Bill Melendez and the Animation of Peanuts

Beyond good, beyond evil, beyond your wildest

imagination! Welcome to Tooncast Beyond. This

is the Animation Direction Spotlight. This is

the sixth overall episode out of twelve for the

Animation Direction Spotlight. I am one of your

hosts, TFJR Mike, joining me is TV's Mr. Nail.

Good grief. I couldn't think of anything else.

was the doctor is in. Yeah that was the other

one. Oh man. And tonight we're going to be talking

about the life and career of Bill Melendez. Otherwise

known as the guy who made all those wonderful

Charlie Brown cartoons. Yep. November 15th 1916

all the way up to September 2nd 2008. May you

rest in peace sir. He was a character animator,

film director, voice artist, and producer known

for his cartoons at Walt Disney Productions,

working on four classical Disney films, Pinocchio,

Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi. Wow. Yep. He also

worked at UPA and the Peanuts series. Melendez

provided the voices of Snoopy and Woodstock in

the latter as well. You know, I remember seeing

the DVD special features of the Peanut stuff

and people talking about Bill Melendez and, you

know, he really was... Okay, sure, Charles Schultz

is the creator, obviously, of the Peanut's characters

and premise and... Whatever else, but Melendez

really helped bring his vision from the comic

strip to the screen. Oh, yeah. I mean, when I

hear Bill Melendez's name, all I can think about

is Peanuts. Yeah, he definitely gave Peanuts

a style in animation. He took the style from

the comic and gave it a presence on the screen.

Whereas I don't think I don't think without him,

it would have been anywhere near the same. I

mean, maybe maybe like some other director would

have done something different, something that

would be equally as as good, but it definitely

would not have been the same thing. He had his

own unique way of adapting these characters and

the way they're drawn into animation. Because

if you OK, if you look at how the characters

are drawn from different angles, like, you know,

how Linus holds his blanket and sucks his thumb

from different angles that it doesn't really

work you know if you try to like rotate the character

it's like the way his arm is drawn it kind of

deforms depending on what angle is it's at so

Melendez had to kind of work around Schultz's

style and come up with something that wouldn't

be you know wouldn't be strange when you watched

it. He came up with something that really worked

for what the characters were, how they were drawn,

and what Schultz's style was. It's hard to really

put him in any other context because I can't

really think of anything specifically that he

has ever done. was not peanuts, so I can't...

It's hard to really comment about him outside

the context of the Charlie Brown cartoons. Right,

yeah. I mean, because he did work with Clampett

and McKimson as an animator, I believe. Right.

Over at Warner's, but, like... I've said this

before in this animation direction special that

we've been doing here in Tooncast Beyond that...

I tend to look at all the credits when I see

the Looney Tunes stuff on Cartoon Network and

I don't think I'm gonna really have to look for

his name again on some of the McKimson stuff

because I've never noticed it. Like, Peanuts

is what I know him for, you know, and the funny

thing about Snoopy and Woodstock is Schultz did

not want... English dialogue coming out of their

mouths. Right. So all as it was was Bill doing

vocal effects and then they sped them up to fit

the characters which is really interesting. I

think the most interesting thing is and I'm very

happy that they're doing this is kind of the

last thing that is kind of mentioned in his wiki

article is that the last peanuts related production

he worked on was the 2006 he's a bully Charlie

Brown archive recordings of his work as Snoopy

and Woodstock will be utilized for the upcoming

peanuts feature film oh excellent so now that

is that was cited uh let's see rust flight your

new peanuts movie first look Cited from slash

film so I take them at their word And actually

right now the wiki article for that peanuts movie

only has bill on the cast As the archival He's

the first actor cast It's supposed to premiere

in November of next year That looks really well

animated too. I mean for CG that It's got the

style of the peanuts somehow working in in three

dimensions. It's it's very It's beautiful. So

I'm looking forward to it Yeah, it's gonna be

interesting and and honestly it doesn't really

I see peanuts to me I mean sure we have those

classic voices of Lucy and and Linus and Charlie

Brown and you know Pepper and Patty and Marcy

but to me I always noticed every now and then

that they would change not necessarily I mean

cuz I believe in the documentaries and some of

the some of the collection DVDs like Great Pumpkin

and Christmas or whatever else they actually

cast children Right. That's what Schultz wanted.

