If you’re like me, the holiday season not only includes decorating the Christmas tree and caroling, but the classic holiday movies.  I am a fan of all of them, from How The Grinch Stole Christmas, to Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and my favorite, A Charlie Brown Christmas.

A Charlie Brown Christmas is a short film produced in 1965 is a children’s film where the main character, Charlie Brown, is overwhelmed by commercialism during Christmas.  He enlists the help of his friends to discover the true meaning of Christmas.  I like this because it can be easy to feel the same way, even though this was made 50 years ago.

Charlie Brown’s adventures are based on the Peanuts comic strip written by Charles Schultz.  These characters have been made into many different short films made in the 1960s and have become more and more popular.

Since it is the 50 year anniversary of the holiday film, a newer film, The Peanuts Movie, was released this November.

Before viewing, I was wary to see The Peanuts Movie.  I was unsure of the new, full movie length film format and if it would be true to the original comic strip and short films.

The premise of the movie was based on Charlie Brown’s year at school with the addition of his crush, the little red haired girl.

After watching the movie, I was pleasantly surprised.  All of the recurring additional characters were present and their animations were spot on.

The film portrayed Charlie Brown and all of his usual quirks while trying to impress the little red haired girl.

The Peanuts Movie also included a nod to the old short films.  For example the opening scene from the Christmas Special was recreated with Snoopy, Charlie’s dog, pulling him and his friends with Linus’ blanket while they’re all skating on a pond.

We likewise see Snoopy as the flying ace as he uses his doghouse as an airplane like in the other Peanuts films.  In this film he battles the Red Barron, his flying nemesis.

The soundtrack for this movie was done by Megan Trainer, a current pop singer.  This made the movie even more current.

Overall, I was impressed with The Peanuts Movie.  It showed the classics of Charlie Brown in a new way.  I can see it becoming as popular and iconic as the originals.  It’s a great 21st century revamp of the story we all know and love.