The Peanuts Movie, of course

I’m just back from my second viewing of The Peanuts Movie (the kids wanted to see it), this time in 2-D… and I was right, it works just fine in 2-D. And I see that the weekend box office estimates are up. Now, these are a silly thing, they release these on Sunday morning, which means that they feel that it’s so important to post some sort of total today that they can’t wait for the weekend to actually be over. But let’s look at the silly number: they are guessing that the film will end the weekend with a gross of $45 million dollars. That’s pretty good, especially for a G-rated movie. How good? It’s the second highest opening weekend gross ever for a G-rated film. In fact, if it turns out to be the slightest underestimate, if they’re rounding down, if the real total ends up being a fraction of .1% of that, if they earn just $12,999 more than that says, it will be the biggest non-Pixar G film opening ever. Or to look at it another way: $45 million is more than last weekend’s top five films combined.

One detail I caught on the second view: we actually get a name for the Little Red-Haired Girl. If you look closely at the sheet of test results, you’ll see (among other Peanuts names; 5 is on there) an entry for “Heather Wold” – “Heather” being the name given to a red-haired girl (we can discuss whether it’s The LR-HG) in It’s Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown, “Wold” being the married last name of Donna Mae Johnson, the object of Schulz’s affection who was the real-life inspiration for the character.

Animated Peanuts
RIP Willie Mays

Willie Mays has died. The baseball great lived until the age of 1993. “Why is that relevant to a Peanuts blog?” I hear of a few of you cry (though many of you know better.) Before Lee Mendelson had any connection to Peanuts, he made a documentary about Mays… and …

Animated Peanuts
New Peanuts feature film on the way

Apple, who have been producing Peanuts series and specials in plentitude, have announced that they, Wildbrain, and Peanuts Worldwide are working together on a new Peanuts feature-length film, the Hollywood Reporter notes. If you liked the last feature film, then this should be very good news. They’re using a story …

Animated Peanuts
Beagle Scout missions

Those of you who have never been to the San Diego Comic-Con (or who haven’t been in a the past couple decades) may not realize that the event goes well beyond the convention center. For blocks around, there are pop-up shops in unused storefronts, studios creating fan “experiences” in parking …