The beloved Peanuts characters created by Charles M. Schulz make a very endearing feature film debut here. The story has Charlie Brown feeling more despondent than ever due to the fact that his destiny seems to be failing at everything. This isn't helped by the fact that Lucy has actually created a slide show detailing every one of his supposed faults! However, hope is generated when Charlie Brown decides to try out competitive spelling, and has success right off the bat. (In an appropriate touch, this is because some of the first words that he gets are tailored to his personality, like "insecure".) He even goes to compete in the National Spelling Bee.There's some material here that could be seen as padding, but overall it's an effective means of stretching out a Peanuts story to a feature length of approximately an hour and a half. The animation is slick and there is a wealth of interesting visuals. Rod McKuens' handful of songs are admittedly pretty silly, but they're not long enough or frequent enough to become a true detriment.The verbal jokes and visual gags are just as funny as they've ever been, and the characters are all well defined in their classic way. Snoopy, as usual, is the biggest cut-up. One example of this: Linus handed over his precious security blanket to Charlie Brown to serve as a good luck charm, and suffers enough withdrawals to seek out Charlie Brown and demand the blanket back. Then, every time Linus keels over, Snoopy fills a glass of water, and you think it's for Linus, but he ends up drinking it himself.As a bonus, "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" features a catchy way of listing various spelling rules; watching this wouldn't be a bad way for kids to learn some of them! Poor Charlie Brown ends up so stressed out and weary that he automatically spells words that he speaks or are spoken to him.You do feel bad for Charlie, but in the end, you can always leave it to Linus to put everything into perspective for him and the audience.Many genuine laughs, a solid story, some real heart, and a typically excellent jazz soundtrack by Vince Guaraldi (including some variations on the standard "Linus and Lucy") help to make this a winner.Eight out of 10.

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.

Shultz (Great man though he was) had a flaw. Charlie wins 2nd place in the national spelling bee and thinks he is the goat. Linus admonition that the world had not end could have easily been followed by him pinning the second prize ribbon on Charlies door. His fair weather friends did not matter that much in the face of such a thing. Shultz was a spiritual man who lacked faith in people (likely correctly) but Schroeder for example had stuck up for Charlie before. The point is failure is often a perception. Had this film made that point how many kids would have seen life differently. Just a thought. Otherwise a thoughtful study in the good and evil of competition.

A product of it's time, "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" isn't REALLY that politically correct nowadays if you think about it, a boy who is constantly bullied in school and teased by everyone, and has no one to turn to. (his parents are absent). I mean, is that what we want to teach kids? Anyways, he tries to find acceptance by entering a spelling bee, (again, he goes by himself without any parent) only to find failure, and no moral support when he comes home. Gee, really uplifting lol. This cartoon does have a great 70's feel to it though, with it's animation and soundtrack. Maybe not necessarily for the kids, but it could be interesting for other ages.