500 New ‘Peanuts’ Shorts to be Produced…By France?

The beloved Peanuts franchise seems to be going through some very strange changes lately. If you didn’t know this, a new Peanuts film will be released, but in 3D and CGI when the franchise is very well known for its iconic 2D characters. Now, the newest news in this increasingly changing franchise is that 500 new shorts will be produced, but strangely enough, by the Normaal Animation studio in France.

I have nothing against the French producing these shorts, but it does seem a little different for a franchise known for being very American. But I mean, for all I know all of the Peanuts films were produced overseas (in my brief research, I did not find any location for the production of these films, so correct me if I am wrong). The whole franchise just seems so American that I find this concept kind of unusual.

I am not discounting these–this is just a franchise that I care deeply about, so no matter where they are produced, I hope that these shorts turn out well!

Each short will be 90-seconds long, and will be available for international distribution in the fall of 2014. There is still no word as to whether these shorts will be 2D or CGI; however, they will be used to get people excited for the full-length film to be released in 2015.

“Partnering with a dynamic production house such as Normaal Animation and a leading broadcaster like France Televisions, is a key step in our strategy to build all new content based on the characters and storylines by Charles Schulz,” says Neil Cole, chairman and CEO of Iconix Brand Group which will be one of the partners in producing these shorts. “The new collection and format will also provide us with the opportunity to continually keep the characters in front of new generations of Peanuts fans.”

What do you think of the idea of these Peanuts shorts?