It’s the Ford Motor Company, Charlie Brown! Audiences were first introduced to Snoopy, Charlie, and the whole Peanuts Gallery in the comic strips by artist Charles M. Schulz and these days they have a famous lineup of holiday movies. But the first Peanuts animation wasn’t any of those iconic movies – it was a Ford commercial. This ad also may represent a huge step in the history of animated comic book adaptations.
Peanuts was a syndicated comic strip that launched in 1950 and amassed 17,897 strips during its runtime. The first film, Peanuts: A Boy Named Charlie Brown, was released in 1969 but the first time audiences saw the Peanuts Gallery animated was actually a whole decade prior. How did this unlikely partnership come to be?
The very first ‘Peanuts’ animation was not a film but a Ford commercial
70-year-old Craig Schulz inherited all things Snoopy from his father Charles, the original creator of the comic, after the artist passed away from cancer in 2000. Craig sat down for a chat with WRKR to discuss the legacy and history of the beloved comic strip.
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The characters from the comic were actually used in an advertisement for Michigan-based Ford in 1959, marking a huge step for this strip and for all comics that might pop off the page in the future.
“And this….was when history was made,” marveled one commenter on YouTube. “This commercial was likely the first time a comic strip was adapted into animation. Then came the specials, the movies, the shows, the mini-series, and much, MUCH more.”
‘Peanuts’ keeps driving on
One thing viewers will quickly notice in the Ford commercial is that, although it’s years before any of the feature films fans recognize even today, the Peanuts characters are all true to the heart of what Charles created.
“The characters’ attitudes, voices and style are so much alike… Charles Schulz had a very clear vision of his Peanuts kids in the newspapers and in animation,” Craig explained, “that is probably why they are beloved to this day.”
It helps that the ad was loosely adapted from an actual comic strip, which was distributed on May 30, 1959, and showed Charlie passing out chocolate cigars to celebrate the birth of his baby sister – none other than Sally.
As for the future of Peanuts, Craig has carried the torch right where dad Charles left off, working as a writer and producer whose credits include The Peanuts Movie (2015), The Snoopy Show (2021), and Snoopy Presents: Lucy’s School (2022). There’s far more where that came from, Charlie Brown, but in the meantime, check out where it all began – for Peanuts and for many other comic strips looking for a place on screen!
