You Look Weird, Charlie Brown
November 2, 2015 12:09 AM   Subscribe

For their annual "Halloween Costumes" bit, the on-air staff of NBC's Today Show dressed up this year as characters from The Peanuts Movie (previously here, in theaters Nov. 6!) and the look was... well, interesting. A critical view. Official video of the Today Show segment.

The Peanuts Movie (IMDb, official site) is the franchise's first feature film in 35 years, discarding the classic Bill Melendez animation that stuck close to Charles Schulz's comic strip designs and going to Blue Sky Studios (best known for the Ice Age series) to come up with 3D CGI designs trying to capture the classic characters. There has been criticism and doubts from various quarters (including here), but the late Schulz's family is totally behind it... in fact his son and grandson are co-writers of a story that finally brings us face-to-face with Charlie Brown's object of unrequited desire... the Little Red Headed Girl.

The online promotional materials include a 'character creator' web widget "Peanutize Me" (yes, The Simpsons and South Park did it before, but those sites are long dead), and "The Wah Wah Machine" which turns whatever you type in* to the indecipherable trombone-ish language of grownups in the Peanuts universe.
*with the exception of a couple 4-letter words it does not allow.

The Wah Wah Machine seemed to me the weirdest promotional thing for this movie... until I saw the gender-bending Matt Lauer dressed as Lucy and Meredith Vieira as PigPen.
posted by oneswellfoop (74 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
Well I'm just glad that Cecilia Gimenez finally found work again.
posted by AGameOfMoans at 12:54 AM on November 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


Someone somewhere tuned into this while tripping on LSD.

I wonder how that person is doing.
posted by chillmost at 1:23 AM on November 2, 2015 [31 favorites]


I wonder if those costumes are flame retardant?
posted by pracowity at 1:25 AM on November 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


Apparently somebody didn't get the memo and dressed up as Velma instead.

Wait, that's supposed to be Marcie?
posted by brianrobot at 1:46 AM on November 2, 2015 [10 favorites]


They look like the extended family of Taran Killam as Gollum. The Linus in particular looks like he's gonna start hissing about his precioussss blue blanketses.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 1:56 AM on November 2, 2015 [5 favorites]


guys no it is November now

Halloween is over and with it ended the season of unrequited dread

please stop



please
posted by DoctorFedora at 2:13 AM on November 2, 2015 [6 favorites]


The realization that Peanuts is actually the sad obsession of a man who saw himself as some kind of eternal martyr pretty much wrecked everything but the music for me; now this horror comes along. The drawings were never meant to be interpreted literally, the exaggerated proportions do not scale well. Hollywood is so completely out of original ideas that a new movie is both unfortunate and unsurprising and adding half-assed 3D shading just makes it all more pathetic.

Those costumes, though. Wow. So much horror... Pigpen alone has so much WTF I can't even.
posted by kinnakeet at 2:32 AM on November 2, 2015 [11 favorites]


AUUUUUUGH!
posted by chavenet at 3:11 AM on November 2, 2015 [15 favorites]


This might be the first time something has made me think "those would have been better with giant paper maché heads."
posted by ropeladder at 3:33 AM on November 2, 2015 [31 favorites]


> "The Wah Wah Machine" which turns whatever you type in* to the indecipherable trombone-ish language of grownups in the Peanuts universe.
*with the exception of a couple 4-letter words it does not allow.


A marketing manager somewhere was worried about what parents groups would say if it was discovered that their web toy exposed children to the indecipherable trombone noises made when somebody types the word "fuck".

Outstanding.
posted by ardgedee at 3:37 AM on November 2, 2015 [15 favorites]


This is right through the uncanny valley and into the chasm of abberation.
posted by Naib at 3:39 AM on November 2, 2015 [25 favorites]


Good grief.
posted by jeremias at 3:43 AM on November 2, 2015 [21 favorites]


I entertained myself for a few moments typing things like "That dirty mother fokker shot my doghouse!" Or "Lick my scrotum, Charlie Brpwn" into the Wah Wah Machine. I would provide links, but when you hit "share" it asks for your birthday, and I entered too low of a random one. So now it thinks I'm like six or something, and SHARING IS DISABLED!!.

