calvinnme
Sometimes the Peanuts cartoons can be a little corny, but I really liked this one. It was actually a little sad, even for Charlie Brown. Poor guy, why can't he ever win anything? In this particular film, Charlie Brown feels like a loser because he can't get his kite to fly, he can't play baseball and can't seem to do anything right. Of course, people like Lucy, Violet and Patty (not to be confused with Peppermint Patty) have to make sure he knows how much of a loser he is, even going as far as to sing a song called "Failure Face" to him. There is another scene of Charlie Brown visiting Lucy for psychiatric help and she reiterates how much of a loser he is. She even shows him a slide show she made to pinpoint every moment that Charlie is a failure. In an attempt to overcome his inferiority complex and to prove to the other kids that he's not a loser, Charlie Brown decides to enter the school spelling bee. He ends up doing really well wins the school bee (Yay for Charlie Brown!). He is sent to a bigger spelling bee (I'm assuming he's either in a state spelling bee or perhaps a city wide spelling bee?), via the bus and even stays in a hotel. He runs himself ragged trying to study. Linus had given Charlie Brown his blanket as a good luck charm for the bee and then has a nervous breakdown being without the blanket. Snoopy and Linus ride the bus to find Charlie Brown and retrieve Linus' blanket.There are of course some funny Snoopy scenes: Snoopy plays "The Star Spangled Banner" on a record player to start of the baseball game and later he has a funny ice skating/ice hockey scene. Snoopy also plays the jaw harp to help Charlie Brown write a song to learn all the basic spelling rules ('i' before 'e' except after 'c'). This film had all the delightful trademarks of a 1960s film: montages, bright colors, Simon & Garfunkle-esque maudlin sounding music. It was really fun. One thing that made me laugh was that one of Charlie Brown's words in the spelling bee was "fussbudget." This film also brought up all kinds of questions that I suppose I should ignore, because it's a cartoon and it's Peanuts:-Why is Charlie Brown, an 8 year old, riding a bus alone to the city and staying in a hotel room alone? -Why is Linus riding the bus (kind of alone) accompanied by a dog to the city to find Charlie Brown? -Why aren't any of the Spelling Bee participants' parents in the audience? The audience is entirely children. -How does Snoopy have such a long extension cord to reach all the way from his doghouse to the baseball field to play his record player? -Snoopy's doghouse has electricity?-How does Snoopy's back not hurt sleeping on the top of his doghouse?Oh well, I guess it's just best to lose yourself in Peanuts' world full of whimsy and absent of all parental supervision.
Terryfan
This is the only of few Charlie Brown and Peanuts films that I feel mix on and that's rare for being a long time fan of Charlie BrownAfter watching this again after so many years I have to say the movie more or less I wouldn't call it one of the better films from Charlie Brown and Peanuts The reason for it being that while it did have all that makes the Peanuts Gang it just don't feel right to meIt does feature a original story for Charlie Brown and we get to see our favorite Dog Snoopy do what he does bestThe animation for the film is just what you would expect in the late 1960s this film animation is just far out there while there are moments of good animation some scenes just makes you go what were they thinking Some of the animation is way out there that I forgot how it was when I first saw itThe voice acting is mix to me on this one is as best as I could put itThe music of course is where the Peanuts always promise to have great musicWhile I still found some good out of this film I just wouldn't say it was one of their best ones in my opinion but if you're a fan of Charlie Brown Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts Gang this would be one to watch with the whole familyI give A Boy Named Charlie Brown an 7 out of 10
Atreyu_II
"A Boy Named Charlie Brown" is the first of 4 Peanuts specials and also the first full-length Peanuts movie. It is the movie that made Charlie Brown and his friends movie stars.As the movie's title suggests, it is about a boy named Charlie Brown, the main character of Peanuts. Here, more than in any other movie or episode, Charlie Brown shows his emotions at the maximum: when he's shy or nervous, when he's sad and depressed, when he's angry, when he's hopeful or desperate, when he feels that nothing seems to be going well in his life and so on...Charlie Brown is a lovable loser. He's the kind of character that wins our hearts with his losing ways. And yet, he is also a funny little guy.This movie has some of the best known scenes of Charlie Brown's lack of luck: his failures on the baseball games and the infamous trick that Lucy always does to Charlie Brown whenever he is about to kick the football - she pulls it away!Charlie Brown even asks for help on Lucy's Psychiatry Booth in this film. She claims that her method is "unique" and what does she do? With a slide projector and a screen, she shows all of Charlie's faults, which only makes poor Charlie feel more miserable than ever.An interesting and distinguish detail about this film is that Charlie Brown often spells the letters of the words he is saying, something called «spelling bee». The spelling bee is going fine (even the most difficult words) until he has to spell the word "Beagle" (Snoopy's breed). Unfortunately, he misspells it as "B-E-A-G-E-L". I believe it is because of the nerves - after all, it was an easy word for him to say. But the screams given by him and the whole gang are hilarious, as well as Charlie's face when he realizes he misspelled the word.Funnily, Linus borrows Charlie Brown his blue blanket to wish him good luck. Not much later, Linus feels miserable without his blue blanket. He just keeps passing out! I guess one could say «What would Linus be without his blanket?». A funny scene related to this is that, when Charlie Brown is shining his shoes, Linus stares in shock because the cloth he's using is Linus' blanket - Linus yells "Arrrgh!" and quickly grabs it and holds it. The blanket even seems to win a life of its own.The kite sequence, for some reason, reminds me about the kite scenes in "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" and "Mary Poppins", especially the one in the first movie I mentioned because they both deal with a kite's failed attempt.Surprisingly, there are 2 characters that do not appear in this movie: Woodstock and Marcie. Peppermint Patty (aka «Sir») practically doesn't appear either, but if you look carefully, you'll clearly see her appearing twice, although very briefly.The movie's major downside is, in my opinion, some bizarre and strange sequences that I hardly can explain. All I can say is that they remind me about the segment "Night on Bald Mountain" from Walt Disney's "Fantasia", which is my least favorite part of that great Disney classic. But at least those scenes have the touch of Beethoven's classical music as background. As for the rest of the soundtrack, it is nothing special, but I like the songs "I before E Except after C" and "A Boy Named Charlie Brown".The artwork here is quite simple, typically Peanuts. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a critic, just an honest evaluation. However, the movies "Race for your life, Charlie Brown" and "Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown" have far superior artwork. Nevertheless, "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" is an okay movie, even if not as unique or distinguish as "Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown".
rebeljenn
This isn't my personal favourite Charlie Brown episode. I liked the Christmas special the best. It's been years since I have seen this. I probably first saw it when I was six and last saw it when I was about ten. I think that ideally one needs to be older to enjoy Charlie Brown. I never did understand some of the dialoge because they use a lot of large words that adults would understand but not children. Despite it being a cartoon, I don't think it was made with children in mind. You have to feel sorry for poor old Charlie Brown though...but then he has that cool dog Snoopy. I think a lot of the humor of Charlie Brown goes over the heads of young people, with the expection of the holiday specials.
