Stuff I Grew Up With: Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown (1977)

"White water. The terrifying shape of nature at its most furious." If you were to hear Don LaFontaine narrating that in his big, dramatic voice, you'd probably think it was an ad for a hard-hitting action or disaster flick, at least up until this last part: "This year's river race will separate the men from the boys... the short, insecure, balding boys." Indeed, that was actually his narration promoting Cartoon Network's Cartoon Theater's showing of Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown for the upcoming weekend. During this period in the late 90's and early 2000's, LaFontaine was doing a lot of promotional work for Cartoon Network, including ads for some of Cartoon Theater's other showings and for Toonami, but it was unusual to hear his thundering vocals describing a movie about Charlie Brown and the gang taking part in a river raft race (moreover, his narration was accompanied by a piece of music that sounded like the familiar "Bishop's Countdown" theme from Aliens!). It definitely caught my attention and encourage me to watch the movie, which I was glad I did, as I really enjoyed it. After their premieres, both it and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown became frequent staples of Cartoon Theater over the years and I would always look forward to seeing them. But, after Cartoon Theater was ended, and with no home video releases for either of the movies outside of VHS, I didn't see them again in their entirety until the spring of 2016, when I found a two-DVD set with them at a Books-A-Million in Pigeon Forge. Like I said in my review of Bon Voyage, I had no clue these movies had even gotten a DVD release and so, I grabbed that set about as soon as I saw it. Having now re-watched both movies quite a few times since, I can say that, while I think Bon Voyage is the best of the four original Peanuts movies, Race for Your Life is a close second, as I find it to be very entertaining. It does have some issues, mostly with a story that tends to meander, especially during the second half, as the river race reaches the point where it feels like it's going on forever because the plot gets continuously sidetracked, when it should be more fast-paced and exciting; also, a number of the characters are underutilized. But on the whole, it is very enjoyable, with some really great animation, layouts, and backgrounds, entertaining sequences, music, and soundtrack.

The Peanuts gang heads to summer camp, specifically Camp Remote, up in the mountains, with the kids taking the bus while Snoopy and Woodstock follow on the former's motorcycle. As usual, Charlie Brown is the victim of constant bad luck, having to endure a white-knuckle ride with Snoopy when the bus leaves him behind at a rest stop and running afoul of a trio of bullies who proclaim themselves to be the ones who run the camp, as they win the annual river raft race every year. Despite his insecurities, Charlie Brown more or less becomes the leader of the boys' tent, while Peppermint Patty elects herself leader of the girls, declaring that they'll run things "democratically" and has every single decision decided by "secret ballots." After taking part in the usual camp activities, such as tug of war and sack-races, which the bullies win, often by cheating, the river race comes up. The main participants are Charlie Brown, Linus, Schroeder, and Franklin representing the boys' tent; Peppermint Patty, Sally, Lucy, and Marcie for the girls' tent, the bullies; and Snoopy and Woodstock, who compete in an inner-tube with a sail. The bullies often have an unfair advantage over the others, as they not only constantly sabotage them, either by damaging their rafts or tricking them into taking the wrong route on the river, but their own raft is equipped with an outboard motor, a direction finder, radar, and sonar. As if that weren't enough, the kids also have to deal with bad weather, becoming separated, and getting lost in the woods while trying to find each other. In order to win the race and teach the bullies a lesson, a true leader for the Peanuts gang is going to have step forward, and, as unreal as it seems, that leader may just be none other than Charlie Brown.

While he directed the first two Peanuts movies by himself, for Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown, Bill Melendez had Phil Roman co-direct, as Roman had, by this point, done the same on some of the specials, as well as directed a number on his own, and would go on to co-direct Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown with Melendez as well. At this point, the last Peanuts-related project Melendez had directed was 1973's A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and in-between that and Race for Your Life, he'd done a 1974 TV special called Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus, which had some basis in a true story, and in 1975, a non-Peanuts feature film called Dicky Deadeye, or Duty Done, a nautical-themed movie that was produced to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first collaboration between Gilbert and Sullivan. Roman, meanwhile, had made his directorial debut, both as a co-director and on his own, with A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown respectively, after having been involved with the cartoons in various capacities for a long time, starting with 1968's He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown.

Not long after the kids arrive at camp, they have to fill out registration forms, and when prodded by Peppermint Patty to reveal what he wrote, Charlie Brown (voiced by Duncan Watson) reads, "I decided to come to camp, because I've never been much of a person. I thought maybe coming to camp would help me grow up, and maybe make me into a leader. I could use leadership qualities." He gets his wish when he becomes the de facto leader for the boys during the camp's activities, such as the tug of war and the sack race, only for them to lose to the trio of bullies who act as big-shots about the camp. When it comes time for the river raft race, Charlie Brown's confidence doesn't get much better when he sees how high-tech the bullies' raft is and when they sabotage their rafts the night before the race. He predicts nothing but failure ahead, and they do run into one disaster after another, such as the bullies tricking them into taking a fork in the river where there's demolition going on and their getting caught up in a bad storm. When Snoopy and Woodstock disappear after the storm, Charlie Brown decides to search for them, with the help of the other boys and the girls, but they end up getting lost themselves. Fortunately, their luck starts to turn around when they all find an abandoned cabin, including Snoopy and Woodstock, and take shelter there together. But, just because their luck gets better doesn't mean Charlie Brown gets any more respect from anybody. As they're sitting around the fireplace, he tries to have a moment, saying, "Isn't it strange how things work out? Here we were, we were all lost, and we were all separated. And, for a while, it looked we might never see each other again. It even looked like some of us may never get home again. And now, here we are, all together again, in a safe cabin, by a warm fire. You just never know how things are gonna work out. It sort of makes you think." He then learns that no one was listening, as they thought he was just saying something about the fire, with Lucy commenting that she never listens to anything he says. And then, the girls take over the cabin and throw the boys out, including Snoopy. Charlie Brown tries to stand up to Peppermint Patty after the girls decide this with their "secret ballots" but she beats him down by talking about democracy and demanding they respect it.

Come the next day, after they nearly froze to death due to it snowing, Charlie Brown starts to become much more assertive and determined to stand his ground. When Patty, for the second time, complains about how they've got nothing to eat but dry cereal, he promptly puts her in her place: "Now just a minute! Nobody's asked for your opinion! If you don't like what we've got, you don't have to eat it!" And then, when the girls start talking about getting a Christmas tree, of all things, it's Charlie Brown who has to remind them that they're in the middle of a race. The bullies then sabotage their rafts, forcing the boys and girls to share one raft, and Patty decides to have Charlie Brown be the leader, which he agrees to. He manages to take charge really well, telling the boys to paddle on either side while he himself steers the raft, and also tells Patty to shut up and get back in line whenever she annoys him or tries to usurp his command with her secret ballots. In a really awesome moment, he himself gets the raft unstuck when it gets caught on top of a water wheel at a mill after the bullies, again, trick them into taking the wrong route. Soon, it isn't long before they're closing in on the finish line, and it looks as if Charlie Brown is going to lead them to victory... and he would have, had Patty and the girls not gotten overexcited and accidentally flung the boys out of the raft. Thankfully, the bullies lose as well, with Woodstock ending up the winner, and because of how well he did, Charlie Brown is now much more confident than he ever was, saying he has a feeling his run of bad luck is about to end. But, just like at the service station on the way to camp, everyone takes off without him, forcing him to ride home with Snoopy and Woodstock.

