I will yell from a hill that I am not a fan of the "Snoopy Presents" title set up for these things, but they will do it anyway just to taunt me personally. It's time for another Peanuts special made by current partial owner Wildbrain for Apple TV Plus. (Apple TV Plus , At least we aren't Paramount Plus) Like some of the other modern Apple TV Plus era specials they've decided to give specials with a geared focus on characters, this time Franklin.
This one called "Welcome Home, Franklin" came out on February 16, 2024 [doing these dates so it's historically known or something]. First, let's mention another comic strip for a bit here and that would be "Jump Start" , that's a currently (as of this writing) running comic strip written by Robb Armstrong. that first came out in 1989. The two main characters of that strip are Marcy and Joe , Marcy being named after Marcie from Peanuts and Joe from Snoopy's alter-ego name "Joe Cool." Charles Schulz and they did strike up some repour with each other.
The 1994 special "You're in the Superbowl , Charlie Brown" you might have heard Franklin given a last name of Armstrong, after uh Armstrong. Now he's was brought in to be part of the writing of this special about Franklin. [source]
A quick back story about Franklin and his introduction. In 1968 (not a fun year) just days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. a school teacher in Los Angeles named Harriet Glickman wrote Schulz about the idea of him adding a black character to the comic strips. [Source] Through some correspondence back and forth he decided to introduce a character named Franklin. Franklin first appeared on July 31, 1968.
Franklin was added to the world of Peanuts and his first showings when he goes to Charlie Brown's neighborhood was a sense that it was very strange which I mean, he's not wrong. Anyway, I'm going to talk about the special now.
There's something odd about a Peanuts special doing a 4th wall break where a character directly a) freezes time b) and then even doing an almost "you might be wondering how I got here?" thing. I'm now more sad we didn't get a record scratch. Franklin mentions that his father is in the military and that he had to move once again.
August 1, 1968 / Copyright Peanuts
Which does fit with the comic strip in when Franklin was introduced his Dad was in Vietnam, which if any one tries to say Peanuts never did contemporary things, it did, it was never locked in a time bottle it just didn't over do it either.
I never thought I'd hear a Peanuts special use Billy Preston's Nothing from Nothing, someone spending the Apple money on licensed music. I also like they used the Franklin Grandpa sayings stuff as a book for the special, that's a nice touch of detail.[ Where was this with the Marcie special?] He's going to use the book to break the ice to make friends something he has done before, as again moved alot.
ahhh seatbelt!/ Copyright Peanuts
He meets Linus at the pumpkin match. [Linus do be at pumpkin patches] Here he calls it his, did he create one? Where's that special? Did he always create one? I have questions you don't want to answer. Franklin tries #1: tell a joke. That goes as well as telling a cat to finish the rest of the post. Franklin decides to help and Linus mentions the Great Pumpkin. This puzzles Franklin. It's like an expanded look at October 17, 1968's comic strip. (smooth) Oh no! Franklin has pulled out a pumpkin, the Great Pumpkin will kill us all!
The Great Pumpkin will in-act revenge on all humans / Copyright Peanuts
That's Linus' reaction, kind of. He tries another idea to make friends to smile and compliment. That book should have told him that Lucy might not be the best person to try this with. Again this part works off the October 15, 1968 comic strip where he first thought Lucy was selling Lemonade. Here he puts a nickel in her cup and takes and drinks her lemonade. She really shouldn't be grumpy he did give her 5cents. (Sorry, but Lemonade is now $1 inflation and all) Again he should have read the sign. Then he tries a joke and she kills it like he did that pumpkin.
He shouldn't have drank her lemonade, he's going not feel well/ Copyright Peanuts
Franklin's faith in the notebook is dying, but calling Lucy a delusional pseudo-doctor was funny. Then he meets Snoopy and pets him. He thinks Snoopy is normal and then the opposite happens. I also never expected to hear the phrase "Twilight Zone" mentioned in Peanuts. Odd how that was never mentioned, actually, wait hold on.
