Snoopy is going French

SNOOPY and his friends are making a comeback to French television in a new cartoon series made for France Télévisions by an animation studio based in Angoulême.

The holders of the rights to the popular comic strips, Peanuts Worldwide, entrusted the making of the new Peanuts series to Normaal, who claim to have brought a stylish “French touch” to the task with their “savoir-faire”.

Even so, a spokesman for the series said the episodes are pure Charles M. Schulz, without any obvious Frenchness to the themes. “It’s the same spirit, with the familiar values, about family and friendship and loyalty – and with lots of humour,” he said.

“Peanuts is well-known in France to a slightly older age group, but now we’re targeting young people who’ve not seen Snoopy before, even if they might know some of the characters.”

As in the UK, American-made “TV specials” were shown in the 1970s and 1980s, but the all-new French series has a fresh, fun style like the paper strips brought to life. It will consist of brief episodes – like the original strips - spread over seven-minute blocks. It will be shown on France 3, from November 9.

Five hundred short “strips” have been made, in French as well as English. You can download one here, if you feel like practising your French: Peanuts download

Can you work out what Lucy is saying in the scene we took our still image from? (scroll down for the answer).

The new Peanuts is being presented at the MIP Junior show in Cannes this weekend. It ties in with Peanuts’ 65th anniversary in 2015, with a 3D movie in the pipeline for the end of 2015 by the director of Ice Age: Continental Drift.

Peanuts is the most popular comic strip of all time and has been called “arguably the longest story ever told by one human being” - from 1950 to 2000 Schultz wrote and drew nearly 18,000 strips.

Photo: Screen shot from one of the new cartoons, made by Normaal for Peanuts Worldwide LLC in partnership with France Télévisions