Song in the Key of Peanuts: How ‘Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical’ Creatives Composed the New Animated Special

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“We can all use things that make us feel good and empower us, and who better than to uplift us than Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Sally and the rest of the Peanuts gang?”

— Director Erik Wiese

 

 

Summer camp is a staple of both the Peanuts comic-strip and long-running animated specials. This month, Apple TV+ viewers get a new, musical take on this subject when Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical makes its debut on the streamer.

The half-hour special, which features music by Emmy-nominated composer Jeff Morrow and popular singer-songwriter and composer Ben Folds, centers on first-time camper Sally Brown, who is nervous about being at a new and unknown place. The rest of the Peanuts gang also discover that their favorite summer camp is shutting down and join forces to save it. Meanwhile, Snoopy and Woodstock set off on an adventure of their own when they come across a treasure map!

Directed by Erik Wiese and written by Craig Schulz (son of Charles M. Schulz, the creator of Peanuts), Bryan Schulz (Craig’s son) and Cornelius Uliano (The Peanuts Movie), the special is billed as the first Peanuts musical in 35 years. During a recent Zoom interview, Craig Schulz and Erik Wiese discussed the stand-out qualities of this new charming 2D-animated offering (produced by WildBrain Studios) with Animation Magazine.

It’s a New Special, Charlie Brown!

“The idea of producing an animated musical special was something that was really important to me,” says Schulz, who also executive produced Apple’s six previous Snoopy Presents specials, as well as The Peanuts Movie (2015), Snoopy in Space, The Snoopy Show and Camp Snoopy. “We put everything into it and spent a lot of time making this one, and it was well worth the wait.”

“Being in the Peanuts world is one of my absolute favorite things, and as a creative who does storyboards and directs animation, you really feel like that frame goes away, and you live with these characters every single day,” says Wiese, who was nominated for an Emmy for directing the Sonic Prime TV series last year. “Of course, to work with Craig and all the talented people at WildBrain has been a dream.”

“My goal from the get-go for these Snoopy Presents specials was to create things that children and their parents could talk about. We have tried to include a lot of good messages and lessons in our specials, and I’m most proud of that.”

— Writer/executive producer Craig Schulz

 

Schulz mentions that he had been watching a lot of the great musicals at home. “I had this vision in my mind of all the characters dancing and singing,” he recalls. “I tried to get Derek Hough on board to do the choreography for it. I told our co-writers, Bryan and Neil, about the idea, and they said, ‘Dad, we’ve never written a musical before. We don’t know where to start!’ I said, let’s get the basic story down and we’ll worry about where to drop the music on later. Before long, everything just developed along the way, and it became exactly what I was hoping for!”

To compose the special’s five memorable songs, Schulz and his team reached out to Emmy-nominated singer-songwriter Ben Folds, who collaborated with them on the 2022 holiday special It’s the Small Things, Charlie Brown. “Craig always imagined Ben in that role,” says Wiese. “I just love the emotion he brings out,” says Schulz. “I watched the ‘Dandelion’ sequence again the other night, and I hadn’t seen it for a while. The music just brings tears to my eyes. To me there’s really nothing better than strong music backed up by great emotion. I always says, ‘You can watch a dirt cloud if the music’s great!’ But when you have great animation and music, you always get a winner!”

Wiese also points out that music has always played a key role in the Peanuts animated specials and series through the years. “The piano is a key character in this world,” he notes. “Ben is our piano man, our modern-day Billy Joel. He’s such a poet, and he can be really emotional. You always come away thinking about the lyrics and that also provided a lot of information for me to come up with the visuals.”

Like all the previous Apple TV+ Peanuts specials and series, the team at WildBrain in Vancouver were responsible for the projects beautiful 2D animation, produced with Harmony and After Effects. “They’re just incredible artists and animators,” says Wiese. “The whole project looks like 2D feature animation. It’s soft and supple when you need it to be, but they’re not afraid to snap to poses or do multiple smears when needed. That’s something you don’t normally associate with Peanuts animation, but you can go back to the Bill Melendez specials, and they were doing UPA-style material and some very cool tricks. You can get some really subtle emotional moments, where you can keep the animation soft and fluid.”

“Erik gave the animation team the freedom to create new things,” adds Schulz. “We write the story, but then they add their own creativity to the scenes. There’s a scene in which Peppermint Patty blows a bubble and pops it, and she actually looks at the little comic strip that comes with the bubble gum. I thought that scene was so clever and subtle, especially the way she gives that chuckle. You could have made that scene over the top and have her actually read the comments, and make it on the nose.”

Wiese recalls another instance where the animators added their own special insights to improve a scene. “Sally has a song sequence, where she’s coming down the stairs,” he says. “I implied some things, but then the animators went off and did something completely different. They showed me the rough, and I thought it was fantastic and fluid stuff. Sometimes, unexpected things would be created. Animators and storyboards are actors after all. It’s just like placing actors in front of cameras, and these animators are cast to certain scenes, because we think they’ll be really good at doing a musical dance number. Sally had some choreography in her song, and she was stomping her feet and really stepping up. That’s when the actor/animator comes in and brought that special magic.”

Shaping Young Hearts and Minds

Both Schulz and Wiese are thrilled that the new special allows them to reach out to millions of fans around the world. “The Peanuts characters are the greatest at sending messages,” says Schulz. “The cast and the genuine nature of these kids offer a wonderful, multicultural platform to spread messages. My goal from the get-go for these Snoopy Presents special was to create things that children and their parents could talk about. We have tried to include a lot of good messages and lessons in our specials, and I’m most proud of that.”

Wiese concludes, “I’d also like to add that there aren’t really another characters that have this ability out there. When you look at the full scope of what’s happening on TV, I don’t think there are properties that allow you to dig deeply the way Peanuts does. I’ve had conversations with my friends about how you can come together when things are really hard. These days, we can all use things that make us feel good and empower us, and who better than to uplift us than Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Sally and the rest of the Peanuts?”

 

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Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical premieres on Apple TV+ on Friday, August 15.