'Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin' Review: Racing to Make Friends

The new Peanuts special spotlights Franklin in an animated origin story, now streaming on Apple TV+.

Where on Earth does the Peanuts gang live? 

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Peanuts creator Charles M. Schultz eventually moved to Santa Rosa, California, about 40 miles from the Pacific Ocean, in 1958, though the comic strip never identified its specific location.

Growing up in Southern California in the 1960s, I read Peanuts as soon as I could learn to read. Every day, I enjoyed their adventures in black and white panels; on Sunday, I luxuriated in the all-color, expanded panels. 

Franklin joined the Peanuts gang in July 1968. To me, a boy of mixed Irish and Mexican descent, he just seemed like one of the boys. Notably, he was the first Black character in the strip, added to the gang by Schultz at the urging of Los Angeles schoolteacher Harriet Glickman

The new special, directed by Emmy Award winner Raymond S. Persi (The Simpsons, Wreck-It-Ralph) and co-written by Robb Armstrong (the Jump Start comic strip) along with Craig Schulz, Bryan Schulz and Cornelius Uliano, from an original story by Armstrong and Scott Montgomery, pays homage to Franklin's first appearance in the strip, in which Franklin and Charlie Brown meet at the beach, and Franklin's father is "a soldier fighting in Vietnam." 

In the special, Franklin is given a new origin story. His father is in the military, and keeps getting transferred from one base to another, making Franklin a military brat who must adjust to constantly moving and making/losing friends in his travels. He arrives in a new town -- is there a currently-operating military base near Santa Rosa, California? My brief search came up empty -- and tries to make friends, first with Linus, next with Lucy, and then with Charlie Brown at the beach, where they instantly bond. 

The character is identified as Franklin Armstrong, an homage by Schulz to fellow comic strip creator Robb Armstrong, who is Black; the two were good friends in real life for some years. Thus, it seems fitting that Armstrong co-wrote the special, which centers around Franklin and Charlie Brown as they build their own entry for an impending soap box derby. (As it happens, Kings Island amusement park in Ohio is opening Snoop's Soap Box Racers roller coaster this year.) 

The special is lively, funny, and sweet, while touching serious issues with a light hand. Those 'serious issues' do not include racism; the Peanuts gang is wary of friendship with Franklin solely because he's a new kid in town. 

Yet the starting point for the bond between Franklin and Charlie is that they are both 'the odd one out.' Their friendship grows as they spend time together building their soap-box racer; Franklin introduces Charlie to jazz, which is pretty cool. 

Inevitably, their friendship faces a major bump, which they must overcome, and they both learn the value of persistence, of never giving up, even when the odds are against you and the rewards seem far away. Those are good lessons for young ones to hear and for adults to remember. 

The animation is in the Peanuts style -- intentionally elemental -- with a dose of modern flash and dazzle in the editing and framing. I never thought of Peanuts being set in a location near a beach and also with so many hills to keep soap-box cars racing for a lengthy distance, not just down one hill. 

That's where a little exaggerated fantasy comes in handy, making for an enjoyable 40-minute trip to the kind and gentle days of plentiful Peanuts. [Apple TV+]