November 2015 will be when an animated
Peanuts film drops on America from Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios. Steve Martino will direct, with the script written by Craig Schulz and Bryan Schulz & Cornelius Uliano (those two as a team.) Craig Schulz and Bryan Schulz are Schulz’s son and grandson, and will also produce along with Uliano.
I love Peanuts, so I am cautiously optimistic, especially since the Schulz family is heavily involved. But I can’t leave well enough alone, so here are 5 obscure Peanuts characters that we should demand be featured in the new movie:
5, aka 555 95472 – 5 is a character introduced in 1963, whose father became frazzled over the increased use of numbers in peoples’ lives, and signaled his giving in by renaming his entire family numbers. 5 has twin sisters, 3 and 4, who appear briefly and sort of look like Peppermint Patty. Beyond his introduction, 5 was there as a major minor character through the 1970s, and then faded away in the early 80s. As far as I remember, he didn’t do anything significant after being introduced in the strip. On TV, he’s best known for his rocking dance moves:
seen here with one of his twin sisters, either 3 or 4.
Patty – No, not Peppermint Patty, this is the OG Patty. The original Patty. the first female character in the strip. She was a background player for years but eventually faded away as she had no real personality and was overshadowed by Lucy, Sally, Peppermint Patty, Marcie, and even Violet (who also got overshadowed by Lucy!). Patty had a role in the You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown musical, but that was later changed to Sally Brown (who wasn’t born yet when the musical was written, IIRC.) Patty was the prototype strong female character, which meant she occasionally punched boys, but it took the more advanced Lucy models to threaten to knock their blocks off.
Charlotte Braun – Originally a joke character that was an extreme female version of Charlie Brown, Charlotte Braun barely appeared in the 1950s and then vanished into the ether. No one would have remembered her until in 2000 a letter surfaced that showed a fan wrote to Charles Schulz and demanded to remove Charlotte Braun from the strip. Schulz replied, agreeing to do so, but the fan was now responsible for “the death of an innocent child”, including with the letter a drawing of Charlotte Braun literally getting “the ax”! This letter rules, is now part of the Library of Congress, and you can see it online here. Thanks to @rwmead for reminding me of that story!
Lydia – Lydia is a girl who would occasionally bug Linus, both because she referred to him as an older man (he was a whopping two months older than her) and she constantly changed her name. I had to look up what her original name was, as all I recalled was her changing her name again and again. Lydia was probably one of the last major cast additions. It’s hard to find any pictures of her.
Olaf – Snoopy’s brother isn’t as famous as his brother Spike, but played a pretty major role in the strips near the end. Olaf first appeared with a bag over his body, and for the longest time the joke was he was so ugly that he was entering an ugly dog contest. he eventually proved his staying power with his sharp wit.
Of course, characters like Miss Othmar or Charlie Brown’s Pencil Pan were never scene, but it would be fun to mention them as well. Or else!
via Deadline
