IT’S THE SMALL THINGS, CHARLIE BROWN
A charming short about truth, courage, and doing right.
Should You Watch It?
Yes. This is a wholesome, funny animated short with an appealing moral center. The antics and conflicts among the children are amusing, while Snoopy and his little bird friends provide especially adorable and hilarious comic moments.
The story promotes standing up for your beliefs, speaking the truth, doing the right thing, and making the world more beautiful. It also gives children a gentle picture of love, repentance, forgiveness, and caring sibling relationships.
If you want a charming, morally uplifting family movie short, this is worth watching on Apple TV+.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESCharlie Brown believes this could be his baseball team’s year to beat Peppermint Patty’s team after three straight losses. But his sister Sally discovers a small yellow dandelion growing on the pitcher’s mound and promises to protect it.
When Charlie asks Sally to move, she refuses. With Lucy’s help, Sally’s stand attracts support from children throughout the neighborhood, placing the championship game in jeopardy.
Is It Any Good?
The four-star rating means this is an especially successful family short. It is cute, amusing, delightful, charming, and funny.
The children’s antics and conflicts supply steady amusement. Snoopy and his little bird friends are adorable and hilarious, including a sequence in which Snoopy acts like a superstar while the birds treat him like a celebrity. The film’s strong moral worldview adds substance to its gentle comedy.
The Worldview
The film strongly promotes standing up for your beliefs while also speaking out about the truth. It celebrates doing the right thing even when it conflicts with personal desires, cherishing the little things in life, and making the world more beautiful. Children beautify a baseball field with flowers, and the movie also includes a message about cleaning up the environment.
The story values loving and caring sibling relationships. Charlie Brown’s statement, “A promise is a promise,” reinforces the importance of keeping one’s word. The film also encourages faith that a difficult goal can be achieved and includes redemptive elements of repentance and forgiveness. Its support for the First Amendment and its environmental message are presented in a wholesome, community-minded way.
The film’s central moral vision aligns with biblical principles of truth, goodness, forgiveness, and loving others. Scripture says, “Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Very strong morally uplifting worldview promotes at various times standing up for your beliefs but also speaking out about truth, doing the right thing even when it doesn’t benefit your personal idiosyncratic desires, cherishing the little things in life, brothers and sisters loving and caring for one another, boy admits, “A promise is a promise,” boy exhorts his team to have faith they can win, and movie promotes making the world more beautiful when children beautify a baseball field with flowers, plus redemptive elements of repentance and forgiveness occur, the First Amendment is supported, and there’s a message about cleaning up the environment, but it’s more in line with the make America beautiful message of the 1960s rather than any false radical agenda
Foul Language
No foul language (title character says, “Good grief” several times and girl calls dog a “ball hog”)
Violence
Light slapstick violence such as brother and sister fight over a flower in a tug of war, baseball flies through a wooden box that a boy is standing on to pitch and it upends the pitcher and his clothes go flying off and leaves him only with his shorts on him, dog and his bird friends are filling up a little pool but the hose gets out of control and the water flies through boy’s bedroom window and wakes him up, dog dives into pool, and the water splashes boy’s face, flying baseball hits glass container holding purple Kool-Aid in it, and it splashes all over girl, dog chasing baseball trips and falls and plunges through wooden plank in fence, two players run into one another during practice, girl throws baseball into the air, and it lands on her helmet, girl swings at a baseball, and her bat goes flying into the backstop where it gets stuck inches from another girl’s face, baseball hits on top of boy’s ice cream cone, and the ice cream splatters onto his face, girl trips on her uniform which is too long and falls down, people fall down in other scenes, girl waters dandelion flower, and another girl slips on the water running off, and dog wants to steal cookies near open window, but boy shuts the window, and the window smashes onto dog’s black nose
Sex
No sex
Nudity
No nudity, but boy’s belly button is exposed when he loses his shirt
Alcohol Use
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
Miscellaneous Immorality
Boy asks a person to wish him luck for the big game.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Sally stands up for what she believes is right, but how can we speak truthfully and lovingly when others disagree?
Ephesians 4:15 · Proverbs 15:1Charlie Brown and Sally eventually learn to care for one another as brother and sister. What does Scripture say love should look like in a family?
1 Corinthians 13:4–7 · Ephesians 4:32The story includes repentance and forgiveness. Why are both important when someone has done wrong?
1 John 1:9 · Colossians 3:13The children make the baseball field more beautiful. What small acts can your family do to care for God’s world and your community?
Genesis 2:15 · Galatians 6:10The Final Word
This charming short offers laughter, wholesome fun, and a strong message about truth, promises, love, repentance, and forgiveness. For a family-friendly movie night, WORTH THE TRIP.
