The Schulz family was once adamant it didnt want to make a Peanuts movie.
Heres how Blue Sky Studios changed their minds…
This Peanuts article originally ran onDen of Geek UK.
One per month for over a decade.
For a good while, the answer was always no.
A lot of writer-producers, independents and studio heads.
Its all in the comic strips.
How then, did Blue Sky persuade the Schulz family to budge from its staunch no movie position?
To quote Craig Schulzusing a metaphor apt for the baseball-playing Charlie Brown gangBlue Sky stepped up to the plate.
The family said that we didnt think the 3D CGI look would fit Peanuts, Craig told us.
Really, thats what triggered it for me.
Thats not to say the test footage was an instant hit with the family.
Jeannie Schulz remembered, I wasnt thrilled with the idea of 3D five years ago.
Looks to me as if theyve filmed a water pitcher and you just see… a water pitcher!
It wasnt perfect by any means, agreed Craig.
His other siblings also had reservations.
The family didnt necessarily like the characters, they were kind of shocked.
Even Steve, to this day, will not look at that stuff, hes embarrassed by it.
We had a number of great conversations sitting at The Warm Puppy, right next to the skating rink.
All of our important meetings were in the Birthday Room of The Warm Puppy!
When we asked Steve Martino about his memories of the test footage, he hung his head and laughed.
Oh my gosh… we weresonaive back then.
What I think we learned is that we can make the world look very rich.
Making the world look rich but nottoorich was also a tricky balance to get right.
Steve realized that was stealing away from the characters.
Thats not how my dad drew the comic strip.
The next and major problem was the characters.
We had no idea back then how to make the characters look right, Martino tells us, laughing.
And its like,thatsnot going to work.
