An 11-Year-Old Convinced Us Why 'The Peanuts Movie' Was the Best Movie at Comic-Con
There were a ton of movies to buzz about at Comic-Con this year -- and it was a pretty light year for movies, all things considered. There was Suicide Squadand Batman v Superman, X-Men: Apocalypse and Deadpool, The Hateful Eight and Victor Frankenstein.
But the best movie at Comic-Con was The Peanuts Movie.
So says Francesca Capaldi (Disney Channel’s Dog With a Blog), who voices The Little Red-Haired Girl in the upcoming adaptation of the beloved comic strip. Capaldi held court over an inflated, 40-foot tall Snoopy House in San Diego over the weekend. “There’s a 12-foot slide that is really fun to go on,” she told us. “There’s a puppy playpen with actual beagles in there, where you can go and pet them and give them treats.”
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In the movie, Capaldi is the object of Charlie Brown’s affection. But the 11-year-old has plenty of reasons why we should have crushes on Charlie Brown instead. “Charlie Brown is very nice and very sweet,” she told ETonline. “He’s an optimist and he just loves life. He’s super nice in this movie.”
Then we gave her the difficult task of convincing us why, out of all the movies at Comic-Con, The Peanuts Movie is the best. We were a tough crowd too. The conversation went like this:
Capaldi: “The Peanuts Movie has great family fun. It’s a great film. It’s laugh out loud family fun for all ages.”
ETonline: We’re not convinced, keep going.
“It’s actually never been on the big screen before, so this is going to be its big debut on the big screen. [Peanuts] has many films that have been on TV that people love, so now they’re bringing to the big screen.”
ETonline: You almost have us. We just need a little more convincing.
“It’s in 3D! So all the character are very out there and you can see them very well. And Snoopy has a great adventure with his doghouse! And Woodstock is there, and he’s super awesome and he’s just having a great time! That’s why!”
Not a bad sales pitch from a pre-teen.
WATCH: If you haven’t already, check out the trailer for ‘The Peanuts Movie’!
Snoopy wasn’t just at Comic-Con to promote his movie though. He used the opportunity to lend a helping paw to his fellow Beagles. The aforementioned puppy playpen was full of Beagles rescued from laboratory research by the Beagle Freedom Project.
“Their mission is really to end animal testing and, in the meantime, beagles are the number one breed of dog that are tested on,” one of the Beagle Freedom Project volunteers told us. “The thing that makes them great dogs is also what makes them great for animal testing. They’re loyal. They’re docile.”
The pups we got to meet -- and belly scratch! -- were named Matzo, Junior, Raymond, and Indy. Before that, they were just the numbers tattooed inside their ears. (“From when they were numbers and not names,” the rep told us).
Beagle Freedom Project has created an iPhone app called Cruelty Cutter that lets you scan products to see if they were tested on animals. They are “also introducing legislation to basically enforce laboratories to release the beagles when their testing time is over.”
She continued, “For example, Matzo, I got him when he was a year and a half. Usually they just euthanize them when they’re done. But he’s four now, and he gets to live a dog’s life!”
The Peanuts Movie hits theaters Nov. 6, and you can find out more about the Beagle Freedom Project here.
In other news out of Comic-Con, who knew James McAvoy was such a big fan of Taylor Swift?
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