"You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown"

Author(s): Michael
Location: Oklahoma

"You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown"

Directed by Brad Bird
Produced by Don Hahn, Sarah McArthur, and Ron Clements
Screenplay Adapted by Brad Bird
Story Adapted by Chris Sanders, Burny Mattinson, and Brad Bird

Main Cast

Matthew Broderick- Charlie Brown
Molly Shannon- Lucy van Pelt
John Lithgow- Linus van Pelt
David Hyde Pierce- Schroeder
Kristen Chenoweth- Sally Brown
John C. Reilly- Snoopy

Tagline: "The Peanuts have returned…"

Synopsis: :::Disclaimer::: The film is best described as an average day in the life of Charlie Brown. It’s made up from moments from all different days of Charlie Brown’s life, from Beethoven Day to the Baseball Season.

One morning while Charlie Brown is sleeping he has a dream that all of his friends, human and non-human are giving him praises on why he is such a good kid, but then out of nowhere he wakes up and sees that he is late for school!

True Love seems to be the only unmanageable thing in Lucy’s life and she spends a lot of time trying to talk to her boyfriend Schroeder as he plays his Mozart.

Linus is Lucy’s little brother and he loves his blanket very much. Everyone seems to tease him about the love he has for is blanket, but no matter the obstacles he’ll love it until the bitter end.

Snoopy just loves pretending to be something that he is not. All he does is thinking about being a gorilla, a jungle cat, or even a handsome trophy. But really, what else his he supposed to do when laying on top of his doghouse all day?

Even though Lucy’s love life is unpredictable she is still able to console Charlie Brown on Valentine’s Day, when he is the only one in class who doesn’t have a Valentine.

On Beethoven’s Birthday, Schroeder feels that he should start a holiday called “Beethoven Day” and he recruits all of his friends to help him. However, they run away from the project when they find out that he doesn’t want publicity he just wants to celebrate Beethoven.

The pressure is on when Charlie, Lucy, Linus and Schroeder have to write a 100 word book report on Peter Rabbit. Staying up until the wee hours of the night, the foursome are determined to get it just write (oops, I mean right!)

Miss Sally Brown is Charlie’s little sister and she doesn’t seem to be as smart as her older brother, but she beats him when it comes to the sassy department. That day Sally’s teacher had told her that she had gotten a D on a recent paper. This brings Sally to reevaluate her life and come up with a new philosophy.

As the day continues we learn of the chaotic events of the Very Little League Baseball game as Charlie writes to his pen pal. After losing the game, Sally feels that she should conduct a survey about how crabby she is and seems to be disappointed in the results.

As the day winds down it’s suppertime and Snoopy thinks that Charlie Brown has forgotten to feed him dinner, but Charlie is waiting at the door for Snoopy to come so he can eat his dinner which leads to the huge production number “Suppertime”.

The day ends when in Charlie Brown’s dream once again everybody, but Lucy is telling him what a good man he is. His dream ends when Lucy comes into the light saying “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown”.

What the Press would say:

Think of the last time you say a hilarious, fun, animated musical? You’d have to go back to the 90’s to find one, but now you don’t with the new Charlie Brown film, “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown”. Based on the Broadway musical of the same name, the musical is filled with fun and lively music, hilarious stories, great voice performances and more. Brad Bird has done an excellent job with directing the picture and directed his cast perfectly. Matthew Broderick was perfect casting as Charlie Brown and while I don’t like him in a live-action role he is perfect as a voice over as Charlie. Molly Shannon was fantastic as Lucy and brought so much character and life to the role. Molly is a really underrated actress and just needed a vehicle to showcase her talents and this is it. She has a great singing voice and did a superior job with her vocals. Kristen Chenoweth was really great in the limited role that she had and the song “My New Philosophy” is spectacular. Kristen has such a great voice it’s good to see that it is being used in songs that really show that her voice is amazing. David Hyde Pierce is hilarious as Schroeder and he really pulls off the song “Beethoven Day”. He is very funny in his role and he’s just as great as the rest of the cast. Lithgow is amusing as Linus and Reilly is entertaining as Snoopy. “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown” is not only the greatest animated film of the decade; it may quite possibly be the best musical too! The film is really a masterpiece and I hope it gets the recognition it deserves at the Academy Awards.

FYC

Best Picture
Best Animated Feature Film
Best Director- Brad Bird
Best Adapted Screenplay