A comic about a boy, his dog and the crazy things they do when adults aren't watching.
If there's one thing I'm obsessed with, it's the "Peanuts"! Snoopy, Charlie Brown, it's just a good old-fashioned American comic strip!
And now it's gonna be a movie! Here's 107 facts about the Peanuts!
Peanuts started as a comic strip and was later adapted for film and television.
It is considered the most popular comic strip in all of time.
Peanuts was written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz.
The first comic strip was published October 2nd, 1950,
and the final original comic strip was published February 13th, 2000.
It ran in 2,600 newspapers daily with a readership of 355 million in 75 different countries and 21 languages.
Syndications of the strip will still appear in almost every newspaper in America.
The name of the strip was changed to Classic Peanuts during its run of reprints.
The strip helped cement the 4 panel system as the comic strip standard.
The strip was originally titled Li’l Folks, but publisher's were worried that it would be confused with Little Folks and Li’l Abner.
And so the name Peanuts was born.
Charles Schulz always hated the name Peanuts. In a 1987 interview, he said, "It's totally
ridiculous, has no meaning, is simply confusing, and has no dignity—and I my humor has dignity."
(I don't know how he talks.)
Schulz’s hatred of the name is why so many of his collections heavily feature the names Snoopy and Charlie Brown.
From November 20, 1966 to January 4, 1987,
the opening Sunday panels read Peanuts, featuring Good Ol ' Charlie Brown.
Peanuts premiered on October 2, 1950, in nine newspapers.
The first strip was four panels long and showed Charlie Brown walking by two other young children,
Shermy and lovable Patty.
Snoopy was an early character in the series. He first appeared in just the third strip.
Schulz produced every part of the comic himself.
While the strip in its early years resembles its later form, there are significant differences.
The art was cleaner, sleeker, and simpler, with thicker lines and short, squat characters.
Charles Schulz made it very clear that he did not want anyone else drawing the strip.
When he passed away, so did any hope of a new Peanuts.
Charles Schulz has said that Charlie Brown
is not bald, he just has transparent, blonde hair.
The new Peanuts film will be released on November 6th. Buy your popcorn, your tickets and I will see you in the front row!
It is the first theatrical Peanuts film released in 35 years.
It is also the first Peanuts film since creator Charles Schulz’s passed away.
It is the first Peanuts film made with computer generated imagery.
The film was written by Charles Schulz’s son and grandson, Craig and Bryan Schulz.
Craig had the original idea which he showed to his son Bryan, a screenwriter who showed
him story structure and how to make his idea actually watchable.
Craig has said that there is no one “more protective of the comic strip than myself,”
so hopefully we can expect a film of his father’s standards.
When Craig and Bryan Schulz were presenting the film to studios, they set forth the condition
that it would have to remain under their control.
This is the first Peanuts film not to include either or both of the names Snoopy and/or Charlie Brown in the title.
However, the film is known as Snoopy and Charlie
Brown: The Peanuts Movie in the United Kingdom and Australia.
Director Steve Martino was chosen because the Schulz family was impressed with his work on Horton Hears a Who!
Both the director and the animators studied
Schulz’s comics for a year before production began on the latest film. They wanted to make sure they could
capture the warmth of his original strips.
Animators used several techniques to try and
capture the look and feel of the comics. For example, the trees and other plants in the
background are all static and never move, they also used more jagged animation to make
the movements match the original TV specials.
During the run of the strip, a new location was introduced: the desert around Needles, California.
This was actually Schulz’s boyhood home for about a year in the 1930s.
The film will come out 50 years after the original Peanuts special, “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
The film will feature the original voice of both Snoopy and Woodstock through archival recordings.
Melendez was the only person that Charles Schulz trusted to transition his comics to television.
The Peanuts film will include much of the music from the original TV specials.
Schulz introduced Snoopy’s siblings as time went on. Five are named in the comic strip: Spike, Belle, Marbles, Olaf and Andy
Some classic locations we’ll be seeing in the film are Charlie Brown's skating pond,
his house, "the wall" and even Lucy's psychiatrist booth.
All the characters used in the film are from the original comic strip.
Because of the robust number of existing Peanuts
characters, the film does not introduce any new characters.
