had her help him you'd have to bring up the whole love diamond with her, and marcie. She does not take kindly any time Chuck stupidly brings up his crush on someone else not getting the barrage of hints she's given, it wouldn't work character wise.

It's likely why she and Marcie are on the margins, which is a minor shame as their my faviorite characters in the strip, but still get a lot of good bits: Peppermint Patty's habit of sleeping in class, tendency to procrastinate and penchant for the occasional malproper are all used amazingly and threaded nicely into the plot, and her randomly guessing on tests becomes a full on plot point. So while she's not important to the story, my adopted child is still peak in this film as is Marcie.

So you needed Snoopy. Having linus say JUST GO TALK TO HER 80 times would get old and belabor a point the audience gets pretty quickly. Snoopy's bouncy energy and adaptability make him the perfect wingman and lead to a ton of funny gags. I love him popping out of the cabinet for the magic arc with a headwrap. What a legend.

The Talent Show plan fails.. but instead of just having Charlie Brown fully humiliate himself with incompetence as usual they find a clever way to have each failure stack up.. but also have him doing something genuinely kind and heroic each time, something that reminds us WHY we love this kid.

First up is Sally whose doing a cowgirl act with her face horse just before his act... but bombs heavily. Sally is a nice mix of her main characterizations in the comic: early on she was Charlie Brown's innocent baby sister who was naive to school lasting forever (a gag used in the film) , and looked up to her brother while also being very loud. Late ron she kept the volume but became a deadpan weirdo in addition to that who treats her brother more as a roommate she's trying to take's room any time he so much as leaves her line of sight.

The film combines cynical sally with naïve sally beautifully: she's younger and plays cowgirl for her talent and has enthuastic, but isn't above making a buck off her brother's fame or turning on him any time it's conveint. But the scene here shows that while sally's a hit and miss sibling, Charlie Brown is a wonderful big brother. He sacrifices his act to save hers and plays the cow. it humilities him.. but he did the right thing and with only a little hesitation.. and it came off to me more as him NOT wanting to do this.. but knowing he HAD to. He'd rather humiliate himself than sally.

Next is the school dance where the best boy and girl dance. This was before more children's media got that gender isn't binary and it dosen't feel super dated as peanuts already has a retro feel to it. So after TRYING to learn himself Snoopy steps in as the world's greatest dance coach for a fun scene. This is where the soundtrack's big tie in song comes in "Better When I"m Dancin" By Meghan Trainor, a song my mom loves.. and i'm inclined to degree. While her catlogues hit nad miss, Me Too, No, and All About that Bass are bangers while Dear Future Husband is a gag that never lands, but her du wop stylings fit perfectly wtih peanuts. It's a simple song.. but a cute and sweet one that fits the film well and the sequence perfectly. Tie in songs can be hit and miss, but this one landed beautifully. We also get a great gag with snoopy, my favorite in the film next to the caroler one where snooopy takes on a bunch of his personas to casually steal cupcakes. The film just packs in tons of small references to the strip and specials and I love every one. In particularly he becomes a whirly beagle

And one of my all time favorite personas of his, one that graced a book i saw at the library and checked out on occasion as a kid , the vulture

Once again Charlie Brown sees someone struggling this time Marcie as Peppermint Patty once again left all the work to her and helps her with the punch> he does actually know what to do and busts a move.. but slips on punch, causes a rain and runs out. And that's the pattern. Every time he feels humiliated.. he retreats.. but in a nice subtle detail... every time the little red haired girl is watching.. and while we only see the back of her head, as is normal, we never see her MOCK charlie brown. Even when Lucy is crowing to the freelance bitch squad, the little red haired girl isn't seen laughing WITH them. It's nice subtle setup for the big reveal at the end... and reinforcement that these failures as much as they hurt.. aren't a big deal to HER. Their only to a bunch of people who already don't like charlie brown and likely never will entirely, and Charlie Brown, as they reinforce his self loathing.

