Watching the Peanuts gang, including Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty, Linus with that silly blanket and everyone else, cry with repetition at the prospect of losing Snoopy, their precious beagle, to his former owner is a bit of an endurance test for the average viewer. Kids will still enjoy because Snoopy and Woodstock make a good pair.
As an animated feature, "Snoopy Come Home" is not as much fun as 1969's "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" yet there's still sufficient enjoyment to be had. Snoopy is who he is, always sleeping belly up atop his doghouse as opposed to sleeping in it - he loves to play on the beach and loves to annoy his owner, Charlie Brown, whom he communicates via his typewriter. After our trusty beagle receives a letter from his previous owner named Lila (this always came as a shock to me), who is sick in the hospital, Snoopy takes off with the ever-trusting best friend, a tiny yellow bird named Woodstock of course (this was his film debut). Meanwhile Charlie Brown, Lucy and the whole gang wonder where Snoopy is, and they mope around waiting for his arrival.
My one gripe is that the Peanuts gang are not as well-characterized as they were previously in "A Boy Named Charlie Brown." Snoopy and Woodstock are the stars of this film, and there are several humorous touches such as Snoopy getting into some ruckus with a girl named Clara who wants him as a pet! They run around, back and forth, as they enter and exit several rooms in her house. I also love how Woodstock is somehow obsessive-compulsive about walking on each divider of a subway grate. Snoopy and Woodstock steal the show yet we are then saddled with the gangs' crying fits and excessive sobbing about Snoopy leaving Charlie for Lila (of course, you know this will not stand for long) and the beagle receives many parting gifts. This section simply goes on for too long - their tears would fill the Niagara Falls. Still, "Snoopy Come Home" is such a charming film with so much humanity and love that it is easy to see why we all love Peanuts.
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