Happy birthday, Snoopy! The most imaginative character from the late illustrator Charles Schulz’s beloved comic strip turns 65 today (although a few web sites claim it was actually August 4). The good-natured beagle is prone to imagining fantasy lives, including being an author, a college student known as “Joe Cool” and a World War One flying Ace.
ArtNet News reports that Tokyo will soon have its very own Snoopy Museum, opening in March 2016. The museum is slated to operate for just two and a half years, through September 2018. There is already a museum dedicated to the Peanuts in Santa Rosa, California— the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center—but the Japanese are certain to take the presentation of the cartoon characters to the next level.
Speaking of the next level, a state of the art 3-D animated The Peanuts Movie is scheduled to be released on November 6, 2015 and we’re not so sure about it. The flat animated television Peanuts specials had a very understated charm and, although the new film’s composer promises that he includes some touches of the original scores by Vince Guaraldi, the trailers look like this movie and its music will be more action packed than the originals ever meant to be.
We’ll have to wait and see. But, meanwhile—enjoy your day, old man!