Thankfully god seemingly throws him a few bones: the first is getting paired with LRG for a project. While she's gone for the weekend with her grandparents, this means he can do the book report for them and impress her. The other is he's named smartest kid in class for getting a hundred on a test. So for once.. he's actually DOING well. We get a great montage to a forgettable as hell song i'm not going to look up as his fame rises, the kids get recommendations from him (a comic book naturally) and Sally merchandise the crap out of it.

For his book report he decides to go big and goes to the only person he knows who reads; Marcie. We get a classic bit with her and Peppermint Patty too, as Peppermint Patty is refusing to listen and actually pick up a book. Her procrastinating on Book Reports was a storyline multiple times. She half remembers war and peace by leon tolstoy as leo's toystore, so Charlie Brown goes to get it. I love the kids wondering if Charlie Brown going into the adult section is "allowed" and Marcie's reaction to leo's toystore: stopping charlie brown mid sentence both to get a second to just.. marvel at her besties stupidity then taking him to it. She's a true friend. She's a lot more stoic than the comic here , at least with Charlie Brown but I get it. The love Triangle stuff while the soruce of a LOT of great storylines and moments... would've bogged the film down a bit.

It's one of the film's strengths: they squeeze in every iconic running gag, every character quirk everything they can.. but with 88 minutes they don't try to overreach. Baseball is limited to a bit with charlie brown practicing in winter, something he DID try in the strip from time to time.

But a full on baseball scene is absent, ther'es no time with just linus and lucy, and snoopy is mostly around charlie brown. They picked and choose what they could resonably include and the amount of stuff they DID pack in is remarkable.

That said there is a cut that's impacted the franchise sense, one main character who was left out entriely. He was only one of TWO to not be in the film at all, the other being Sally's friend Eudora, the last major addition to the strip and a brief part of the main cast. Her cut is sad but more understandable, as she wasn't in the cast long and Sally's played a touch younger here. It's also why she seems to be absent from most modern works: Sally's played about the same age here, i.e. around 6 or 7 like she was early in the strip once she stopped being a literal baby, so she dosen't quite fit. Sally DID get a camp friend for the recent camp mini series on Apple TV+, but it was a new character.

The big omission instead was Rerun, one of my faviorite peanuts characters. Reurn was introduced in the 70's at the end of a fantastic arc where Lucy threw Linus out of the house only possible because her parents had to leave in a hurry... and getting the ultimate dose of Karma when she finds out why.

It's one of the series best gags, and one of the finest moments of Karma for Lucy who genuinely gets away with things like hucking a piano down the sewer or blaming snoopy for his house burning down.

Schulz gave rerun a memorable introduction, added him to the cast.. then barely used him. Schulz had already had multiple characters grow from toddlers to kids over the course of the series, Linus, Lucy and Sally all had but for some reason Rerun stayed the same age . Outside of a sports betting scandal, he didn't do much for most of the strip apart from a running gag about his mom taking him along on bike rides.

It was only in the 90's, the strip's final decade, that Schulz finally found a proper voice for Rerun. He was a tad philosophical, naïve, and kind, making "underground comics" and badly wanting a dog. But since the van pelt's wouldn't judge he rented and old friend instead

It didn't quite work and he rejected Spike, one of his few cruel moments. He also brought out a gentle kinder side in Lucy. Lucy genuinely mentored rerun in a way she just didn't with linus. Rerun was just normal enough and just impressionable enough to not clap back at her nonsense.

Now I don't blame the makers of the movie for leaving him out. Spike, who i've talked about at length enough on this blog, is both out in the desert and was better suited as a cameo with Snoopy's gaggle of siblings. All the ones in the strip made it: Belle, who we saw earlier with her awkward teenage son who badly needs to be in the sequel, Marbles, who visited once and ran from the nonsense, and the duo fo andy and olaf. Olaf showed up earlier for an ugly dog contest but later became a duo for Andy, constantly trying to visit spike but poor navigation had them circling the globe instead.

