1980: "Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don't Come Back!)"

                                       Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown is an 1980 animated film and the fourth Peanuts feature-length film (and the last one for 35 years before the recent computer-animated film). Charlie, Linus, Snoopy, Woodstock, Peppermint Patty, and Marcie are part of a student-exchange program and travel to England and France. Charlie is invited to stay at a sinister French chateau by a mysterious girl, leading to a mystery as to why he was invited.

                                      My only experience with Peanuts is A Charlie Brown Christmas (which I watch every year) and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. The Peanuts animated ventures have remained surprisingly consistent over the years, what with the unpretentiously crude animation style, corny humor, and stiff voice-acting. Yet, they still retain a charming simplicity. I haven't watched any of the films so this is my first. It's basically Peanuts' European Vacation and it's cute enough. The movie is essentially a series of humorous incidents (from raucous plane rides, to Snoopy playing tennis at Wimbledon, to the kids' awkward experience in a French classroom). I find it exceedingly charming that Snoopy has to drive the kids around in that car.
                                      The plot itself is thin and creaky. It's only 75 minutes, which is still 30 minutes too long for a movie like this. The main conflict involves a cranky old baron (of the dark chateau) who we never see (like most adults in Peanuts), his "unfriendliness" is not developed (they keep implying some sort of vague violence?), and hides his niece in an attic (the one who writes Charlie the letter). It ultimately leads in a payoff that makes the whole plot pointless. Now, it doesn't kill the movie by any means, it's just unnecessary. Because Peanuts doesn't need plot to work. The movie should have been more episodic, which it is for the most part, but the main conflict is just a unneeded add-on.

                            It's a cute little film. Unless you really like Peanuts.

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