He wanted children to do it. So it wasn't like,

you know, we could just associate, I'm not saying

this would ever happen, but, you know, oh my

God, Peter Cullen is lioness and Frank Welker

is Charlie Brown. Never happened. You know, I

know, I know, but that's what I'm saying. Like,

you know, because they were just children at

the time back in the sixties, like I have, Like

obviously when we watch the the main classics

Great Pumpkin You know Christmas What's Valentine?

It's another one. Oh God Thanksgiving You know

when we watch those classics, yes, we expect

something but honestly with this new movie I

don't know what to expect out of the voices from

these characters and honestly, I more than fine

with it because it's been so damn long since

The voices were even thought of really Unless

you watch us. I mean honestly these these peanuts

things I mean unless you're watching like the

camp town races one or or You know heaven forbid

you're watching, you know Rerun oh gosh, you

know I mean, most of these specials are holiday

themed, and most of the Peanuts cartoons are

set around, like, I don't watch It's a Great

Pumpkin and Charlie Brown on St. Patrick's Day.

I don't watch It's a Charlie Brown Christmas

on Easter. You just don't do, and they even have

the Easter Beagle Charlie Brown, so they already

have an Easter special, so there you go. That

I would have to say that the peanuts and I know

we've talked about this we we've set on this

little spotlight here that The Looney Tunes directors

did those cartoons for themselves. They're for

adults. There are adult jokes in them. They're

not for children Schultz he wanted a social.

I don't even know think it would be a I don't

know you can grab me I don't think it would be

a social commentary, but he wanted some sort

of Commentary or lesson he wanted it. It wasn't

that it was you know It was some PTA board saying,

oh, you can't show that cartoon unless you have

a PSA in it somewhere. It wasn't that at all.

He wanted people to be educated about certain

things that he felt most passionate about. And

it was just one of those things where you have

these kids giving us these grown -up lessons.

Yeah, that being said I mean It's still you know,

we all laugh like hell when Lucy pulls the football

away. Yeah, I like that there's kind of like

a Tongue -in -cheek way of having social messages

in these cartoons like I think the most obvious

one is the Christmas special just because There's

there's kind of like an anti -consumer's message

in there and it almost gets a little heavy -handed

but You also have to remember that that special

was sponsored by Coca -Cola. And when I say it

was sponsored, I mean heavily sponsored. There

were original animated segments in there that

had Coca -Cola cans and stuff all throughout

that cartoon. They had to reanimate some of that

to kind of get that out of there for later airings.

Have you ever watched that? special now you'll

notice that it cuts out at the end like right

as the as the song is coming to its end the audio

will just drop that's because in the original

airing there was a guy who says brought to you

by your local coca -cola bottler and so there's

no way to take that out of the audio so they

just mute it so that's that's why it does that

it's I love that the most anti -consumer one

is the one that's filled with the most sponsorship.

Whether that was intentional or just ironic,

I do appreciate that because I don't like heavy

-handed messages in my cartoons, so I like that

there was that little swerve to that one. Other

times, I think the cartoon just had a wicked

sense of humor. you know things go wrong and

there's really there's there's really no there's

no way to like kind of segue out of it it's just

kind of like yep that's what happened like the

one movie the one that's like a favorite to a

lot of people even though it's like the most

depressing it's Snoopy Come Home which is the

one where Snoopy gets a letter from his original

owner and And it's actually very sad because

Snoopy decides to leave Charlie Brown. And the

whole cartoon is just so depressing. First Snoopy

leaves, but he comes back, but he only comes

back to give away his stuff. And there's this

long agonizing scene where like... They're saying

goodbye to Snoopy. You know, he's about to leave.

