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First look: 'Peanuts' gives a kick to Super Bowl weekend

Brian Truitt
USA TODAY
Charlie Brown gets punked by Lucy and the football yet again in "The Peanuts Movie."

Forget Deflategate and Ballghazi. Lucy van Pelt's been perpetrating questionable actions with footballs since Bill Belichick was in diapers.

After pulling the same pigskin prank on poor Charlie Brown for more than 60 years in the late Charles M. Schulz's popular comic strip, it's not hard to imagine that she let some air out at least once, "just to get that little bit of an edge and take a couple of pounds PSI out of there so that she makes certain not to slip up when she pulls that ball out from underneath him," says Steve Martino, director of the upcoming The Peanuts Movie.

Produced by Paul Feig and writer/producers Craig Schulz, Bryan Schulz and Cornelius Uliano, the upcoming 3-D computer-animated film (in theaters Nov. 6) includes the latest incarnation of the legendary football gag, and USA TODAY has the exclusive first look at that scene. Also, on Super Bowl Sunday, the NFL will airthe classic clip of Lucy getting the best of Charlie Brown from the 1973 TV special A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

Lucy originally did the practical joke on her round-headed friend in a strip that appeared in newspapers Nov. 16, 1952 — the first instance of the gag actually happened a year prior with the little girl Violet, who was worried that Charlie would kick her hand and pulled up the football at the last minute.

However, over the decades that followed it was always the politely mischievous Lucy doing the deed and coming up with various reasons why, from not wanting Charlie's shoes to dirty up her ball to blaming it on a random muscle spasm.

For Martino, the scene speaks volumes about both characters.

"Charlie Brown is willing to trust and believe that, yeah, this time will be different. And when he buys in, he buys in full force," says Martino.

What makes it iconic for him is the fact that Peanuts fans have seen it multiple times over the years but it never gets old watching Charlie Brown back in that familiar situation and always getting suckered into airborne humiliation.

"We've all been there in some form in our lives," Martino adds. "Charlie Brown, he is us in so many respects. He's just us to the extreme."

The filmmakers wanted The Peanuts Movie to be a fresh experience and not simply a collection of the best bits over the years. However, Martino says they hatched a way to organically fit in Lucy teeing up the football once more, "and as we worked on the story and crafted the message, we found a good reason as to why Charlie Brown might fall subject to this again."

Charlie's somehow remained a football fan despite his history of kicking gaffs, but Martino doesn't know if the kid would be rooting for the New England Patriots or the Seattle Seahawks this Sunday.

"The essence of where Charlie Brown came from was Charles Schulz's childhood in Minnesota," the director says, "and that'd put him about equidistant between the two places.

"He's right down the middle, but he'd definitely be there watching."

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