The other members of Charlie Brown's team, unfortunately, don't have as much of a role as him, Peppermint Patty, or the other girls, for that matter; they kind of just go along with him, both before and during the race. Linus (voiced by Liam Martin) is the most significant in that he often beats back the bullies by using his blanket as a whip and, as usual, deals with Sally's unwanted affections. When they take shelter in the cabin and some of the kids start dancing to a waltz, Sally, naturally, asks Linus if he's going to ask her to dance and he says he would... if she were the last girl on Earth. He also tries to boost Charlie Brown's confidence before the race, reminding him, "It's not if you win or lose, but how you play the game." And like in It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown, he has strange ideas about what animals live in the forest, at one point mentioning "rock snakes" that actually fling rocks at people. Schroeder (voiced by Greg Felton), of course, has to bring his piano with him on the river race, and when Linus tells him they don't have room for it on the raft, he comments that they probably shouldn't bring his blanket either in that case, prompting Linus to immediately acquiesce. He's seen hanging it up to dry on the clothes line after they get caught in the storm and his bringing it with them allows the kids to sing and dance to She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain at the cabin. There's only one moment where he has to deal with Lucy, when she asks him if he's going to dance with her during the waltz at the cabin, to which he responds, "Musicians don't dance." And poor Franklin (voiced by Tom Muller) only has a couple of memorable moments: when he comments that he's never made a bed in his life, wondering if there are any instructions, and when they hear an announcement that everyone is to get up at 0500 hours. He asks Charlie Brown what 0500 is and, upon hearing it's 5:00 AM, he's horrified, commenting, "I don't get up at 5:00 in the morning! Maybe I should resign." I guess it could be worse, though; he could have started rapping at one point (thanks to that special, I can't look at Franklin anymore without thinking about that embarrassing scene).

Lucy may have been the leader of the girls in It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown, but this time, it's Peppermint Patty (voiced by Stuart Brotman), which makes more sense to me, since she has the biggest personality of everyone. She becomes the leader by electing herself, despite declaring that everything will be done democratically. First, she makes a big deal about voting who's going to pass around the ballots... before they actually have ballots with which to vote, and decides that Lucy will pass them about, even though she got a tied decision when asked who was in favor of this. Then, once they've passed the ballots, Patty declares, "Everybody mark their choice: either vote for me or against me. That'll be fair." Knowing it's anything but fair, Lucy suggests they nominate someone, to which Patty responds, "Good idea! I nominate me! Any further nominations? If not, the nominations are declared closed." And when the votes are tallied, each one of them voted for herself, which Patty declares to be a tied vote (her logic is insane, to say the least), and she herself decides to cast the deciding vote, which, of course, is for her. That's a hint of how she runs her group in general: if there's a tied vote or a total impasse, she makes a decision that's in her favor, and also she has every single little decision be confirmed by these votes. This applies to when they're in the race: she has them vote what route on the river they'll take, whether or not they get off a sandbar they slam into, and whether or not they'll join the boys in looking for Snoopy and Woodstock or do it themselves. The douchiest thing she and the other girls do is unanimously vote to force the boys to sleep outside of the cabin, even though the boys are the ones who found it to begin with. Charlie Brown tries to argue this point, especially since the boys didn't even get a chance to vote for themselves, but Patty beats him down by saying he should respect their decision if he believes in democracy. And the next day, when their rafts are sabotaged and the boys end up in the freezing cold water, Patty actually has the girls vote on whether or not they'll let the boys join them!

As usual, Patty absolutely drives Charlie Brown nuts, humiliating and talking down to him at every turn. When she asks him to tell them what he wrote on his registration form, and he says he wrote that he hoped camp would help him develop leadership qualities, which he says he needs, she comments, "You could say that again, Chuck. You couldn't lead a dog on a leash." Late in the film, when the girls come across the abandoned cabin the boys take shelter in and Charlie Brown greets them at the door, Patty excitedly grabs and shakes him, yelling, "Hey, Chuck, it's me! Chuck, we found you. You were lost, kid, but we're here now." He tries to explain that he wasn't lost but Patty says he's delirious and that he's safe now that they've found him. Twice, Patty has the gall to complain about the boys not preparing a "proper" meal for them, even though they clearly don't have the means to do so, and including after they forced them to sleep outside in the cold. But, despite that, and having the girls vote on whether or not to let them into their raft, even though they're about to freeze to death in the water, Patty elects Charlie Brown to be their new leader when they're forced to work together to try to win the race. She still embarrasses him when he tries to lead, overly praising him by yelling, "That's the way, Chuck! You're leading! Boy, what a leader! Lead on, Chuck!", until he tells her to shut up, and she also blames him for taking the route in the river that gets them stuck on a water wheel, even though it was a trick by the bullies and she implored him to take it. Even worse, she tries to overrule him by again passing out the ballots to decide whether or not they should paddle or let the current carry them along, even though they need to overtake Snoopy in order to win the race. That's when Charlie Brown firmly puts his foot down and tells her he's going to be the one making the decisions. And finally, her over-excitement costs them victory, as when they're about to reach the finish line, she and the girls celebrate too soon and fling the boys out of the raft. They try to go back and get them, but their raft overturns as well, allowing the bullies to pass them. While they don't win, Patty still comments on how assertive and confident Charlie Brown has become, but that doesn't stop her from boarding the bus while he's talking, causing them to leave him behind.

Sally (voiced by Gail Davis) is the one among the entire group who really doesn't like being at camp. She's already in a bad mood after, while on their way there, a girl she waves at sticks her tongue out at her, and she hates being out in the middle of nowhere besides. When they arrive at camp, she nearly causes her brother to get his ass kicked when she tells him to knock out one of the bullies when he cuts in line and tells her to shut up, and when they're signing their registration forms, she complains they might as well have stayed in school if they were going to have to write papers. Predictably, she sucks at the camp's activities, such as crafts, wherein she tries to knit a wallet, only to break her string and let out an exasperated yell. She also couldn't care less about Peppermint Patty's "democratic" way of running things, and despises the disgusting food they have to eat. And, as you might expect, she's little more than dead weight during the river raft race, whining when they have to camp out, saying she's scared of the dark woods, and longs for nothing more than to be with Linus, much to his embarrassment.

Lucy (voiced by Melanie Kohn) is her usual grumpy self, and isn't thrilled about the way Peppermint Patty becomes the leader of the girls' tent, grumbling afterward, "Boy, some vote," but she does get the job of passing out the ballots for every decision they make. She really doesn't have much to do, as she's only around Schroeder one time to annoy him with her affections, never once puts down Linus, and she doesn't get many opportunities to put down Charlie Brown either. The times she does get to do the latter, though, are not only harsh but downright unfair, especially since she blames him for things that aren't his fault. When they get tricked into taking a route where blasting is occurring and the channel gets blocked by the demolition, Lucy comments, "Yeah, just like his head!" Later, when they have to form a chain to grab a raft that's floating away, Charlie Brown, who's at the head of the chain, loses it because of the current and Lucy throws out her usual blockhead insult. But, most insulting of all, is when he manages to get them off the water wheel and, when Sally comments, "I'm not dead," Lucy goes, "No thanks to old Charlie Brown!" He just managed to save their lives and she can't even give him that, the little bitch. And finally, Marcie (voiced by Jimmy Ahrens) is sort of in-between her dumb and smart portrayals here, as she never does or say anything particularly naive or stupid (though, early on, she says, "How come they don't have trips where you just stay home?"), but she's not that brainy either. She does suck at the sack race, commenting that she wasn't born to be a potato, even though she's sometimes portrayed as having athletic prowess, and she's also the one who tallies the ballots after the votes have been cast. At one point, she tells Peppermint Patty that she enjoys being part of "such a democratic system," saying it restores her faith in good government. And unlike Sally and Lucy, she succeeds in getting one of the boys, namely Franklin, to dance with her during the waltz.