They're throwing him this going away party and

he's giving away his stuff. And then he leaves

and there's the famous, there's the famous song

by Thorough Ravenscroft where he's like, no dogs

allowed. And so Snoopy comes back and immediately

he turns into a jerk again. He demands all the

stuff back and there's no, there's no moral to

it. It's just like, yes, Snoopy's a jerk. I love

that punchline. You know see that's the thing

it's like So basically they When you told me

this because I don't remember seeing Snoopy and

come home But when you just talking about the

beginning part of the pot plot and the first

thing I can think of is oh My god, they trail

fazed it Poor Astro The exact same plot happened

in the Jetsons with Astro. He finds out that

he was owned by someone else at one point or

another, and his name with those owners was Tralfaz.

And he's like, Tralfaz, yuck. Yeah, but this

was actually really touching. Snoopy cared about

his original owner. His original owner was this

little girl named Lila. And, you know, he obviously

cared about her a lot and was very loving. very

dedicated to her and then like just the end where

they throw in this swerve where yeah Snoopy's

gonna be a jerk again we're in a Peanuts cartoon

again you don't have to cry anymore. One of the

reasons why I have not noticed Bill Melendez

and some of the Looney Tunes stuff is because

He was credited as animator as JC Melendez by

his actual his actual name and his actual initials

of his name. So that's one of the reasons why

I've never noticed his name in in the credits

for the shorts. He worked on a lot of stuff.

That might be a Schlesinger thing. Schlesinger

was like, you have to use your real name. Yeah.

He worked on the 1982 here comes Garfield TV

short as a producer Some of these Charlie Brown

shorts I have never seen Snoopy's getting married

Charlie Brown never seen it He worked on a TV

movie as a producer the romance of Betty Boop

I... Oh, I wish I had seen that before this podcast.

Like I said earlier, it would have given me some

context for what the animation style was. Because

it's hard to divorce it from the peanuts. Yeah,

it really is. And let's face it, I mean, most

of his credits here are peanut stuff. I mean,

as I said earlier, that's what he's known for.

And it was so great that he worked on all this

stuff. really really was. What's also hard to

kind of separate out is which of these were actually

feature films and which of these were just TV

specials because they were all animated very

well. So it's hard to really separate what was

what. I mean I know all the holiday specials

were obviously TV but there were theatrical movies

and then there were TV movies. They all get together

as far as I'm concerned. They're all they're

all really good His first actual credited role

as An animator was as see Melinda's 1945 is wagon

heels It says it was a short Porkey leads a wagon

train into Injun Joe territory and finally comes

up against fearsome Super Chief. But Sloppy Moe,

a survivor of a previous Injun Joe attack, knows

something about him he won't tell until the very

end. And this was a Clampit cartoon, obviously.

You know, Injun Joe should be a dead giveaway

for a clamped cartoon. Yes. So that was his first

act, because most of his beginnings, like, he

is uncredited on all four of those Disney films.

Which is a damn shame. Right. He is uncredited

on Wabbit Twouble. He's uncredited on the wisecracking

duck He's uncredited on falling hair And you

know what like I said wagon heels was the first

one You know, so there's that but I mean he The

man has done a lot a lot of stuff oh my god he

was he's the guy that i didn't i never knew this

he was the animator for the titles of it's a

mad mad mad mad world that is amazing that is

friggin awesome i i do remember hearing that

yeah i'd completely forgotten about that i i

love that movie um So, let's see It's your wait

Well, I can't win 85. Oh, it's a documentary.

Yeah, it's your 20th television anniversary Charlie

Brown and He was a producer for 18 episodes on

Charlie Brown and Snoopy show from 83 to 85 so

that that's like, you know uh... interesting

uh... it's america charlotte dvd miniseries shorts

uh... you know i love his style i love seeing

you know his name obviously attached all the

stuff but just the fact that he is even though

the sped up just the fact that he he was the

voice of snoopy and what stock i mean he gave

those characters such personality You know, I

bet they even use his archival stuff for those

MetLife commercials Probably Yeah, I would assume

so cuz on you know, they replaced then replaced

but they they they updated the casting for mr.

