Time Warner’s Boomerang network in the US will begin airing the animated adventures of Charles Schulz’ “Peanuts” characters starting May 9. However, the characters may not look exactly how fans of the classic cartoons (like A Charlie Brown Christmas) remember.
This is because, as Variety explains, the new vignettes will be crafted by a different studio — which makes sense, because A Charlie Brown Christmas is from 1965. Instead, they come from France’s Normaal Animation, which has actually been making “Peanuts” cartoons since 2014 for European audiences.
The look of the new (to US viewers, anyway) shorts does resemble the “Peanuts” cartoons of yore more than Blue Sky’s 3D computer-animated The Peanuts Movie, which came out last year. But it’s not entirely old-school, as Variety reports:
The series is billed as using a watercolor art style and textured backgrounds that is aimed at pleasing both classic and new fans.
There’s no word word if the French shorts (which are based directly on Schulz’ strips) contain what was probably the classic cartoons’ lasting gift to pop culture: the “waah waah” adult voice.