To the beach, which I hope this special is doing what I hope it should be doing and well I'll hold on. Franklin is sad on the beach (not Sax on the beach) and sees a beach ball and catches it and meets Charlie Brown. They did it. Well kind of the used the set up from July 31, 1968, but not the same exact lines. No mention of sally throwing it , for example. He shows Franklin his sand castle and the ocean is still rude. This time, Franklin's joke works when Charlie Brown starts the set up.
What great beach weather of ... gray skies? / Copyright Peanuts
The next day, there's another tip of going where the people meet to try and make friends. (New Hampshire?) Today in plot convenience: Franklin shows up at the right time to hear through what probably would be a thick window, Lucy talking to background girl A about Franklin drinking her lemonade. So alright then.
He changes his mind and almost gets runover by a Soap Box Derby car. Oh, good Shermy exists in this special. He's here to mention that there's a Soap Box Derby coming up and there's a trophy with free pizza. That's the race we saw Charlie Brown and Franklin in the same in the start. Franklin thinks that this would be a good idea to make friends because the book says that people like a winner. (Unless the team you don't like wins)
He needs a partner and I wonder who that will be. It also does a same thing that they both get kind of shut out and this of course makes them partner up. At the hardware store with oddly specific small steering wheels Franklin grabs one and Lucy grabs the same one and they both want it. (They should cut it in half) She says down things about Charlie Brown, because of course.
Charlie and Franklin [yeah I'm calling CB. just Charlie fight me] work together on their car. Franklin tries to connect with Charlie Brown over baseball. (Good thing they aren't Yankees and Red Sox fans that would be awkward) There is a nice bond of Franklin and Charlie Brown, I do criticize these Apple edition specials that do seem to lean more into sweetness and pleasantries that really doesn't fit Peanuts, but this is presented well and over done in sweetness and it is a driving point of the special trying to have Franklin get used to the others and trying to make friends. Also funny to have Franklin ask Charlie if he's related to James Brown. Also finds away to introduce jazz in here.
Charlie Brown and James Brown are not cousins? / Copyright Peanuts
They decide to test out the car and Charlie Brown seems nervous and keeps touching the brake. Then he hits it and causes them to swerve and mess up the car in an extreme way. Then, oh hey look a third act conflict, it's time! Franklin gets mad about this and even says that Lucy was right, which is a scary thing to say. Then it even rains. (Rain: always done in sad moments, that's how we'll stop droughts, be more sad!)
Pieces of my life scattered around/ Copyright Peanuts
The quickest turnaround ever with these two making up and deciding to fix the car. Then it's race day. The special also uses Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry which well [reused line I said earlier here] Snoopy cheats. I will also say that. But gladly didn't win with that. Sally accidently removes the chalks from a rolling stand and it ends up crashing into the race course. Franklin decides to somehow cause them to crash through it get knocked off to help the others get through. Also, minus "He's a Good Sport" we can't have Charlie Brown winning.
Can't have Charlie Brown winning, it's wrong/ Copyright Peanuts
Franklin explains he couldn't let the others lose over the thing and that's why. Also how dare this special let Lucy (sorry Schroder) win, just rude, like if' it's not Charlie Brown at least don't have it be Lucy. Linus and others were worried about Charlie Brown and the new kid and are happy to see them coming down the hill to the finish line. That any thing to get away from Lucy.
Even Lucy does praise Franklin. There's Pizza in the evening as Lucy has actually decided to share her free pizza with everyone. Franklin has news that his dad is taking a new job and not moving. Things seem to go well. Franklin breaks the 4th wall again. Oh, they did that thing because oh yeah... hmmm. Stevie Wonder's Happier than the Sun also gets some play too.
I've loosely mentioned this in the Marcie special but there is a trend in these Apple commissioned specials and maybe the more modern writing style of doing a plot that doesn't feel very Peanuts and then tries to fit Peanuts characters into it. Where I found the Marcie special seemingly not very into Marcie's shown characteristics and presenting a story that I feel didn't fit, with Franklin it didn't do that as much. That also might be because Franklin doesn't have that much in source stuff or a a full characterization to kind of go back to it so it worked better.
