Lucy Van Pelt would NEVER be patient enough to learn to play the drums. And I don’t get Sally with 2 record players.

They completley disregard the characters’ personalities in this but the animation is great and I admit the song is catchy. The Peanuts characters have always been used to represent current culture though and unlike many other characters who suffer when brought into modern entertainment ( an Extremley Goofy Movie or the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie are two examples that come to mind) the Peanuts gang nver seem awkward or out of place.

I prefer the melancholy Vince Guaraldli Peanuts songs. I hate cultural makeovers appealing “to da’ kids today”. Screw ‘em. I want my Peanuts morbidly depressed and self-obsessed and not cast as some kind of hip-hop outfit, dammit!!! What sort of Communists put this together?

Not just the Peanuts gang, but strangely enough only the girls, plus Snoopy. This lends credence to the idea that in Japan, Snoopy is the star and the kids are kind of interchangeable background characters.

Watching Sally on the turntables was awesome. I always get a kick out of watch commercials from Japan, especially the ones with Western celebrities or characters like this.

Know what? I LIKE Kaela Kimura. As for the whole Snoopy thing, Japanese dig cute animals. Case in point: last time I was in Japan I saw two particular Disney characters on every bit of merchandise they had: Stitch, the Aristocats. THE ARISTOCATS! When was the last time anyone even acknowledged that film’s existence, never mind buy merchandise for it?
Also, Kimura’s music video for Jasper is great. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26a2OC-wccI

Hot-uh-pep-uh!

Gotta say, that was actually really catchy.

What?! No Schroeder on keyboards?

I love you Japan.

Don’t know if it was necessary to be looped three times…but it def. amused me the first time.

Emily, the three commercials were slightly different each time.

It’s easy to underestimate the continued strength of the Peanuts franchise worldwide. This is by no means limited to Japan.

Beats the hell out of any of the Met Life commercials of the past few years.

Oh, oops. Thanks for clarifying.

My father was stationed in Japan when I was a very little kid. Thus, my first experience with the ‘Peanuts’ TV specials, movies, books and toys were in japanese .. and I was pleasantly surprised to find, when we’d returned to the U.S., that we had Charlie Brown and Snoopy here, ‘too’.

/I figured it all out later

Go Peanuts!

> Emily, the three commercials were slightly different each time.

It’s a common thing in Japan to see this. Usually they tend to air the 15 sec. spots mostly, but often create several variants in 30 second lengths in case they can use ‘em. I often don’t really enjoy Japanese commercials as much for their shorter lengths (usually the creativity is what I feel works to their advantage), but I guess given the nature of most television over there, it’s better than the extended breaks seen in the US.

And yes, Snoopy has been way popular over there for decades, usually overshadowing Charlie Brown & Co. in most merchandising. It’s more a case of what the Japanese like versus what the rest of the world does, and sometimes it’s rather sad thinking of what doesn’t get sold as much here than it will there (such as with the Stitch/Aristocats stuff mentioned earlier, and let’s not forget Muttley).

Kaela Kimura sucks. No talent whatsoever. I imagine that Charles Schulz is turning over in his grave.

Did I or din’t I like this?

Well, it doesn’t matter, since now it has stuck into my unconscious… possibly permanently ;)

Japan using foreign personalities in an incongruous way? I can’t believe it!

That song sounds quite a lot like Van McCoy’s “The Hustle.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFz2WkVAk38

It ain’t really true to the spirit of Peanuts unless the kids are selling antique Ford land barges:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u43ExlkXmQs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBk55rPE01U