Did you ever read any of the Peanuts Gang comic strips? Whether or not you have, just about everyone can recognize Charlie Brown and Snoopy. In 1967, the Broadway musical, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, showed for the first time. In 1985, a cartoon adaption premiered with the same name.
The movie starred the voices of Brad Kesten as Charlie Brown, Jessica Lee Smith as Lucy van Pelt, and Robert Towers as Snoopy.
SUMMARY
The entire film basically takes you through a day of Charlie Brown's life. It has many adaptations from the original comic strips; Lucy's fondness of Schroeder, Charlie Brown's Valentine’s Day troubles, Snoopy's wild imagination, and a baseball game.
The movie ends with the gang all meeting at the Brown family’s front porch and singing their friendly song "Happiness."
CONTENT
As this is a kids/family cartoon, the most violent it gets is Charlie Brown getting bumped into and Snoopy pretending he is a wild animal.
In one of the earlier scenes, Lucy sings a song about her and Schroeder getting married (the song "Schroeder"), obviously showing her love for him. In another scene, Charlie Brown debates about whether he should go talk to the "little red-haired girl" or not and ends up ruining his lunchtime.
There is no foul language.
During one song, Happiness, the children list the things that make them happy (i.e. “Happiness is finding a pencil, pizza with sausage, telling the time / Happiness is learning to whistle, tying your shoe for the very first time"). Christians know that true happiness can only by found in God, but this particular song is innocent, I believe.
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown has upbeat, jumpy music. While not a musical epic like Les Mierables or The Phantom of the Opera, it is a nice, family-friendly musical. It is kind of like a Peanuts version of The Music Man. Unfortunately, the cartoon version of the musical does not include the song My New Philosophy, which is a fun one, but it did include the nice song Happiness.
This was definitely geared for children, but the entire family can enjoy it. The songs are catchy, much like (as I said earlier) those in The Music Man. You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown is a great family movie.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Length: 50 minutes
Rating: NOT RATED
Director: Sam Jaimes
Music: Clark Gesner (music, lyrics, & composer), Ed Bogas (composer), Desiree Goyette (composer)
Year of release: 1967 (original Broadway musical), 1985 (cartoon adaption)
Primary audience: Kids, family
No comments:
Post a Comment