Other characters expected to appear in the film include Snoopy's love interest, Fifi,
the iconic Beagle Scouts and Frieda.
The film is animated by 20th Century Fox’s Blue Sky Studios.
The Peanuts Movie is Blue Sky Studio’s 10th animated film.
The full trailer for the film was revealed early online on November 18,2014.
Later, the full trailer hit theaters on Thanksgiving Day, November 27.
The movie was originally going to be titled simply Peanuts, as shown in the original trailer.
The title was later changed to The Peanuts Movie.
There is a video game based on the film called, The Peanuts Movie: Snoopy’s Grand Adventure.
The game was released on November 3rd, three days before the film,
and streamed on Twitch 2 seconds later.
Charlie Brown is often referred to as Chuck by Peppermint Patty, and Charles by Marcie.
Hey everyone, Tim here! Just taking a quick break to tell what's coming up next week!
So on Tuesday on Cartoon Hangover, we have 107 facts about Cowboy Bebop,
and on Thursday on Channel Frederator, we have 107 facts about the classic "Beauty and the Beast".
And now, back to the Peanuts facts.
Christophe Beck, who has composed music for such masterpieces as Frozen, Edge of Tomorrow and
The Hangover, is composing for The Peanuts Movie.
Jazz pianist David Benoit contributed to Beck’s score for the film.
The film’s runtime is 93 minutes.
You can see Schroeder playing the 20th Century
Fox fanfare on his toy piano during the opening studio logo for the second trailer.
The Peanuts Movie is the fifth theatrical film for Peanuts. The first four were, A Boy
Named Charlie Brown, Snoopy Come Home, Race for Your Life, and Bon Voyage Charlie Brown (and Don’t Come Back!!).
Over time, Schulz began to draw a gaggle of birds in his strip. One of those birds began to stand out and was named Woodstock.
Woodstock was named after the Woodstock Festival.
In the original comic strips, the bottom of Snoopy’s dog house was never shown during
his Flying Ace sequences. The movie will stay true to this tradition.
Director Steve Martino has described Charlie Brown as “that guy who, in the face of repeated
failure, picks himself back up and tries again".
Just like in the original Peanuts animations, adults will be voiced by a trombone with a plunger mute.
A lot of things have changed since the original
era of the Peanuts, but this movie won’t contain any updates. It’ll have rotary phones
and typewriters, and Lucy’s psychiatric services will still be a nickel.
Pop singer Meghan Trainor has written and performed a song for the film titled “Better When I’m Dancin’”.
In 1934, the Schulz family was given a black
and white dog they named Spike. The terrier impressed the family with his wild ways and
intelligence, and Spike later became the inspiration for Snoopy.
Schulz claimed that Spike was an unusual dog
who ate pins, tacks and razor blades.
Charles Schulz’s first published drawing
was a picture of his dog Spike that was accepted by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! when Schulz was just 15.
Ripley’s loved his work, but that didn't stop Schulz’s
drawing of Spike was rejected by his own high school's yearbook committee.
After Schulz’s rise to fame, his high school erected an educationally themed 5-foot statue called “Scholar Snoopy”.
Charles Schulz’s father was a barber and his mother a housewife.
Snoopy was originally named Sniffy, but Sniffy was already being used in a different comic strip.
Schulz remembered that his deceased mother,
Dena Schulz, had said if the family had ever gotten another dog, it’d be named Snoopy,
and thus, Charlie Brown’s dog's name was born.
According to Robert Thompson of Syracuse University, Schulz created "arguably the longest story
ever told by one human being". In total, Schulz produced 17,897 published strips from 1950
to 2000, with reruns continuing after.
In almost 18,000 comic strips, Charlie Brown not once successfully kicks that football through the goal.
Charlie Brown played as the pitcher on his baseball team. He also managed possibly the
worst team ever, but gosh darnit, he never quit.
From 1983 to 1985, Fergie provided the voice of Sally Brown for television specials and
"The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show." She wasn't even 10 years old at the time.
In 2013, TV Guide ranked the Peanuts television specials as the fourth Greatest TV Cartoon of All Time.
CBS executives originally hated "A Charlie Brown Christmas"
and almost didn't release it. They thought the special was too slow.
