‘Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical’ Interview: Ben Folds

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‘Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical’ composer Ben Folds.

Premiering on Apple TV+ August 15th is the first Peanuts musical in over three decades entitled ‘Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical‘, which features original songs by Emmy Award nominees Jeff Morrow and Ben Folds (Ben Folds Five).

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with musician and composer Ben Folds about his work on ‘Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical’, his love for Peanuts, writing the music for the special, and why people still love Snoopy and Charlie Brown.

(L to R) Lucy, Linus, Peppermint Patty, Charlie Brown, Franklin and Marcie in “Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical’, now streaming on Apple TV+.

Moviefone: To begin with, were you a fan of Charlie Brown and Peanuts when you were growing up, and how did you get involved in the project?

Ben Folds: I mean, I grew up with it, like we all did. There are not many things that we can say that we all grew up with. The Peanuts world is, you know the tone, and you know the characters and Charlie Brown’s is just such a great character. I suppose that Charles Schultz probably saw himself as Charlie Brown, and I think many of us do. I felt like that when I was a kid and I kind of feel like that now. It’s a melancholic, but not depressive place, thoughtful, and he always telegraphs his moods. That’s just deep. So, I don’t know how you could not be a fan. It’s a world that we’ve all lived in and that shows you how good it is. You know, it’s half a century later and it’s surviving, amidst a lot of loud stuff for kids, for decades. This just keeps cruising through because it’s real, and this musical is the same way. It’s taps into the best of both. I mean, it’s gorgeous animation. It’s plenty entertaining. I mean, it’s a musical, you know. But at the same time, we’re allowed to be philosophical inside it, which is why I took the project.

(L to R) Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Sally and friends in ‘Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical’, now streaming on Apple TV+.

MF: Can you talk about the process of writing the music for this special and was it a different process than when you write your own music?

BF: It’s not that different, which is what’s kind of interesting. Some of it is because luckily, my three songs are all Charlie Brown songs. So, I can sit inside his head and get there. They go from him being rather despondent about the state of the camp. It’s going to be mowed over, and they’re going to put malls up and all the generations before, and all the generations after them will be sad about this. He carries all that and over the course of it, of course, they begin to win the battle, so he’s coming up out of a hole. For me, it was like riding life, and I understand him. You know, the specter of Vince Guaraldi was there, I grew up with that and I can do a little bit of that for reference, but it wasn’t that important. What was the most important was the mood that Guaraldi was part of the team that helped set a world. Now, if the music for the original Peanuts had just been crazy stuff, that would have really changed the way that we see it and see the world.

(L to R) Sally, Charlie Brown and Snoopy in ‘Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical’, now streaming on Apple TV+.

MF: Finally, can you about the legacy of Peanuts and the timelessness of the characters? Why do audiences still love Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and their friends all these years after they were first created?

BF: Peanuts has never been something that was so bright and loud that it just jumps out at you. For that reason, I know when I was a kid, I was attracted to that stuff. I liked all the crazy stuff. But what is there when the noise dies down is real life and real thoughts and somehow Peanuts has been able to create that world in a way that has always been entertaining and thoughtful. So, it’s like when all your fair-weather friends have stopped making loud noise and the sugar buzz has worn off, Peanuts is still there, 50 years later. So, when you work inside, you appreciate it even more because I realized how deep Charlie Brown’s personality is. It’s not in what’s said, it’s always been in what hasn’t been said. So, when you see a quiet kid in the back of the class, they get even more quiet and it’s something that might be a deep subject, but we know that they’re thinking about it. Isn’t that more effective than letting the kid spout every single little thing that he’s thinking? So, that informs the songwriting. I love this old school classic songcraft and this is the place for it. So, I feel like the gig had my name written on it personally, and I was quite happy to do it.

(L to R) Woodstock and Snoopy in ‘Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical’, now streaming on Apple TV+.

What is the plot of ‘Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical’?

In the first Peanuts musical in over three decades, Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the rest of the gang break out in original songs by Emmy Award nominees Jeff Morrow and Ben Folds in the latest franchise special that invites kids and families to discover the magic of summer camp.