The three bullies (voiced by Tom Muller, Kirk Jue, and Jordan Warren) are pretty interchangeable among each other, as they have no personalities other than they're just arrogant jerks who think they own the camp because they've been river race champions two years in a row. Watching them in the various camp activities, it becomes clear how they win: they cheat. They not only have holes in the bottoms of their sacks for that race, allowing them to sprint ahead of the others, but their "raft" is this ridiculously high-tech craft that's more akin to a boat, with an outboard motor and gadgets like sonar and radar. Even before the race starts, they cause trouble by sabotaging the other kids' rafts, syphoning their air into their own raft's tubes, and they never once stop cheating, either through more sabotage, like in the third act, forcing the boys and girls to share the same raft, or by constantly tricking them into taking the wrong route, even if said route is quite dangerous. However, their overconfidence and constant gloating (every chance they get, they chant, "We're number one!") cause them a lot of their own problems, as they tend to not watch where they're going and crash into things. Moreover, whenever they're trying to get their raft unstuck, they often get into arguments, one of which escalates into a full-on brawl while they're trying to get off a beach after the big storm. And by the time they reach the finish line, their raft is so badly damaged from all their mishaps that it sinks when they're just a few feet away from it.

The bullies also have a really ferocious cat named Brutus (voiced by Jackson Beck) who wears a spiky collar similar to what you'd see on a really mean dog and terrorizes Snoopy and Woodstock every chance he gets. He scares the two of them into jumping into the mud with the boys after they lose the tug of war and, when they become separated after the storm, Brutus finds Woodstock and chases after him, intending to devour him, though he ends up in the river when he climbs onto the branch of a tiny tree that can't hold his wait. At the end of the race, after the bullies' raft sinks, Brutus punctures Snoopy and Woodstock's inner-tube with his claw, seemingly ruining their chances of winning as well. However, Woodstock builds himself a raft out of twigs, and when Brutus tries to destroy that raft too, Snoopy whacks him right in the face, allowing Woodstock to win. And before the kids head for home, Brutus attempts to have one last go at Woodstock but Snoopy, now having had more than enough of him, chokes and decks him again, sending him running off in terror.

Rather than ride the bus with the kids (likely because they wouldn't be allowed on it), Snoopy and Woodstock (voiced by Bill Melendez) drive to camp on Snoopy's motorcycle, both of them looking real cool in their gear, with Snoopy wearing an Evel Knievel-like helmet, goggles, gloves, and a scarf. Like It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown, Snoopy proves he's not one for roughing it, as he's seen eating an ice cream sundae while watching a western on a portable TV set, and he's also more than happy to kiss the girls good night, something Lucy said she couldn't sleep without. Unfortunately, when he jumps up onto Peppermint Patty's waterbed to kiss her, the two of them get bounced uncontrollably, with Marcie getting dragged into it when she tries to help and Snoopy dizzily staggering back to his tent when he gets flung off. Woodstock, meanwhile, makes the mistake of building a bed of twigs in the speaker of the camp's PA system and gets blown out when the reveille is played come morning. The two of them participate in some of the camp's activities, like PT and the tug of war, and join the river raft race by way of an inner-tube with a sail. They take a pretty leisurely attitude towards the race, until they get separated following the storm that hits the region.

Although they'd had some spats during the story, the true depth of their friendship is revealed when Snoopy, after losing Woodstock, contemplates rejoining the race but decides he can't leave without him and hikes into the woods to search, howling as a way of calling for him. Woodstock, meanwhile, finds himself alone and defenseless, chased and preyed upon by Brutus and wild animals like owls, though he does reunite with Snoopy and they, in turn, reunite with the kids up at an abandoned cabin that Snoopy had found the night before, though not without a few misadventures along the way. After enduring a cold night outside when they're forced to sleep out there with the boys after the girls throw them out of the cabin, they get back in the race and, though they run into more obstacles all their own, like being tricked into going through a dark tunnel, they end up being a shoe-in to win the race. Brutus ruins their attempt to finish the race together by slashing their inner-tube, but when he tries to do the same to Woodstock's little twig raft afterward, Snoopy decks him, allowing Woodstock to win. Afterward, Snoopy sends Brutus packing when he threatens Woodstock again, and like he did at the beginning, he gives Charlie Brown a ride when the bus takes off without him.

Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown was the final project for animator Rob Scribner, who'd been in the industry since the 1930's, having worked on many of the Loony Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts under such well-known animation directors as Bob Clampett, Robert McKimson, and Tex Avery. He brought his trademark rubbery and kinetic type of character animation to this film, in such moments like Snoopy, Peppermint Patty, and Marcie getting bounced around on the waterbed, when the bullies are trying to extricate their raft from a dock they slammed into, when Snoopy freaks out upon finding a bear standing outside the abandoned cabin's door, and when, after it snows one night and completely covers Snoopy as he sleeps atop his tent, Woodstock builds a house on his nose, only for him to wake up, fling Woodstock off, and give him an earful over it (in fact, that latter scene ended up being the last piece of work Scribner ever did before his death in December of 1976). In fact, the animation is great throughout the whole movie, with very fluid and expressive facial and body gestures on the characters (the best example of which is when Snoopy and Woodstock are separated during the storm and, after it passes, Snoopy is clearly depressed and conflicted about whether to rejoin the race or go look for him), and realistic, drifting animation for the rafts floating down the river, enhanced by the characters turning their heads to look at the rafts that pass by them and the way the sail on Snoopy and Woodstock's inner-tube furls up and then puffs back out in the opposite direction whenever they have to make a turn. The animation is especially impressive on environmental effects, such as the blasting the kids run into when they take the one wrong route, the storm clouds rolling in, and when the storm hits, churning up violent waves and harsh winds that send the rafts flopping out of control as they're repeatedly swamped. The animation on Snoopy and Woodstock when they get separated during the latter scene is not only good but effectively distressing, with Woodstock seen flailing helplessly in the rough water and Snoopy barely hanging onto the inner-tube for dear life.

