A Boy Named Charlie Brown

The memorable "Aaaugh!" scream from Peter Robbins as Charlie Brown originated from this film. (Oddly enough, it was also heard from Linus in one scene.) Robbins' scream would become a stock sound effect in almost all subsequent Peanuts specials & movies up to the late 1990s, and is used as a scream, not only for Charlie Brown, but any other available character (excluding Snoopy and Woodstock, who had their own variants).

This was Peter Robbins's last voice-acting role as Charlie Brown before leaving the series.

Snoopy's dream (where he battles the Red Baron atop his doghouse) consists of footage from It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966).

The main story line of this movie, involving Charlie Brown's participation in a spelling bee, was taken from a sequence that originally appeared in the comic strip. In that story, however, Charlie Brown lost in the first round of the competition, misspelling the word "maze" M-A-Y-S. He later loses his temper at the teacher and is sent to the principal's office; as he waits in the hall, he reflects that the reason he misspelled the word was that when he heard the word "maze," the first thing he thought of was the surname of famed baseball player Willie Mays. This last half of the story had been used in You're in Love, Charlie Brown (1967), when Charlie Brown inadvertently yelled at the teacher for "missing the stupid bus" (after he overslept).

"A Boy Named Charlie Brown" was the *very first* animated film produced by CBS Films, which was known as Cinema Center Films at that time. Cinema Center would be active until late 1972, after which CBS closed their theatrical film division and didn't reactivate it until 1982, when the company would be called CBS Theatrical Films. (Ironically, the second "Peanuts" film three years later, Snoopy Come Home (1972), would be the *last* Cinema Center production). Naturally, CBS *still* owns "A Boy Named Charlie Brown," and their sister company, Paramount Home Entertainment, has released the film on DVD (along with "Snoopy Come Home").