I don’t think I’m alone in saying that children’s movies have grown stagnant lately. With a few exceptions (“Inside Out” and “Frozen” come to mind), recent children’s movies have largely felt like a product of our times: modern lingo, modern music, often playing off currently popular trends. It’s not so much that these things are bad, in fact I find most children’s movies more boring than I do actively bad, just that they date them. They feel corporate — made for the sake of making a quick profit and then disappearing into the ether.
Timeless is a word that’s thrown around a lot in criticism, but it definitely serves a purpose here — when a movie tries too hard to play to current trends, it will only really be appreciable within that context. When something is timeless, it avoids playing too heavily into the trends of its time, and as a result becomes applicable to anyone at any time(within reason). That’s what I find modern kids’ movies lacking in—timelessness. They’re made to be quick and disposable, a flash in the pan. They’re something to sit your kids in front of while you do something else, and I think that’s really sad. Film can be something more, more than just something to enjoy in the moment, but an experience to be shared by many people of many different races, genders, and ages. Obviously not every film needs to make that its goal, but it’s sad to see most movies be a quick cash-in.
I won’t say that “The Peanuts Movie” is phenomenal, but it does feel timeless, and frankly, I think that’s the most important thing for this film to be. “The Peanuts” is a timeless franchise; it’s persevered since the early 20th century to become a staple piece of American media. For a new feature film to come out after years was a big deal, and most of us expected it to be nothing more than a simple cash in. What we got isn’t terribly ambitious, but it’s definitely not a cash grab.

I’d talk some about the plot, or the characters — but there isn’t much to say. The Peanuts are The Peanuts; they haven’t changed much since their heyday, which, I think, is for the best. It’s not as melancholic as the original cartoons. Charlie Brown feels a little less perpetually defeated, but it certainly isn’t as upbeat as most modern kids’ films.
That’s probably what I liked most about “The Peanuts Movie,” it feels markedly different. It’s not a great movie, but sometimes I’ll take good and different over great. I can’t recommend it to everyone, it’s very low-key, drifting from scene to scene, not very momentous, but if you do want something a bit more slow, a bit more tame, than I think “The Peanuts Movie” is a good bet.