As it is for all of the Peanuts movies, Race for Your Life is a film that's very pleasing to the eye, especially if you like what they did with the campground/wilderness setting in It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown, as it greatly expands upon it and puts in a lot more detail than you would get in most of the specials. The green forests, pastures, and desert they ride through on the bus to reach the camp, the camp itself, and the surrounding wilderness are all nicely picturesque, and that's to say nothing of the many beauty shots of the river and the surrounding landscape, including a small riverside village they pass through, the abandoned cabin they find up in the hills, nearby railroad tracks Snoopy and Woodstock find themselves rolling through while stuck in a tire, waterfalls, and the watermill they get stuck at momentarily, which are all based on what Charles Schulz observed when he himself went river-rafting in Oregon. Just as, if not even more, lovely are the way these various environments are designed to look during the early morning, late evening, or at night, the latter of which are sometimes added to all the more with the addition of snow (though, as I'll get into, that latter element tends to confuse and grate on me a little bit). However, nighttime scenes are also used to show how creepy the wilderness can be during the section where Snoopy, Woodstock, and the kids are all lost while searching for each other. In addition to the designs of the environments and backgrounds, the film has some well-done instances of innovative POV animation, including a cool first-person sequence for Charlie Brown's harrowing ride to camp on Snoopy's motorcycle at the beginning, which realistically simulates the experience of driving really fast on a treacherous road, and what also appears to be instances of matting in shots such as when Sally is looking out the bus' back window at the beginning of the movie, when the kids head through a large channel, and when they're paddling really fast to catch up with Snoopy and Woodstock, among others. Finally, during the ending credits, as Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and Woodstock head for home on the motorcycle, you see a lot of lovely imagery, like the landscape painted in various colors and shot in different filters, constellations up in the sky, and such.

As fun as the movie is, the biggest issue I have with it is that, even though it's only 75 minutes long in total, the river race feels like it goes on for an eternity. Not only does it take up about 2/3 of the running time but, while never exactly boring, it's hardly a full-throttle, adrenaline rush of a race; instead, it's a meandering sort of competition where the participants slowly drift along the river and make camp every night, with instances of comedy and excitement sprinkled throughout. It's only when they reach the final leg to the finish line during the third act that the pace picks up and never stops until the race is over. Moreover, the race gets side-tracked for a large section of the film when Snoopy and Woodstock become lost after the storm and the kids split up to look for them, only to get lost themselves. As the kids search the woods, take shelter in the abandoned cabin they find, Snoopy and Woodstock reunite and face some hazards of their own on their way back to the back to the time, everyone spends time dancing to a waltz and She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain, and the girls and boys get into a conflict where the girls force the boys to sleep outside in the freezing cold, you could almost forget that they're even in a race. In fact, the girls themselves seem to forget about it, as they talk about getting a Christmas tree when they see that it's snowed, and Charlie Brown has to remind them, and, in a sense, the audience, about their purpose for being so far out in the wilderness in the first place. (This lengthy feel to the movie was especially compounded when it was shown on Cartoon Network and they put in enough commercial breaks to fit it into a two hour block.)

I also find it a little aggravating that pretty much the entire Peanuts gang goes to camp and yet, not only do a mere ten of them, if you count Snoopy and Woodstock, take part in the river race, with several of them having little to do even then, but the other kids are all but forgotten as soon as they arrive. You see Violet, Frieda, Pig-Pen, and Patty on the way to camp and they also part in the various activities there but, for the most part, it feels like those who are in the race are the only ones at camp at all. You could argue that those rafts could only hold so many people but, even before the race, it feels as though the boys and girls' tents were whittled down to just four people each. And weirdly, there's one shot during the race where you see other rafts in addition to those being steered by the boys, girls, the bullies, and Snoopy and Woodstock, but you never see them again and they're never mentioned either, which makes me wonder if they survived the storm!

Finally, this is something that's always bugged me ever since I was a kid: if they're supposed to be at summer camp (a camp they drive through a desert in order to reach, no less), why does it snow a couple of times in the movie? The race is meant to be taking place high up in the mountains, yes, but then, would it snow the way it does here in the middle of the summer? Although I've traveled out west and gotten pretty high up in the mountains, I don't think I ever reached as high as they're supposed to be, but I still find it hard to grasp that it would snow up there even in the summer. Of course, in this instance, I could be an idiot who doesn't know anything, and someone has told me that, in Oregon, such weather is possible, but even so, the appearance of snow really hurts the notion of its being summer for me.

The movie lets you know it's something you're going to enjoy as soon as it starts, as the opening credits, most of which appear on various signs and billboards along the road, play over the bus transporting the kids through the countryside, followed by Snoopy and Woodstock on the former's motorcycle, all while the really catchy title song plays. At the end of it, as the landscape transitions from lush forests and hills to a desert, the bus passes by a gas station where a couple of kids, a boy and a girl, are standing. Sitting up front, Sally waves out the window at them, and then runs to the rear to wave at them again, only for the girl to stick her tongue out at her. Enraged at this, Sally declares that she would go and deck the girl in the face for that insult if she got the chance. That chance comes immediately when the bus' back right tire has a blowout and comes to a stop. Sally takes the opportunity, declaring, "I'm gonna bring down her window shades. I'm gonna dim her outlook... and shorten her lifespan. I'm gonna rearrange her landscape," and storms off the bus and marches up to the girl. She gets right in her face, but when the girl glares at her in an intimidating way, Sally retracts her threat, stating, "On the other hand, I didn't know she was gonna bring her gang with her." She walks back to the bus, saying, "I'll confuse her with this silent but dignified retreat." After the tire is fixed, the bus drives on until it reaches a gas station that sports a sign that reads, LAST CHANCE. POINT OF NO RETURN, and stops . The kids disembark, with Sally complaining to Charlie Brown about how they're out in the middle of nowhere and that she feels like she's been hijacked. Snoopy pulls up, disembarks, pulling off his gloves and removing his goggles, and motions for Woodstock to follow him into the station. The two of them head to the bar, Snoopy spinning around the seat on the stool Woodstock sits on and making him dizzy, which Snoopy laughs at... though he doesn't think it's so funny when Woodstock turns it around on him. He then pounds on the bar, demanding service, and receives two chocolate milkshakes for both of them. Snoopy bends the straw on Woodstock's shake down to where he can sip it, but when Woodstock reaches the bottom of the glass, his sucking causes the glass to fall on top of him.

The kids head back onto the bus, carrying sacks of supplies, and Charlie Brown politely allows Frieda and another kid to go on ahead of him. He then tells Snoopy and Woodstock not to get too far behind them, as the country gets pretty rough up ahead, but when he goes to walk onto the bus, the door slides shut and it takes off without him, even as he yells for them. Snoopy then offers to let him ride with him and Woodstock, putting his sack in the back of the motorcycle and giving him a helmet, which he struggles to fit on his head. When he climbs up onto the motorcycle, it's clear he's in for it when Snoopy starts it up and zooms off down the road. Charlie Brown yells in terror, convinced he's going to die, as Snoopy flies along the sharp curves and over the hills, keeping up with the bus. Things get even hairier when he gets off the road and drives through a big herd of steers, one of which chases after them in anger. Charlie Brown is clearly about to get sick from this rough ride, when the motorcycle suddenly sputters to a stop. Snoopy jumps off, takes out some tools, and does some quick work that gets the motorcycle running again. They then drive on, again flying around tight curves and going off-road, this time over a steep hill, with Snoopy heading right for a large tree, only to veer around to the left of it and drive through a large opening that goes straight through the trunk. Finally, they arrive at Camp Nowhere, where Charlie Brown dizzily disembarks and stumbles away, groaning in a raspy voice, "Why can't I have a normal dog like everybody else?" So dizzy is he that he slams right into a trio of older kids standing by a tree, one of whom angrily admonishes him for it and demands to know his name. When he tells him his name, he gets mocked for it, as the kids say it's a weird name (I might have said this before in a previous review but I have to say it again: what is so weird about "Charlie Brown" as a name?), and blushes brightly. He gets mocked even further when he's asked if he's come to camp to try to be a man, when an announcement is then made for all the kids to head to the registration tent.

