Snoopy Come Home



"Linus: You bought Snoopy in the month of October, right? According to the records at the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm, Snoopy was bought by another family in August. This family had a little girl named Lila. Snoopy and Lila loved each other very much, but then they moved, and the family decided they just couldn't keep Snoopy so they returned him. (Beat) You got a used dog, Charlie Brown."

Snoopy Come Home is a 1972 animated Peanuts feature length film. It was the second out of the four feature-length Peanuts films. As the first film, A Boy Named Charlie Brown, focused on Charlie Brown, this film focuses almost entirely on Snoopy.

It is also, unquestionably, the most depressing and heart-wrenching thing in the Peanuts franchise.


 * Adaptation Expansion: Adapted from a series of strips where Snoopy went missing to visit Lila in hospital. The strips did have the angst of Charlie Brown losing Snoopy and discovering he wasn't Snoopy's original owner, but there was never any question of whether Snoopy would stay with Lila or return to Charlie--that was added by the film.
 * And Call Him George: Along the way, Snoopy and Woodstock are captured by a little girl named Clara, an insane, pet-obsessed little girl that makes Elmyra from Tiny Toon Adventures look sane in comparison.
 * To enlarge on the above, she thinks that Snoopy (a beagle) and Woodstock (a canary) are a sheepdog and a parrot.
 * "Fundamental Friend Dependability" is an inspired bit of lunacy, written by the Sherman Brothers. They also wrote "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious", and it shows.
 * Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite Charlie Brown being a depressive loser and their sometimes indifferent interactions, Snoopy still chooses him over an angelic little girl in the end.
 * Not that he had much of a choice, anyway.
 * You might have missed Snoopy bawling over leaving Charlie Brown. The "NO DOGS ALLOWED" sign just gave him a convenient excuse to break his obligation.
 * To underscore the point, this is the only time in the movie where the sight of the "NO DOGS ALLOWED" sign is accompanied by cheerful, triumphant music instead of its usual sinister Leitmotif, as Snoopy is literally dancing for joy.
 * Bittersweet Ending: In classic Peanuts style, still played for laughs.
 * Break the Cutie: ALL of the Peanuts in this movie, but especially Snoopy and Charlie Brown.
 * Chekhov's Gun: "NO DOGS ALLOWED!"
 * Death by Newbery Medal: One could argue that the film's Charlie Brown arc is a deconstruction of it: losing a pet doesn't make Charlie Brown an adult. It just makes him chronically depressed and makes his abandonment issues worse. If anything, it causes him to emotionally regress.
 * Actually, the film confirms Charlie Brown's philosophy while playing Monopoly that no matter how bad things get, everything will work out in the end. Lucy called it "stupid".
 * Escalating War: Snoopy and Linus get into one of these over Linus' blanket, complete with yanking, foot-stomping, nose-tweaking, head-butting, collar-snapping, and shin-kicking.
 * Face Palm: Lila, when Snoopy shows her the "No Dogs Allowed" sign on her building.
 * Heroic BSOD: Charlie Brown ends up being depressed even by the standards of Charlie Brown. That's saying something.
 * Snoopy with Clara, after she tells him she's going to spank him.
 * It Got Worse
 * Karma Houdini: Admit it, Clara pretty much got away with the Elmyra-esque antics scot-free. Had she tried that in this day and age, especially with the advent of video sharing, let's just say a little Image Board called 4chan would've found her and...her life would be in shambles.
 * Though from the mess and after she got her head stuck in a fish bowl, it can be assumed her mom punished her for irresponsibility (albeit off-screen, of course).
 * Leitmotif: The four note "No Dogs Allowed" motif.
 * Littlest Cancer Patient: Lila, although she's portrayed much less sympathetically in the last scene.
 * Her actual illness is also kept vague and unspecified.
 * Scooby-Dooby Doors: A scene like this occurs at one point when Clara chases Snoopy and Woodstock through her house.
 * Title Drop: While despairing over Snoopy being gone, Charlie Brown cries out the movie title.
 * Tropey Come Home
 * We Want Our Jerk Back: Snoopy behaves like a prick to everyone in the film, but they all cry when he leaves. When he eventually returns, they're shocked when he continues to be a prick.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: For some reason, after the deep thought sequence, Peppermint Patty disappears for the rest of the movie. She isn't even seen again in the movie unless you count the credits.