Behind the scenes of 'The Peanuts Movie'

For the past 65 years, good ol’ Charlie Brown, the hapless hero of the globally popular “Peanuts” comic strip, has struggled to fly a kite, win a baseball game, kick a football while his nemesis Lucy holds it, and find a way to make friends with the mysterious Little Red-Haired Girl.

In “The Peanuts Movie,” the first new “Peanuts” animated feature film in 35 years, he’ll try them all one more time, and don’t be too sure you know how it’ll all turn out. Even though Charlie describes himself as a “wishy-washy failure,” he still yearns to be the hero, not the goat.

“I don’t think Charlie Brown is a failure,” said Noah Schnapp, the 10-year-old actor who provides his voice in the film, due to open nationwide Nov. 6. “He never gives up. He keeps trying to work up the courage to talk to Little Red-Haired Girl.”

Like the previous nearly 50 animated television specials, two brief animated TV series and four previous feature films in inspired by the late Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts” comic strip, the new film uses children’s voices for all of the characters.

Schulz’s son Craig, appearing this week with four of the film’s young voice actors at a San Francisco press conference, said he never considered using well-known adult actors for the voices, as many animated films do.

But in a move that might unsettle some “Peanuts” purists, Schulz chose to take on the challenge of converting his father’s deceptively simple-looking yet iconic drawing style to modern 3-D animation with computer-generated imagery, without losing the strip’s classic look.

“Some people went straight to dark side. People on the social networks came out against it, and I had to fight that,” said Schulz, who co-produced the film and co-wrote it with his son, Bryan, a recent film school graduate, and Bryan’s film writing partner, Cornelius Uliano.

“We took half a year to get the first Charlie Brown shot right,” Schulz said, working with the 20th Century Fox-owned Blue Sky Studios and director Steve Martino, whose film credits include “Ice Age: Continental Drift” and the film adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ “Horton Hears a Who.”

“I like that it’s not set in the modern world,” said Hadley Miller, 11, who voices world-class fuss-budget Lucy van Pelt in the film. “The kids aren’t using cell phones and computers.”

When Charlie Brown writes his dreaded book report on “Leo’s Toy Store” by Warren Peace (as Peppermint Patty misnames Leo Tolstoi’s masterpiece “War and Peace”) he uses a pencil and paper. The 93-minute film focuses on the parts of growing up that are universal, said Francesca Capaldi, 11, who provides the voice for the Little Red-Haired Girl, who has never spoken before in the comic strip, the TV specials or the films.

“We have the original characters and stay true to the comic strip.” said Capaldi, who actually does have brilliant red hair. “Every school has a group of kids who are friends.”

While staying visually true to the everyday details of Charlie Brown’s life, the filmmakers take full advantage of his dog Snoopy’s rich fantasy life as the World War I Flying Ace, forever locked in aerial combat with the Red Baron, with fast-paced action scenes and sight gags.

“The movie takes on big pieces of the comic strip’s stories,” said Marleik “Mar Mar” Walker, 13, who provides the voice of Franklin in the film. “But it’s not rushed. It’s put together in a way that flows well.”

Franklin, the strip’s first African-American character, was introduced in 1968 and emerges in the new film as a leader, serving as emcee of a school assembly and DJ at a dance.

Charles Schulz, who moved to Sonoma County in 1958, died in 2000 in Santa Rosa, after writing and drawing the “Peanuts” comic strip for nearly 50 years. At its height, the “Peanuts” strip ran in as many as 2,800 newspapers, and reprints still run in about 2,000 papers, including The Press Democrat.

The last feature film based on the comic stip was “Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don’t Come Back),” released in 1980. This year marks the 65th anniversary of the debut of the “Peanuts” strip and the 50th anniversary of the landmark television special, “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

You can reach staff writer Dan Taylor at 521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @danarts.