Charlie Brown joins the others there, as Sally complains that she feels like she's been drafted, when the three bullies from before cut in front of her, the leader of them telling her to shut up. Angrily, Sally tries to get Charlie Brown to stand up for her, telling him to beat on the bullies, but the one bully warns him that they run the camp, as their tent has been number one for two years in a row and they intend on keeping that streak going. Charlie Brown is about to stand up for himself and the others, but the bullies laugh at the idea of him trying to pick a fight with them and sic their mean cat Brutus on them. Sally tells them Snoopy will take care of that when he shows up (she calls Brutus a dog, as well, though he's clearly a cat), but when he and Woodstock walk up, Brutus lunges and snarls at them, prompting them to take cover behind Charlie Brown. That's when Linus shows up, wondering what's going on, when the bully leader tells him to mind his own business. Linus then whips out his blanket and manages to fend them all off with it, including Brutus, snapping it at them and yelling, "Back!" This earns him some adoration from Sally, while Charlie Brown comments, "Fastest blanket in the west."

As they're filling out their registration forms, Sally, again, complains about the situation, while Peppermint Patty says she's going to write a lot about baseball, saying she'll probably be made captain of the camp's team. After Charlie Brown admits why he came to camp, they hear an announcement that they all must be in their tents by 2200 hours. The boys and the girls head to their respective tents, the boys having to deal with making their own beds and with there being no thermostat, while the girls deal with Peppermint Patty's decision to run things in a "democratic" fashion and rigs it to where she gets elected as their leader. Her first decision as leader is for them to make their beds, but Lucy proposes that they have a vote on whether or not they do so. They're about to prepare the ballots for this decision, when another announcement is made over the PA system, stating that everyone is to rise at 0500 hours, which Franklin is horrified to learn is 5:00 in the morning. As the evening begins, Woodstock builds himself a nest in one of the speakers of the PA system, while Snoopy pitches his own tent on the campground. In the girls' tent, Patty finds she has a waterbed, remarking that the camp knows how to treat a leader. They start to bed down for the night, when Lucy admits that she can't sleep unless her mother comes in and kisses her goodnight, which Patty agrees with. Snoopy then comes in and decides to fill that role, jumping across the girls' beds and kissing them one by one (Lucy isn't grossed out by this, as she usually is). But, when he jumps on Patty's waterbed, problems erupt as they start getting tossed around and are unable to stop it. Marcie gets out of bed and advises Patty, "Sir, you're making too much noise. Can't you just kiss him goodnight and let it go at that?", to which Patty responds, "If I ever get off this waterbed, I'll kick him, not kiss him!" She asks Marcie to help her get off the waterbed, but when Marcie climbs up onto the bed, she gets caught up in the chaos as well. Finally, Snoopy gets thrown off the bed and staggers out the door, completely dizzy. Once he gets over it, he heads to his tent, but as everyone else, including Woodstock, turns in, he stays up for a while, watching a western on a portable TV while enjoying an ice cream sundae.

When morning comes, Woodstock, as predicted, gets blown out of the speaker he made his nest in when the reveille blares through it. In the girls' tent, Marcie wakes up Peppermint Patty, as an announcement is made for everyone to turn out for PT. They all make their beds, while Patty orders everyone to turn out, as well as explain to Marcie that PT means physical training. Next, the boys, including Snoopy and Woodstock, are seen doing sit-ups, pushups, and jumping jacks, while the girls, lead by Patty, march through the camp towards the mess hall. Patty notes how there's nothing like PT to work up an appetite for breakfast, though Marcie tells Sally that it caused her to lose hers. The girls are then seen knitting at the crafts tent. Knitting a wallet, Sally wonders, "If you want a wallet, why can't you just go to the store and buy one?", when her string breaks and she lets out a frustrated yell. Another announcement tells them that lunch will be served at 1200 hours and, in the next scene, they're shown getting lunch. Patty comments that she likes this, but Sally doesn't agree, as she lets out a disgusted "blah!" when the rather nasty-looking food is put on her plate. Then, after that, the bullies are again giving Charlie Brown and the boys a hard time, only for Linus to, once more, fend them off with his bullwhip of a blanket. An announcement is made that the first tent competition is about to begin: a match of tug of war between tent number one and tent number thirteen, which happen to be Charlie Brown's group and the bullies respectively.

During the tug of war, Charlie Brown and his group come close to pulling the bullies into the mud puddle at the center of the rope but, despite having six pullers to their four, they ultimately lose because the bullies cheat by using a stump and tree on their side to brace themselves and strengthen their pull. At the end of the rope, Snoopy and Woodstock manage to avoid getting yanked into the mud, but Brutus takes care of that when he sneaks around behind them and swipes at them, causing them to fall back into it and laugh at them in a hissing manner when he sees them lying there with the others. Next comes the sack race, which is between the bullies and the girls. Marcie falls down twice, yelling in frustration, "I can't do it!" the second time, but Patty spurs her on, telling her they're going to catch up to the bullies, when Marcie falls again. Then, it's revealed that the bullies are cheating, as they have holes in the bottom of their sacks that allow them to sprint ahead of the others. When they cross the finish line, they chant their obnoxious, "We're number one!" declaration, as they did after winning the tug of war. At dinner that evening, the bullies are gloating insufferably, as they eagerly await the next competition, which is the river race that starts the next day, assured that they're going to win it again like they did before. They hear an announcement that tells them to have their rafts prepared by 1800... to which Sally responds, "I wasn't even born in 1800!" Next, the boys and girls are seen blowing up their rafts, with the boys using their own air to inflate some inner-tubes, while the girls use a pump. Both Charlie Brown and Patty tell their respective teams that they've seen the bullies' raft and it's now clear why they win the race every year. The bullies, again, are confident that they've got it in the bag, given their competition. While the boys are loading up their raft, Snoopy uses an old-fashioned air-pump to inflate his and Woodstock's own raft and roll it down to the water. Meanwhile, Patty is trying to do the same for their raft with Sally's help. Unfortunately, Sally doesn't connect the hose to the plug but instead, just holds it in front of the plug, making Patty's pumping worthless, and when she sees what's going on, Patty facepalms and groans loudly in annoyance. The boys manage to get their raft totally inflated, though they about asphyxiate themselves while doing so. Late that night, the bullies syphon the air out of the boys and girls' rafts in order to inflate their own, declaring that that should make it clear who runs the camp.

The next morning, upon discovering what the bullies have done, the other teams work quickly to reinflate their rafts, with Charlie Brown unable to see anything but failure ahead. They finish just as they're told to get to their rafts and climb aboard. Snoopy and Woodstock do the same, walking towards their inner-tube, as Brutus pulls on his leash, trying to get at them, and swiping at the latter with his claws. The race starts and everyone pushes their rafts into the water. The bullies crank their outboard motor and cruise by Snoopy and Woodstock, mocking them as they go and leaving them flailing in the chop they churn up. That's when Snoopy deploys their sail, much to the bullies' shock, and they take another hit when their engine conks out. The one bully tries to start it back up but is forced to open it up and start tinkering with its innards. Snoopy and Woodstock drift past them, as well as the other rafts and a dock, but then slam into a section of the shore. The bullies manage to fix their motor and zip past the boys and girls' rafts, mocking them just as they did Snoopy and Woodstock, but end up crashing into the dock by not watching where they're going. They can then only watch as the other rafts drift by them very easily. In the girls' raft, Peppermint Patty is again demanding that things be run democratically and has the girls vote as to whether or not they go right or left in an upcoming fork in the river. When the votes are tallied, they end up with a tie, and so caught up in it are they that they end up hitting the sandbar. Frustrated, Patty starts a new vote to decide whether or not they get off; not surprisingly, everyone votes in favor of getting back in the river.

