It’s the dog days of summer, Charlie Brown! And for Snoopy fans, that’s actually something to sing about.
Written by Charles M. Schulz’s son Craig Schulz, grandson Bryan Schulz, and Cornelius Uliano with original music by Emmy Award-nominated composer Jeff Morrow and Emmy-nominated singer-songwriter, composer, and New York Times bestselling author Ben Folds, Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical is the first Peanuts musical in 35 years. But none of their first time hanging with the iconic gang.
“Bryan, Neil and I had written seven specials under the ‘Snoopy Presents’ title for Apple TV+, and we were looking to do something new,” says Craig Schulz. “And I thought of the idea, ‘How about doing a musical?’ Apple loved the idea, but Brian and Neil looked at me and said, ‘Are you crazy? We’ve never written a musical before and you certainly haven’t, Craig!’ And I go, ‘I know, but how hard can it be? We’ll get [director] Erik Wiese on board, write the story, and we slowly piece it together.’ It was a bigger challenge than I thought it was going to be,” he continues with a laugh. “But it was well worth it.”
The 40-minute special (rescheduled from its original July premiere) from Peanuts and WildBrain for Apple TV+ sends Peppermint Patty and her peeps off to their beloved summer camp, Cloverhill Ranch, where Sally is nervously dipping her toe into the great outdoors as a first-timer and Snoopy discovers a treasure map that sends him, Woodstock, and a flock of their yellow pals off on one of their patently hilarious subplots. All the while, there are deep-cut character appearances, vibrant visuals, and a happier-than-ever Charlie Brown making the most of his final year as a camper… until trouble strikes: Cloverhill is shutting down because there are fewer campers joining each summer.
Apple TV+
“We had to make sure that this place is really special and that’s why Charlie Brown is different,” agrees Wiese, who has also helmed the franchise’s Lucy’s School and It’s the Small Things, Charlie Brown. “That was a very conscious decision on all of our parts, so that when the camp is in jeopardy and he gets to his lowest low, he resets back to Charlie Brown. When you watch it, you realize how important this place is to him and why he wants to share that with Sally and why it’s so important that we preserve it.”
And that is where Ben Folds comes in. After a handful of ebullient numbers by composer Jeff Morrow, the Grammy-nominated artist’s tunes take center stage to reflect Chuck’s melancholy — something he’s plugged into, having also penned songs for It’s the Small Things.
“I had to get past being starstruck to get to put the name Charlie Brown in any of my songs,” he admits. “I sought the approval to my manager. I talked to the Schulz family a few times in both projects. I had to un-starstruck myself.”
Apple TV+
Then he got to work. “I jump in in the middle [of Musical] and the first two songs have set things up really well to just be, ‘Happy, happy, happy. Here we go, Camp Happy, Happy!’ I think he gets optimistic. And so what I inherited then is, ‘Oh no, camp’s done…wah-wah.’ So with my songs, I get to tap back into the melancholic part, the thoughtful part.”
“The fact that we had a bit to fall is sort of, well, it’s risky to have Charlie Brown be that excited about camp,” he observes, agreeing that an upbeat Charlie Brown is “an evolution which the team is aware of. They’re very well aware that we’re going to take Charlie Brown a little bit into a more mature space. Not much. He’s not like, 19-years-old, scoring chicks and stuff.”
Apple TV+
Instead, he is torn between getting to work to save the camp and giving up hope. Things get even more bleak after the weather works against their grand plan to stage a musical festival featuring all of the past campers, leading to several songs that illuminate what the writers wanted to stress. “Craig, on the launch, he was talking about the things that we’ve lost,” continues Wiese, “these places that we’ve lost that are so important and the conversation about legacy.”
In patented Peanuts style, the sun does come out for the crew, leading to a closing number that’s as inspiring as it was inventive.
“They were like, the end needs to be bigger,” recalls Folds. “They didn’t feel like it was big enough. So I took a little walk and I came back and recorded about 40 vocals on my own with all the orchestration in about 45 minutes. I was like changing channels, record, change channels, record, write it down on music paper so I could see what voice was doing what…all that stuff was in my head while I was walking. And then when I gave that to them, they were like, ‘That’s what we needed!’ So I was glad that they pushed back. I’d been trying to make it louder and then I realized it’s not that. What it is is it is emotionally the camp coming together, the other kids and community that’s celebrating the rain stopping. And that’s really what is so wonderful about teamwork.”
Chuck would totally agree.