Welcome Home, Franklin

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MOVIE | The Peanuts comic strip’s first black character gets a touching origin story in a well-animated production about selfless friendship

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➤Rated TV-G
➤Apple TV+

Franklin Armstrong was the Peanuts comic strip’s first black character, added by Charles Schulz the same year as Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. Now the new short film Welcome Home, Franklin gives the character an origin story that touches on race but teaches that looking beyond differences is the key to reconciliation.

Franklin’s dad is in the military, and the family doesn’t stay in one place for long. Franklin is determined to try extra hard to make friends when he arrives in a new town. Actually, he tries too hard and ends up botching first impressions with Linus and Lucy. He then meets Charlie Brown, another awkward kid, and the two misfits hit it off. Their first meeting at the beach is taken from the comic strip where Franklin first appeared. Charlie Brown and Franklin team up to compete in a Soap Box Derby race.

When he first gets to the suburban town, Franklin remarks about its “lack of variety.” But he and Charlie Brown learn a lot from each other. While assembling their homemade car, Franklin says that his great uncle couldn’t play baseball with whites and instead joined a Negro league. Charlie Brown then teaches Franklin about loving sacrificially, even when people don’t look or think alike.

Charles Schulz gave Franklin the last name of a young cartoonist named Robb Armstrong. Robb Armstrong helped to create this film, and his admiration for Schulz shows. The animation, while more sophisticated, is just as vibrant as specials like A Charlie Brown Christmas. The dialogue is clever, accompanied by lots of jazz. And in the spirit of previous Peanuts films, Welcome Home, Franklin stays faithful to the comics by promoting selfless friendship.