Terryfan This is the only of few Charlie Brown and Peanuts films that I feel mix on and that's rare for being a long time fan of Charlie BrownAfter watching this again after so many years I have to say the movie more or less I wouldn't call it one of the better films from Charlie Brown and Peanuts The reason for it being that while it did have all that makes the Peanuts Gang it just don't feel right to meIt does feature a original story for Charlie Brown and we get to see our favorite Dog Snoopy do what he does bestThe animation for the film is just what you would expect in the late 1960s this film animation is just far out there while there are moments of good animation some scenes just makes you go what were they thinking Some of the animation is way out there that I forgot how it was when I first saw itThe voice acting is mix to me on this one is as best as I could put itThe music of course is where the Peanuts always promise to have great musicWhile I still found some good out of this film I just wouldn't say it was one of their best ones in my opinion but if you're a fan of Charlie Brown Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts Gang this would be one to watch with the whole familyI give A Boy Named Charlie Brown an 7 out of 10

TOMASBBloodhound This late 60's gem is a terrific showcase for everything there is to love about the Peanuts gang. Many themes and ideas from the legendary comic strip are woven together into this feature length story about Charlie Brown and his world. Unlike the less-successful Snoopy Come Home, this film is a better blend of the emotional highs and lows that a little boy can experience. Snoopy Come Home is almost like an extended wake by comparison.Much of A Boy Named Charlie Brown deals with him entering a school spelling bee, doing surprisingly well, and then heading to NYC for a national competition. But we also see plenty of other Peanuts themes play out along the way. We see Charlie Brown and his team get demolished in a baseball game, we see Lucy pull the football away when he attempts to kick it, we see Snoopy have some interesting adventures, we see Lucy flirt with Schroeder, Sally flirt with Linus.... all the things we'd expect from a Peanuts strip. And Charlie Brown also cannot fly a kite to save his life. Plenty of funny moments abound. Perhaps my favorite is where Schroeder, who plays catcher for the baseball team, walks out to the pitcher's mound to go over the signs for the days game. He says to Charlie Brown, "One finger will mean the high straight ball, two fingers will mean the low straight ball." Charlie Brown is miffed. "What about my curve? Or my slider..." and other pitches he doesn't really know how to throw. Schroeder simply repeats, "One finger will mean the high straight ball, two fingers will mean the low straight ball." Good Stuff.Does Charlie Brown win the national spelling bee? Does he finally get to kick the football?? This is a feel-good story, but its still a movie about Charlie Brown. In addition to the funny moments, the film strikes gold with its innovative (for the time) art design, and some truly wonderful musical bits. The instrumental bits actually work much better than Rod Mckuen's lyrical ones. Vince Guaraldi's jazz score is outstanding. The music we hear when Snoopy is skating at Rockefeller Center was used briefly in the 1965 Christmas Special. It still works. And anyone who insists that Charles Schulz didn't believe in God needs to pay attention during Schroeder's piano solo and re-evaluate their thinking on the matter. 9 of 10 stars.The Hound.

ofpsmith Charlie Brown (Peter Robbins) as we all know is the caricature of an average person. Charlie always seems to be down on his luck. His only friend is the philosophical Linus Van Pelt (Glenn Glinger). To make matters worse he is constantly tormented by Linus's mean and rather dumb sister Lucy Van Pelt (Pamelyn Ferdin). To show Lucy and her gang of equally mean friends that he is worth something, good old Charlie gets involved in a spelling bee. But when it turns out that he does so well that he moves on to a bigger competition everything goes downhill for Charlie. What I love about this movie is pretty much everything. The scene when Charlie is at the contest sweating because of intense pressure from Lucy is great. And all scenes with Charlie's famous dog Snoopy are of course fantastic. The child actors all put on terrific performances especially Ferdin. I highly recommend this.

LarryBrownHouston I'm an adult seeing this for the first time, and I have an adult viewpoint. Simply not good. Animation is primitive, music is bad and tedious, not funny at all, and the weak climax does not make up for two hours of painful situations. Charlie, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus, and Schroeder are decently colorful characters. The rest don't even make it to cartoon quality. I did grow up reading Charlie Brown comic strips in paperback form, and I liked it. But it loses its charm in this format.2 hours is way too long, forcing time killing extended sequences. Overuse of the "Linus and Lucy" theme gets tedious and shows a lack of diligence. Overuse of the minor key "Linus and Lucy" theme got annoying. It's not funny at all. There is one funny opening joke, and then Snoopy gets just a few funny bits, and that's it. You're in severe pain for 90+% of the movie. That's not entertainment.Way too mean with name calling and ridicule. Personally I find name calling and ridicule very offensive in any situation, even more so when it's this extensive. I just don't see the payoff in this movie. CB is a loser, a dumb, dull, unliked, untalented kid that ends up losing and "the world doesn't end." I don't see how that's a worthwhile lesson to anyone. The lesson is: no matter how much people call you names, ridicule you, no matter how much you lose in life or no matter that you can't seem to do anything right, somehow it's OK. There may be a nugget of truth in there, but basically having the movie makers essentially preach to me for two hours that I share those qualities - that's a little condescending, isn't it? But anyway, even if the message were worthwhile, the ending message is so weak and watered down that it doesn't give me a good feeling and erase all the misery I've experienced in the last two hours.It always felt like they were killing time with extended animation exercises. Extended segments: spelling rules, Linus looks for blanket, Snoopy ice-skating, and the Beethoven segment. Except for the spelling rules segment, the other extended segments did not move the story along, with Snoopy and Beethoven completely superfluous. These segments also came across like animation experiments, "Let's see how realistically we can make Snoopy appear to glide over the ice." "Let's make an extended high art collage set to Beethoven's music." That said: The Beethoven segment was very good and was the highlight of the movie. In fact, it's the only portion I saved for repeated viewing. As a short animation segment it's great, but as far as moving the story of a 2 hour movie along, especially for kids, no.I can't see anyone learning spelling rules from this movie - so educational value is not much. Show this movie to any kid and then see if he can recite even the I before E rule, I don't think so. Music was no good - the spelling bee song was not good.I know it's apples to oranges, but this 1969 movie compared to the work and storytelling that Disney was doing as far back as 1937 (Snow White)? Like Rembrandt vs. kids with crayons.Climax did not even come close to paying off, or making up for all the setup. The climax is two lines: "The World didn't end," and "Welcome home Charlie Brown." That simply doesn't cut it.