Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown

Race for Your Life,Charlie Brown (1977)

Runtime: 76 minutes

Directed by: Bill Melendez/Phil Roman

Starring: The usual Peanuts crew

From: Paramount

Something I saw only due to its good nature and short 76 minutes runtime.

I won't go into the circumstances but there was only enough time to see something relatively short and as this was a nice respite from all the depressing/sad material I've watched in the past week or so, this is where I ended up. The plot is not what you'd call complex: the usual Peanuts gang is at a summer camp & they have to deal with a group of bullies-one of whom was of course given buck teeth. Much of this is devoted to a big raft race; as it takes several days and the gang use an outboard motor among other things to cheat, you don't want to scrutinize this plot as an adult. After all, Snoopy & Woodstock also participate in this rafting race.

That said, this was a genial good time. The crew is segregated into boys and girls which leads to the expected conflict; also providing laughs was Peppermint Patty often asking her ladies for a vote (no matter how absurd the situation) and always proclaiming she wants democracy; at least here there was no cries of stolen elections or fraudulent votes... and of course Charlie Brown-known as Chuck to some-gets called a blockhead and is yelled at when he was installed as the leader, usually unfairly.

As an adult and seeing this for likely the first time in more than 3 decades, several things do stand out which I had zero memory of. Sally threatening to kick someone's ass more than once through colorful dialogue was unexpected; so was the at times funky score. But the most surprising moment came in the beginning, when they are traveling to the camp and Snoopy & Woodstock aren't on the bus w/ everyone else. Rather, they are on a motorcycle in an obvious homage to... EASY RIDER. Needless to say, I had no knowledge of that as a little kid; that was a nice gag for the parents seeing this w/ their tykes. That returns at the end, which results in psychedelic end credits. I figured ol' Snoopy & Woodstock were born to be wild.