Western Animation / A Boy Named Charlie Brown

"Once a beginner, now he's a winner
Champion Charlie Brown!"

A Boy Named Charlie Brown is a 1969 American animated film directed by Bill Meléndez, and the first feature film based on the Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz, it was produced by Lee Mendelson Films and the CBS network's film division, Cinema Center Films, for National General Corporation. This was also the final animated Peanuts production to feature Peter Robbins as the voice of Charlie Brown. (Robbins had voiced the character for all of the Peanuts television specials up to that point, starting with 1965's A Charlie Brown Christmas.)

Charlie Brown can't seem to catch a break. Whether it's being frequently humiliated by his other peers like Lucy, or causing his baseball team to lose the first Little League game of the season, it seems like nothing can ever go right for him. However, things change for him when Lucy jokingly tells him he should join the school spelling bee. Linus convinces him to join and, through determination, winds up making it from the school-wide spelling bee to the national spelling bee. But can he make it through and win the trophy?

Earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Song Score.

This film is not to be confused with an unsold 1963 TV documentary of the same name about Charles Schulz and the strip, including the soundtrack album with music by Vince Guaraldi that was originally titled Jazz Impressions about A Boy Named Charlie Brown, but shortened to the name of the documentary.

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Tropes:

• 10-Minute Retirement: After Charlie Brown has lost the spelling bee in New York City, he goes into his room, resolving not to go to school or play baseball again. When Linus comes over, he tells Charlie Brown that the world didn't come to an end. Minutes later, with a newly-replenished confidence, Charlie Brown goes outside and takes another shot at kicking the football away, and Lucy pulls it away again, saying "Welcome home, Charlie Brown."
• Adaptation Expansion: The plot about Charlie Brown entering a spelling bee (and virtually all the dialogue and Chuck's inner monologue at the beginning of said spelling bee, as well as his inability to remember the "I before E" rule) is taken directly from the comic strip, but in the strip he only got to the first round as he blew the very first word he was given, the word "maze", which he spelled M-A-Y-S because he was thinking of baseball legend Willie Mays.
• Angrish: After Linus goes on a fruitless wild goose chase through New York City for his blanket, he is too faint to punch Charlie Brown out; as soon as he sees an exhausted Charlie Brown using his blanket as a shoe shining rag, he lets out an anguished scream and then he rejoices over being reunited with his blanket.
• Animation Bump: Downplayed. Most of the animation is exactly the same as you would expect from one of their TV specials. However, there are some sequences that have nice and fluid animation, such as when Lucy does her infamous steal the football from Charlie Brown gimmick.
• Big Applesauce: Charlie Brown travels to New York City to compete in the National Spelling Bee. Snoopy enjoys the ice rink at Rockefeller Center.
• Big Budget Beef-Up: Vince Guaraldi's music gets this treatment for the film, performed by a full jazz orchestra. The animation is also a slight step up from the TV specials of the time.
• Bittersweet Ending: Charlie Brown loses the spelling bee and his newly gained respect from the kids, but with some encouragement from Linus, he realizes the world's not over and he still has a lifetime to be winner.
• Broken Aesop: The only Aesop Linus can think of giving Charlie Brown is that Mistakes Are Not the End of the World, but you would think that he (or anybody else, except maybe Lucy) would remind Charlie that he made it to second place in the Nationals.
• Broken Record: Linus upon giving Charlie Brown his blanket to take to New York as a good-luck charm. Even after Charlie already takes the blanket and walks away, Linus continues to stand with his eyes closed and his empty arms out, crying, "Here! Here!" as if giving Charlie the blanket.
• Bubblegum Popping: This happens to Frieda during the baseball game.
• Champions on the Inside: Averted. Charlie Brown is devastated over his loss and gets absolutely no hero's welcome or even consolation for his efforts. Then again, no one is angry with him — even Linus tells him that everyone missed him at school. Even when Charlie Brown misses kicking the football, Lucy greets him with "Welcome home, Charlie Brown".
• Comically Missing the Point: Schroeder, when discussing the catcher's signals with Charlie Brown, though it's more Schroeder stressing Charlie is a bad pitcher and can't throw those pitches.
  Schroeder: Alright, Charlie Brown, let's get our signals straight. One finger will mean the high straight ball, and two fingers will mean the low straight ball.
  Charlie Brown: What about my curveball? And my slider? And my knuckleball? And my sidearm? And my submarine pitch?
  Schroeder: One finger will mean the high straight ball, and two fingers will mean the low straight ball.
• Covers Always Lie: The first DVD cover shows Lucy clutching Charlie Brown's arm and staring up at him adoringly. Not only is the whole movie about the ways in which she ruins his life (without any Jerk with a Heart of Gold moments, either), this also makes no sense if you know anything about Lucy. This is a result of editing out important details. On the Laserdisc cover that it is sourced from, there's an extra bit where Lucy has a thought bubble of her own dressing room.◊ (The DVD reissue and Blu-ray cover merely depicts Charlie on the pitcher's mound.)
• Dark Reprise: "Linus and Lucy," the Bootstrapped Theme of the Peanuts specials, has a minor-key variation playing at various points throughout Linus' blanket withdrawal. Of course, once he finds it ^note in Charlie Brown's hands as he's using it to shine his shoes, the regular version plays throughout his rejoicing, serving as a Triumphant Reprise.
• Death Glare: Charlie Brown gives a nasty one to Linus after he beats him in a game of Tic-Tac-Toe while in the middle of telling him he's going to win someday''.
  Linus: One of these days, you'll win. (proceeds to beat Charlie Brown at the game of tic-tac-toe they were playing while talking)
  Charlie Brown: (gives an angry glare to Linus, who nervously shrugs and walks away)
• Disney Acid Sequence: A lot of the musical numbers fall under this.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The effects that separation from his Security Blanket have on Linus appear, to the audience, very similar to withdrawal symptoms.
• Drama Queen: Linus without his blanket, hoo boy.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: Charlie Brown fails to realize he not only won the state Spelling Bee championship but he came in second in the National championship.
• Easily Forgiven:
  • After Linus has been unable to find his blanket, with no help from Snoopy, he gets frustrated with Charlie Brown... until he suddenly sees his blanket which Charlie Brown almost used to shine his shoes, and he's suddenly elated, forgetting his prior frustrations with Charlie Brown and Snoopy.
  • In spite of getting furiously upset over Charlie Brown blowing the national spelling bee finals, Lucy is still enough of a good sport to allow Charlie Brown to take a chance at kicking the football, and when he falls on his back after failing, she cordially greets him with "Welcome home, Charlie Brown".
• Eiffel Tower Effect: Mild examples. Instead of the usual famous landmarks that show that the National Spelling Bee is in New York City, just the George Washington Bridge and the Rockefeller Center's ice skating rink and the New York Public Library Main Branch (with its lion statues) are the only easily recognizable landmarks that appear.
• Epic Fail: The word that costs Charlie Brown the spelling bee championship? Beagle. As in, Snoopy’s breed of dog!
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • The dynamic between Charlie, Linus and Lucy are established in the very first scene. Lucy comes off as the authoritarian, Linus sees archaic, intellectual objects in the clouds, Charlie sees just a duckie and a horsie.
  • The opening song establishes Charlie Brown's character. It shows him making a kite getting it ready to fly it, ruining it in a matter of seconds, and yet immediately rebuilds it to try again.
• The Everyman: Charlie Brown, as depicted in the titular "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" Expository Theme Tune:

He's just the kid next door, perhaps a little more, he's every kid in every town.
Well the world is full of lots of people, here and there and all around.
But people after all, start out as being small, We're all a boy named Charlie Brown.

• Expository Theme Tune: "A Boy Named Charlie Brown", depicting the titular character as an everyman type that kids can identify with at some point or another in life.
• Failure Hero: Charlie Brown. Of all the Peanuts animated specials and movies, this is the one that really hammers in what a miserable failure he is. It never stops him from trying.
• Fainting: Linus, suffering from blanket withdrawal (which includes frequent fainting spells), goes to New York to get it back from Charlie Brown, with Snoopy in tow. While greeting Charlie Brown at his hotel room, he can't take it anymore and passes out in the hallway. Snoopy quickly runs to get a glass of water... and drinks it down himself. The gag is repeated three times.
• Free-Range Children: Charlie has absolutely zero adult supervision when he goes to New York for the national spelling bee. Well, unless you count Snoopy.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: While Peppermint Patty's "official" big-screen debut doesn't come until Snoopy, Come Home, she can actually be spotted twice in this movie, as one of the kids cheering for Charlie Brown. The first time (right before the song "Champion Charlie Brown") she's easily spotted jumping up and down together with Frieda, Shermy, Pig-Pen and 5, and the second time (when Charlie Brown is about to board the bus) she can be seen in the crowd, holding up a sign saying "CHUCK".
• Full-Name Basis: As per usual for Charlie Brown, but the lyrics of "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" and "Failure Face" actually avert this.
• "The Hero Sucks" Song: "Failure Face".
• Heroic BSoD: Charlie Brown has one after losing the spelling bee.
• Hikikomori: After losing the spelling bee in New York City, Charlie Brown withdraws to his bedroom, resolving never to come out, until Linus reminds Charlie Brown that even though he lost the spelling bee, it's not the end of the world.
• Hope Spot: You didn't think Schultz was gonna let Charlie Brown win the spelling bee that easy ... did you?
• Identical Stranger: The winner of the spelling bee is basically Schroeder dressed in a suit-and-tie.
• Innocently Insensitive: While Linus was trying to perk Charlie Brown up out of his funk by encouraging him that he still had the rest of his life ahead of him to be a success, mentioning that their team won the baseball game that Charlie Brown had missed didn't exactly make him feel better.
• Invisible Parents: Yes, it is the convention that adults cannot be depicted in the property, but it is pushed to the breaking point for believability when Charlie Brown and Linus arrive home late at night after the National Spelling Bee. Surely, Charlie Brown's parents would logically be there come hell or high water to take their 8 year old, and obviously devastated, son safely home. There's a reason why the animated movies eventually stopped using this trope, it was just too difficult to portray the world outside the Peanuts gang's little neighborhood without any adults.
• Jerkass:
  • Lucy is less sympathetic in this one, unless the ending when she says "Welcome home, Charlie Brown" counts for anything.
  • Special mention goes to the scene where she, Violet and Patty sing a whole song about how much of a failure Charlie Brown is just because he considered entering the spelling bee!
• Kick the Dog: Really Lucy, after all what Charlie Brown went through, would it really have killed you to let Charlie Brown kick the football just once at the end of the film?
• Kids Are Cruel: Even by the standards of Peanuts - which mind you has it's main comedy come from how awful kids can act - the kids are insanely abusive towards Charlie Brown, especially Lucy, Violet and Patty who go as far as singing a cruel song about him:
  You never do anything right!
  You never put anything in its place!
  No wonder everyone calls you...
  FAILURE FACE!
• Last Note Nightmare: The film's arrangement of Vince Guaraldi's "Skating" ends this way, to accompany Snoopy slipping and falling at the very end of his skating sequence.
• Lazy Artist / Limited Animation: After the class spelling bee scene, when the kids run out of the school at the final bell, the same kids keep running by, so we see multiple clones of Lucy and Violet.
• Limited Wardrobe: Lampshaded; we get to see Charlie open his closet to reveal a rainbow of shirt colors, then choose the yellow one he always wears anyway.
• Medium Blending: Snoopy plays hockey with silhouetted live-action hockey players.
