Wow, these would make Schulz even more profoundly, pathologically depressed…

I dunno how I feel about this. Need the franchise be extended further still beyond its shelf life? Peanuts was such a hollow imitation of itself during its final 20 years as a comic. It was obvious to its readers that Schulz had run out of ideas, but apparently he was of the old school of comic strippers who believed that you drew the thing you created until you died. And he did. But his creation died long before he did…

And aside from “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, “Charlie Brown’s All-Stars”, and “It’s the Great Pumpkin etc. etc.”, I loathed the Peanuts specials. The animation was awful, the drawings worse - the animators strayed too far from Schulz’s early, delightfully idiosyncratic drawings and made his characters actually look *ugly*. And that damn Snoopy…not letting him think out loud was a major blunder (initiated by Schulz himself, I know, but still a blunder). Snoopy’s thoughts were what made him Snoopy. Leaving that out in the animated cartoons made him an annoying little blob with a screechy voice. As Linus would say: “Bleah!!!”

Which studios are involved in this Flash production?

I’d have to respectfully disagree with Jason on his analysis of the Peanuts strip itself, I think the last 10 years of the strip (1990-2000) were some of Schulz’s best output since the early ’70s. He went back to basics, yet was not afraid to introduce new characters that were good enough to revisit in the strip’s final 10 years.

I DO agree that these new shorts/snippets from WB probably don’t need to be produced. If they choose to move forward with the project, there should be a lot more care in maintaining the character disninctions and not having their facial expressions “float” around as an application such as Flash can let happen. No doubt though, in the right hands this concept could be a great success, especially for mobile media.

It’s hard to imagine animated Peanuts without Bill Melendez’s stamp on it.

This new animation is no more awful than the original TV specials. But that was always part of the charm.
However, I think the direction of the voice actors is extremely sub-par. The director doesn’t seem to realized that Schultz’s humor is pretty dry, and these kids keep delivering punchlines like zingers. They should watch more Seinfeld and less Hanna Montana.
Maybe they’ll get better over time. Maybe the director will get the humor, and adjust the timing. And Maybe….. (sigh) … Good grief!

I don’t know how I feel about this. Other than that I still find Peanuts and the treatment of Charlie Brown utterly depressing.

A wee bit synical people? The voices are on par with the old school Peanuts and the music was bang on too. I happen to watch The Great Pumpkin CB, over the weekend and these shorts are pretty close. The characters are on model, and really if you do not like Peanuts in the first place…why comment?

Some complain to complain..Tim, you could not be farther off. I undertand maybe not liking the Flash look, but music and voice? Bang on…. As for Snoopy talking, thank god he does not..can you say Garfield?

These are actually better than I expected. They’re not the classic Melendez stuff, but it’s tolerable and entertaining.

To answer the question about production: Animation is by Studio B. Produced by Warner Premiere in association with United Features and Schulz Creative Associates.

I agree with some people here- there is a LOT more hatred toward Schulz, the comic, and the specials than I had thought. What animation fan DOESN’T watch the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! around Halloween? I had nothing but good thoughts about this new project, and even though you can clearly see the ’shortcuts’ used in the animation curtosy of Flash, the concept itself is novel and can possibly lead to a new outlet for a series that honestly tries to be as true to the originals as possible.

No, no, no. This thing may look like Peanuts on the surface, but it’s charmless and soul-less. You simply don’t animate Charlie Brown in Flash in my opinion. This is NOT a good way to honor the late Bill Melendez.

By the way, I’ll take Dan’s standpont when it comes to the strip and carefully disagree with Jason… Peanuts’ golden age may have been in the 1960s and -70s, but I think Schulz kept up doing a quality comic until the end - never letting any assistants take over and keeping it personal and true to itself. I even thought the later Peanuts specials, such as “It was my best Birthday Ever, Charlie Brown” from 1997, were pretty good.

Hideous. Just horrible.

Just downloaded an episode and when I try to play it back all I get is an annoying, flashing (pun intended?) screen? Anybody know a fix?

Being the Peanuts nut that I am I’ll watch just about anything Peanuts-related . . . except for Flashbeagle.

Why would anyone wanna do this?

Charles Schulz said that no one will continue with “PEANUTS”, as far as the newspapers were concerned.

To cancel “PEANUTS” specials is one thing, but reviving it through flash animation is just wrong.

That’s completely screwing over good work, not only from Charles Schulz, but also from Bill Melendez & Lee Mendelson.

The world is just filled with constant bad news.