That's a first. I've never seen a web toy that wanted an age check before sharing anything.
posted by egypturnash at 4:00 AM on November 2, 2015 [4 favorites]


The Today Show costumes, yeah, something simple and minimal would have been better. But I'm sorry, I can't criticize the movie. I relate too strongly to Charlie Brown. Make fun of me as you will - it's nothing new.
posted by tommyD at 4:01 AM on November 2, 2015


I don't... I am having trouble isolating the part of it that's the most unsettling. Is it the hair? There had to have been a way to make the hair on Charlie and Linus look like more like hair than dehydrated gangrenous earthworms. Maybe the ears? I think they shouldn't have gone so literal on the ears.
posted by mochapickle at 4:02 AM on November 2, 2015 [10 favorites]


This bit from "A critical view" sums it up: "Kids could catch it as they wait for the bus to come. And ten years from now, they'll try to explain to their therapist where their inexplicable fear of the Peanuts characters began."
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:33 AM on November 2, 2015 [7 favorites]


egypturnash: You may need to erase your cookies. Oh god, I feel like I'm in an IT department. Have you tried turning it off and on again?
posted by BiggerJ at 4:36 AM on November 2, 2015 [3 favorites]


"On Point" did an interesting program about the new "Peanuts" movie; link to audio, plus a few Schultz-related readings.
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:36 AM on November 2, 2015


Al Roker looks like a Hostess cupcake. Can't deal.
posted by palomar at 4:39 AM on November 2, 2015 [3 favorites]


A Hostess cupcake with Sloth's ears.
posted by palomar at 4:41 AM on November 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


What's up with the spaghetti nera-proliferation on everyone's head--at ROOM TEMPERATURE? Even if you're not Fffm, you know better than that!!!


And then, Schroeder as the Hulk, Snoopy as the Grinch?
I . just . can't . make . myself . watch . that vide

oooooh
.
posted by Namlit at 5:10 AM on November 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


It is obvious that the makeup department was entirely uncomfortable with this naked and awful promotional tie in so they completely fucked the whole thing up.


Or so I keep telling myself so I can sleep tonight.
posted by SPUTNIK at 5:15 AM on November 2, 2015 [7 favorites]


This is right through the uncanny valley and into the chasm of abberation.

The abyss of abomination? The gorge of the grotesque?
posted by dis_integration at 5:22 AM on November 2, 2015 [5 favorites]


And I can't help but wonder: What if an actual news event had happened that morning? The Today Show did initial coverage of 9/11 and I can't even imagine them presenting in those costumes.
posted by mochapickle at 5:26 AM on November 2, 2015 [40 favorites]


It would have been so much better had they gone with costumes & wigs but not any of the weird prosthetics. Ugh!

Also, I'm so out of the loop that I had no idea Carson Daly was part of the Today show team.
posted by kimberussell at 5:56 AM on November 2, 2015 [5 favorites]


The Esquire "critical look" link loaded the article, then an obscuring Esquire ad showed up, touting something about "SEX" and I then realized there should be a conditional check for ads. If an article is tagged as #NightmareFuel, do not load "Sexy Stuff" ads, otherwise your website inadvertently becomes a magnet for weird kink.

Also, did no one learn the lesson from "untooned" Homer Simpson? Here's an untooned Charlie Brown (along with other cartoon characters) who are less frightening than the Today Show abominations.
posted by filthy light thief at 6:01 AM on November 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


They look like the extended family of Taran Killam as Gollum.

Last week Matt Lauer said they use the SNL makeup team for their costumes.
posted by cmfletcher at 6:03 AM on November 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


I realize morning shows are hardly dignified affairs, but, jesus, this is just humiliating.
posted by Mavri at 6:20 AM on November 2, 2015 [8 favorites]


I hope the movie is good because I've already volunteered to take my nephew and because I've been a Peanuts fan since I was his age, but I just can't get into this animation style at all. I'll give it a pass if the writing holds true to the spirit of the original strips (although I'm sure it'll be closer to the "Happiness Is A Warm Puppy" side of the Peanuts spectrum), but among other things I'm worried that Snoopy will be Rasta-fied by at least 10%.
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:28 AM on November 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


