ANI-MOVIES, *Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (And Don't Come Back!)

As the last of the original Peanuts movie series of the 70s, Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown was another depature from the normal neighborhood shennanigans where some of the cast goes not to summer camp, but all the way to Europe. Charlers M. Schultz wrote this original story based on his tour as an American soldier during WWII. Released in 1980, it would be the last Peanuts theatrical release until The Peanuts Movie in 2015.

Charlie Brown gets a letter from a mysterious girl in France who somehow knew that he was going there as part of the foreign exchange student program, which Linus only bothered to tell him about the day before they were supposed to leave with Peppermint Patty and Marcie. Somehow getting Snoopy with Woodstock along as part of their student group, they fly to England, where Snoopy gets kicked out of Wimbledon, to which an American domestic dog already has an unexplained membership with. They take a hovercraft across the English Channel(about a year before they actually had that kind of public transportation!), and get a rental car in France which Snoopy is able to drive despite his feet being nowhere near long enough to reach the pedals. Peppermint Patty and Marcie stay with a young farmer boy during their visit, while the rest go to this chateau they were invited to. Once there, they have to spend the night outside since there doesn't seem to be any residents, all while Snoopy sneaks out to get hammered on root beer at the local cafe. It's eventually revealed that Charlie Brown was invited by the granddaughter of a woman his grandpa new during WWI, even though they never explain why she didn't just send the invite to the entire Brown family since Chuck's dad is the direct son. The ticked off old "Baron" who runs the Chateau finally lets the boys stay after they help put out a fire that would have burned the joint to the ground. The Peanuts gang then head onto a European road trip viewing WWII memorials that were later covered in the TV speccial, What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown?

The final movie in the Peanuts tetralogy had lesser quality than the previous movies. It seems more like it was meant as an hour-long TV special elongated to be a feature-length film. There's alot of call backs to prior Peanuts installments, and repetition of gags like Pepperment Patty confusing her hosts hospitality for romance, or Snoopy causing two different auto accidents while not having to fill out any police reports. If your a hardcore Charlie Brown fan, than you should enjoy this for at least one viewing, but the movie was clear indicator that the golden age of Peanuts cartoons was drawing to a close.