by Jonathan Weilbaecher, Oct 9 2012 // 10:00 AM
Charlie Brown and his famous band of christian buddies have lived in pop culture continuously for over 60 years. The brain child of Charles Schulz, Peanuts is a phenomenon that has effected every generation since it’s inception. Well, save for perhaps the current generation who only know the characters as shills for MetLife and those droopy trees that people seem to love around Christmas.
According to Deadline, Fox is looking to change that, by acquiring the rights to an animated feature staring everyone’s favorite adolescents:
Twentieth Century Fox Animation and Ice Age makers Blue Sky Studios will turn Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Woodstock and the whole Peanuts gang into an animated feature film franchise. Fox has closed a deal for the rights to turn the strip by the late Charles Schulz into a film that has already been set for release on November 25, 2015. That date commemorates the 65th anniversary of the comic strip, and the 50th anniversary of the TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas.
Rather ambitious to already have a release date three years out, but it makes sense.
There is also some brewing concern about the animation style of the movie. If you look at Ice Age and the Seuss films you don’t exactly see the Peanuts ascetic. We have faith though, Blue Sky managed to take the Seuss style and make it work in a 3D space rather well. There is no reason to believe that they can’t replicate that level of respectful modernization for Schulz’s iconic style as well.
Stay tuned to The Flickcast for any news regarding this far off project as it develops.
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Posted in: 20th Century Fox · Adaptation · Animation · Classics · Comics · Movies · News
Tagged: Adaptation, Blue Sky Studios, Charles Schulz, Charlie Brown, movie, News, Peanuts, Snoopy, Twentieth Century Fox, Woodstock
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by Nat Almirall, Apr 15 2011 // 11:30 AM

I don’t have much experience reviewing children’s movies, so, before writing this, I did some research to glean a few of the points prescient to their reviews. Fortunately the standard kid-flick critique doesn’t differ much from your standard, well, non-kid-flick review. The only theme uniting them all is to note whether adults will enjoy it as much as their brood (or whether either audience will enjoy it).
So let’s get that out of the way: The kids will probably enjoy it (the ones invited to my screening didn’t make too much noise, but that may have been due to the iron fists of their handlers); adults won’t mind it. Rio isn’t particularly sophisticated and comes with your basic (and I use this term only because it does very much apply here) cookie-cutter plot in which you already know everything that’s going to happen within the first 12 minutes, and, beyond that, there’s not a whole lot else—save for the location shots, which I’ll get to in a moment.
The story is that Blu (Jesse Eisenberg) is a rare Spix macaw, taken from his homeland of Brazil when he was a chick and shipped to Moose Lake, Minnesota, where his crate falls off the back of the truck and he’s adopted by Linda (Leslie Mann), a bookish girl who raises him over the next 15 years. Linda doesn’t make many friends in that time, but she does open a bookstore, and the story proper begins when Tulio (Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro), a bird scientist, drops by to inform Linda that Blu is one of the last of his species and must go to Brazil to mate with Jewel (Anne Hathaway), the other last of the species.
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Posted in: 3-D · Animation · Movies · Reviews
Tagged: Anne Hathaway, Blue Sky Studios, George Lopez, Jamie Foxx, Jemaine Clement, jesse eisenberg, Leslie Mann, Movies, Rio, Rodrigo Santoro, Tracy Morgan, Will.I.Am
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by Jennifer Tomooka, Sep 25 2009 // 8:00 AM
Ice Age director Chris Wedge has been tapped to helm Leaf Men, an animated feature that Fox will release through its Fox Animation label, with Blue Sky Studios producing.
Variety is reporting that Wedge’s involvement comes after a lengthy tug-of-war over the project between Fox, Blue Sky Studios (which Wedge co-founded) and Disney-based animation rival Pixar.
Leaf Men is an adaptation of the William Joyce illustrated children’s book The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs. The book follows a troop of bugs that try to save a garden and need to battle an evil spider queen. The bugs turn to the mythical Leaf Men to aid them in their quest.
Keep your eyes on The Flickcast for future developments on this animated feature.
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Posted in: 20th Century Fox · Adaptation · Animation · Features · Filmmaking · News
Tagged: Blue Sky Studios, Chris Wedge, Fox Animation, Ice Age, Leaf Men, The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs
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