Peanuts on offer

Ervell E. Menezes

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The other title is “Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie,” where the action is centred on Charlie Brown (voice of Noah Schnapp) and his efforts to win the Little Red-Haired Girl (Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews).

In a side story, we have Snoopy (Bill Melendoz), the dog who writes a book on World War I Flying Aces as he tries to save his love interest, ad pilot Fifi (Kristin Hemsworth) from the Red Baron and his army. Charlie Brown is a born loser and is bent on changing that tag by, among other things, reading ‘10 Steps to be a Winner’ and promptings from friends like Lucy (Hadley Belle Miller), who have his welfare in mind. As he wends his way about, Charlie isn’t really able to hold the viewer’s attention.

This is because director Steve Martino has too many things on his plate, and the screenplay by Bryan and Craig Schultz lacks imagination. The Red-Haired Girl is seen sporadically, but even so fails to evoke more than a lukewarm interest.

Meanwhile, the sketchy, almost jumpy animation is another stumbling block. The two stories do not do the film any good. In fact, they detract from each other and Snoopy and Fifi end up as a bad experiment. But those familiar with the comic strip are able to find a connect despite its inordinate length (for an animation film). So one concludes that only they should see the film!