• Mistakes Are Not the End of the World: When Charlie gets second place in a spelling test because he misspelled "beagle", every positive thing he gained over the course of the movie is lost in a second. Linus bluntly reassures him that "the world didn't come to an end" and that he's still got the rest of his life to live.
• Noodle Incident: When Lucy prepares a slide show of Charlie Brown's faults, the audience never sees his worst faults, which are apparently too much for Charlie Brown to take, based on his reactions to them and him abruptly leaving.
• Now You Tell Me: It's not until Charlie Brown wins the States Spelling Bee and believes it's over do his friends tell him that his victory makes him a representative in the National Elimination Spelling Bee.
  Charlie Brown: National? Elimination? SPELLING BEE?! Auuggh!
• Only Six Faces: Milder example - One of the contestants in the final spelling bee looks exactly like Schroeder, while another one is essentially Linus with blonde hair.
• Pet the Dog: Throughout the movie, Lucy has been mainly derisive and critical towards Charlie Brown. After Charlie Brown has lost the spelling bee, Lucy is handling the football, subtly encouraging him to try and kick the old football again. After he unsuccessfully tries and falls on his back, Lucy comes over and consolingly says "Welcome home, Charlie Brown."
• Public Domain Soundtrack: In one scene, Schroeder plays most of the second movement (Adagio cantabile) of Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 (Sonata Pathétique), and during that time, many Disney Acid Sequences occur, which is pretty creepy.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • As per usual, Lucy uses her function as a "psychiatrist" mainly as an excuse to deliver these to Charlie Brown. Throughout their session, she tells him everything that's wrong with him in increasingly creative ways, until he storms out, feeling worse about himself than ever.
  • Then there's the song "Failure Face" sung at Charlie Brown by Lucy, Violet and Patty.
• Reluctant Gift: As Charlie Brown heads off to the national spelling bee competition, Linus gives him his Security Blanket for good luck. He looks away with a pained expression on his face as he presents it, and in fact fails to notice when Charlie takes the blanket and enters the bus, so Linus remains holding up nothing and saying "Here!" as the bus drives away. Eventually the absence of his blanket gets to him and he goes to New York to get it back.
• Rouge Angles of Satin: Towards the end of the film, Charlie Brown misspells "beagle" as "beagel", which looks similar to the word "bagel" when written out.
• Rule of Three: Along with the standard threes in baseball (strikes & outs), the film gives these:
  • Charlie Brown gets his clothes knocked off by hits three times in a row before this gag ceases.
  • After showing the girls one-at-a-time miss catching the ball, three of them together are then shown all failing to catch at the same time.
  • Lucy thinks Charlie Brown's got a fat stomach, a fat nose, and wonders if he also has fat toes.
  • Lucy, Patty, and Violet taunt Charlie Brown with "Failure Face" as a trio.
  • Three recognizable New York City landmarks appear in the film.
  • Three times it looks like Snoopy's getting a glass of water for Linus, but instead Snoopy drinks them himself each time.
  • Charlie Brown is shown thrice getting subjected to the football trick onscreen. (The second time was on an instant replay of the first.)
• Second Place Is for Losers: Played ridiculously straight, even for this trope. Not only does every character treat Charlie Brown as a loser for getting second place in a national spelling bee, they completely ignore that he won State!
• Shockingly Expensive Bill: Adding insult to injury of Lucy's "therapy" session making Charlie Brown feel even worse than he already was, she hints that her bill is going to cost a pretty penny.
  Charlie Brown: (Looking at his Piggy Bank) These psychiatric treatments are going to bankrupt me.
• Spelling Bee: A major plot point.
• Spiritual Successor: Since Bill Melendez had worked at UPA and brought a bunch of UPA animators with him when he started his own production company, and clearly took a lot of his style cues from UPA's early Limited Animation work, this can be thought of as the unofficial third UPA feature film (after 1001 Arabian Nights and Gay Purr-ee).
• Smooth-Talking Talent Agent: Lucy voices a desire to become one of these for Charlie Brown, pointing out that she'd own 10% of him—while also hoping to get 15%. She says this while watching Charlie Brown doing well at the national spelling bee. But the moment he gets eliminated, she howls that owning 10% of him is like owning 10% of nothing!

