A Boy Named Charlie Brown

How blessed I was to grow up with Peanuts.  From early on I read the daily comic and of course saw all the television specials, some of which have become iconic.  There were also four theatrical features produced between 1969 and 1980.  Last Christmas I bought myself a present - a Blu-ray box set of these movies. The first, A BOY NAMED CHARLIE BROWN is probably my favorite.  Encapsules everything so vital to Charles Schulz's world: peer acceptance, self doubt, peer pressure, the joy of friendship, the frustration of unrequited love.  All played out among children, but things that follow us throughout our lives.  That's why Peanuts is timeless.  Will never be irrelevant. 

Charlie Brown is immediately shown to be an insecure kid who endures another lost baseball game.  He seeks out the psychiatric advice of Lucy, who presents a slide show of his failures.  Then she does her famous swipe of the football when he attempts a kick.  Charlie's friend Linus is always the Voice of Reason, and exceedingly well read for his age.  Stable too, until his beloved blanket is misplaced.  Kinda makes his final speech to Chuck kinda curious; despite his failures, the world did not end, he tells him.  What if those roles had been reversed a few scenes earlier?

The plot involves Charlie's successes at school spelling bees.  Enough to land him a spot in the Nationals in New York City.   Will CB finally win at something?

A BOY NAMED CHARLIE BROWN, written by Schulz and directed by Bill Melendez, is a delight from start to finish.  Part of the genius is the use of highly imaginative montages during musical numbers - the best during Schroeder's concerto of Beethoven's Sonata Pathetique.  Positively dazzling, true art.  Almost French New wave-ish.