The Peanuts Movie’s Animation Supervisor on Getting the Gang’s into 3 Dimensions

This week marks the return of cartoonist Charles M. Schulz’s beloved "Peanuts" crew, with Charlie Brown and the gang making their big screen debut in 3D in The Peanuts Movie. Peanuts purists, of course, might be tempted to thumb their noses at a contemporified, animated version of the classic newspaper strip cartoon, a thought that was well anticipated by director Steve Martino and his animation team at Blue Sky Studios.

Sparky’s Pen: The Peanuts Movie Animators on the Genius of Charles M. Schulz

If you weren’t looking forward to The Peanuts Movie, or, if you thought it would never live up to the beautiful line drawings of creator Charles “Sparky” Schulz, this clip may change your mind.

The animators and illustrators at Blue Sky Studio, the folks that created the Ice Age franchise, discuss their love of Schulz’s work and their commitment to translate that to the big screen.

The Peanuts Movie has a Trailer

They've had Christmas specials galore, but Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Woodstock and Linus have never had a big theatrical film before. Finally, after 65 years and countless adventures (and misadventures—sorry, Charlie Brown), the gang's got a film. The whole bunch is here—along with our aforementioned favorites, there’s Peppermint Patty, Pig Pen, Sally, Schroeder and Lucy van Pelt, to name a few.

Director Steve Martino, writers Bryan and Craig Schulz and Cornelius Uliano look to have crafted a film that’s of our time (a dance interlude starring eternal klutz Charlie Brown set to DJ Khaled’s “All I Do is Win”