• Talking in Your Sleep: When Linus comes to Charlie Brown bemoaning his lost blanket, a half-asleep, drowsy Charlie Brown talks and spells a few words.
• That Cloud Looks Like...: British Honduras, and/or a ducky and a horsie.
• This Loser Is You: "A Boy Named Charlie Brown":

Well, the world is full of lots of people, here and there and all around.
But people after all, start out as being small,
We're all a boy named Charlie Brown.

• Universal Group Reaction: Charlie Brown is on a televised national spelling bee, and it is down to him and one other contestant. The rest of the Peanuts are either watching on the screen at home, or in the audience of the auditorium The word Charlie Brown is given is "Beagle", the very breed that Snoopy represents. Charlie Brown misspells the word as B-E-A-G-E-L, which causes a simultaneous "AUUUUGGGGGHHHH" from the kids watching at home, Linus and Snoopy in the audience, and Charlie himself, who realizes his mistake a moment too late.
• Victorious Chorus: After Charlie Brown wins the school spelling bee, his fellow students carry him off on top of their shoulders, singing "Champion Charlie Brown".
• When He Smiles: Mentioned in the "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" song:
  Maybe it's a kind of magic
  That only little boys can do.
  But seeing Charlie smile,
  Can make you stop awhile,
  And get you feelin' glad you're you.
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Charlie's bus is one or two hours away from Manhattan, indicating he lives somewhere in New Jersey, Connecticut, Long Island or somewhere around Yonkers or White Plains.
• Wraparound Background: Used in the bus sequences.
• Written Sound Effect: When Lucy shows Charlie Brown a slideshow of his flaws, she somehow captured the word "POW" on the slide showing his lack of style.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Happens three times. Most of the things Charlie Brown tries, he fails utterly at — but there are three occasions when he thinks he might make it.
  • The first time is when the movie continues the Running Gag from the strip of Lucy goading him into kicking a football but yanking the ball away from him at the last second. This time she has a bonus surprise; she set up a video camera to record the ordeal and shows him his failure in slow motion while delivering a "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
  • The second time is the movie's climax, when Charlie Brown has managed to become one of the two finalists in the spelling bee, and after having managed to spell a whole lot of difficult words right, gets a really easy one — "beagle." Which he has forgotten how to spell, despite owning a beagle.
  • The third time is the final scene in the movie when he tries to sneak up on Lucy to kick the ball again. Turns out she knew he was sneaking up on her, and once again the ball is yanked away and Charlie Brown falls flat on his back. However, it comes off as sort of heartwarming, letting Charlie know that nothing's changed, for good or ill.
• Your Head A-Splode: This (symbolically) happens to the spelling-bee contestants whenever they get a word wrong. Even funnier because the head usually assumes an Oh, Crap! expression just before popping like a balloon.

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