A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969)

Director:

Bill Melendez

Writers:

Charles M. Schulz (creator)
Charles M. Schulz (written by)

Release Date:

4 December 1969 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy | Drama | Family

Tagline:

The Peanuts' Gang in their First Movie!

Plot:

Charlie Brown makes his way to the national spelling bee finals.

Plot Keywords:

Spelling Bee | School | Dog | Star Spangled Banner | Hockey

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Peter Robbins	...	Charlie Brown (voice)
Pamelyn Ferdin	...	Lucy Van Pelt (voice)
Glenn Gilger	...	Linus Van Pelt (voice)
Andy Pforsich	...	Schroeder (voice)
Sally Dryer	...	Patty (voice)
Ann Altieri	...	Violet (voice) (as Anne Altieri)
Erin Sullivan	...	Sally (voice)
Lynda Mendelson	...	Frieda (voice) (as Linda Mendelson)
Christopher DeFaria	...	Pig Pen (voice)
David Carey	...	2nd Boy (voice)
Guy Pforsich	...	3rd Boy (voice)
Bill Melendez	...	Snoopy (voice)

Also Known As:

A Boy Called Charlie Brown (UK)

Runtime:

86 min | Argentina:88 min | Netherlands:85 min | 79 min (video version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:U | Portugal:M/4 | South Korea:All | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Finland:S | USA:G

Company:

Cinema Center Films

Trivia:

The main story line of this movie, involving Charlie Brown's participation in a spelling bee, was taken from a sequence that originally appeared in the comic strip. In that story, however, Charlie Brown lost in the first round of the competition, misspelling the word "maze" M-A-Y-S. He later loses his temper at the teacher and is sent to the principal's office; as he waits in the hall, he reflects that the reason he misspelled the word was that when he heard the word "maze," the first thing he thought of was "Willy Mays."

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the "I Before E Except after C" song, two displayed words are misspelled: FINANCEIR, which should be FINANCIER, and LEIZURE which should be LEISURE.

Quotes:

Linus Van Pelt: You look like you've been through shock treatment or something.
Charlie Brown: What's more shocking than having your faults projected on a screen?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Strongbad_email.exe (2004) (V)

Soundtrack:

Pathetique Sonata

Charlie Brown in his first feature!

I saw this film first in 1969. I thought it was a cute little film then, as now.

This is the first Peanuts feature, and the last show using Peter Robbins as the voice of Charlie Brown.

In this film, Charlie Brown, our hero, has finally proved that he can do something right. He wins the spelling bee in his class. All the kids treat him with their usual lack of tact. He studies really hard and wins the championship at his school and gets to go to the "city" to be in the "National Elimination Spelling Bee" I will not spoil the ending.

Vince Guaraldi, the composer of the music for the six previous TV specials, is back for this one. There are new arrangements of the old music, plus several new songs by Rod McKuen. Guaraldi did not do the music for the next feature, Snoopy Come Home (1972) and that film suffers because of this.

Schroeder has a beautiful salute to Beethoven in this film. While the music plays, we see some beautiful abstract scenes and colors on the screen that look fantastic in Technicolor. Sadly, I have seen this sequence cut from TV showings.

Snoopy has a wonderful sequence while he and Linus are wandering around the city looking for his blanket that he sent with Charlie Brown for good luck. Snoopy discovers an ice skating rink and pretends that he is in a hockey match while he skates around the rink. He also has an encounter with the Red Baron that has some of the same animation that was used in "He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown! on TV.

One thing that I like about this film is when the closing credits are rolling, you get to see animated images of most of the principal creators of this film. Their names are on the right side of the screen, and their images appear on the left. Things like that entice me to sit through the credits instead of walking out as soon as they start.

If you have never seen this film, by all means rent it and see what you have been missing!