With Rerun he's present in the main characters house, he offsets the dynamic between Lucy and Linus slightly, not really having one with Linus other than some embarrassment. And Linus himself isn't a huge part of the movie. He gets enough to be enjoyable, serving as a voice of reason and encouragement for his pal and a sounding board. It's not his best moment, he's like Snoopy more of a sidekick here and unlike snoopy not doing as many antics, but he's still Linus enough to not be a waste of the best boy. And with Lucy busy heckling charlie brown there just wasn't room for the baby boy baby. They kept things loose as possible and STILL jammed in a ton of refrences, even getting in the dances from the christmas movie.

My issue is more the specials that followed the film seem to have forgot him. They also forgot spike as an individual as from what I know about them, he mostly shows up as a band with the rest of his siblings, sticking more with the classic formula and focusing on a younger more innocent sally. Why Rerun can't be the same age as her, I dunno. I also didn't know when else i'd get to talk about this. Rerun does have a special to cover at some point, but for now he's mostly in the background. He apparently showed up on the snoopy show but the special sREALLY need to remember he exists. maybe adapt his intro. Instead they use a generic little kid, similar to Leland a kid Charlie Brown hung around with for a bit who called him mr charlie brown. That kid isn't bad I just miss my boy, even if I get his absence.

Staying away from the main plot, let's go ahead and get a large chunk of the movie out of the way: they found a clever way to give snoopy a plot , one that merges two of his biggest personas and running gags into one. Early on Linus brings a model of the red baron's plane to school and after being thrown out because

NO DOGGGS ALLLOWWEEED

Snoopy finds an old typewriter in the garbage. In the strips he fancied himself a novelist and spent a godo chunk of his time banging out questionable novels and struggling with the issues we all face

So he writes one.. about the world war flying ace. He probably dosen't need an intro but i'm a wordy bastard so the WWI Flying Ace is Snoopy's main alter ego for his shenanigans, a brave dashing hero who got into shenanigans in the real world while in his head fought against evil with daring doo. It's a fun runner and one of the best, and one of the more iconic thanks to getting adapted for It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, the only one of his various side hustles to make it into one of the big three specials.

So it makes perfect sense to make him the focus of the film's subplot. The ace meets fifi, a cute poodle but has to rescue her from the baron. The plot is thin and sometimes I drifted off during it, wanting to get back to the more compelling main plot. It's not bad, but it's more about showing off what gorgeous visuals Blue Sky could do than laughs or character stuff. The visuals are what make it, with gorgeous skies, a true sense of flight and a daring climax where the ace , and snoopy, take Charlie Brown's words at the end of his plot to heart: never give up! leading to one hell of a climax as Snoopy and his pit crew, Woodstock and his various friends as in the comics, beat the hell out of the baron's plane and rescue fifi... well they HELP as she breaks herself out. Fifi is played by certified legend kristin chenowith. I prefer the Charlie Brown plot, but the Ace subplot is still a lot of fun and it's nice to see the world as SNOOPY imagines it for a change, with all the scope and grandeur you'd expect. We do get some fantastic gags from his perspective: he takes out a caroler to infiltrate it with just.. murder on his face and sneaks across Peppermint Patty's lights with her telling Chuck his dog's acting up again. I also love her not recognizing Snoopy as Joe cool at the dance.. the dance. Oh right. The main plot

So BOTH of Charlie Brown's plans go up in flames just as LRG returns. The test things ends up being Peppermint Patty's... and she drew a smiley face and sleeps through the whole assembly as Charlie Brown feels humilated despite doing the right thing. Peppermint Patty wouldn't of known or cared, only Chuck would've.. but he just couldnt' do it.

