STORY: Franklin Armstrong is a kid without a home. He's the sole child in a military family, and as such, lacks the emotional ballasts that other children may take for granted. Landing in Peanutsville, USA, he bucks up and explores the neighborhood, a sweet young boy intent on making the best of yet another less-than ideal situation. 10
MUSIC: With no disrespect intended to Jeff Morrow's contributions, the inclusion of songs by Billy Preston, John Coltrane and Chuck Berry (intended to evoke the late Sixties period when Franklin joined the strip) is more than enough to warrant a 10. Not in the tradition of Peanuts to depend on popular tuneage, certainly, but in this case the exception rules.
ANIMATION: Nothing groundbreaking. Smart shading, lovely coloring, and some tasty lookin' slices of pizza. 9
VOICES: Everyone delivers. Fittingly, top honors go to Caleb Bellavance as the boy of the hour.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
--That Franklin feels utterly lost until he meets Charlie Brown says it all. They bond over baseball, music, and soap box derby racers. It's nice to enjoy some modern media that doesn't feel compelled to dilute its sweet nature with misguided spoonfuls of self-awareness.
--Helping the Schulz family and Scott Montgomery on the script is Robb Armstrong. At just three years old, Armstrong told his mother he'd grow up to be a cartoonist. At age six, he along with millions of other readers worldwide, witnessed the desegregation of Peanuts.
Twenty-one years later, Armstrong saw the syndication of his own strip. Still going strong, Jump Start gave readers a glimpse into a side of black America Armstrong saw represented nowhere else: the loving, hard-working, middle-class family. His work caught the eye of Charles Schulz himself, and the two men struck up a friendship that lasted until Sparky's passing.
The dedicated student dreams of impressing their teacher, and so it went for Robb Armstrong one day in the early 1990s, when Schulz called him up with a request. A new Peanuts special was in the works, and Franklin needed a last name. "Could I name him Franklin Armstrong?" Although this last name appeared only in You're In the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown, never in the strips, it can be securely stated that a last name suggested by Schulz himself, and with such a personal meaning, it is indeed canon.
A BAD PEACE
--"Pizza? Of course! Who doesn't like pizza?" I'll tell you who doesn't like pizza, Franklin--losers. Or people with allergies, who are also losers, but losers I feel sympathy for.
--The fourth-wall break near the start of the show would work with no other character.
--This isn't some rote animation of original strips, though. The warm vibes of Welcome Home, Franklin cannot abide this energy:
--Count me among those tickled by the "retconning" of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Unnecessary, sure, but what grade of jackaninny is offended by a scene in a children's TV program made with the express intent of promoting kindness and comradery?
SCORE
Much like Monie Love listening to Dilla beats, I get "the feel good" watching Welcome Home, Franklin. Back-to-back smash hits from the Apple era. 10
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