“Someone would leave. Someone always leaves. And then we have to say goodbye.”
“Snoopy Come Home”, released in 1972, is the second Peanuts animated feature film. There are some big differences between this one and “A Boy Named Charlie Brown.” For one thing, aside from certain music choices (which we’ll get into), this movie looks like it could have been made anytime between 1970 and the mid-80’s. No of-its-era imagery here…it looks for all the world like a 90-minute Charlie Brown TV special, with slightly better animation.
The big change this time around is the music. It seems impossible to do any Peanuts-related project without at least a few bars of “Linus and Lucy.” But indeed, “Snoopy Come Home” is a complete departure from the Vince Guaraldi jazz scores of every animated project before and after it. Richard and Robert Sherman, the team of songwriting brothers who filled Walt Disney’s “Mary Poppins” (and countless other DIsney projects) with memorable, hummable, singable melodies are enlisted here to provide that same unique quality to the story of Snoopy’s epic journey.
The plot, frankly, is threadbare. Snoopy hears from his original owner Lila, who is in the hospital. He and Woodstock travel to be by her side. She invites Snoopy to come live with her once she’s out of the hospital. Snoopy goes home to inform Charlie Brown and the gang of his plans. Then, Snoopy goes back to live with Lila, But he can’t. The End!
Okay, let’s flesh that out a bit. A series of frustrations make the decision to go see Lila an easy one for our beloved beagle (note correct spelling Charlie Brown, you blockhead!). For one thing, everywhere he goes he is evicted due to a “no dogs allowed” policy. Quite possibly the most memorable aspect of this movie is Thurl Ravenscroft (“You’re A Mean One Mr. Grinch”, Tony The Tiger, Disney park attractions) singing “No Dogs Alowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwed.” To be fair to the Sherman Brothers, there are other wonderful (and memorable) songs in the film. “Fundamental Friend-Dependability” finds the Shermans swiping a play from their own Supercalifragilistic playbook in an extended sequence where Snoopy and Woodstock are…ah…adopted by a crazed little girl who plainly should not have pets. But her song is cute, and her intentions are in the right place.
“Lila’s Theme (Do You Remember Me)” is a lovely song that is used as a motif throughout the film. But I think the song that really packs a wallop is “It Changes.” Charlie Brown sings it after Snoopy leaves to be with Lila for good. It’s a song about loss. Forget that it’s a cartoon. Just listen to the lyrics.
So, yeah…from pretty early on, this is a movie that plucks shamelessly at the heartstrings. I saw this movie on TV when I was maybe five years old. There’s a scene where all the Peanuts gang get together for a farewell party in Snoopy’s honor before he leaves. Each of the kids stands up and speaks, but they all end up breaking down in tears. (Snoopy cries almost from the beginning of the party.) And I was just bawling. The funny thing is, the party scene with all the crying is written largely for laughs…but as a kid, Good Lord, Snoopy’s leaving Charlie Brown! He’s the only thing Charlie Brown has going for him! He can’t do this! Noooooooooooo! (Said my 5-year-old brain.)
Random Notes:
-I mentioned earlier that the plot is kinda thin. What fills out the time is a lot of Snoopy and Woodstock visual humor. Bill Melendez, who was the director of all Peanuts animation until his death, also provided the voice (sped-up) of Snoopy. Snoopy sitting in the library laughing his Snoopy laugh at a “Bunnies” book is just delightful. I believe that the backlog of Melendez recordings is still in use when the characters are animated.
-Snoopy’s juice harp, heard in “A Boy Named Charlie Brown”, makes an ever-so-brief reappearance here when Snoopy and Woodstock play some music while camping.
-Charlie Brown tells Linus the story of how he got Snoopy (a story point, like so many, lifted from the comic strips). He was sitting in the sandbox when a mean kid poured a bucket of sand over his head, which made Charlie Brown cry. His Mom scooped him up, took him home. The next day they went to the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm to get wee little Charlie Brown a puppy. Even an incidental story point in this movie seems designed to tug at the heart.
-The other movie I watched on TV as a preschooler which tore at my delicate humours was “Charlotte’s Web.” That one was split up, an hour a night, and at the end of the first hour it seemed all hope was lost and Wilbur was sure to be killed. Sob. But! The promo for Part 2 showed WIlbur and Fern and her family marching proudly in the state fair. Soooo, we watched Part 2. Which ends (SPOILER ALERT!) with the spider dying. Sob. (Also with neat songs by the Sherman Brothers!)
-For more people talking about childhood crying jags while watching “Snoopy Come Home”, click here.