The mild-mannered Franklin, the first black character in the Peanuts cartoon, shines this month with his own animated Apple TV+ special.
Franklin is a newcomer who forms a bond with Charlie Brown and is welcomed into the Peanuts world in “Snoopy Presents: Welcome Back, Franklin,” which premiered Friday.
“Jump Start” co-writer and cartoonist Rob Armstrong said the film was based on a blueprint left by “Peanuts” creator Charles Schulz.
Although race is never explicitly mentioned, Armstrong and co-screenwriter Scott Montgomery note that Franklin surveys the children in his new town and says, “One thing is for sure: this place has a lot of diversity.'' “It means that there was a lack of that,” he said, with a subtle nod.
“I didn't want it to be preachy in any way, but I needed to treat it the same way I treated 'Jump Start,'” Armstrong said. “I don't go out there and call people names. I let the characters participate in the problem-solving process.”
The portrait of Franklin that emerges is that of a boy who loves baseball and space. I'm good with my hands. I listen to Stevie Wonder, Little Richard, James Brown, and John Coltrane.
When he arrived in town, he was fed up with a life of constant movement due to his father's military work.
“I've lived in many different places, but there was never a place I called home,” he says.
However, his introduction to the “Peanuts” gang did not go well at first. He mistakes Lucy's psychiatric booth for a lemonade stand and surprises Linus by taking a pumpkin from Patch.
“If I didn't know any better, I'd swear I was in the Twilight Zone,” Franklin says.
“Every time he moved, he had to quickly learn how to make friends, which meant he never felt like he could be his true self,” said Raymond, director and story editor.・S. Persi said. “So when he comes to town, normal tricks don't work, because these kids are a little weird.”
Franklin first appeared in newspapers on July 31, 1968, prompted by a request from a schoolteacher to integrate Schulz's comic book world in the wake of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Schulz introduces him by asking Franklin to return Charlie Brown's wayward beach ball one day at the beach. This was a historic meeting and a statement. At the time, many public beaches were segregated, as were other public facilities such as schools, pools, theaters, and restaurants.
The new Apple TV+ special reenacts their first meeting, with Franklin giving him the ball back and then the two building a sandcastle together.
“I think it was very smart of two kids who didn't know anything about racism to come up with this very simple idea of having fun on the beach and building something together,” Persi said. said.
Mr. Armstrong, who grew up admiring Schulz, has deep ties to Franklin. He became a cartoonist and a friend of Schulz. It was Schulz himself who asked the young cartoonist if he would lend his last name to the character. So it almost seems like divine intervention that years later he would spotlight Franklin in a television special.
“Sometimes miracles happen,” Armstrong said. “If anyone has a better answer, I'd love to hear it. I'm a firm believer that sometimes God is involved. And this is it.”