That night, Snoopy and Woodstock make camp, as do the other rafts. At the girls' camp, they're roasting hotdogs over a fire, although Sally is freaking out about the "lions and tigers" out in the wilderness and whines about wanting to be with Linus. She goes as far as to yell across the way at the boys' camp, telling Linus she's depending on him if anything happens to them, much to his embarrassment. Meanwhile, the bullies struggle to dislodge their raft from the dock and, once they do, they head down the river, passing by the campsites and heading on to a fork. Seeing a sign that reads, DANGER: BLASTING. DO NOT ENTER, and points down the right fork, they turn it the other way before going on. It happens to snow in the night, which proves to be a problem for Snoopy, who's sleeping atop his tent like he does his doghouse. Come morning, he, the tent, and everything else are totally covered. Woodstock emerges from the tent and, making like a mountain climber, makes his way up to the top of the tent and then to the tip of Snoopy's upward-pointing nose, where he puts a flag. Yodeling, he runs another line to the trunk of a tree and manages to make a little ski-lift, which he uses to transport some tools and building materials back up to Snoopy's nose and build a nice little house there. But then, Snoopy wakes up and, seeing what's going on, jumps up, flinging Woodstock and everything else off, and angrily rants at him.

After that, the race resumes, with the boys, girls, and Snoopy and Woodstock slowly making their way down the river, passing through a small village on its shore, when they come across the fork. Seeing the sign warning about the blasting, Snoopy and Woodstock take the opposite route, just as the other rafts reach it. Patty is skeptical, since the supposedly safe route seems to take them farther off the path, but Charlie Brown figures they should do as the sign says, especially since Snoopy and Woodstock already went that way. They follow after them, when they pass by a red sign on the right side that reads, DANGER: BLASTING ON TUESDAYS AND THURSDAYS. Charlie Brown realizes that it happens to be Tuesday, as they come upon a ridge on the right side with lots of equipment and machines parked there, as well as another sign which reads, DANGER: BLASTING ON TUESDAYS AND THURSDAYS 10AM. Patty asks Charlie Brown what time it is and, when he looks at his watch, he exclaims, "It's almost...!", but he's cut off when an explosion rips through the channel, causing violent churning that throws them about on the river and creates a blockade of boulders that completely blocks it, separating them from Snoopy and Woodstock, who managed to pass the spot before the blasting. Patty angrily blames Charlie Brown for this, and Lucy concurs, while he sheepishly blushes. Fortunately for them, Snoopy commandeers a bulldozer on the shore and clears the way for them, as they cheer excitedly. Altogether, they make their way out of the channel, when they pass one last sign, reading, BLASTING TODAY. KEEP OUT. Patty glares at Charlie Brown when she sees it, and he, again, can only blush and smile sheepishly. As it turns out, that hazardous detour got them ahead of the bullies, much to their consternation, and they speed up to try to overtake them. But, they look up to see dark clouds gathering in the sky and hear the sound of thunder. Rain starts coming down, the wind picks up considerably, and before they know it, their rafts are being flung around like toys in a bathtub. In the chaos, Snoopy and Woodstock's inner-tube gets swamped by a large wave that separates the two of them. Snoopy manages to grab onto the inner-tube to stay afloat but he loses sight of Woodstock, who's unable to swim against the rough, violent current and disappears under the waves.

Once the storm has passed, the rafts have beached themselves and the kids attempt to dry out their clothes and equipment. The boys string up a laundry line, which Schroeder hangs his piano on, while the girls are getting water out of their raft... and Lucy is complaining about not having an outlet to plug her iron in. Linus turns on his portable radio to hear a news report about the effects of the storm, and when he hears that travelers are being advised to exercise caution due to flash-flooding, Charlie Brown worries about the other rafts, particularly Snoopy's. A cutaway shows that Snoopy is by himself, eating some cereal under a makeshift tent he's made using his sail, while elsewhere, the bullies are trying to get their own raft off the shore. It doesn't take long for their arguing to turn into a full-blown fight, one that even Brutus gets caught up in. After they've knocked each other senseless, one of them points out that they're going to lose the race if they waste time fighting and they get back to trying to dislodge their raft. Snoopy, meanwhile, struggles with not knowing what happened to Woodstock. He howls for him but gets no response, and so he reluctantly packs up his stuff and puts it back in his inner-tube. He whistles for him, but he doesn't show up then either, and he pushes his raft into the water and begins to paddle. But, looking back at the shore, he can't bring himself to leave without his buddy, so he quickly paddles back, pulls his raft ashore, and grabs his hiking equipment. He heads off into the wilderness, again howling for Woodstock, but receives no response then either, and forlornly sits down on a rock. A brief cutaway shows Woodstock floating on a raft, freezing and calling for help.

The boys and girls manage to get their rafts back into the water and head out to continue the race, when Charlie Brown spots Snoopy and Woodstock's abandoned raft on the shore. Paddling towards it, they find no sign of either of them. The girls arrive and, wondering why the boys are on the beach, join them there. When Charlie Brown tells them that Snoopy and Woodstock are lost, Peppermint Patty has Lucy pass out the ballots, telling them that the question is whether they join the boys or search on their own. When Marcie tallies up the votes, the results are one vote for going alone, one for going with Linus (the other girls glare at Sally for that, who gushes that Linus needs her, causing him more embarrassment), another vote for going alone, and a vote for going home. Patty decides that they go by themselves and tells Charlie Brown that the two groups should head off in opposite directions to cover more ground, which they do. Meanwhile, Woodstock's tiny makeshift raft runs aground and he's found by someone... unfortunately, that someone is Brutus, who licks his chops at the sight of him. He swipes at Woodstock and chases him up the shore, slamming into the bullies as they're still trying to dislodge their raft. Elsewhere, the boys begin searching for Snoopy and Woodstock, with Linus suggesting they exercise caution while in a rocky area because of "rock snakes," much to Charlie Brown's annoyance. The girls are searching another spot, with Sally uselessly looking under little rocks and leaves for them, while Patty calls for him. Snoopy himself is continuing his lone search for Woodstock, continually howling for him, unaware that Brutus has him cornered on the branch of a tiny tree on the shoreline. He climbs up the tree and heads across the branch towards him, only for it to give way and cause him to fall in the water, while Woodstock flutters away.

