Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie

image for Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie

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Parental guidance recommended under 6; suitable for 6 year olds and over (comedic violence and some scary scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie
  • a review of Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 4 January 2016.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children 4 - 6 Parental guidance recommended
Children 6 and over Suitable for this age group

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie
Classification: G
Consumer advice lines: None
Length: 93 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie is an animated comedy film that follows Charlie Brown (Noah Schnapp) and Snoopy (Bill Melendez) as they both try to accomplish their dreams. Charlie begins the film by going about his regular activities, delighting in ice skating with friends, planning for the upcoming baseball season, and generally enjoying life. However, when he meets the new arrival to the neighbourhood, the Little Red-Haired Girl (Francesca Capaldi), he becomes smitten and develops a crush on her. Charlie soon embarks on a quest to discover activities that might cause the Little Red-Haired Girl to notice him – he attempts to perform at the winter dance, writes a novel, enters a talent show, etc. Over the course of the film, accident-prone Charlie runs into many obstacles in his quest to impress the girl of his dreams. He is helped along the way by his friend Snoopy, who is on his own journey to become a World War 1 pilot legend.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Friendship; Love and Romance; Adventure; Risk-taking.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is minimal violence within the film, including:

  • There is some slapstick-style violence with Charlie Brown, as he clumsily attempts new activities (e.g. flying a kite, dancing, playing hockey) – he often falls over, walks into things, hits parts of himself, etc. No serious violence or injuries are shown.
  • There are flight-based fantasy scenes within Snoopy’s storyline which involve airplane crashes, plane battles, guns and bullets, etc. Injuries and blood are not shown, however. 

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are several scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Some of the fantasy WW1 flight scenes might scare children in this age group.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

None of concern

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

None of concern

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

None of concern

Product placement

There is some product placement, including:

  • The brand Target is shown. 

Sexual references

There are very mild sexual references, including:

  • Charlie falls deeply in love with the Little Red-Haired Girl, and his actions throughout the film are the result of his crush.
  • Lucy is frequently attempting to get Schroeder to pay attention to her, and acts in a flirtatious manner. 

Nudity and sexual activity

There is very mild sexual activity, including:

  • Lucy is kissed by Snoopy – this is very mild.
  • Charlie Brown loses his clothing at one point, whilst he is trying to perform an activity and falls over – no inappropriate nudity is presented, however, and this is done for comedic value. 

Use of substances

There is mild use of substances in the film, including:

  • Several of the characters can be seen drinking beers as part of a celebration. 

Coarse language

There is mild coarse language in the film, including:

  • Insults are used often in the film, including words such as ‘stupid’, ‘dumb’, and ‘slag’. 

In a nutshell

Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie is a hilarious yet touching film about friendship, confidence and achievement. The movie explores self-esteem issues through Charlie’s character – he often talks himself down, and has very little faith in himself and his own abilities. However, through much trial and error, he learns that other people accept and love him for who he is. The film also highlights the importance of friendship, and how much of a positive and significant impact friends can make to a person’s life. 

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • The strength of friendship bonds, and how friends can help you overcome obstacles in life.
  • The importance of being yourself and being true to who you are within your friendships and relationships.
  • Having confidence and faith in yourself and your own abilities. Additionally, always trying your hardest when you want to achieve something that is important to you.

 

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Issues regarding self-esteem and self-efficacy, and how one’s beliefs about themselves can impact their ability to achieve things.
  • The difference between being ‘popular’, and being genuinely liked by others as a result of being a decent person.