I think I'll need to take Lucy up on the Psychiatric Help 5¢.
posted by leotrotsky at 6:30 AM on November 2, 2015 [10 favorites]


today is a good day to die
posted by thelonius at 6:34 AM on November 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


Marcy looks like she's cosplaying Courtney Barnett.
posted by pxe2000 at 6:41 AM on November 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


Our Father, who art in Heaven, pound us with gigaton-equivalent impactors or we'll just keep doing shit like this.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:56 AM on November 2, 2015 [3 favorites]


Am I the only one that's suspicious of the choice to make Charlie Brown have brown skin? I'm fine with changing things up but this seems a bit odd to me.
posted by JakeEXTREME at 6:58 AM on November 2, 2015


Am I the only one that's suspicious of the choice to make Charlie Brown have brown skin?

I....think what you see has more to do with Al Roker's own melanin levels.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:01 AM on November 2, 2015 [5 favorites]


Empress, I'm sure they matched the prosthetics to him and all but did he choose to be Charlie Brown or was it assigned. Maybe I'm casting my own history on this I guess.
posted by JakeEXTREME at 7:03 AM on November 2, 2015


They all look like the transhuman denizens of the world of Mastaba Snoopy.
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:11 AM on November 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


Those were scary bad. Sadly, I think Heidi Klum's Jessica Rabbit was much, much worse. Her only saving grace was that it wasn't on TV for hours during the morning rush.
posted by sardonyx at 7:11 AM on November 2, 2015 [8 favorites]


PigPen, in particular, is the most disturbing to me for some reason.

FWIW, Variety has a mostly positive review of the new movie but it does call a spade a spade:
"While the old-fashioned story barely feels adequate to fill a half-hour TV special, the new look positions all involved to make as much in tie-ins and merch as they do in ticket sales."
posted by Ashwagandha at 7:13 AM on November 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


Matt Lauer as Lucy was by far the creepiest to me! I showed this to my pre-schooler and she shouted, "No that's not Halloween!" and I changed the channel to CBS news, where they dress like grown-ups.
posted by areaperson at 7:20 AM on November 2, 2015 [3 favorites]


A+ post title, oneswellfoop.

Can you imagine the relief Dylan Dreyer must have felt after getting into work that day, seeing all of her cow-orkers' faces being laden with layers of latex and horrifying makeup, then getting her costume assignment? "OK, and... Dylan?" [deep breath] "Y... yes?" "You're the kite. Like, you're literally just a kite. No makeup or anything, we're just gonna put a giant orange fabric diamond around your face."

Why on earth did they top Savannah Guthrie's head with a giant pink bow? Sally Brown doesn't wear a giant pink bow. Or any bow, goddamnit. They went out of their way to give Al Roker, Meredith Vieira, and Carson Daly giant creepy prosthetic bald heads with weird black fondant spaghetti hair, then totally biffed a coiffure that required nothing more than a floofy blonde wig. Yes, yes, this is what I am choosing to focus on, so as not to continue gazing into the abyss of abomination.

Iä! Iä!
posted by divined by radio at 7:35 AM on November 2, 2015 [9 favorites]


This might be the first time something has made me think "those would have been better with giant paper maché heads."

Yes, this is why giant-head costumes were invented, because if you are trying to appeal to children you don't want to make them feel like they fell into Google DeepDream, good Lord.

(I never liked the giant head costumes, but these are so so much worse. So much worse)

My kid does not care about Peanuts. It's not part of his world. Anymore than Mutt n' Jeff comics are. I don't think he's going to care about seeing this movie.
posted by emjaybee at 8:01 AM on November 2, 2015 [5 favorites]


This must be what the Peanuts gang saw after they took all that peyote on Omaha Beach.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:03 AM on November 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


Halloween is over and with it ended the season of unrequited dread

Now I’m interested to hear about a future season of requited dread.
posted by Going To Maine at 8:27 AM on November 2, 2015


Yikes! I work at a costume shop in new york...we did the voodoo dolls for the today show (did anybody see? How did they look?) but not those costumes. Yeah the weird ears should not have happened.
Also I went to Heidi Klum's halloween party (very fun) and her Jessica Rabbit was awesome!...so bizarre, flawless prosthetics, and she had the body language down perfectly...she even did the number from the movie...very fun.
posted by sexyrobot at 8:30 AM on November 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