The report is a bigger gut punch as .. he got it done. It was a massive book war and piece but it was both his choice and his teacher didn't assume he cheated at reading a books he assigned him and it's over a few weeks. Not only that Linus was impressed and hyped him up... but the model plane came back nad destroyed it. Is it a deus ex machina? Yes. Yes it is. But it works. He did everything right.. and STILL feels like he failed. But the telling line is the little red haired girls who genuinely feels bad for him.. and suggests they could tape it. Instead he runs away.. because he feels he failed. That everything is lost. That he just.. can't win. I"ve been there. It's the film's low point story wise... but it works so well. Charlie Brown as usual is screwed over by fate but his own depression and anxiety keep him from making the best of it.

Yet it's his inherent spirit and kindness that leads to one of my faviorite endings in a film. The film does a quantum leap ahead to the last day of school. It has a good reason as everyone's doing pen pals, leading to the heartwarming moment with Patty and Lucy once again stalking Schroder. So when Linus, whose calling them, puts up Charlie brown.. no one else steps up.. no one except the little red haired girl. It's a genuinely sweet moment.. and one that utterly BAFFLES him. Which would be confusing to some but when you have anxiety and self loathing as deep as Charlie Brown or myself, it's hard to remember people genuinely love you and can like you for who you are.

So he decides to do the ole rom com trick: he runs to talk to her , for once in his life. He finally gets the motivation... granted it's because he can't fathom WHY he was picked, but it's enough for a truly epic bout of slapstick. the poor boy nearly gets hit by balls, sprayed by water, crosses a whole carnival. He also gets some energy back thanks to teaching a little kid to fly a kite.. and that karma comes back to him as to climax this awesome race as he tries to talk to her before she leaves for the summer. (I also like him running back to tell hre mom, who told him that "It was nice to meet you maam") He runs into a tree and a gridlock of kids.. only for a kite to fall on him. Yup it's his old nemesis and his old kite which , while tangled around him, allows him to fly and gives him the speed he needs. It's a truly great moment.. the speed, his joy for a second.. and the suprise of all the main cast and a gaggle of extras all up to their own stuff that "charlie brown is flying a kite!". Everyone follows him as he goes on his epic quest, and finally at the last minute.. he catches up. For once in his life... things went RIGHT. He flew a kite.. and he got to her in time to give her her pencil back.

So Charlie Brown indeed asks why. Why him? Why a nothing? And the answer.. was threaded through the film, even more rewarding on rewatch. It's obvious if you notice it.. but it makes it no less impactful. She noticed him all year.. and what he saw as failures.. she only saw as success. What Lucy mocked as him acting like a cow, she saw as a big brother stepping in for his sister. What he saw as an embarrassing dance, she just saw him being good at it. What he saw as humilting himself to do the right thing.. she just saw as the right thing. Everywhere he saw failure, self loathing, all his usual's.. she saw what we've all seen all these years: a genuinely sweet kid who tries to do the right thing and tries to do his best despite the world constantly punching him in the face. She sees Charlie Brown not as nothing.. but as everything. It took something that was tricky to do, having the little red haired girl not only properly revealed but talking to charlie brown.. and did it perfectly. Turns out all he needed to do all this time.. was talk to her. To just be him. Because.. tha'ts enough.

So she leaves, he has the best day of his life.. and it gets better. I mentioned Lucy's sweet side.. and that's mostly saved for this ending where as everyone's congratulating him on it.. she's the last one to do it, saying he's full of suprises. I mean given she has a full blown existential crisis over the test thing , it's the best he can get.. but it's still her way of saying "You done good blockhead." And we end the story proper ... on a panel from schulz one often used for promotional materials of the core cast holding him.. finishing with sparky's signture. I swear to grod not only did I tear up when I watched that.. but I tear up just writing it. If there's a more perfect ending they haven't found it.

There's also a fun post credits scene where Lucy pulls the football away... but it's more playful than usual. The film ends on the highest of highs and ends the credits on a ton of panels.. all showing the stuff they couldn't fit in from spike to beagle scouts.