PLAY IT AGAIN, CHARLIE BROWN (1971) **1/2 Charlie Brown has very little to do with it, actually, he plays bass in the back-up band. The central focus is the dynamic of the interaction between the spirits of music and human ego, followed by Charles M. Schulz' gentle observations on differences among humanity, and the rush to modernism (Beethoven and PTA meetings in a can). Schroeder plays Beethoven beautifully, Vince Guaraldi provides hip music that doesn't sound measly next to it, and the animation is as wonderful as you'd expect. I particularly like the frames where the characters are surrounded by nothing but a single colour, which how human interaction feels a lot of the time, I think, if you focus on it. Still, it's all obviously a collage of clever comic strips brought to life and introduced to each other for the first time. They commit to being part of a unified whole, but the necessity of commitment betrays the artificiality of the dedication.
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