Peabody for that movie that just came out and

It's not the same as the original but I understand

why they did it I'm glad that they're not going

to be doing it for these characters because they

are just so classic Yeah, so so classic Anything

else you wanted to bring up about him? Well,

I'm just kind of I'm just looking at the wiki

here and I'm trying I'm looking through the movies

there were four theatrical films Which were I

just lost? Okay, here we go Boy named Charlie

Browns to become home race for your life Charlie

Brown and Bon Voyage Charlie Brown and don't

come back But there is like I said, there were

some TV specials I'm trying to figure out which

one was the one where he was doing the spelling

bee and he misspelled Beagle Is that what that

was a feature -length one, but I don't think

it was it was a theatrical release But that was

that was pretty fun. I got there's so many Know

there were some that were not holiday specials,

but they were on TV and I'm just not finding

them because it's just there's so much here but

yeah, like I I wish there was more to say because

This was pretty much the entirety of his of his

career Well, not really because obviously he

was at war and Disney but like as far as like

what he's known for this is like This is his

legacy. It's just the peanuts Yeah, I really

need to go back and find these. They don't really

air them anymore. I think some of them are on

DVD. Really all of them should be, because they're

all really good. At least from the 60s up until

maybe the mid -80s. Don't know how much he worked

on on peanuts after that I know there were a

lot of lots of TV specials that came out in the

late 80s and 90s that He may not have been involved

with that much and they're really not that good

like anything with a rerun No, that's not that's

not his fault at all or like the fault of people

who maybe took over the cartoons. That's just

Charles Schultz I don't know what he was thinking

when he created a rerun Yeah, but anyway According

to TV shows on DVD .com As far as season releases

the 60s Collection is one full DVD release that

came out in 2009 And then the 70s collection,

volume one and two came out in 2009, 2010 respectively.

And then we have all the individual episode releases

like Christmas, Thanksgiving, Be My Valentine,

Charlie Brown and Christmas Tales, Happiness

is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown. Let's see.

Let's see, Snoopy's Adventures, Peanut Snow Day,

He's Your Dog Charlie Brown, When a Dog for Christmas,

it's the Easter Beagle, Great Pumpkin, let's

see, Thanksgiving, 40th Anniversary, oh my god,

that movie is 40 years old. And then there are

some individual episode releases. Most of them

are like non -deluxe versions of what I've already

stated here I'm trying to see if there's any

of the ones you just mentioned that don't it's

the Pied Piper Charlie Brown Lucy must be traded

Charlie Brown So yeah, you know Between him and

Charles Schultz, you know the two comics this

two Sunday strips I always loved reading as a

kid were Garfield and peanuts those two always

went together hand -in -hand for me every Sunday

and sure, I didn't really get the some of the

peanut strips, but It didn't really matter because

I love the characters, you know, I mean I wish

IDW would get some sort of licensing to do like

Charlie Brown comics or something like that because

that would be so aw - To do a Snoopy and Woodstock

comic, that would be amazing. I mean, I mean,

hell, if IDW can do a Dexter's Lab miniseries

or a Powerpuff Girls comic or, you know, Rocky

and Bullwinkle, I'm sure they could get, you

know, peanuts. Is that - is that strip still

running new stuff or no? What what peanuts yes,

no, it's it's all reruns. Okay. Yeah All right

Well, we talked about the kids earlier the kids

that they would cast for the voices I think some

of the girls may have lasted longer just because

their voices don't change as much as the boys

Yeah, and I remember reading somewhere that what

they would do is they would kind of they would

give the kids their lines in like little snippets,

which kind of gave it like that peanuts delivery.

