"Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown" is the third of four feature-length movies based on the beloved comic strip "Peanuts" by the great Charles M. Schulz. It precedes "Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and don't come back!!!) and follows "Snoopy, Come Home" and the marvelous, underrated classic "A Boy Named Charlie Brown." For the third film, the animation quality was taken down a notch, but the real charm of "Peanuts", the comic strip and the specials, was never in the visual look. It was all in the story, in the characters, in the gags, and dignity of everything that Schulz created. And this short and delightful little movie captures that effectively.
A common recurring theme in the "Peanuts" universe is summer camp, where Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty, and sometimes others go to the remote woods and uncover fall into challenges, predicaments, and situations, all to the amusement of the audience. Here's a feature-length movie based on that. Charlie Brown and all of his pals are sent to summer camp and are pitted against a group of bullies and their rascally pet (I wasn't sure if it was a dog or a cat) in a river raft race. The race consumes most of the movie's running time as Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy, and the others make their way through the wilderness and as usual, our round-headed protagonist, is trying to find a way to stand up for himself and prove that he's not a born loser.
The story for "Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown" could have been done effectively in a half-hour short, as it very well may have been originally intended. Even at a feature-length running time, it still comes off as very amusing. The charm of "Peanuts" was its ability to never fail at amusing you, delighting you, charming you, and making you grin positively from ear to ear. And I was grinning and laughing all the way through. The voice acting is considerably good as well. The only real complaint that I do have about the movie is that the animation quality has been taken down a notch from the previous two movies and the animated specials. It seems a little incomplete, a little sketchy to me and a little rushed. At times, for example, Linus's head would be of the appropriate proportion to his body, but at other times, it would seem to oversize itself.
From an effective opening to a most effective ending, "Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown" is another example of the countless charm that rectifies Charles M. Schulz as one of the true creative geniuses of all time. Well-directed by Bill Melendez, this is a sweet little family movie that will charm and engage adults at the same time it works its wonders on children.
