For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Airplane!, American Gigolo, Friday the 13th, The Elephant Man, The Shining, Caddyshack, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. A good year for film indeed :DThis is the 4th and last theatrically released movie based on Peanuts to date. As much as I loved the other 3 movies and how different each one were this is by FAR my #1 pick. I would rate this much higher than a 10 but nevertheless the message is clear :) What can I say; I LOVE Peanuts and I LOVE this movie! The title just shouts different and that is what I love about the two other Peanuts movies (Snoopy, Come Home!! and Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown!!) Because it sounds so expressive and inviting. Bon Voyage Charlie Brown is not only my favourite Peanuts movie; it's one of my ALL-TIME favourite films!I guess the best place to start is the plot of the story. The opening starts in France at a local bar when a man (the Baron) with a cane comes out to his car and drives home to an old creepy looking château; we then see a girl in the château writing a letter. Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Woodstock, Linus, Marcie and Peppermint Patty (my favourite Peanuts character) are chosen to go to France for two weeks as foreign exchange students representing their schools. Charlie receives the letter from the girl named Violette only to have no idea what it says. Marcie, having learnt a bit of French, reads the letter saying he has been invited to stay at a château called "home of the bad neighbour". This makes him uneasy of course. The gang rents a car that Snoopy drives (of course, he can do everything!) Marcie and PP stay with a boy named Pierre and Charlie, Linus, Snoopy and Woodstock go to the château but strangely they cannot go inside and have a suspicion they were not invited by the Baron. This sets the mood for confusion, and mystery, something very different for Peanuts. The artwork and backgrounds are subtle and peaceful to look at. And when the animation is good, it's REALLY good. Ed Bogus and Judy Munsen rock the soundtrack; one of my favourite scenes is when Judy Munsen sings the beautiful "I want to remember this" as the kids travel by train to Dover from Victoria Station in England, gazing upon the gorgeous landscapes and towns' only Europe has and Snoopy's interaction with an English cab driver is both funny and in my opinion, the best animated scene in the movie. The feel and atmosphere of the movie has a well-thought-out mixture of bright light hearted scenarios and dark haunting back drops of night, the Baron and the château. Peppermint Patty is her usual funny and boisterous self as she sleeps in class, gets answers wrong and also develops a crush on Pierre but hilariously never notices that Marcie and he are romantically involved. The music for the climax is strangely placed. Near the end of the movie the château is engulfed in flames with only Linus and Violette trapped inside and Snoopy is pulling an old fashioned fire hose across the river to the château and Woodstock is sprayed out and plays a violin while all this is going on! It's funny but strangely placed.In closing, Bon Voyage Charlie Brown is Peanuts animation at its best; with the exceptions of "She's A Good Skate, Charlie Brown," and the sequel to Bon Voyage "What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown." With American animated movies coming out today, with all its CGI, fast pace, celebrity casted, popular music and rhetoric writing, this film is a real breath of fresh air and an animation treasure. I picture watching this in theatres must be like walking in a luscious meadow during a cool spring evening. A delightfully soothing motion picture Charles Schulz and Bill Melendez were best at, from a time when pacing was appreciated.

"Perfection" is hardly the word to describe anything of Peanuts, no matter how cool it is (this is valid both for normal Peanuts episodes and Peanuts specials).However, this classic is definitely timeless and just perfect. It has some minor flaws but nothing very significant and nothing enough to prevent me from rating this as a solid 10.This is a significant improvement over the normal Peanuts episodes and the previous Peanuts specials. Each Peanuts special is better than the previous one. This is the 4th one and the very best of all in everything. The plot is very interesting, the classic humor is much better, the artwork is amazing (hardly anything you can say about Peanuts), the soundtrack is truly remarkable and the originality is taken to another league (without harming the traditional Peanuts spirit). For example, one of the things that distinguish this from other Peanuts works is the dark (even spooky) atmosphere combined with suspense, something unusual on Peanuts. The Château du Mal Voisin (Château of the Bad Neighbor) looks creepy, almost like an abandoned and forbidding place. The music (a slower version of James Bond's theme) gives the chills.The originality isn't just on this, but practically on its whole. There are adults on this one. Besides, the 6 best known characters of the Peanuts gang visit England and France, where they experience very different things than usual and live different types of adventures. Fortunately, the always obnoxious Lucy doesn't go with them and only appears very briefly at the beginning, otherwise she'd ruin the film.There are many hilarious moments, even in parts that weren't supposed to be comical. For example, when Charlie Brown runs in despair in the "fire at the château" sequence. I know the sequence is supposed to be dramatic, but to see him running like that all that distance that seemed so far in so very little time is amusing, don't ask me why. Also, the sequence when Charlie Brown's loaf of bread gets slammed into the car's hood is funny. Although it's unfair for Charlie Brown, as he doesn't get to eat his part and the others mock him and laugh out loud and he blushes, it's hilarious. Also in that sequence, when he yells his famous line «Aaaaargh!» is so funny. Aside these, there are many other hilarious moments, except that they're supposed to be hilarious.This film is so nostalgic. Brings me back so many wonderful memories from the good old days. This is one of those movies that were a significant part of my childhood. I miss those days. They don't do anything like this nowadays. Hard to believe this is already 30 years. It looks as fresh and timeless as ever, which is a sign of how well it disguises its true age. And it's a great way to learn English because they speak it calmly and clear.It saddens me that it ain't available on DVD. How come so many unworthy films get released on DVD all the time (even if they weren't...!), while this gem doesn't see the light of day on DVD?I don't know (and never knew) its title in Portugal, but I wish I knew.

In addition to dozens of half-hour television specials, Sparky Schultz made a handful of attempts to translate his comic strip to the big screen. "Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown" is the most interesting of these because of its departures from the "Peanuts" formula.There is no interaction between adversarial couples Linus and Lucy and Charlie Brown and Lucy in this film, because Lucy van Pelt is present only to wave goodbye to the group of exchange students. (Exchange students at the elementary school level?) A number of adults are portrayed and given voices. (No muted trumpets here). Schroeder the piano man and Pigpen the human dust storm are left behind on American soil.This film was a labor of love for Schultz, who passed through Normandy after D Day and at one point was billetted at a manor house which could have passed for the Chateau of the Bad Neighbor. The geography is completely accurate, down to the villages adjoining the Andelle River.The more successful Peanuts adaptations are those in which the clever storyline outweighs the limitations of kiddie voice-over acting. This is one such, the cast including students at a French-language school in San Francisco. There is also an unusually large quantity of "dialogue" spoken by Snoopy's voice, director Bill Melendez. The beagle's impressions of a British toff and a crabby French driver are priceless.

All right, I haven't seen this in a while, but here goes... This film was created to commemorate the 30th anniversery of Peanuts. I loved almost every aspect of this. It did break a Peanuts rule however, the adults talk.