Peanuts on DVD... Where are the last two movies? (1 Viewer)

[LeoA]

"If they're going with straight CGI like all these animated cartoons, there's no hope for it. "

I mean animated movies.

I like several of them like Cars, but CGI animation is a poor substitute for quality hand drawn work like classic Disney animation.

 

[Bob_S.]

Agreed. It's the hand drawn animation that made Peanuts so endearing. And of course Vince Guaraldi's music. The specials lost something after his death.

 

[WadeM]

Paramount either needs to release Bon Voyage and Race for Your Life on blu-ray or license them to someone else. It's been a ridiculously long wait.

 

[LeoA]

If Paramount owns the movies but the Peanuts license rests with Warner, I imagine they're going to have to cooperate for it to happen and someone will have to license something from the other no matter who ultimately publishes them.

Hopefully something is in the works since 90% of the Peanuts tv output pales compared to these. Would be a shame for them to not eventually be present on DVD.

 

[WadeM]

Paramount sold full rights to the television specials to Warner, but Paramount owns those 2 theatrical films and does not need to license from Warner, although maybe they need to work with United Media & Schulz family( that's who Warner worked with according to their initial DVD press release?). Regardless, Warner is distributing a lot of Paramount DVDs now.

In any case, any Peanuts related releases have slowed down significantly, so maybe they just don't sell anymore outside of the holiday specials.

 

[moviebuff75]

"This is America, Charlie Brown" will be released in June. So, the WB releases are still coming...just more slowly.

 

[MatthewA]

HD masters exist for both Bon Voyage... and Race For Your Life... and both have aired on HDNet movies, while both have (or had in 2011) pretty good 35mm prints of recent vintage from Paramount's repertory division. Are there any legal issues keeping these films off of disc?

 

[WadeM]

"This is America, Charlie Brown" will be released in June. So, the WB releases are still coming...just more slowly.

Even that is a re-release of what Paramount already released. I wish that they would release the complete '80s animated specials collection. The Charlie Brown & Snoopy Show was released in 2012. Maybe after the re-release of This Is America, they'll finally get around to what I'm looking for.

 

[LeoA]

It's about time...

http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Charlie-Brown-Peanuts-Specials-Race-For-Your-Life-Charlie-Brown/20474



Looking forward to this, and hopefully 'Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown' will follow later on next year.

I just wish that they were Blu-Ray releases instead. And I'd love to see the first two movies be redone with a 4:3 full-screen option along with a more suitable widescreen presentation than the last time around where it was often clearly not right. But I suspect these rereleases will be little more than reprintings.

 

[Oliver Ravencrest]

That's good news! It's a definite buy, I still enjoy Snoopy Come Home and A Boy Named Charlie Brown. I.m also hoping for Bon Voyage to be released.

 

[LeoA]

http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Charlie-Brown-Peanuts-Specials-Race-For-Your-Life-Charlie-Brown/20477

Not too crazy about the cover.

TVShowsonDVD is reporting that it has been digitally remastered. So if they're putting some real effort into this, maybe that means they've gone back to the earlier two films as well. I'd love to rebuy both of them in superior form since the first two are my favorites.

But even better, they're reporting that "Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown" is being planned for DVD release in October 2015, tying the title's DVD debut into the movie's 35th anniversary.

Hopefully they don't forget the follow-up tv special, "What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown?". But since that's presumably Warner owned, I'm not optimistic (And since it includes some clips from this movie, Warner is similarly in a position where they'd need cooperation from CBS if they were to release it themselves).

 

[Oliver Ravencrest]

Yeah the art isn't that good but it's what's inside that counts. Good news on Bon Voyage too!

 

[Randy Korstick]

Good news on these coming and hopefully OAR like the first 2. I prefer the intended theatrical look for these films and not what we grew up on watching them on TV. The bigger scope is the main difference between the theatrical movies and the TV specials. I did see Race and Bon Voyage at the theaters and definitely 1.85:1 for those 2.

 

[chadHobbick]

It's a times like these where I can't figure out why WB doesn't just shell out the money for the Peanuts movies so they can do them justice. The cover art for this is crap, but like someone said upthread, it's having the movie that counts here. There really is no reason for them not to do a blu-ray release at this point either.

 

[LeoA]

Good news on these coming and hopefully OAR like the first 2. I prefer the intended theatrical look for these films and not what we grew up on watching them on TV.

They weren't, though. Things are cut off that definitely look wrong and the framing job during certain spots like the credits confirms that their selection of an aspect ratio didn't correctly fit the source.

So I'd like to see a more accurate widescreen presentation along with a full 4:3 option. Should be enough space available for compression not to be harmful for these movies that run ~75-85 minutes or so.

How were these last two films done? If what we saw on tv over the years was pan & scan, widescreen is a must. But if they were created with future tv airings in mind like the first two were and actually were cropped for theatrical showings like I imagine is the case, I want at least the option of seeing it in full 4:3 like most of us are familiar with.

Should be easy enough to please both sides where the aspect ratio of these Peanuts films are concerned, or those of us like me that go back and forth still between a SD CRT and their HDTV and see validity in both opinions in regard to these films.

 

[Kirben]

The original aspect ratio of these older Peanuts movie was 4:3, they were mattered when shown in theaters. I expect the upcoming DVD release of Race for your Life, Charlie Brown will be cropped to widescreen, just like the previous DVD releases in the USA.

A Boy Named Charlie Brown and Snoopy Comes Home are at least available in their correct aspect ratio on DVD in Australia and the UK.

 

[Bob_S.]

Expect a Blu-ray release after we all buy the dvd.

 

[LeoA]

If they only go with one of the two options, no matter what side someone is inclined to agree with, I hope they criticize it.

There's no reason why both options for this unusual situation couldn't easily be catered to. We're not talking about terribly long films that would have to be overly compressed to accommodate both on a DVD.

But even if they go widescreen and there's telltale evidence they got their aspect ratio selection wrong, I'll still happily buy them. The first two DVD's have gotten a lot of mileage for me, despite their flaws. And I like these latter two films as well, even though not quite to the same degree.

 

[MatthewA]

There really is no reason for them not to do a blu-ray release at this point either.

Maybe they want to do all four films at once.

 

[chadHobbick]

Maybe they want to do all four films at once.

Possibly, but considering it took what, almost 10 years since the release of Snoopy, Come Home and A Boy Named Charlie Brown to get this release, and hopefully Bon Voyage, I doubt it.