Greg Nog, that was Kathie Lee inside the creepy bird suit.
posted by Gable Oak at 8:32 AM on November 2, 2015


who on the production crew saw that execution (i'm sure there was a test run before today) and said “yep - that's exactly what i was envisioning!”?
posted by rude.boy at 8:33 AM on November 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


I'm glad this happened. So much in our media is polished, unthreatening, hyper-normalized. Which isn't to say I liked this or thought it was good - it's ghoulish, and it's a clueless corporate tie-in to a movie that's already got the stench of cash grab all over it. But unsettling abominations like this are cracks in the hegemon's facade. They're energizing, memorable, hilarious, scary, strange - much more vitalizing than typical daytime TV, in ways not intended or desired by the money-men who stage and broadcast them. So I'm glad things like this still happen sometime. If, instead of this strange spectacle, they'd pulled it off flawlessly, then it would've just been slick and depressing.
posted by erlking at 8:41 AM on November 2, 2015 [14 favorites]


Linus looks like he had a run-in with the evil thing from The Fifth Element.

The whole thing reminds me of those unintentionally terrifying costumes from the olden days.
posted by dirigibleman at 8:48 AM on November 2, 2015




sexyrobot,
Sounds like you're on the A-list (or at least closer to it than us mere mortals). Any other costume highlights you'd care to share? Also, I'm happy to hear Heidi wasn't as frightening in person. Maybe it just didn't photograph well.
posted by sardonyx at 8:53 AM on November 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


in fact his son and grandson are co-writers of a story that finally brings us face-to-face with Charlie Brown's object of unrequited desire... the Little Red Headed Girl.

Didn't they already do this, like, 40 years ago?

Sigh.
posted by blucevalo at 9:05 AM on November 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


I showed this to my pre-schooler

I'm calling Child Protective Services.
posted by Rock Steady at 9:14 AM on November 2, 2015 [4 favorites]


Meanwhile, at a rival network:
CBS This Morning anchor Charlie Rose did a guest appearance on the Stephen Colbert show in full Frankenstein makeup. (And it was glorious!)
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:15 AM on November 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


Didn't they already do this, like, 40 years ago?

Yes, but it was one of the later TV specials, which were rather shaky canon, especially since it was directed by Phil Roman, just before he be started doing Garfield shows. Also, this time they have an actress doing the Little Redheaded Girl's VOICE.
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:35 AM on November 2, 2015


And I can't help but wonder: What if an actual news event had happened that morning?

Years ago, my sister and I went to stand outside the Today Show. Some big story had happened (I seem to recall it was an airstrike against a terrorist group and there were causalities confirmed), and all the Today Show staff kept telling the teeming masses, guys, srs bznss for this first segment, try to keep your screaming to a minimum.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:41 AM on November 2, 2015


I think Heidi Klum's Jessica Rabbit was much, much worse.

I think it's really really fantastic and amazing as it shows how gruesome the endless oversexed cartoon depictions of women look when translated into the real world. Idk whether or not that was her intent but I like the results.

but yes, worse in the sense of more startling in a body horror sort of way.
posted by poffin boffin at 9:53 AM on November 2, 2015 [6 favorites]


It's time for adults to give up with the Halloween costume thing and return this day to the children.
posted by tommasz at 10:47 AM on November 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


It's time for adults to give up with the Halloween costume thing and return this day to the children.

Alternately, it’s time for children to give up the costume thing so that adults can continue getting FREAKY.
posted by Going To Maine at 11:07 AM on November 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


I saw a few minutes of today, and wondered a. why the Charlie Brown theme, and b. why so weirdly executed. Matt Lauer is especially creepy as Lucy, but Lauer is irritating in the best of times. Thanks for the Charlie Rose as Frankenstein link, which is wonderful.
posted by theora55 at 11:12 AM on November 2, 2015


I just want to say Ann Curry's Darth Vader who snatches martinis from Ewoks was the best Darth Vader ever.
posted by lagomorphius at 11:39 AM on November 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


The most horrifying thing is the script:
Ah, Beethoven. Whelp, time to get ready for school.

Peppermint Patty, pay attention, sir.
Stop calling me sir, Marcy.
Sir, we're gonna get in trouble with the teacher.
Okay, but are you going to the school dance later?

