Movie Review: In "Peanuts Movie,"

The Peanuts Movie finds Charlie Brown still suffering from self-esteem issues, but that figures. He still goes to a five-cent psychiatrist.

True to his comic-strip history, motion-picture Charlie can't fly a kite, can't throw a strike. We see him practicing his pitching in front of a scoreboard that reserves one digit for the home team, three digits for the visitors.

So, not much has changed. Chuck fails at everything, and from this, there is no refuge. Even at home he is reminded that he's not as perceptive, imaginative, courageous, or smart as his dog.

The movie is in 3-D, which is two more dimensions than Brown feels he deserves. When the Little Red-Haired Girl moves in next door, a smitten Chuck can't work up the nerve to approach her.

What follows is a G-rated story of stammering Chuck trying to impress the girl - pulling an all-nighter to write their jointly authored book report (on War and Peace), taking dancing lessons, etc. These end in - good grief! - failure and humiliation. Still, Charlie soldiers on, with a plodding consistency that falls somewhere between pathetic and heroic.

That seems about right, consistent with the Charlie we know from Charles Schulz's "Peanuts" comic strip. At other times, the colorful, upbeat Peanuts Movie seems a little too chirpy, missing the unique mix of humor and melancholy that made Schulz's characters so distinctive and enduring.

The Peanuts Movie aims instead for something cheerful and less complicated - and, we fear, less Schulz-like. Sure enough, there is a scene in which a friend tells down-in-the-dumps Charlie that he simply needs to realize that he's a "good person," that "people like you."

That sounds more like Al Franken's Stuart Smalley character than Charles Schulz.

Charlie Brown is the fellow who hopes against all reason that when he attempts to kick a football, recidivist placeholder Lucy will not yank it away.

These days, of course, Lucy would be flagged for bullying, and Charlie would thus be insulated from life's inevitable disappointments.

The Peanuts Movie sidesteps all that and rewards Charlie, at last, for his good intentions. I doubt Schulz would mind too much. His affinity for Charlie always seemed to come from a place of commiseration, as did ours.

And Charlie doesn't get the girl, just a little encouragement, which even Schulz was inclined to grant from time to time.

There was a "Peanuts" strip in which Lucy did not yank the football away.

Charlie missed.

thompsg@phillynews.com

215-854-5992

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Directed by Steve Martino. Distributed by 20th Century Fox. In 3-D.

Running time: 1 hour, 22 mins.

Parent's guide: G.

Playing at: Area theaters.EndText