Peanuts animator passes

Jerry Beck reports on the passage of Bill Littlejohn, who worked as an animator on a number of Peanuts specials dating all the way back to A Charlie Brown Christmas, as well as quite a respectable list of other projects.

It’s been 45 years since that first Peanuts special. As the release of Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown – the first full special without any of the original team – approaches, we have to realize that the future of Peanuts animation will not be filled with those who know how it was done from the inside, but from those who study the results. Will that work out? I suspect so; the legacy that people like Littlejohn, Melendez, Guaraldi,  Schulz, and the still-with-us Lee Mendelson have built is powerful.

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Animated Peanuts
Christmas presents? Snoopy Presents!

Apple TV has announced another new Peanuts special, a Christmas special coming our way this Christmas season. I’m going to spare myself some effort and just drop down the relevant portions of their press release, so the editorialization you see is all theirs. Apple TV is making the season merry …

Schulz/Peanuts news
See some Schulz originals in Indiana

The Anderson Museum of Art in lovely (I’ll assume) Anderson, Indiana has an interesting exhibition coming up next month…. It focuses on artists from Indiana, and look at all the cool things it covers, There’s Garfield! And Baby Blues! Blondie! Marvin! But… there’s no Snoopy. What’s it doing on this …

Animated Peanuts
Peanuts media notes

I meant to write a review of Snoopy Presents: There’s No Place Like Home, Snoopy, the new special on Apple TV that is so powerful, Snoopy’s in the name twice! But life is full, so I will just note that it’s watchable, and it does have the Goose Eggs in it. …