Blue Sky Studio's Peanuts: Lights. Cameras. Beagles. (Nov. 6 2015)

[Kaze no Klonoa]

With news on a teaser premiere for the upcoming 2015 CGI Peanuts Movie (Announced back in 2012) it seems that a topic should be put up for Peanuts fans to discuss about.

 

Ahead of the film’s teaser trailer premiere later today, we’ve got our first look at the bigscreen CGI adaptation of Peanuts that is being produced by Blue Sky Studios.

Film producer Craig Schulz, the son of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, is trying his best to justify this crushingly artless project that will very likely contribute nothing to his father’s legacy. He told USA Today, “We’ll see that Snoopy has soft-white fur,” and explained that although, “Bill Melendez got Snoopy off the ground in the TV specials,” that Blue Sky is “going to take it a step further.” We’ll check back in with him 48 years from now, which is how many years Melendez’s A Charlie Brown Christmas has aired continuously, and see if Blue Sky was indeed able to take it a step further than Melendez.  

The Steve Martino-directed film is due to be released on November 6, 2015

This was from cartoon brew: http://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/first-look-at-cgi-peanuts-by-blue-sky-studios-97505.html although I can tell they are pissed with the things they are being showed. Whatever, consider me excited!

 

Anyway, what do you think? Start discussing!

 

Edit: I know somebody put it up on this topic, but here it is! The trailer.

(Snoopy's fur is so....furry.)

[...]

I was skeptical hearing the announcement they were making a CGI film adaptation of Peanuts, by Blue Sky Studios no less. The only films by them I like are Ice Age, Horton Hears A Who, and to an extent Robots. But now they've released the images, it's really nice to see they're staying faithful to the look of the comic! Now I just hope the humor and writing will be just as great.

I had grew up watching so many of the shorts as a kid and even read some of the comic strips, hopefully this film does them justice by staying true to the spirit of the source material whilst still appealing to a modern audience, ala the 2011 Winnie the Pooh film.

Seriously, this is a perfect translation to CGI, hats off to you, Blue Sky.

[Milo]

Despite Blue Sky mostly being notable for churning out Ice Age sequels that don't surpass the quality of the original and Fox being...Fox, I'm actually optimistic for this one. Members of Schulz's own family are on board and they seem pretty dead set on keeping it faithful to the original comic strips. The director also worked on Blue Sky's adaptation for Horton Hears a Who!, which is the only good Dr. Seuss film adaptation out there in the sense that it's a good film and it stays true to the original book.

 

As for the visuals, despite being in CG (which of course some would argue would not work with Schulz's simplistic and flat artstyle), they're actually look quite faithful to the look of the comic strip and are a lot better than I expected. Here's to hoping they look good in motion as well.

 

Seems like the film's taking something of a 2.5D approach with the comics-the characters and environments keep their flat 2D designs but it's all rendered in CG. I think it's a excellent approach which ought to look very interesting as we see more footage/screenshots of the film in the future.

[Thigolf]

You know, when I got on SSMB and read "CGI Peanuts", I got nervous. I tried to think of 3D models of Charlie, and none of them looked right.

 

And now, seeing the pictures... It's...it's Peanuts, and that is the best compliment the artstyle can get. It looks exactly like the comic strip - which is just perfect. It keeps the charm, the artstyle and just moves it into the third dimension, with amazingly bright, friendly colors. It's just great, I applaud Blue Sky.

[pppp]

I have never liked any film by Blue Sky Studios. The first Rio movie was....tolerable i guess.....everything else is crap though.

 

But I have to admit, they somehow managed to perfectly translate the original designs into CGI perfectly. I can only hope the script had equal effort put into it.

[PSI Wind]

Holy CRAP! This looks absolutely outstanding! When I saw "CGI Peanuts" I was like "Oh, damnit.". But, the artstyle, the expressions, it's all there and it's perfect.

[Gabz Girl]

I was skeptical at first because my mind went straight to the CGI Chipmunks and Smurfs. After seeing the screenshots though, this actually looks very faithful to the Peanuts comics! Sure they may be more detailed looking like Snoopy having more fur, but really it doesn't look that bad. I'm glad they went the cartoony route with this! Also, knowing that Schulz's family are keeping an eye on this and that the director is the same one who did Horton Hears a Who (arguably the best Dr Seuss movie), this could be a good and faithful adaptation of the comics and cartoons! Can't wait to see more. =3

[JezMM]

Blue Sky are competent animators and we can see they've put great love and care into the style.

 

The Director is the guy who did Horton Hears A Who, which apparently was good and faithful to the source material?  He also did Ice Age Continental Drift though, which got pretty lacklustre reviews, though maybe the director just works better with original films rather than sequels.

 

 

Still, until we get a trailer, colour me unoptimistic despite the lovely visuals, just to keep me from getting hopes up too early.

 

 

 

 

It's also kinda lame they went with the Peanuts name too, considering everyone knows who Charlie Brown is enough to call it that, and Schulz said the name Peanuts wasn't his idea and he never liked it.

