Charles M. Schulz & Bill Melendez (1969)
A Boy Named Charlie Brown is a 1969 American animated musical comedy-drama film, produced by Cinema Center Films, distributed by National General Pictures, and directed by Bill Melendez. It is the first feature film based on the Peanuts comic strip. It is also the final time that Peter Robbins voices the character of Charlie Brown (Robbins had voiced the role for all the Peanuts television specials up to that point, starting with the first recorded special, which also had the title A Boy Named Charlie Brown, in 1963), and it uses most of the same voice cast from the 1969 TV special, It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown, replacing only the actors playing Sally and Schroeder.
The film was well-received and a box-office success, grossing $12 million. Snoopy Come Home came in 1972 as a standalone sequel.
A Boy Named Charlie Brown was screened the Greater San Francisco Advertising Club, where it was received with considerable enthusiasm, but Mendelson was unsuccessful in securing sponsorship.
Although never aired on television, the documentary was instrumental in garnering commercial support and the creative teamwork that resulted in A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965 and the ensuing series of Peanuts television specials. Portions of the film were used in commercials for A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965.
An album by the Vince Guaraldi Trio with music from the above documentary, originally titled Jazz Impressions of A Boy Named Charlie Brown, was released by Fantasy Records in 1964.
Portions of the unaired A Boy Named Charlie Brown were updated and broadcast in 1969 as Charlie Brown and Charles Schulz.