Sometimes, it truly is best to keep things simple.
Directed by Erik Wiese, Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical ships the Peanuts gang to summer camp. Having spent his childhood there, Charlie Brown cannot wait to enjoy his last week as a camper but, for sister Sally, her experience is different. As her first time, she’s not sure she’ll like the experience and is hesitant to get started. What’s more, just as things are picking up, the gang find out that their beloved camp is shutting down due to lack of enrollment. With fire in their bellies, Charlie Brown and the team set out on a mission to save their summer home and, maybe, a piece of their childhood as well.
Written by Craig Schulz (also, the son of series creator, Charles Schulz), Summer Musical is a remarkable blend of past and present. On the one hand, the film feels as though it has stepped right out of a time machine. As they’ve built their Peanuts content, Apple has ensured that the franchise hasn’t aged. It has never tried to be ‘edgy’ or slip in pop culture references to seem overly relevant.
Peanuts is pop culture at its most classic and Apple seems fully aware of its impact.
As such, every moment of A Summer Musical taps into the franchise’s purest energy. Having grown up watching classic Peanuts specials, I can say with confidence that Summer Musical feels as though it was stripped out of my childhood. Charlie Brown carries himself with youthful sadness and joy. Parents remain incomprehensible and invisible. And, of course, Snoopy sends himself on his own amazing adventures. There’s just an innocence to childhood that Summer Musical captures that taps into the legacy of Peanuts as it has always been.
Part of the film’s success stems from its simple yet beautiful songs. Billed as the ‘first Peanuts musical in 35 years’, the film’s music is never overcomplicated or ‘power ballad’-y in nature. Instead, they’re (mostly) quiet, self-reflective tune that the capture the voices of these characters. Whether it’s the simple joy of ‘Best Time Ever’ or the hopeful mourning of ‘Look Up, Charlie Brown’, songwriters Jeff Morrow and Ben Folds have truly captured the spirit of the Peanuts gang.
At the same time though, Summer Musical also feels entirely current. Mentioning ideas such as too much screen time and social anxiety, the film understands that the world has changed. For example, Charlie Brown’s sadness and Sally’s fears feel like extensions on the modern conversations surrounding mental health. There’s a genuine sense that, while the ways we deal with things have changed, the problems of youth have alwaysbeen the problems of youth.
And that’s why it still works.
Though the characters haven’t changed in 70 years, Peanuts is still relevant. There’s an honesty about Schulz’s work that penetrates to the very soul of these now iconic characters. It’s not about the gang’s antics. It’s about the characters and their responses to life. Even with conversations surrounding modern issues, Peanuts still believes that there are moments when we can use a little ‘old fashioned’ sometimes. And that makes the camp setting all that more appropriate. (Says Charlie Brown, “I guess your generation would rather sit in front of the television than sit underneath the stars.”)
In essence, Summer Musical never negates the joys of modern youth but also reminds children that there is more to life. Even when Charlie Brown thinks that things are at their worst, there’s still an innocence and hopefulness embedded within the film that feels authentic. In this way, the film doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel. It simply leans into what made (and makes) the wheel work in the first place.
I admit that it’s hard not to faun over the sheer joy that is Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical. Apple TV+ has done a wonderful job of preserving what Schulz’ legacy has created yet never feeling out of place today. This Summer Musical doesn’t attempt to wow you with flashy animation or fancy tricks. Instead, it simply sits in the moments that makes youth so special and reminds us how to cope when things go wrong.
In that way, Snoopy Presents proves that, sometimes, it’s best to just keep things simple.
Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical is available on Apple TV+ on Friday, August 15th.
All images provided by Apple.
