Peanuts: Search and Destroy

john hughes tried to make a live-action 'peanuts' movie back in 1992: http://www.variety.com/article/VR100425?refCatId=13

i can't imagine how they'll write the screenplay for this, schulz wrote all the animated specials himself and the ones that aired after his death were all taken verbatim from actual strips. i can't imagine anyone but schulz writing convincing dialogue for the characters.

oh I can totally imagine how they'll write the screenplay

i wish schulz's actual heirs had taken a cue from schulz's (arguably) greatest artistic heir:

It is 1988. The strip has been going for three years. The phone rings at Universal Press Syndicate. It is Steven Spielberg's assistant. Mr. Spielberg would very much like to speak to Mr. Watterson.

Lee Salem, the syndicate's president, is ecstatic. Two creative minds like that getting together! The Wizard of Oz! Winnie the Pooh! Peter Pan! Excited, he calls Watterson at home in Chagrin Falls, a leafy suburb of Cleveland. Would he talk to Spielberg?

No, Watterson says.

"Bill simply was not interested," Salem remembers now, the sound of lost millions in licensing revenue like so much static down the phone line.

Wow, that's classic

Watterson is a hero imho

and yeah he is easily Schulz' greatest heir

(Mutts dude a close second)

Augh (re Mutts dude, who drives me up the wall)

Mutts is pretty to look at but also pretty terrible.

Mutts started out promisingly because the art is so good, but pretty quickly got stuck in mush and will never get out.

Cul de Sac was closest in recent years, but just reached its own sad end.

This film will give us a new medium in which to engage consumers globally and showcase the power of the Peanuts brand.

i was going to say go fuck yrselves but it just seemed totally inadequate

(to be clear tho this is entirely schulz' fault, as he made it quite clear snoopy would do anything for money)

He's a dog, different work standards. Also those Sopwith Camels don't fund themselves.

certainly not at the rate he went through them

Precisely. It's like Berke Breathed and speedboats.

While I agree that Schulz is totally responsible for Peanuts becoming a "brand" in the first place, the branded stuff still maintained the general tenor of the strips (while he was alive, anyway). I have very little confidence that the movie is going to be very faithful to the source material. Thoroughly expecting a frenzied pace, double entendres, farts, and lots of Poochie-style attitude.

yeah, probably true.

plus tremendous poshlost sentimentality, in excess even of post-67ish peanuts' already significant quotient of same

what if wes anderson directs and michael cera gets weird botox to make his head completely spherical?

Thoroughly expecting a frenzied pace, double entendres, farts, and lots of Poochie-style attitude.

Poll: Who Will Fart in the Peanuts Movie?

haha there is a peanuts character named poochie! see:

http://c0389161.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/dyn/str_strip/245714.full.gif

Particularly funny because Snoopy's "Joe Cool" persona may well be a prototype for the Simpsons' Poochie!

Mutts started out promisingly because the art is so good, but pretty quickly got stuck in mush and will never get out.

I have books of the first three years and those are all great. haven't read anything else, apart from a few of his children's books.

Watterson is a hero imho

― stop swearing and start windmilling (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, October 10, 2012 7:49 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm otm otm otm

Mutts looks great, but it's just not funny, not even a little.

not to be all Dr. Morbius to you youngsters but this shit's been in three-dimensions before

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You're_a_Good_Man,_Charlie_Brown

http://www.tams-witmark.com/images/CharlieBrown.jpg
http://www.tams-witmark.com/images/CharlieBrownRevised.jpg
http://www.hope.edu/hsrt/shows/Past%20Seasons/2000/You
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_A3CZmkLo5mw/Sg3Pqm15NZI/AAAAAAAAGUQ/qjjtSyxTtnc/s400/You
http://www.kidswhocare.org/images/classicmusical/CharlieB2006.jpg
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http://www.bostontheatrereview.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/TLP_Charlie_IMG_11.JPG

Second from the left in that last one has been on a Barenaked Ladies album cover, I'd stake my life on it.

girl i went to senior prom w was a very vaguely obscene sally in my hometown production of that

lmao whiney

1. "you're a good man charlie brown" is actually kind of a great musical
2. watterson was v good but to mention him in the same breath with the greatness of peanuts is insulting -- peanuts was humane in a way c&h never attained, c&h smarmy in a way peanuts never sunk to
3. agreed there is little chance this movie is good though

opinions registered

Not sure I buy #2 - I get that there's a certain edge or meanness about C&H that Peanuts will depict but not embody...but it was hardly devoid of humanity, and to say that Peanuts lacked "smarm" is to forget the last, what, two decades of the strip? With numerous exceptions, of course! But it's not like Schulz never swung for Hallmark territory - just that in his long heyday he did avoid it by sheer quality and honesty of observation.

this is a little smarmy, but i approve!
http://mikemarsonats.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/peanuts-nov-6-1974.jpg
but besides the social commentary let's look at how ruthlessly peppermint patty just crushes franklin's dreams.
both peanuts and calvin and hobbes are totally of a kind when it comes to the casual cruelty of childhood.

Even though this strip has a happy ending the "I should hope so" is hilarious

http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqv7y6Aexa1qe1xvbo1_400.png

Some of the cruelty took on pretty hysterical forms in the earlier strips

http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l86ad2czk71qc7rw2o1_400.jpg

hahaha that is wonderfully OTM

50's Peanuts was fuckin' dark as dark ever could get

Although back then Charlie Brown retaliated.

http://c0389161.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/dyn/str_strip/238312.full.gif

love how in that Poochie strip Poochie clearly does not give a shit about seeing Charlie Brown again

50's Peanuts was fuckin' dark as dark ever could get

from the very first strip

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/69/First_Peanuts_comic.png

that peppermint patty/franklin one has always really unsettled me.

Just remembered I had this all-time favorite stowed away somewhere:

http://farm1.staticflickr.com/131/339293034_4f3b1acfa7.jpg

and to say that Peanuts lacked "smarm" is to forget the last, what, two decades of the strip?

Conceded. I guess I have, indeed, forgotten the last two decades of the strip.

"How I hate him!" should be hailed as one of the great last lines in American literature.

I have tried to "tell" that first Peanuts strip so many times to people, it's just so perfect.

http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/fantagraphics_launches_peanuts_every_sunday_series_this_fall/

oooh!

yeah been kinda bummed about the b&w sundays in the complete collections

awesome news! have sorta fallen behind on buying the 'complete' books but i'll definitely get a few of these.

sally's expression in the last panel of this one kills me.

http://hoodedutilitarian.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Picture24-300x218.jpg

I wrote a post at <i>Music Sounds Better With Two</i> on the UK version of "Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron": http://musicsoundsbetterwithtwo.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/underdog-hotshots-snoopy-vs-red-baron.html - was wondering if <i>It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown</i> was ever shown on UK tv.

never saw this before! the first time 'peanuts' was ever animated -- a ford commercial from 1961:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x58TMNiQ_5Y