A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969)

Director:

Bill Melendez

Writers:

Charles M. Schulz (creator)
Charles M. Schulz (written by)

Release Date:

4 December 1969 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy | Drama | Family

Tagline:

The Peanuts' Gang in their First Movie!

Plot:

Charlie Brown makes his way to the national spelling bee finals.

Plot Keywords:

Unintelligible | Dog Cartoon | Dog | Based On Comic | Sequel

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Peter Robbins	...	Charlie Brown (voice)
Pamelyn Ferdin	...	Lucy Van Pelt (voice)
Glenn Gilger	...	Linus Van Pelt (voice)
Andy Pforsich	...	Schroeder (voice)
Sally Dryer	...	Patty (voice)
Ann Altieri	...	Violet (voice) (as Anne Altieri)
Erin Sullivan	...	Sally (voice)
Lynda Mendelson	...	Frieda (voice) (as Linda Mendelson)
Christopher DeFaria	...	Pig Pen (voice)
David Carey	...	2nd Boy (voice)
Guy Pforsich	...	3rd Boy (voice)
Bill Melendez	...	Snoopy (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Hilary Momberger	...	Sally Brown (voice)

Directed by
Bill Melendez

Writing credits
Charles M. Schulz		(creator)
Charles M. Schulz		(written by)

Produced by
Bill Melendez	....	producer
Lee Mendelson	....	producer
Charles M. Schulz	....	executive producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Vince Guaraldi		(original musical score)

Cinematography by
Wally Bulloch

Film Editing by
Robert T. Gillis
Chuck McCann		(as Charles McCann)
Steven Cuitlahuac Melendez		(as Steve Melendez)

Art Department
Ellie Bonnard	....	graphic designer
Evert Brown	....	graphic designer
Jan Green	....	graphic designer
Bernard Gruver	....	graphic designer
Ruth Kissane	....	graphic designer
Ed Levitt	....	graphic designer
Charles McElmurry	....	graphic designer
Alan Shean	....	graphic designer (as Al Shean)
Dean Spille	....	graphic designer

Sound Department
Don Minkler	....	sound mixer
Bill Mumford	....	sound mixer
Sid Nicholas	....	sound recordist: voices

Animation Department
Debbie Abbott	....	ink and paint artist
Maggie Bowen	....	animator
Bob Carlson	....	animator
Ken Champin	....	animator
Herman Cohen	....	animator (as Herm Cohen)
Connie Crawley	....	ink and paint artist
Gwenn Dotzler	....	ink and paint artist
Florence Hammontre	....	ink and paint artist
Lew Irwin	....	animator
Sam Jaimes	....	animator
Gerry Kane	....	animator
Faith Kovaleski	....	animator
Bror Lansing	....	animator
Bill Littlejohn	....	animator
Don Lusk	....	animator
Joice Lee Marshall	....	ink and paint artist
Bob Matz	....	animator
Celine Miles	....	ink and paint artist
Barrie Nelson	....	animator (as Barry Nelson)
Ken O'Brien	....	animator
Karen Oglesby	....	ink and paint artist
Spencer Peel	....	animator
Chandra Poweris	....	ink and paint artist
Beverly Robbins	....	ink and paint artist
Jay Sarbry	....	animator
Dawn Smith	....	ink and paint artist
Frank Smith	....	animator
Hank Smith	....	animator
Russ von Neida	....	animator (as Russ Van Neida)
Eleanor Warren	....	ink and paint artist
Manon Washburn	....	ink and paint artist
Rudy Zamora	....	animator
Frank Braxton	....	animator (uncredited)
Phil Roman	....	animator (uncredited)
Alan Shean	....	animator (uncredited)
Richard Thompson	....	animator (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Alice Keillor	....	negative cutter

Music Department
Artie Becker	....	music recordist
John Scott Trotter	....	conductor
John Scott Trotter	....	music arranger

Other crew
Skippy Baxter	....	skating routines

Production Companies

• Cinema Center Films
• United Feature Syndicate (UFS)

Distributors

• National General Pictures (1969) (USA) (theatrical)
• CBS Television (1976) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• CBS Video (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Paramount Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD) (distributed CBS Video's release)

Other Companies

• Dickson/Vasu  camera
• Radio Recorders  voice recording
• United Recorders  music recording
• Producers' Sound Services  sound mix (as Producers Sound Service)

Also Known As:

A Boy Called Charlie Brown (UK)

Runtime:

86 min | 79 min (video version) | Argentina:88 min | Netherlands:85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

South Korea:All | Portugal:M/4 | UK:U | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Finland:S | USA:G

Company:

Cinema Center Films

Trivia:

Snoopy's dream (where he battles the red Baron atop his doghouse) consists of footage from It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966) (TV).

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the "I Before E Except after C" song, two displayed words are misspelled: FINANCEIR, which should be FINANCIER, and LEIZURE which should be LEISURE.

Quotes:

Charlie Brown: This whole thing makes me feel as though I'm being drafted.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Strongbad_email.exe (2004) (V)

Soundtrack:

Failure Face

Charming characters, unique animation, and a great lesson...

1st watched 10/30/2004 - 7 out of 10(Dir-Bill Melendez): Charming characters, unique animation, and a great lesson. Excellent slow-paced introduction to each character in this Peanuts cartoon with all the trademark character traits being brought out one at a time. Some very psychedelic-type animation matches the era(the late 60's) during a musical piece by Schroeder as well as a well-done rendition of the national anthem initiating the baseball season for the Peanuts gang. The only down-points are some of the songs, especially a small ditty called "Failure Face" sung by the girls to Charlie. The story follows the down-in-his-luck hero Charlie and his attempts to do something as a winner by entering a spelling bee contest for his school. The lesson here, which you have to wait till the end to see, is that as long as you keep trying there will be little victories in life and that you can't change others but you can do the best for you and that's whats important. Schulz doesn't try to color-coat life, he shows that it is as it is which is another appealing trait. Aside from these deep meanings embedded, this is also a very funny and light-hearted film(with many great moments from Snoopy, of course, for comic relief) that I consider a classic since these characters very rarely made it to the big screen and this effort is done very well.