Snoopy Come Home

Three years after A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969), Charles Schulz's beloved "Peanuts" characters hit the big screen again in the enjoyable Snoopy, Come Home. This time, everyone's favorite beagle turns the kids' world upside down when he receives a mysterious letter from a girl named Lila and hits the road with best friend Woodstock, evading sadistic would-be pet owner and other perils along the way. Meanwhile, Charlie Brown is left to wonder: Who is Lila, and will Snoopy ever return? Snoopy, Come Home still holds up well for kids of all ages, though the mod opening sequence and snappy songs by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and other Disney films) are unmistakably from the '70s. Vince Guaraldi's jazzy music is missed, but Thurl Ravenscroft, best known for "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" and the laugh of the Jolly Green Giant, lends his basso profundo to the persistent "No dogs allowed!" (All ages: minor cartoon violence). --David Horiuchi