According to the internet there are over 50 Peanuts TV Specials and movies. Although I'm a big fan of Peanuts, I have made no attempt to watch them all. My impression is that they're mostly cash grabs by TV execs, rather than genuine creations from Charles Schulz.
Having said that, when I heard there was a Peanuts special that tried to blend animation with live-action footage, I had to see it for the bizarre "this can't be real" aspect of it.
I'm not going to say it's terrible... I'm not going to say it's terrible... For some reason it centers on Snoopy's brother Spike - despite the title clearly referring to Charlie Brown as if he's involved - and it's very boring. The key take away is that in this special almost nothing happens at all. I don't know who they thought this was going to appeal to. The main conflict is: a boyfriend signs his girlfriend up for an audition and she's mad because she wasn't consulted. Is that really going to draw in the kids? I'm an adult and can't care less. If you don't want to go to the audition, don't go. Nobody cares, get over yourself.
As I mentioned before, I would like to chalk this up as a cash grab with little input from Charles Schulz but that's not the case. He wrote and produced it. One of the things he most wanted people to know was that it was in production before "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" came out. In other words, the idea for mixing animation with live-action wasn't lifted. Noted. He also said of this film, "I wanted this to be my Citizen Kane, but it's not."
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