You can probably already tell by my username that Peanuts is my favorite media franchise of all time. I've actually been waiting for this show to come out years before it was announced in the US, where I'm from. I'm aware that Cartoon Network had previously made spinoffs and/or reboots of popular classic/old cartoons that are from around the same time as Peanuts, like Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, Garfield, Scooby Doo, and a few others, and they've also played most of their source materials at some point, but I was surprised that they have not yet made a Peanuts show or even aired any of the old incarnations at all before this came along. I was hoping they would make a Peanuts show, entitle it "Charlie Brown and Friends," air it on Boomerang after it got cancelled, and that it would be in CGI like the Peanuts Movie, but this didn't come out until 2016. It's not everything I was hoping for, but Peanuts is an appropriate title too, and the animation and art style look similar to the old cartoons, which is good enough for me! Also, Boomerang and Cartoon Network aired this simultaneously when it was still being made. If you're confused about the page saying it ran from 2014-2017 and know the Peanuts Movie was released in 2015, this aired on the former dates in France (where it originated), the first trailer for the Peanuts Movie was released in 2014, and this ran from 2016-2016 in America. This is one of the only good modern shows that Boomerang has played. The Boomerang revamp sucked at first because its new commercials, bumpers, and logo were (and still are) unoriginal, it was (and still is) a clone of Cartoon Network (but not quite a rip-off of it because CN owns Boomerang), and it didn't live up to its own name and purpose anymore, but it now mostly plays classic cartoons again, much to my amazement, and I'm neutral to its current state. Boomerang is supposed to be exclusively for classic cartoons, and this should've aired only on Cartoon Network until it got cancelled, as good as it is.
This show is very true to the old Peanuts cartoons; little to no changes have been made, there are some callbacks to the old cartoons, and it barely ruined the franchise! A lot of classic cartoons that have been popular with the young and old for generations have been ruined during more recent years, much to my sadness, but thankfully Peanuts has never been ruined! I'd better keep my fingers crossed and hope for the franchise to stay good forever. This is one of the very few good reboots that CN and Boomerang have played. It has a similar variety show/sketch comedy-like format to The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show, where it has a main plot that is based on the comics and takes up most of the episodes, with some short skits in between that are also based on the comics. I bet there are some episodes that have completely new plots too, but I'm not certain as to whether or not that's true. The episodes consist mostly of a series of comic strip panels that are reminiscent of the newspaper comics, which is appropriate because the animated Peanuts cartoons are based on a comic strip, as you probably already know. There are a few callbacks/similar plots to the specials and comics as well.
Peanuts (2016) reveals some origin stories that haven't been explained in the older shows/specials, like when Rerun was born and when he started school. The aforementioned episode reveals that for a while, Rerun would do nothing but cry all day every day until he received his first dog kiss from Snoopy. What a good friend Snoopy is! Rerun is one of my favorite characters in the entire franchise, and this marks the first time he has appeared in a long time. It's good to have him back!
Like I said, the animation looks similar to the old specials and TV series, but not exactly like them. It doesn't look too much different. It looks just like the art style in the comic strip and on a lot of the merchandise and promo art from my childhood, which has brought some nostalgia to me, and I thought I'd never see that happening in any of the animated cartoons!
Peanuts (2016) is not without its flaws, and it's not my favorite Peanuts show. The theme music is corny, some episodes are rehashes of the specials/TV movies, there are a couple of not so good episodes (even ones with original plots that aren't recycled from other installments as far as I know), and Woodstock's chirps sound off and not much like him. He sounds more like Beaker from The Muppets. I like The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show, This is America, Charlie Brown, and The Snoopy Show (2021) better. Overall, this show is good but not great, and it's a good show to watch for nostalgia purposes, just for your own entertainment in general, or to introduce the Peanuts franchise to a new generation.
