Snoopy Collection Blu-ray Review

THE MOVIES — 3½/5

A BOY NAMED CHARLIE BROWN (1969)
When Charlie Brown (PETER ROBBINS) enters the school spelling bee, the perpetually crabby Lucy (PAMELYN FERDIN) predicts his humiliation. But with the help of his best friend, Linus (GLENN GILGER), and faithful dog, Snoopy (Bill Melendez), Charlie Brown not only wins the spelling bee, he’s chosen to attend the national spelling bee in New York City, leading to many misadventures in the big city.

SNOOPY, COME HOME (1972)
Charlie Brown’s (CHAD WEBBER) beloved dog Snoopy (BILL MELENDEZ) receives a letter from his original owner, Lila (JOHANNA BAER), who has been sick in the hospital. With his bird friend Woodstock, Snoopy goes to visit Lila, making his way across the country despite seeing “no dogs allowed” signs everywhere. When Lila gets better, she asks Snoopy to live with her. After a farewell party, he sets out to live with Lila, leaving Charlie Brown depressed.

RACE FOR YOUR LIFE, CHARLIE BROWN (1977)
Charlie Brown (DUNCAN WATSON), Linus (LIAM MARTIN) and the gang head to Camp Remote, located in the Rocky Mountains, where the big event is the annual river rafting race. Competing against Charlie Brown and his friends is a gang of bullies who always win the race, owing to their penchant for dirty tactics and cheating. This time proves no different, and Charlie Brown has to overcome his lack of confidence if his team is to have any hope of winning.

BON VOYAGE, CHARLIE BROWN (AND DON’T COME BACK!!) (1980)
Charlie Brown (ARRIN SKELLEY) heads to Europe as an exchange student in this animated movie based on the “Peanuts” comic strip. Along for the ride are Snoopy, Woodstock, Peppermint Patty, Marcie and Linus. In London, Snoopy and Woodstock test out their tennis skills at Wimbledon before the gang heads off to France. Charlie has an invitation to stay at the chateau of a mysterious baron. But when they arrive on a dark and stormy night, it soon becomes clear that their adventure has only begun.

Quick Hit Review: Charlie Brown never was exactly a household viewing or reading for me growing up, but I have seen many of the TV specials over the years and here is a collection of four of them, two making their Blu-ray debut: Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown and Bon Voyage: Charlie Brown (And Don’t Come Back!!). These movies never really made me laugh out loud but generally elicit some chuckles here and there. All four movies are quite fun and entertaining for both the really young and really old, the humor innocent if not basic but if I had kids, these are ones you can watch together.

SPECIAL FEATURES – 2/5

This four-disc set comes housed in an HD keep case and comes with four separate codes for the Digital HD copy. Features are a bit limited with only Travels with Charlie: The Making of Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (20:22) and Theatrical Trailers for Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown and Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown.

VIDEO – 4¼/5

A Boy Named Charlie Brown — Paramount releases A Boy Named Charlie Brown onto Blu-ray for the first time, giving it a nice looking 1080p high-definition transfer. While it is indeed sharper looking compared with other releases, I did notice the occasional bouts of dirt. That said, colors look bright but thankfully not oversaturated. 4/5

Snoopy, Come Home — As with A Boy Named Charlie Brown, this remastered release offers some nice and bright colors bringing to life this special that’s going on nearly 45 years long. The whites are fairly even and no major instances of dust marks though I did notice a spec here and there, however nothing distracting. 4/5

Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown — Marking its debut on Blu-ray, this 1977 feature film is presented with a 1.78 widescreen aspect ratio and a 1080p high-definition transfer. The picture looks rather good, detail is nicely defined, colors well balanced and is fairly clean, free of any major debris, dirt and other flaws. In addition, the natural film noise and grain has been retained. 4½/5

Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown also gets a new 1080p high-definition transfer. Like Race for Your Life, this too looks fantastic, the grain and noise is present thankfully and colors vibrant while not appearing oversaturated. 4½/5

AUDIO – 4¼/5

A Boy Named Charlie Brown — Also getting an upgrade is the audio. There are 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio tracks available, the former being the default, and honestly, it sounds great. This is the type of animated feature that benefits from the lossless tracks where not does the dialogue sound clean, when that classic music is cued, it makes some fine usage of the front and rear channels. 4¼/5

Snoopy, Come Home — We get the choice of a 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio tracks, either option is fine with the former giving off a smidge more depth with clear dialogue levels while the music makes up the bulk of the sound resonating from the front and rear channels. It’s nothing extraordinary yet doubtful it’s ever sounded better. 4/5

Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown — This one comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track which was more than serviceable, outputting the clear dialogue along with some decent depth with the music and score. There was no apparent pops or hissing and without doing a comparison with the DVD, this an easy upgrade. 4¼/5

Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown — Similarly, this too gets a 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio track, and by my ears is pretty comparable. Dialogue is crisp and clear and the music comes across moderately satisfactorily. 4¼/5

OVERALL – 3½/5

Overall, the Snoopy Collection is a good selection of four films featuring the feisty beagle and best friend, Woodstock, and any fan would love to have this, especially with two making their feature film debuts. The set in of itself does have good video and audio transfers however features are on the limited side.