Come nightfall, Snoopy finds a large cabin up on a hill and, after knocking on the door without getting an answer and finding it open, it becomes clear that it's abandoned. He walks inside, his right foot going through a rotten board in the floor, and he lights a match to illuminate the room while he pulls his foot out. Too bad he forgets about the match as soon as he lights it and it burns his hand. He then takes an oil lantern out of his backpack and lights it, removes his sleeping bag and unfurls it, climbs inside, trades his small hat for a nightcap, and blows the lantern out. As soon as he tries to fall asleep, there's a pounding at the door, and when he answers it, he sees the silhouette of a big bear standing in the doorway. Snoopy promptly freaks out and slams the door, running back for his sleeping bag, and his freakout actually sends the bear running for the hills as well. Elsewhere, Woodstock isn't having the best time either, as he's still cold and preyed upon by owls and other animals, while in another part of the woods, the girls are gathered around a campfire and huddling together because of how creepy their surroundings are. Patty tries to tell the girls that the animals in the forest, which she stupidly says are only bears and tigers, are just as scared of them, but this does little to comfort them. Come sunup, it's obvious none of them got any sleep, with Patty lamenting that they're now lost too, but she also presses them to keep up the search. In another area, the boys are still searching for Snoopy, who's down by a stream, discouraged at his inability to find Woodstock. Speaking of which, Woodstock is about on the brink of exhaustion, when he hears Snoopy howling for him. Eagerly following the sound, he ends up on the opposite side of the stream from Snoopy and gets his attention. Ecstatic, Snoopy runs across the water towards him and they meet in the middle, only for Snoopy to fall down into the water. But, as soon as he comes back up, the two of them immediately embrace.

The boys come across the cabin and decide to take a rest there, as well as use it as a sort of headquarters from which to fan out in search parties. Later, the girls are hiking up the hill when Patty spots smoke coming from the cabin's chimney and they head straight for it. When they knock on the door, they're double-surprised when Charlie Brown, wearing a red apron, answers it, and Patty excitedly shakes him, exclaiming that they found him. After commenting on his apron and how "ratty" the cabin looks, she becomes aggravated when he doesn't immediately invite them in and he quickly does so, telling her that they're about to have dinner. But, when Patty sees that their dinner is nothing but dry cereal, she starts complaining, asking why they don't have this and that, and she says that the girls will treat them the next day. Once night comes, Snoopy and Woodstock head back to the cabin, when they come across a very narrow path curving around a cliff-face. While Woodstock is able to flutter around it, Snoopy has no choice but to take the path, putting himself flat against the wall and moving step by step across it, only to slip and fall off the edge. He grabs onto it but quickly loses his grip and falls, having to grab onto a tire hanging on a small branch below. He manages to pull himself up into the tire and breathes a sigh of relief, but when Woodstock lands next to him, the added weight causes the tiny branch to snap and they fall to the ground below. They roll through the countryside, along the hills, some train tracks, through a tunnel, the side of a hill, and then bounce down until they slam into a tree trunk, flinging Snoopy out of the tire. The two of them dizzily stagger away and head down the hillside, towards the cabin.

There, Patty finds a phonograph, as well as some records, including one with the song, Charmaine, on it. She puts the record and starts cranking the phonograph, when the door opens and everyone is pleasantly surprised to see Snoopy and Woodstock there. The music starts and Patty immediately invites Snoopy to dance with her, which he accepts. As the others watch them dance, there are attempts to get themselves on the dance floor as well, with Sally asking Linus and Lucy asking Schroeder, but they both get turned down flat. Franklin and Marcie start dancing together but, alas, nobody asks poor Charlie Brown, while Woodstock is content to dance in place by himself. The song ends with Snoopy dipping Patty and then kissing her on the cheek, to which she remarks, "Boy, that kids really can dance, and he sure knows how to make a girl happy." After that comes the moment where they're warming themselves in front of the fireplace and Charlie Brown tries to have a deep moment, but none of the kids listen to a thing he said. Patty, instead, suggests they have a campfire song before they bed down for the night and asks Schroeder to provide the music. He, in turn, takes out his piano and starts playing She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain, which they start dancing and singing too, with Woodstock dancing atop Schroeder's piano. By the time they're finished, they all collapse to the floor, laughing tiredly but happily, when the fire goes out. That's when Patty announces it's time for them to take a vote, namely about whether the girls sleep inside or the boys sleep outside. Completely ignoring how unfair this is to the boys, they make their votes and, of course, the decision is for the boys to sleep outside, despite the fact that it's cold out there and that they found the cabin first. Patty, as usual, beats Charlie Brown down when he tries to argue the point and demands they pack up and leave, which they angrily do (Schroeder briefly disappears between frames at one point). Annoyed, they head on down from the cabin to make camp, unaware that up ahead, Brutus is lying in wait for Woodstock. But, fortunately for Woodstock, when Brutus attacks him, Linus shows up and fends him off with his blanket. The group then makes camp but, during the night, it snows again, and Snoopy and Woodstock wake up to find the site covered. Woodstock compensates by making an igloo for himself

The next morning, the girls listen to a news report over the radio suggesting that travelers put on chains. This incenses Sally, who can't believe they have to do so, but Lucy angrily tells her that the report was referring to mountain climbers chaining themselves together (I actually think it was talking about people putting chains around their truck tires). After that, the girls decide to head outside and find the boys to see if they maybe have breakfast started (oh, yeah, they'll definitely have breakfast ready for you after you threw them out of the cabin the night before). Looking about and seeing snow everywhere, they discuss picking out a Christmas tree and stand atop some small "mounds" in the snow for a better vantage point. However, the mounds turn out to be the boys buried in the snow, who rise up and throw them to the ground. Charlie Brown angrily admonishes Patty for having forced them to sleep all night in the cold and they then decide to get some breakfast. Seeing that it's dry cereal again, Patty starts complaining like she did before, saying they should have a hot breakfast, but this time, Charlie Brown shuts her down and tells her she doesn't have to eat it if she doesn't like it. Patty quickly backs off and grabs a bowl, explaining her outburst as, "Just a natural feminine reaction to a most deplorable situation." As they all eat around a campfire, Patty mentions their plan to pick out a Christmas tree, but Charlie Brown is dumbfounded by this, reminding them that they're supposed to be having a race. They're all then reminded when the bullies show up in their raft and pelt them with snowballs, chanting, "We're number one!" The kids scramble to get back to their own rafts but the bullies beat them there and completely wreck the boys' raft, while letting the girls' float off into the water. Grabbing their life-jackets, the kids have no choice but to form a chain to try to reach the girls' raft. At the head of the chain, Charlie Brown tries to reach for the raft but he gets dragged away by the current, much to the girls' consternation, with Lucy calling him a blockhead and Patty saying he can't do anything right. The boys get separated from the girls, who are closer and manage to climb into the raft. Once they're inside, Patty has them prepare the ballots to decide whether or not they have the boys join them in the raft, while they're sitting in the water, freezing to death. Fortunately, it's a unanimous vote in their favor and they're allowed in the raft. Patty then tells Charlie Brown that she's decided to make him their leader and he accepts the position, saying he'll try to plan a strategy for them.

On another part of the shore, Snoopy and Woodstock load up their raft, shove off, deploy their sail, and head on down the river. They pass by the kids' raft and Patty implores Charlie Brown to start leading, which she does to a nauseating extent and embarrasses him, until he finally tells her to be quiet. He then announces that the boys will paddle on both sides while he steers. Up ahead, Snoopy and Woodstock close in on the bullies, who put up a fake sign that reads, THIS WAY KID, and points towards a tunnel in the rocks. When they come upon it, Woodstock excitedly gestures for Snoopy to turn the raft in that direction, but when they head into the tunnel, their sail gets knocked off and they veer off into the dark. Further up the river, the bullies plant another fake sign at a fork, indicating that the route on the right is a shortcut. When the kids' raft comes upon the fork, Patty implores Charlie Brown to steer the raft in that direction, but when he does, they find themselves streaking down a wooden waterway along the mountain, unable to do anything to stop the raft, which squeezes through narrow sections and heads to a watermill at the base of the mountain (naturally, Patty blames Charlie Brown for this). There, one of the bullies shoves a branch into the water wheel, stopping it dead, and ensuring that the kids get stuck atop it. Though most of the kids are inclined to give up, feeling they've lost the race, Charlie Brown takes the initiative and climbs down to get the wheel moving. Seeing this, the other kids start cheering him on, when he slips and grabs the branch jammed in the wheel on his way down, snapping it in two and freeing the wheel. The raft goes over the edge and ends up in the water in front of the wheel. Of course, nobody is willing to give Charlie Brown credit for saving them, least of all Lucy, but he decides not to make a big deal about it and rejoins them, steering the raft back towards the river.

