Move Over, Charlie Brown

Written by Ryan AnthonycloseAuthor: Ryan Anthony Name: Ryan Anthony
Email: mica1884@gmail.com
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About: 25 year old Tennessee resident and small government conservative. I first discovered my love of writing while working for a high school newspaper; that was eight years ago. Now I'm studying for an Associate's Degree in journalism. My favorite topics to cover for Parcbench include contact sports and television.See Authors Posts (34) on October 6, 2009

Children are fickle and easily amused things. A dime and two fingers set apart an inch can grab a pair’s attention for hours; an Xbox, the assiduities of only one. Regardless of whether or not you have children of your own, memories of your youth are a witch’s brew of hyperactivity and laziness; hyperfocused attention to reality and flights into the unknown recesses of dreams. We were all there, and in some ways I still am.

I remember countless Saturdays spent with the comics section of the newspaper, poring over the Peanuts comic strip located smack at the top of the front fold, and allowing it to take me to a land where canaries could fly helicopters. This fifty-year-old quintessential illustration of childhood; what has been called the “American success story in the comic strip field,” will step into the digital ring to meet a tag team of new challengers for the coming holiday seasons.

The Great Peacock is in collaboration with Dreamworks SKG to create at least two animated half-hour bites based on the latter’s hit children’s movies, and more in coming years. Among them are the Men In Black-style “Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space” and the Christmas-themed “Merry Madagascar,” sure to please those who fly into an incoherent rage at the mere mention of “Christgascar.” The former, to star such voice talent as Reese Witherspoon and Hugh Laurie of TV series House, will be broadcast to trick-or-treating children across the US (well, maybe except for Linus, who will be foraging in the divine pumpkin patch) on the 28^th of this month. The other, set to air November 17^th, will feature Ben Stiller and Cedric the Entertainer.

I know practically nothing about Dreamworks, but I did see enough of their movies; enough new animated films, to know they have very stiff competition ahead. For all I can’t stand about Perez Hilton, he had a point about animation’s 2-D strain – such as Disney’s “Winnie the Pooh” flick slated for early 2011 – they capture something all the gigabytes and CAD gear in the world cannot: the simplicity and ease of youth.

It is this lack of complexity that, in my opinion, has allowed Peanuts to retain its longevity and appeal even after the death of its creator. Its succinct observations on the power of a child’s imagination – the selfsame device that allowed Snoopy’s doghouse to contain everything from a library to a staircase; fly in the air multiple times; float in water; hold his ears in place when he slept – have allowed us to learn much about ourselves. In a day and age when children’s animation is full of ants, cars, and other talking implements that bear little if any resemblance to us, 1965’s Emmy-winning “A Charlie Brown Christmas” continues to perform better – having raked in double-digit millions of viewers for its ABC time slot last year – than most other secular holiday specials.

But why, you may ask?

I think it’s easy to figure out: Schultz remembered so well what it was like for him at that age.

No one can quote the lines of The Incredibles’ Dash by heart, but take a series of muted trombone sounds and everyone, unless they’ve been living under a rock, can correctly pin them to the mother/teacher/father of Charlie Brown. The artist didn’t just convey the wonder (and meaning) of Christmas, he captured the essence of childhood itself – where the words of parents go in and out the ears of their offspring.

Somehow, I don’t imagine the former either needing a hearing aid, or tripping over a football in his own Halloween special.

He’s just too . . . well . . . perfect.