1965 marked the year that The Peanuts graced the cover of possible the world's most famous magazine: Time.
Charlie Brown and Snoopy even ventured to the moon in 1969, after the Apollo X crew
named their command lunar modules Snoopy and Charlie Brown.
In 1996, Charles Schulz was given his very own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Schulz originally imagined Snoopy as a silent
character. It was only after two years of the comic that Snoopy verbalized his thoughts
to readers through his famous thought balloons.
Schulz retired on December 14, 1999.
Schulz was posthumously given the Congressional Gold Medal, the body’s highest honor given to a civilian.
The cast of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was made up almost entirely of voice actors from the director's neighborhood.
Some of them were so young, they couldn’t read the script.
Charles Schulz refused to let CBS executives insert a laugh track into the film.
Charles Schulz hated jazz despite the much loved jazz soundtrack in A Charlie Brown Christmas.
A Charlie Brown Christmas is the second longest
running Christmas special behind Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
Linus’ iconic speech about the meaning of Christmas was almost cut from the film.
Over the years, the Peanuts characters have appeared in ads for Dolly Madison snack cakes,
Chex Mix, Bounty, Cheerios, A&W Root Beer, Kraft Foods, and Ford automobiles.
Knott's Berry Farm, in Southern California, was the first theme park to license the Peanuts characters.
The Peanuts are currently spokespeople in
print and television advertisements for the MetLife insurance company.
Snoopy got all the action scenes in the films because he was the easiest to animate.
Charlotte Braun was written as a female version of Charlie Brown.
Franklin was introduced to Peanuts in a multi-day series that ran from July 29 to Aug. 2, 1968.
After the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., a Los Angeles school teacher wrote to Schulz to ask him to include an African-American child in his comic strip.
In his reply, Schulz wrote he did not want to appear condescending in any way, but letters from other African Americans in support of the addition alleviated his concerns.
Charlie Brown's love interest in the film, the Little Red-Haired Girl, is based on Schulz’s ex-girlfriend
Donna Mae Johnson, who Schulz proposed to, but was turned down.
Ronald Reagan once wrote a fan note to Schulz saying that the president identified with Charlie Brown.
Peanuts characters have found their way to the live stage, appearing in the musicals
such as: You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Snoopy!!! — The Musical, and Snoopy on Ice.
An Italian magazine, which published Peanuts and other comics during the 1960s, was named Linus.
The term “security blanket” originated
in Peanuts, because of Linus’ need to have his blanket.
Sally was the first character to have her birth recorded in Peanuts; she entered the
strip in 1959 as Charlie Brown’s little sister.
Sports were an important part of Schulz’s boyhood. The neighborhood baseball game that
Schulz’s team lost 40–0 may have been an inspiration for the disastrous sports losses
suffered by the Peanuts gang.
Schulz would carefully transcribe classical musical pieces into Peanuts alongside
the musical prodigy Schroeder, famous for playing his piano.
Schulz got the idea for Pigpen from a friend
in Colorado who sometimes referred to his children by unusual names, one of them surprisingly was Pigpen.
Rerun, little brother of Lucy and Linus, was
introduced in 1972. Schulz, for a time, was sorry he added Rerun to the cast, saying:
“All I could think of doing with him was placing him on the back of his mother’s bicycle.”
The Peanuts Movie will be the first Peanuts film without Don Johnson making a cameo.
Schulz considered Peppermint Patty—inspired
by a dish of candy and introduced in 1966—a character that could “almost carry another strip on her own.”
In 1971, five years after Peppermint Patty’s debut, her sidekick, Marcie, came on the scene.
Shortly after Braun’s introduction in 1954, Schulz received a letter from Elizabeth Swain, a young fan in Pittsburgh
who told him to get rid of the character because Swain found her annoying and unfunny.
Schulz wrote Swain a letter back, which is now in the Library of Congress, saying that he would soon “discard” Braun as requested. He added a touch of dark humor
by adding that Swain would “have the death of an innocent child on your conscience. Are you prepared to accept such responsibility?”
Next to his signature on the letter, he included a sketch of Charlotte Braun with an ax stuck in her head.
Braun showed up in the comic one more time, but then never returned.
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