There Are Even More Charlie Brown & Peanuts Movies Than You Think, And They’re Actually Easy to Watch

If someone were to ask you how many Charlie Brown and Peanuts movies there are, you’re probably going to answer one of two ways. The first way is that you’ll respond by listing off the television specials. You might even share which one is your favorite — It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is a favorite this time of year for sure. The second way would be to name just one movie, A Boy Named Charlie Brown or maybe The Peanuts Movie. But both of those answers would be wrong. While the television specials are great, they aren’t actually movies, and yes, A Boy Named Charlie Brown is a movie but it turns out that in terms of genuine, feature length films, there are a lot more than just one Peanuts and Charlie Brown movie. There are more than you realize.

While Charlie Brown and his friends have been fixtures on the small screen with various iconic specials for decades it turns out that they’ve also had a pretty important presence in the feature film space as well. There have been five, full length Charlie Brown and Peanuts movies, starting all the way back in 1969 with A Boy Named Charlie Brown. The most recent film, The Peanuts Movie, was released by 20th Century Fox in 2015 and while you may have not be familiar with some of the movies in between, unlike lesser-known franchise movies in general, the Peanuts movies are surprisingly easy to find and watch — and you should because doesn’t everyone love the Peanuts gang?

There Are 5 Peanuts Movies (And A Sixth In The Works)

If you were one of the people who listed off television specials to the question of how many Charlie Brown and Peanuts movies there are, there’s a very good reason for that. The Peanuts characters have long been very much a television staple and that goes back all the way to the first television special in 1965, A Charlie Brown Christmas. There are actually 45 classic Peanuts television specials and an additional 8 in the Apple TV era and given how prevalent many of those classic specials were on broadcast for decades, they’ve become a major part of popular culture. But in 1969, Charlie Brown and his friends made the leap from the comic strip and the small screen special to the big screen with A Boy Named Charlie Brown. The film follows Charlie Brown as he tries to win the National Spelling Bee and was a box office success, grossing $12 million at the box office and landing as the ninth highest grossing film of that year.

Following the success of A Boy Named Charlie Brown, Snoopy Come Home hit theaters in 1972. The film was the on-screen debut of Woodstock and sees Snoopy get a letter from his original owner, Lila, who has been sick in the hospital. Snoopy embarks on a journey across the country to visit her except… he doesn’t exactly tell Charlie Brown where he’s going or why. It’s essentially a buddy road trip movie for Snoopy and Woodstock. While A Boy Named Charlie Brown was a big hit at the box office, Snoopy Come Home didn’t fare as well. It grossed just $245,037 on a budget of $1 million but found success in home release.

The Peanuts returned to theaters in 1977 with Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown. The film is unique in a few ways. It’s the first feature film produced after the death of composer Vince Guaraldi who had been meant to score the film and it is also the first feature film to have an original plot instead of one adapted from a comic strip. The film got only mixed reviews from critics and made only $3.2 million at the box office. That film was followed up by Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don’t Come Back!!) in 1980. That film, which grossed $2 million at the box office, was the final feature film made in Charles M. Schulz’s lifetime — and the last Peanuts movie until 2015 when The Peanuts Movie opened in theaters. The Peanuts Movie was a success for the franchise, with solid reviews as well as a solid box office of $246 million on a $99 million budget as well as a number of award nominations as well. A follow up movie — though, not a sequel — called Snoopy Unleashed is set for 2027, though that will be released not to theaters but to Apple TV.

While The Specials Are Iconic, The Movies Are Worth Checking Out (And Surprisingly Easy to Find)

Now, I will be the first to tell you how great the Peanuts specials are. A Charlie Brown Christmas, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown are staples in my seasonal watching and I even own them on VHS. They’re the Peanuts media that most fans are the best familiar with. But one shouldn’t skip the movies. There is a unique charm to those feature films. In a very real way, it’s like a supersized special and there’s just something comforting about seeing these beloved characters in a longer story with a somewhat more complex plot that is both nostalgic and deeply enjoyable. These movies, even with most of them being made several decades ago, are truly timeless. They are also surprisingly easy to watch in the streaming age. A Boy Named Charlie Brown is available to rent on Prime Video. Snoopy Come Home and Race For Your Life Charlie Brown are both free to stream currently on Pluto TV. As for Bon Voyage Charlie Brown and The Peanuts Movie, both of those can be rented via Apple TV. While it would be nice if they were all available on one platform or one subscription, the fact that all five movies can be found with very little effort and relatively inexpensively is honestly a huge win.

And as for the other great Peanuts programming? Apple TV is the exclusive streaming home for the entire Peanuts franchise through 2030 and you can find a lot of programming there, including newer offerings like Snoopy in Space as well as the classic holiday specials and various classic shows. The Peanuts and Charlie Brown have a deep catalog of programs and most fans have only scratched the surface. I say the movies are a great place to start.