23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Super! The coolest of all Peanuts films!, February 24, 2006
This review is from: Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown, and don't come back! [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Followed by Race for your Life, Charlie Brown (1977), this heavily critisized, classic 1980 Peanuts full length adventure is probably the best of the lot. Perhaps some of the critizism is true, but still, the film is tons of fun. The story is endearing, memorable, the music is cool, the characters are classic and adorable and the feel is creepy, yet absolutely wonderful. This is darker than all previous Peanuts films, but not as depressing as A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969) or Snoopy Come Home (1972).
The story begins when a little French girl named Violet sends Charlie Brown a letter inviting him to come visit her old chateau in the French countryside. Coincidentally, that's when both Charlie Brown and Linus are invited to be part of a student exchange program that will take them over to Europe, Snoopy and Woodstock come along as well. At another school nearby, Peppermint Patty and Marcie are also taking part in the same student exchange program, so the group of six travels together. Once there, Peppermint Patty and Marcie are welcomed in the home of a little farm boy named Pierre, while Linus and Charlie Brown are surprised to find that when they arrived at the Chateau of the Mal Voisin, there's nobody there to greet them and they soon enroll in a mystery in which some history of the Brown family will be revealed!
What made this film so much fun was the whole atmosphere of it, it wasn't at all like previous Peanuts films, this one was much gloomier and slower, but super fun. A lof of scenes are plain hilarious, such as a scene which has Peppermint Patty attend school at the French schoolhouse and Snoopy's visits to an old tavern. The whole journey to Europe is wonderful, I love every second of it, it brings me a lot of memories of when I first watched the film, the nicest part here being the soft and sweet song "I Want to Remember This." This film was quite creepy and gloomy, I thought, and it did break a lof of classic Peanuts themes such as adults actually speaking and Marcie's calling Charlie Brown "Chuck" instead of "Charles," not to mention Charlie Brown actually receiving a letter.
Both A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969) and Snoopy Come Home (1972) have greenlit DVD releases coming up soon, so why aren't Race for your life, Charlie Brown (1977) and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and don't come back!) (1980) seeing a DVD edition soon as well?
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is a wagon movie, May 2, 2006
Why won't they put this movie on DVD? How many times can they double dip XXX with Vin Diesel, but we can't get Snoopy in France? I don't understand what is going on in the world!! This was a great cartoon and I wish I could watch it on DVD and restore my memories, because once you grow-up, the pain of being an adult and paying high gas prices is way too real!
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Peanuts In Europe, October 21, 2001
This review is from: Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown, and don't come back! [VHS] (VHS Tape)
In all 4 of the full-length Peanuts movies, somebody is going somewhere. In this final full-length feature, Charlie Brown, Linus, Peppermint Patty, and Marcy win a contest at school and are awarded a trip to Europe as exchange students (somehow Snoopy and Woodstock wind up on the adventure). The title comes from a line Lucy jealously utters to Charlie Brown ("Bon voyage and don't come back!"- she stays at home). This is possibly the first time adult voices are used (the flight stewardess has an audible voice instead of the trademarked "whomp whomp waw" voice).
In England, Snoopy plays tennis at Wimbledon. Then the gang winds up in France at a mysterious chateau whose name makes everybody shudder and Charlie finds out mysteries about his ancestors (we see a picture of his grandfather who had more hair than Chuck!). Peppermint Patty and Marcy compete for Pierre's attention but Pierre seems to prefer Marcy. There's a running gag about the windup car which Snoopy drives and Charlie Brown winds up the engine for the crazy beagle, injuring his hand every time! Other funny scenes include Charlie Brown's baguette incidents and Peppermint Patty nagging Chuck to death in the exchange classroom ("Don't lick the pages with your fingers and don't hassle me with your sighs, Chuck!"). Of course, Chuck is pushed too far and distrupts the class- "WILL YOU STOP CRITICIZING ME?!"
The story continues with the half-hour TV special What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown?, which came out 3 years later.
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