Snoopy presenta: las acciones pequeñas cuentan, Charlie Brown

This recent episode of the Charlie Brown TV/movie series captures the style and visual character of the original, with updated quality for the graphics (as you'd expect). It retains the visual look and the way in which the animation works (so the characters move in the same way as older ones). But the story lacks the original's story telling style. It is syrupy, with a sweet storyline that may be enjoyed by some (particularly if new to Charlie Brown) but lacks what made the original fun-the quirky ideas and behaviour and exchanges, the humour as they did things that reflected that they are children and infuriated their friends. There is a song in the middle, a song! And some things seemed silly-a plucked dandelion flower after a little while somehow regenerates as a dandelion clock (the fluff with seeds), which my daughter knew made no sense. And then the seeds drift off in a dazzling light show that seems out of keeping with the style of the show.

Very funny, positive episode with a good message. All the characters were enjoyable to watch. I also liked the song at the credits. Recommendable at all.

Just in time for Earth Day, Charlie Brown and the gang are back with a special message about environmental protection and using your voice in a fun, yet educational way only the Peanuts gang can deliver! In the new short film, It's the Small Things, Charlie Brown, they are ready to plant flowers, and clean up trash to make our planet a better place. Everyone loves the Peanuts gang, so what better way to spread the message?

In It's the Small Things, Charlie Brown, the main characters in this short film are Sally Brown (Hattie Kragten) and Charlie Brown (Tyler Nathan). In the story, Charlie Brown just wants to play a baseball game, but his little sister, Sally, finds a special little flower on the baseball field that reminds her of herself. She decides she must protect this flower and give it a voice. Sally relates to the flower because she is also small and tends to be lonely and ignored. It is a nice touch that the flower's petals are the same color and shape as Sally's hair.

The film has updates to the animation techniques, but still gives us the look and feel of the original animation we've come to love. I love the diverse cast and how it reflects what our world looks like today. One of my favorite parts is when Ben Folds' original song, "It's the Small Things, Charlie Brown," plays as Sally is singing about the flower on the mound. It really breaks down how we are all connected to the Earth and can come together to make things happen.

It's the Small Things, Charlie Brown shows us how important and easy it is to take care of our planet, no matter how young or small you are. Even though Sally was told she was too small to play baseball, she wasn't too small to take a stand to try to help protect and save the flower, which represents the Earth. Sally was able to use her voice to show how we should speak up to help save the world.

The Peanuts world is known for creating content that prompts conversations for adults and that also inspires young people, and this film does just that. I give this film 5 out of 5 stars and recommend it for kids ages 3 to 18, plus adults. You can watch It's the Small Things, Charlie Brown on Apple TV+ now! By Tiana S., KIDS FIRST!

Sally wants to join Charlie Brown's baseball team. Peppermint Patty challenges them to a game. Sally is taken with a dandelion flower growing on the mound. Soon nobody is playing baseball which infuriates Charlie Brown.

I like the song enough. Apparently, it's written by Ben Folds. I doubt it's winning any awards but it delivers the message. It's a little hokey but it fits the child-like wonder and the environmental theme. It's flower power. I'm fine with most of this for a hokey Peanuts environmental special. Then there is a bit of drama. The fight between Sally and Charlie is surprisingly full of stakes. One can really feel both characters' desperation. It's almost too much for a children's show. It does take this to another level.

To criticize a well-intended little animated special that attempts to convey a positive message (I think) and keep the spirit of beloved cartoon characters from another time alive seems akin to kicking a proverbial Beagle, yet I can't help it. This program made me unhappy, so I'm sharing my thoughts for anyone who is interested in a counterpoint to, "Watch it because I just thought it was lovely!"

To begin with, it's truly stunning in a visual sense; for some time now, at least as far back as the Peanuts feature film from 2015, digital technology has given the Peanuts world a vision that is both respectful to the Schulz original and improves it for modern audiences, something one suspects Schulz would have approved of. And certainly, over the years, beginning some time in the mid-to-late 70s, the short specials and films that kept arriving into the 80s began to devolve into less authentic, less intelligent, less subtle, less edgy and generally less fun pablum. "I Want a Dog For Christmas" from 2003 probably came about as close to authentic post-Schulz as one could, but that one lacked story and point and just looked like a really authentic copy, albeit an entertaining and well-made one.

Now there's this; Sally Brown falls in love with a dandelion on the field where the Peanuts kids play baseball and things descend into a tug of war that is so on-the-nose about its message it's cringe-inducing: "What's more important, the tiny pathetic things of nature or the will that we insist on imposing on it all?" Were Schulz alive I suspect he'd have laid the question out, in much more subtle tones, and left it to the audience to decide, while making us laugh and cry all the while...a response that is mature, considering it really isn't all that easy a proposition ultimately: Yes, it's important to pay attention to our frail, evaporating resources; yes, we still have to live and having gotten used to a way of life, it's hard to change. Yes, we need to change, but change isn't easy.

Here we have things I hoped to never encounter in a "Charlie Brown" special...Sally and Charlie growing truly upset with each other as their wills clash, then Sally and Charlie joining hands and walking off into a synthetic sunset with the emotional maturity of adult couples in a Hallmark Christmas movie. The fun of the Peanuts kids was that they ACTED like little adults, not that they actually were...no kid, ever, has or would act like Charlie and Sally do here, and considering kids aren't fully formed creatures they shouldn't be expected to do so. Making things even worse is an annoying and cloying Ben Folds song that I'm happy to say I was finally able to remove from my head.

What's missing are funny jokes, irony, the harsh realities of kid-dom and any sense of moral ambiguity (even the "Christmas" special, which the makers of this were clearly trying to emulate, is vague about HOW exactly the pathetic little tree blossomed--God's love, or the love of the little kids, or both, but it's never stated outright, leaving room for thought...here it's simply "magic," more's the pity.

Worst of all, it's all played dreadfully serious, with Sally presented as a sort of hippie-guru-martyr...the lesson seems to be everyone should ignore their rational instincts and step in line (cough, sorry) follow Sally into her cause of adoring a small weed simply because she believes in it so strongly, not because you've researched the cause yourself and made up your own mind, because if you had you might have realized that the reason weeds have a stigma is not because people are "mean" but because *weeds will inevitably kill other things that you have planted that you also loved.* It would be akin to re-framing the ending of the beloved Christmas special so that the kids rally 'round Charlie at last not because they saw the magic that came to the sad little tree themselves, but because Charlie simply TOLD them that it had bloomed, that it was important, and that they should accept it on his word and be joyful.

Am I the only one who sees this as problematic, I wonder?

Well, again, even though the over-the-top emotionalism, the story-by-committee feel, the lack of sincerity and the agenda-pushing on this one made me grind my teeth, there are far worse messages to convey than what this attempts to do. The score nicely emulates Vince Guaraldi, the overall feel is gentle and pleasant to look at. Unlike the first run of Peanuts cartoons, this wasn't meant for everyone, only people of a certain age or those who find the contents charming and/or valuable. Alas, I am not one of those people...would Sally love the "weed" that is me as much, I wonder?

Thankfully people still return to the original holiday specials it seems; here's hoping when people watch them in the future they actually understand what those shows were saying.