[PSI Wind]

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=116144

Here's the Teaser Trailer for the movie. The animation is bouncy and very faithful.

[JezMM]

Wow, utterly fantastic animation.  Here's hoping the story and direction live up to it.

[...]

Oh my god, it even looks better in motion. I will agree with Jez's sentiments in hoping that both the writing/direction are just as charming as the animation itself, because this really seems we have something really special on our hands.

[Nepenthe]

The look of the film is as perfect as a CGI Peanuts film can be, in that the technology used isn't forgoing the original art style or animation quirks but rather embracing them. It doesn't look like your standard full-motion, camera-spinning affair, and that's a good thing; more stylistic variety for theatrical CGI is desperately needed. Still not sure about Blue Sky's writing ability considering they've tended to churn out painfully average to mediocre affairs in that regard. They make purely children's films in my eyes, and I can't tell whether or not that sensibility will work in the film's favor.

[Inkling Cooper]

Just watched the trailer. I love that animation.

[Milo]

Let's have a quick glance at the listed production staff (from what I can find from Wikipedia).

 

Director: Steve Martino. Past credentials: 2008's Horton Hears a Who!, 2012's Ice Age: Continental Drift (served as co-director on both projects).

 

Producers:

Craig Schultz (son of Charles)

Bryan Schultz (grandson of Charles)

Paul Feig (who's directing credentials include The Office, Nurse Jackie, and Freaks and Geeks for television as well as 2011's Bridesmaids and 2013's The Heat for film; according to this account he's a big fan of the strip, saying it's a major influence of his works -Freaks and Geeks in particular-.)

Michael J. Travers

Cornelius Uliano

 

Writers: Craig Schultz and Bryan Schultz

[VO.SUPER]

Love the animation; this is the best transition of a 2D artstyle to a 3D screen. I really love how rough the character's move and how flat they look (though that must've been a pain in the ass to make 3D; would've probably been easier to do in 2D), it really captures the essence of the original shorts in this new style. I just hope that Blue Sky doesn't screw this up from the writing point of view, especially since Peanuts is not the kind of thing that works in the traditional big budget cinema spectacular i.e, no major villain or gigantic conflict. It's all very down to earth and character driven. Really, the most intense Peanuts got was "Snoopy Come Home" and that one episode about Cancer. And even then those shorts didn't really get overly dramatic; they were straightforward and down to earth. So I hope this can succeed from a writing stand-point.

[Milo]

YouTube trailer:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1FNL_iIp5c

[Nepenthe]

.... The more I replay this trailer the more I look back on my rigging classes with a kind of fascinated horror. To get all of those exaggerated, design-breaking shapes out of a single model is insane, to the point that I thought at least the expressions were just drawn on a la Paperman. But nope, they're not. I need a behind-the-scenes featurette now. How the hell did they do this?

[SuperBrandon]

It looks pretty good to be fair. I like watching the tv show and reading the comic strips so I cannot  wait to see the flim next year.

[no one]

I remember hearing about this years back and being so worried and honestly feeling bad for Schultz. I hate seeing the beloved Peanuts characters trying to sell you insurance and knowing most "revisions" of classic cartoons in CGI lately... yeah.

 

But it seems they have a pretty lovely style that does seem to stay true to the classic look. Let's just hope they keep the Peanuts spirit and not attempt to cram as many pop culture references in as possible.

 

I will say I'm not incredibly fond of the modernized Peanuts toons you find on ABC mainly because they just don't quite capture the... essence quite well, but hey, maybe the movie will do good.

[Noir]

That animation is amazing! It almost falls into that unpleasant look of those overly detailed "realistic" cartoon character renders but I don't think it's so overboard. And that's mostly only noticeable in the stills - in motion I couldn't be any more in love. It really does breathe fresh life into it while still being entirely true to its roots and I don't know what more to ask for.

 

I'm not too confident in the writing considering the newest stuff ABC has put out have been pretty mediocre against the classic specials but I'd be so thrilled to be pleasantly surprised.

[PSI Wind]

The writers are the son and grandson of Charles, so I think we'll be fine.

[azoo]

This might just be the most positive response to the first shots of a non-Pixar CGI film in... well, ever. LOL

 

Man does this look amazing though. <3 Hope this is as genuine and heartwarming as the original Peanuts shorts and comics were. Lego Movie kind of helped convince me that kind of thing still has a place in movies, so I really hope so. I really do.

[Sean]

Kinda wish they called it something like "You're _____, Charlie Brown!" or "It's ______, Charlie Brown!" rather than Peanuts but other than that this looks fucking fantastic.

[Brad]

That animation looks stunning, goddamn.

[Zaysho]

I'm mad impressed they got the style down so well and even more impressed seeing it in motion. Screw what Amid Amidi has to say, this is anything but "Artless" as far as I'm concerned. I'm only concerned about the writing at this point, so if it's as well done as "Happiness is a Warm Blanket," I'll be satisfied.