Oh, Linus my Sweet Babboo.
Don't call me that, Sally.
Isn't he the cutest thing?
Hey, what's that noise... outside?
Is it a plane? Is it a jet? Is it a drone?

Let's land this baby and boogie down!

Oh good grief, where's Lucy?
You blockhead, Charlie Brown, I'm right here.
Oh look, the gang's all here!
But wait... what's that smell?

It's me. I'm dirty.

This is going to be the best Halloween ever. Hit it maestro!

* Nobody does their signature dance *

This is from a professional television production team.
posted by team lowkey at 12:28 PM on November 2, 2015 [7 favorites]


The scary thing is that this isn't completely inaccurate.

Peanuts was very important to me when I was a child, and Charlie Brown was one of the few role models I recognised (along with Moomintroll and, strangely, the fourth Doctor). It taught me some very valuable life lessons: that it's entirely possible for no one to like you, not even your dog; That there is no help; That it won't get better (or it may seem to, but then everything will come crashing down in splinters). If I hadn't had that validation I'd probably have gone insane.

I suspect that that won't have translated into the film.
posted by Grangousier at 12:30 PM on November 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


This is from a professional television production team.

It's just ... really, really terrible. It's like they decided they weren't going to get any traction by making this thing good or interesting, or even just watchable, and went full steam ahead for maximum cringe. It's like the time my friend Tim Ekret and I volunteered for the elementary school Talent Show, didn't have a plan nor an idea, didn't prepare nor practice, and weren't allowed to back out on our commitment to perform because those were the rules. Tim made animal noises. I went blind from embarrassment and ran off the stage.

Tim standing there making animal noises would have been better. Hey, that kid has a future. Nobody involved with this Peanuts thing should.
posted by notyou at 12:44 PM on November 2, 2015


one of the later TV specials, which were rather shaky canon

The Wikipedia article about the Little Red Haired Girl offers up this great line:
Schulz did not consider these animated appearances to be canonical, although he wrote the screenplay himself.
posted by brianrobot at 1:06 PM on November 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


It's like the time my friend Tim Ekret and I volunteered for the elementary school Talent Show, didn't have a plan nor an idea, didn't prepare nor practice, and weren't allowed to back out on our commitment to perform because those were the rules.

Notyou, are you SURE you're not me? I had a remarkably similar experience. I remember thinking we would come up with something before it was time for the show, but then the show got closer and closer and somehow we just... didn't do anything. When we were onstage, it was like a bad dream.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 1:22 PM on November 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


It reminds me of an SNL skit from waaay too many years ago, except this is terrifyinger.
posted by Lucinda at 1:48 PM on November 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


One more piece of Peanuts Movie publicity stunting: they just gave Snoopy his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It is right next to Charles Schulz's star (which he got in 1996 when he was still alive and kicking... it officially says "Charles M. Schulz", as if the middle initial mattered)
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:42 PM on November 2, 2015


the phlegmatic king: “The Today Show's Halloween stunts have gone off the rails before. Check out a couple of (presumably) drunk ewoks slowly but steadily antagonizing Anne Curry until the whole thing falls apart.”
The only thing that would have made that funnier is if they had turned on Roker and beaten him up.
posted by ob1quixote at 4:48 PM on November 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


And I can't help but wonder: What if an actual news event had happened that morning? The Today Show did initial coverage of 9/11 and I can't even imagine them presenting in those costumes.

I'll take "I would like to see this dark indie comedy" for $800, Alex
posted by threeants at 6:30 PM on November 2, 2015 [6 favorites]


That scenario has all the makings of a killer SNL sketch, but you can be damn sure I won't be tuning in to the Donald Trump episode to see if they run with it.
posted by Atom Eyes at 7:38 PM on November 2, 2015


Notyou, are you SURE you're not me?

it is literally right there in the name
posted by DoctorFedora at 7:40 PM on November 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


That's why I asked!
posted by Ursula Hitler at 8:28 PM on November 2, 2015


Related but definitely NOT part of the publicity campaign:
‘Post-ApocaPeanuts’ is the Best Fanart Trend Ever

Yes, I own the Weapon Brown book and recommend it to anyone not easily offended.
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:54 PM on November 3, 2015


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