Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 29, 2021

This Blu-ray release of 'Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown' is currently only available as part of the four-film Snoopy Collection along with 'A Boy Named Charlie Brown;' 'Snoopy, Come Home;' and 'Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown.' This is the Blu-ray debut of 'Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown.'

Babette and Jacque are new exchange students in the United States. Charlie Brown and Linus have been chosen to travel to Paris as exchange students themselves. Charlie brings Snoopy, and Peppermint Patty and Marcie manage to tag along, too. The film follows some of their more mundane misadventures – acclimating to new cultures and languages or even struggling with “English” accents – while a secret from Charlie’s past will be revealed to him in the most unlikely of places.

Much like Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown, there's a certain lack of fully linear, single focus storytelling at work here. But there's more pleasure in watching the characters deal with culture shock, different customs, accents, and the like as they traverse some big cities and small towns alike through England and France. There's a narrative line through the film that gradually builds towards the finale that sheds some light on Charlie Brown's past, but the film is better served when it's playing at the relaxed pace of its first and second acts, soaking in scenery and having fun with the light humor that flows from the crew's adventures through new lands and alongside new people.

Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Paramount brings Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown to Blu-ray with a satisfying 1080p transfer that is much in-line with the quality of the other three films and particularly with the also newly released Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown. The picture is pleasantly colored; tonal expression is very satisfying, particularly the blend of natural greens, clothes, and support elements throughout the European locations. Colors enjoy midline neutral contrast, satisfying vitality and depth, and consistency in output within the whole and particularly through various shots and scenes that share background and lighting conditions. The image is also crisp and on-point for textural excellence. It holds a light grain pattern from the film transfer and reveals exacting detail and definition across both static backgrounds and motion elements, primarily characters. Lines are sharp, clarity abounds, and viewers will never be wishing for a finer presentation of the image's complex renderings. There are some errant dots and other signs of flaw inherent to the source, but these are easily overlooked. The picture looks very good in sum.

Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown sails onto Blu-ray with a Dolby TrueHD 2.0 mono soundtrack. As was the case with Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown, the presentation here is center-focused; everything images to the center area, which leaves music wanting for more stretch and spacing but dialogue planted right where it needs to be. Musical output is not only limited to a cramped containment along the front but also to the inherent lack of quality to the source; music is muddy and mushy, never really getting off the ground and certainly not of great sonic bravado, but instrumental and lyrical detail satisfy essential requirements for a vintage film such as this one. Sound effects likewise struggle to stretch far beyond a center imaged area and also lack more than essential detail. Dialogue is suitably clear and rightly holds to that front-center imaged area. The track is not necessarily poor; the film's sound design is nothing to write home about and the Blu-ray simply conveys the movie's audio essentials well enough.

Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown contains a featurette and a trailer. As it ships in the Snoopy 4-Movie Collection, no DVD copy is included but the studio does bundle into that set a digital copy code for this and the other three films therein.

• Travels with Charlie: The Making of Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (1080p, 20:22): Exploring the story's origins and inspirations, the film's place in the Peanuts franchise and the larger animation world, the film's technical construction, artists and the challenges they faced, integrating adult characters into the film, and more.
• Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:22).

Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown takes a relaxed approach to storytelling, never pushing too hard or too complex, allowing a slow pace to define the story's ebbs and flows as the characters experience new cultures and the resultant challenges to their worldviews. These are simple things, and that's very pleasing and relaxing in an entertainment world where everything has to make a point these days. This is just pure, simple entertainment perhaps not at its absolute finest but certainly at its most approachable and family centric best. Paramount brings Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown to Blu-ray with excellent 1080p video, a good lossless soundtrack, and a couple of extras.