Like peanuts has a very distinct acting style,

the way the kids talk. And it's hard to describe,

but you know a peanuts cartoon when you hear

it just by the delivery of the kids. And so that

was kind of like, that was kind of built into

the style. And I'm curious to see if they, try

to duplicate that for the uh for the new movie

they they could in theory but uh yeah like i

was saying earlier like it's hard it's hard for

me to differentiate the movies from the tv special

sometimes like you're a good sport charlie brown

in my when i was a kid there was no real difference

between that sort of tv special and the movies

because they all pretty much look the same in

terms of quality so uh That kind of explains

why I'm kind of scatterbrained in this episode

because it just all runs together. It's like

there's so much goodness in Peanuts that I kind

of forget what's a holiday special, what was

a primetime special, and what was a movie. Because

it's all pretty much the same in my memory, whereas

like... You know, some of the cartoons that we

grew up with, we can tell the theatrical releases

from the afternoon TV shows. They're very, very

different qualities. Oh, yeah. Well, first of

all, I mean, that's like looking at the Jetsons

from the 60s to the 80s. Two completely different

decades two completely different styles. Oh,

yeah, you know, I mean It's the same thing like

and honestly seriously no offense to anyone Especially

mr. Melendez many rest in peace that that worked

on the TV series stuff for peanuts For me peanuts

is the specials As far as the animated stuff,

it is the specials. That's what makes it work,

because it didn't need to rely on, you know,

65 half hours of children's programming. It was

a special. Like I said earlier, I don't watch

It's a Great Pumpkin all that often. I I didn't

even watch it like two or three nights, you know

last week when it came on ABC or whoever has

the television rights to show it now like I didn't

watch it then, you know, I mean Well, let's face

it. We live in an age where We're recording this

October 17th 2014 Halloween is not for at least

another ten or so days You know and it's like

Seriously, you're showing the Halloween shit

This damn early already and it's not a like Any

specials for me should air at some point on that

holiday if it's a specific holiday special running

on that day How is it gonna hurt ABC to run?

It's a great pumpkin on Friday night the 31st

of October I mean, you know, it's not like ABC

has a crap ton of programming on Friday nights

right now You know what I mean? It's like, seriously.

But, you know, no, I absolutely agree. It's one

of those, you know, one of those things that

I'm glad it never was kind of a long -running,

like, Smurfs -type of show where it had to be

this number of episodes to sustain it, and it

was a once -in -a -while thing, and that was

good. You know, when they... There was the Saturday

morning version, but I don't remember if how

good that was. I remember being acceptable. So

maybe maybe it was like on the like on the quality

of like the Garfield cartoon. So it might have

been it might have been good, but I just don't

remember. Think what I want to see now is I want

to see a Garfield Heathcliff team up movie. Oh

my god Throwing a little top cat Oh God all all

the cartoon cats unite you know Especially the

ones with the sword see another another kind

of punchline to that that Christmas special is

like it's a it's all about anti -consumerism

yet like peanuts basically sold out everywhere

and then you have a card then you have a comic

like Calvin and Hobbes which absolutely refused

to and and I don't I don't remember Calvin and

Hobbes ever coming close to having that sort

of heavy -handed message so again I appreciate

the irony so there's that absolutely absolutely

uh... so coming up next on tuned caspion's animation

direction i'm gonna have to do a lot of research

was in july because the only thing i know by

these guys is the old forty superman cartoon

we're gonna be i don't know it's sad i'm sorry

we're going to be talking about the flashers

uh... they also did popeye yeah okay and betty

boop So you know them. Yeah, yeah. And, you know,

the saddest thing is, all I can remember from

Betty at this point is, I still got it, Eddie!

Oh lord. Alright, anything you'd like to pimp

out, sir? Um, just d -a -s -i -e -n dot com.

It's updating. Um, irregularly, but it's updating.

Should be a new page up maybe by the time you're

listening to this. Are you gonna do a Halloween

special this year? Um, I have a Halloween themed

episode, but it probably won't be up on Halloween.

Oh, so you're gonna fox it, okay. Yeah, it's

going to be kind of late, but you know better

late than never. The Christmas episode should

be right on time though. That's good, that's

good. Alright, you can catch us on... geekcastradio

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