It uses the same animation style that these new specials have been using, but compared to Marcie's special (this isn't a beat up on that) it goes for a different color pallet of a summer-y look and feel versus the warm hues of her special. There's that freshness to it, though, as a person in the outlier of watching all the specials the 45 plus these, and reading the comic strip, I still will personally never be into the background style being so digital and clear it uses in that watercolor look , but does feel a bit off, and feel versus more simplistic drawn - I'm the one person who wasn't fully wowed by the 2015 Peanuts Movie's look either- but I don't hate it.
It's actually interesting to hear a Peanuts special not speckled with mostly original music done for it. We get to hear the likes of Stevie Wonder, John Coltrane, Chuck Berry, and Billy Preston get their music used in a Peanuts special. It's an appreciation of great artists in well placed moments. Expanding on Coltrane, he is a big figure in the history of jazz music and as Peanuts specials , especially the Christmas special, were known for the use of jazz music this was a nice way to do that and tie it back to jazz's origins in black music.
The bond between Charlie Brown and Franklin here was also very nicely done. In the strips, Franklin never seemed to give a put down on Charlie Brown (one of the few that didn't very much or at all) and here they don't make it all easy friendship there is a moment of tension that works for realism. It was interesting to see how they wrote it to have Charlie Brown and Franklin be kind of shut out at times. It also uses a "new kid" experience for Franklin and the idea of that others wouldn't be open to him because he's new. While he's not used to the quirks and weirdness of the world of these characters.
Franklin as a character could be explained as not very stand out-ish and not alot was done with him in the strip. That's mostly a few factors, where many Peanuts characters ended up being push aside or not used as much. I mentioned Shermy showing up in this special is a character that "died" in the late 60's no longer really having a role in the strips with Linus, Schroder, filling in the gaps of boy characters to pal with Charlie Brown. Many Peanuts characters were elements of Schulz own thoughts, sides and feelings that he was able to put more into. This special tries to get some character depth to him, mostly using the idea of being an Army brat to have him really have no connections and not really many friends, he's then brought into the world of Peanuts and the strangeness to outsider. A dog that doesn't go bark randomly, walks on two legs, and can surf, a girl that goes with handing out advice instead of lemonade, a boy who has more dust than an old collection in an attic, a boy who fears an omnipresent pumpkin figure, and so on. He did find this strange as one would, but he wants the close connection of friends. It's a different side to character who was more intergraded into the world in the strips after an the early bemusement.
There's a benefit here versus again that special with Marcie that didn't seem to understand her character.
The special and I've seen this written that it "rights a wrong" or something because of the Thanksgiving special and click bait sites picking up on dumb things Twitter says, so they do a thing where Franklin first is sitting by himself then ask him to come over to their side. That shot of the table at the Thanksgiving special really gets a bunch of the worst takes thanks again to a website not used by a majority of people and low stakes "news" outfits that need(ed) that site for clicks. While this special does a nice moment, it's born from something stupid that really shouldn't be a controversy.
The more of these newer specials come out they are original stories, I do commend them for trying different stories and trying to expand on characters that maybe haven't been focused , but there are times they go hand fisted or trying to fit something where it doesn't fit. This one does have some charm but there are points it goes out of its way to make Franklin not bothered some of the things and more like he's going just try harder, same with Charlie Brown, who again did push back at times in past stuff, even if he's known for wishy-washiness he still did push back. The special avoided conflict by just having a short argument then coming back together kind of pushes away the point of having it. This is a hallmark of how these newer ones have been going.
It isn't bad , on it's own points it's somewhat better than the one before it. They present a nice story with what they want to write. These new specials do miss some of the hallmarks of Peanuts at points, but it's not awful or unwatchable. One of my hopes with new specials is that the older ones get a look to bring people into Peanuts, to get them to read the strips and carry on something that in the world's quest of IP and focusing on the new parts to bring in what was loved about this in the first place and note things that got lost over time. With any review, especially with me and Peanuts there will be skew of what I'd like to see and how I feel that comes into play, so I really do think you should check it out and see if you like it and see what you think of it.
That's it for now, tune in next time when we wonder was Sally paid to mess up the race?
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