Beginning as a comic strip in 1950, Peanuts has become as synonymous in American culture as apple pie. Over the last 75 years, Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the gang have leaped from the funny pages and into animated specials, feature films, books, musicals and even a partnership with NASA, becoming a global phenomenon in the process. This year, Apple TV+ brought a new animated special to screens around the world in the form of “Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical.”

“A Summer Musical” begins with Charlie Brown heading off to his last year of summer camp at Cloverhill Ranch, accompanied by his first-time camper sister, Sally. What follows is a heartfelt tale supported by impactful, entertaining songs and stunning artwork. “A Summer Musical” taps into both the emotions and nostalgia of the viewer as Charlie Brown and his friends face the impending closure of a place where they’ve made so many memories. It addresses the changing times, especially from Sally’s perspective, but also how we all can still contribute to making the world a better place, even through the changes.

At the special’s core is heart, both in the story itself and the production team that made it happen.

“I was such a Peanuts fan that when it comes to you and you’re like ‘Hey, do you want to do a Peanuts special?’ it triggers that thing of being an 8-year-old again,” director, story editor and one of the storyboard artists Erik Wiese told The Wood Word over Zoom. “[Y]ou are tasked with honoring that legacy. I just felt incredibly lucky to be doing it and living in that world, and I think that because of that, maybe I went deeper.”

Peanuts were a part of so many people’s childhoods, and it was no different for Wiese.

“It just touched the 8-year-old version of me,” Wiese said. “I think little kid me was working on it, too.”

A great amount of care went into bringing the iconic characters to the screen.

“I was very protective of these characters,” Wiese admitted. “The idea that something [that] is drawn actually has a real-life kind of thing over 75 years now, as of just a few weeks ago, is incredible, so they are alive in that way.”

He also wanted to make sure that Snoopy reflected the classic beagle that so many fans fell in love with.

“I really went cartoony with Snoopy this time than some of the other specials, and some of the animators were like ‘Hey, we’ve never done anything this cartoony with Snoopy,’” he said.

Wiese referred back to all of the classic specials, where Snoopy was depicted in a very cartoonish way. “I said: ‘That’s how I fell in love with Peanuts first was through Snoopy and the funny, weird animation.’”

While everyone’s favorite beagle returned to his cartoony ways, the world the cast of characters found themselves in this time was an almost enchanting one.

“I wanted it to feel a little bit otherworldly,” Wiese explained. “[Y]ou go to the forest and there’s this majestic, epic feel to it that I wanted verticality. I wanted scenes where you didn’t see blue sky ‘cause they’re just consumed by forest or mountains.”

It’s because of those design choices that “A Summer Musical” makes the audience feel like they’re right there with the characters.

The songs are not only heartfelt and catchy in the best of ways, but they also helped to drive the story not only in the final product but during production as well. It was a collaborative effort for Wiese and songwriters Ben Folds, Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner.

“What I wanted the songs to do is help serve the story and help move the story forward, so some of the lyrics needed to do that,” Wiese explained. “Ben goes away and the other guys go away, and they come back and they play some lyrics for you or some rough stuff and you’re like, ‘This is really cool.’ And then there are lyrics in there that make you go, ‘Oh, that’s a good idea. Let me go back and change this part of the story’ or ‘Now I have to write another sequence.’”

In that way, the songs weren’t just a catchy part of the special; they were a part of the very core of it.

“A Summer Musical” also shows the audience a different side of Charlie Brown.

“The thing that I think worked that actually upset a lot of fans, too, was that we had to change Charlie Brown’s personality,” Wiese said. “Normally, he’s a loser, right, and normally he’s depressed and he’s anxious and this and that, but the idea was that in order for the story map to work, he had to be happy about this place that he loves so much. [H]e had to actually be different. That’s how incredible this summer camp is, so that when it looks like it may be lost, he’s reverting back to Charlie Brown.”

The summer camp is a true happy place for Charlie Brown, which makes it that much harder for him when push comes to shove.

“I think that was an interesting thing to have to do differently than all the other ones that I’ve grown up with,” Wiese continued.

It was a risk, but this was Wiese’s one chance, and he said he had to take that chance. In my opinion, taking that chance paid off.

“He’ll never kick the football, OK, and that’s important because that’s life,” Wiese said. “[B]ut everybody needs a win and I thought that everybody needed to see Charlie Brown win.”

In the hard times of life, sometimes we just need to see a beloved character having a moment of true happiness. “Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical” gives audiences that, along with an array of other impactful emotions. Working on the project had the same effect on Wiese.

“[It was] just such an incredible thing that when it ended, it was sad. I’ve had moments, too, where when you’re done with a show you feel a little bit like ‘Wow, it’s over. That’s a bummer.’ This one hit hard,” he admitted. “What it meant to me was the world.”

As for any aspiring creators at Marywood University, Wiese had this to say: “I think that what’s important is to make your own thing, to complete your own thing. It doesn’t have to be big. It doesn’t have to be great. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It really doesn’t. It could be stick figure animation, and it could be a minute long and the fact that you accomplished something is important.”

So many of us, he felt, think that we have to make something really big, but it doesn’t have to be big to be meaningful.

“The more of the little things that you do, the more wins that you have and the more fails that you have because you need those, too. Just as much as you do wins,” he said.

“Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical” is available to stream exclusively on Apple TV+, and the soundtrack is available to listen to on Spotify.

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