It’s a heart-warming trailer, Charlie Brown

Before Marvel, before DC, before any comic books period, my love affair with sequential art, as Scott McCloud calls it, began with cartoon strips as a little boy.

And the first strip that really got me hooked was Peanuts. I’d go to our local public library and check out volume after collected volume of Charles M. Schulz’s immortal strip and read ’em in one sitting and then read ’em again. When I started reading newspapers I’d of course go to the comic strip section first and while eventually there were other strips that I eventually began looking forward to more, it was always comforting to see Peanuts  up there at the top of the page (especially in color on the front of Sunday’s paper) and it has remained my all-time favorite for sentimental reasons.

The holiday TV specials, of course, were a huge deal for me, and I’d beg my dad to set up the VCR so that we could record them on our Beta (yes, Beta) videocassettes.

All this is why it warms my heart to see this first trailer for the upcoming CG-animated Peanuts  movie. And I’m surprised it’s taken this long, frankly, for a new feature movie to be made.

So far in this short trailer, it’s hard to tell if the CG-animation will bring added depth and dimension to the Peanuts  world.  So far, except for the background it still looks very 2D because they’ve remained faithful to the iconic look of these characters and Schulz’s art, by stylistic choice, was minimalistic and flat. And while on one hand that is the trademark look, I’m hoping that when the next, longer trailer or the movie itself comes out, the camera will glide and roam through Charlie Brown and Snoopy’s world. That would be joyous.