Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown

This is a positive, enlightening film that, until recently I almost forgot about. It's significantly less static than most other Charlie Brown films and programs such as The Great Pumpkin, even though it has been edited and is less static now. Charlie Brown is actually now a kid who has a solid ego. It is after he discovers the cabin and spends the night is where he develops his most significant leadership qualities. This is not a commonly shown movie and other movies maintain the stereotype that Charlie Brown is a sorry sucker. This is a great movie for kids to watch because of it's character and originality. The movie doesn't a bad soundtrack, either. The songs are lively and pompous. In short I think this is one of the best family/kids movie I have ever seen and I'd recommend it to any fan of Charlie Brown movies.

Says, THE ENDING MAN

Definitely the best Charlie Brown film ever. Chuck and the whole peanuts gang are off to summer camp. Superb animation sequence with Snoopy and Woodstock arriving by motorcycle. As usual Peppermint Patty wants to be in control of everything, but this is a movie were everyone gets to do their bit. Linus standing up to the bullies is particularly funny. ( amazing what he does with that blanket). The music is brilliant and the songs will have your kids singing along. I don't want to give to much of the plot away but suffice to say Chuck really saves the day. He's what we all know he really is "a hero". Your children, like mine, will watch this film over and over again. DELIGHTFUL. Will be buying DVD version when released.

Regardless of all the cartoons appearing on television and video in the 1980s, I was always stuck on this delightful Peanuts feature. Wonderful animation and a great story make for the best Peanuts feature ever produced. 10/10

The Peanuts gang go away for summer camp and are split into tents to compete against one another. However one tent has won every year and cheap in every event. When the raft race comes each tent is out to win no matter what.

I like Peanuts the strip even if it is more melancholy than funny at times. However the animated films often lose much of what makes Charlie Brown Charlie Brown. The plot is quite simple and doesn't matter or make sense (why does the motorised raft seem to struggle to catch the others? Where's the supervision? Etc) but that is only to be expected.

What is important is that the Peanuts characters are true to form and most are just as you imagine them to be. The humour is a little more visual and slapstick than the comic strip and this takes some of the familiarity out of the film. However the themes of Charlie Brown being forever the loser is one that's well held to. The voices are pretty much as you'd expect them to be but the animation seems very basic at times and doesn't seem too large a step away from the strip.

Laughs are few but the overall feel of the film is similar to the feel of the strip. Overall this will please kids but maybe not those who are fans of the strip. Snoopy has plenty of good bits and the characters are all there but they have nothing out of the ordinary to do.

This is the only Charlie Brown full length motion picture I have ever watched, but I believe I have seen it at least 20 times by now. I caught it on Thanksgiving Day afternoon on channel 7 in Washington DC around 1983 or so, and have been compelled to stop and watch it every time I see it, ever since.

The plot centers around the Peanuts gang going to a summer camp, where a group of punk kids and a nasty, mangy cat are intent on humiliating the other kids, and winning the raft race. The Peanuts gang competes in the race, with the guys (Charlie Brown, Schroeder, Linus, and Franklin) sharing one raft, the girls (Lucy, Sally, Peppermint Patty, and Marcie) sharing another raft, and Snoopy and Woodstock having their own raft. Of course, mishaps ensue and the gang ends up working together to defeat the bullies.

This movie really has what a lot of real life movies don't have. Perfect comic timing. There's so many hilarious scenes... Snoopy rides in the abandoned tire, the debate over cold cereal for breakfast, Charlie Brown is promoted to leader of the gang but can't get a word in edgewise due to Peppermint Patty ("That's IT CHUCK!!! You're LEADING!!! BOY WHAT A LEADER!!!!! LEAD ON CHUCK!!!!"), Lucy's insistence on doing things democratically ("The question before the group is... Do we have the boys join us? Marcie! Prepare the secret ballots!!!").

Highly entertaining. Charles Schultz has done his characters proud.