Snoopy and Woodstock, meanwhile, make it out of the tunnel, only to go through a short burst of minor rapids and a small waterfall, before going through another small tunnel and coming out to find themselves in front of the kids, as they drift down a channel. Not too far behind them, the bullies, who've had engine trouble again, get their outboard motor to work once more and speed on down the channel. They pass by the kids and Snoopy and Woodstock and, as usual, mock them. But, they don't think it's so funny when they caught up in quickly increasing rapids that head for a large waterfall. After they go over it, they come flying out of the water and slam up against a large rock. Snoopy and Woodstock go over it next but their landing at the bottom isn't that rough, while behind them, the kids panic when they see what's up ahead and frantically implore Charlie Brown to lead them (Patty notes, "If you can't handle leadership, Chuck, I'm here,"). Patty then yells that he's led them into a "typhoon" (?), and they go over the waterfall, but when they spring up out of the water at the bottom, they pass by the stranded bullies, Patty mocking them and yelling that they were number one. She then excitedly compliments Charlie Brown on getting them past the bullies, and when she sees that Snoopy and Woodstock are the only ones ahead of them, she exclaims, "Charge, Chuck! Charge!" Telling her to calm down, Charlie Brown says that they're going to have to paddle to catch up with them, when Patty, again, tries take a vote on whether they paddle or float with the current. But, Charlie Brown isn't having it, yelling, "Now, wait a minute! You've all made me the leader, and I'm gonna make the decisions!" He then orders the boys to start paddling and for the girls to keep down low to deal with the wind resistance. They start paddling and easily overtake Snoopy and Woodstock, who can't do anything since they no longer have a sail. Patty gets excited, saying that the finish line is up ahead and that there's no one else to pass.

That's when she makes the mistake of getting herself and the other girls to jump up and celebrate too soon, throwing the boys out of the raft. They quickly realize what they've done and paddle back to help them, after Snoopy and Woodstock drift by them, ignoring their cries for help, but when the boys try to climb back in all at once, they totally upend the raft and the girls fall in with them. The bullies pass by them, chanting that they're number one and declaring they shouldn't have even tried to compete with them. They pass by Snoopy and Woodstock and look as if they're about to win, when their banged up raft finally gives out and sinks below the surface, leaving them floating just a few feet from the finish line. Since they've lost, they decide they're not going to let neither Snoopy nor Woodstock win either. When they get close, Brutus punctures their inner-tube and swipes at Woodstock when he takes to the air to escape. The little bird quickly builds his own raft out of twigs, using a leaf as a sail, and floats back downstream. Brutus, again, tries to go for him, but Snoopy punches him square in the face, sending him falling back into the water and clearing the way for Woodstock to cross the finish line. With the race now over, Woodstock is awarded a trophy and walks away with it, as everyone applauds. However, the bullies won't let it rest, later threatening the boys with revenge the following summer. When Woodstock walks by with a sign that reads, I'M #1, Brutus threatens him but Snoopy lunges at him, wringing his neck and punching him again, sending him running off in fear of him, much to the bullies' dismay.

Having really grown into his leadership role, Charlie Brown keeps everyone in line as they march onto the bus to go home. Patty compliments him on how far he's come and he monologues, "Well, lots of things have happened to me, and I'm glad I did what I did. You know, I was never sure how I'd be able to stand up under pressure, and how I'd make decisions, and I feel good about myself for the first time in my life! I think now that dumb things won't happen to me anymore. I feel like I'm more in control!" And as soon as he gets through talking, he sees that Patty climbed aboard the bus before he even started talking. Even worse, like at the beginning of the movie, the door closes and the bus takes off with him, as he futilely yells, "Hey! Don't forget... me!" He sighs sadly, when Snoopy and Woodstock pull up on the motorcycle. Like before, he has to ask Snoopy for a lift home and Snoopy hands him a helmet, which he squeezes on his head, before climbing up behind him. Snoopy then takes off out of the camp, down the road, and across the countryside.

Vince Guaraldi was expected to score Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown but his unexpected death in early 1976 led to this being only the second Peanuts project produced without his involvement (the first being Snoopy Come Home). In his place was Ed Bogas, who would go on to score Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown, as well as a number of the specials produced in the late 70's and 80's, The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show, and the mini-series, This Is America, Charlie Brown. Bogas proved himself more than worthy of filling Guaraldi's shoes, as he came up with a really nice score that hits all the necessary bases really well. Its main aesthetic is a rustic, country-esque quality, created through harmonicas and twanging guitars, that fits perfectly with the wilderness setting and suits the tone of each scene, whether be it heartwarming, poignant, or even kind of creepy (my example of this approach is a nice, sort of rolling piece that plays when Snoopy and Woodstock find themselves rolling across the countryside in the tire). He also comes up with nice, instrumental version of the title song, often in that rustic vibe, that you often hear whenever the subject of Charlie Brown's insecurities and leadership qualities is brought up, as well as a harsh, brassy theme for the bullies, rock guitar riffs for when Snoopy is on his motorcycle, light, airy music for the moments where it snows, and sad, tragic-sounding music for the sequence during the bad storm and when the kids go over the waterfall.

Bogas also wrote several songs for the film, all of which are sung by Larry Finnlayson, including the catchy title song, which is a very mellow, cheerful tune that's all about encouraging Charlie Brown to step forward and be a leader, which is the point of the movie itself. You hear it over both the opening and ending credits and, as I said, you hear various instrumental versions of it throughout the movie itself. The other two songs are really little more than variations of this, such as a short, slower-sounding one that plays during the tug of war, which encourages Charlie Brown and the boys not to give up if they fail. And after their first night of camping out while racing, another mellow song about traveling down the river, following Charlie Brown, which has Finnlayson's singing accompanied by backups going, "Doodley-do, doodley-do," repeatedly, plays as you watch the rafts meander downstream.

Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown is a very enjoyable flick. It features a good plot about Charlie Brown becoming assertive and growing to develop leadership qualities, it's beautifully animated and designed, it has more than enough funny and enjoyable sequences, and it has some really catchy music and songs. But, at the same time, the river race, which itself is hardly a fast-paced and exciting competition, goes on a lot longer than it should, with the plot getting side-tracked from it for a large chunk when the kids search for Snoopy and Woodstock, which can make the movie feel longer than 75 minutes. Also much of the Peanuts gang are either underutilized or completely forgotten about, even though it's clear they joined the others at camp. Overall, while much of my love for it comes from nostalgia, I would say that the pros far outweigh the cons here and that, if you're a Peanuts fan and decide to pop it, you'll have a good time.