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Snoopy is a fictional character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. He is Charlie Brown's pet dog. Snoopy began his life in the strip as a fairly conventional dog, but eventually evolved into perhaps the strip's most dynamic character—and among the most recognizable comic characters in the world. The original drawings of Snoopy were "greatly patterned" after Spike, one of Schulz's childhood dogs.[1][2]
Character
Snoopy, whose fictional birthday has been established as August 10, made his first appearance in the strip of October 4, 1950, two days after the strip premiered. He was first identified by name on November 10. Schulz was originally going to call him "Sniffy" (as described in the 25th anniversary book), until he discovered that name was used in a different comic strip. He changed it to "Snoopy" after remembering that his late mother Dena Schulz had commented that if their family were ever to acquire a third dog, it should be called Snoopy, an affectionate term in Norwegian (the actual term is "Snuppa").[3]In earlier strips it is not clear to whom Snoopy belongs. For instance, in the February 2, 1951, strip, Charlie Brown accuses Snoopy of following him, only to be told by Patty that Snoopy isn't following Charlie Brown, but merely lives in the same direction.[4] Indeed many early strips show Snoopy interacting with Shermy (who is shown in one early strip running with Snoopy on his leash) and Patty without Charlie Brown, making Snoopy appear to belong to all of the neighborhood kids, similar to the dog Pete in the Our Gang comedies, who is everyone's dog. (Note: in days of yore, it was common for dogs to roam their local area and congregate with local children, and then return to their respective homes). Later, Charlie Brown states that his parents bought Snoopy for him at the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm, after another boy had dumped sand on him while playing in a sandbox.
Snoopy was a silent character for the first two years of his existence, but on May 27, 1952, he verbalized his thoughts to readers for the first time in a thought balloon; Schulz would utilize this device for nearly all of the character's appearances in the strip thereafter. At first, Snoopy acted as a normal dog, and would only think in simple one-word phrases (such as "FOOD!"), but then became more articulate.
In addition to Snoopy's ability to "speak" his thoughts to the reader, many of the human characters in Peanuts have the uncanny knack of reading his thoughts and responding to them. In the animated Peanuts films and television specials, Snoopy's thoughts are not verbalized; his moods are instead conveyed through growls, sobs, laughter, and monosyllabic utterances such as "bleah," "hey," etc. as well as through pantomime. Unlike a regular dog, other characters treat him intelligently by taking directions from him, incorporating him into the local baseball team, and so on despite his inability to speak (this anthropomorphic tendency increased as time went on).
The only exceptions are in the animated adaptations of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Snoopy!!! The Musical, in which Snoopy's thoughts are verbalized through voice overs (by Robert Towers and Cam Clarke, respectively). Animation producer Bill Meléndez voiced both Snoopy and (eventually) Woodstock in numerous television specials from 1965 to 2006. In Peanuts Motion Comics, Snoopy's thoughts appear onscreen as text in thought bubbles, without voice.
Oddly enough, the first time a beagle was mentioned in the strip (December 5, 1960), Snoopy denied being one. As Snoopy dozed, Charlie Brown paraphrased Gertrude Stein: "Beagles on the grass, alas." To this, Snoopy replied, "I ain't no stupid beagle!" (Years later, Snoopy would paraphrase the Stein expression himself: "Pigeons on the grass, alas; Dogs on the ground, abound." (June 25, 1982)
As the series progressed, Snoopy became a more human-like dog. His character is that of a dog who pretends to be a person (or who sometimes forgets he is a dog). In one Peanuts strip, Sally had to do a report on animals for school, and requested Snoopy's help. But Snoopy was reluctant. "How can I help?" he thought. "I don't know any animals."
Many of Peanuts' memorable moments come in Snoopy's efforts as a novelist: his eternal opener on the typewriter "It was a dark and stormy night..." is taken from Edward George Bulwer-Lytton's 1830 novel Paul Clifford. Almost all his submissions are rejected by potential publishers, who eventually resort to rude dismissals and cruel jokes to attempt to prevent being bothered by Snoopy. The contrast between Snoopy's existence in a dream world and Charlie Brown's in the real world is central to the humour and philosophy of Peanuts (e.g., the Peanuts book title Life's a Dream, Charlie Brown). "It Was A Dark And Stormy Night" remains his most successful work.
Schulz summed up Snoopy's character in a 1997 interview: "He has to retreat into his fanciful world in order to survive. Otherwise, he leads kind of a dull, miserable life. I don't envy dogs the lives they have to live."[5]
Developments
Schulz once said that the best idea he ever had in the strip was to move Snoopy from inside his doghouse to the rooftop.[citation needed] Preceding that, there was a gradual evolution of the character, from something like an actual dog to an anthropomorphic character, more like typical cartoon animals. He also thought that this would give a better image to children to use more of their imagination and characterized it as the Mary Poppins syndrome, by letting people believe that his doghouse could be anything he wanted it to be.His earliest impersonation was of a bird on August 9, 1951. Later (starting November 17, 1956), Snoopy engaged in dead-on imitations of Violet, a pelican, Lucy, a moose, Beethoven and Mickey Mouse (to which Charlie Brown responded, "Frightening, isn't it?"). He would also pretend to be other animals, including a snake, rhinoceros, lion, and vulture. But his eccentricities did not stop there.
On June 28, 1957, Snoopy walked on his two hind like a human, for the first time. This soon became so commonplace as to be almost unnoticeable, as Snoopy developed a variety of Walter Mitty-esque alter egos (often beginning "Here's the world-famous [name of occupation]"). Snoopy's transformation to walking to two feet also was accompanied by his larger snout and great body length. Furthermore, Snoopy takes his fantasies so seriously that he plays out even unpleasant elements of them such as taking lengthy penalties in hockey games or facing humiliating disciplinary actions for incompetence.
One of Snoopy's most famous alter-egos is as the World War I Flying Ace (first appearance, October 10, 1965), often seen battling his archenemy, Manfred von Richthofen, (the Red Baron). When assuming this personality, Snoopy would don goggles, a flying helmet and a scarf and climb on top of his doghouse, which he claimed was a Sopwith Camel. The Red Baron, like other adult figures in Peanuts, was never drawn in a strip; his presence was indicated through the bullet holes that would riddle the doghouse, and Snoopy's fist-shaking and cries of "Curse you, Red Baron!" while his "Sopwith Camel" doghouse plummeted to earth trailing smoke. Allied records are vague on these encounters and the official stance of the United States Department of Defense is that they can neither confirm nor deny Snoopy's wartime service. In I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown Charlie Brown's sister Sally Brown jumps on the doghouse and flies with Snoopy.
Snoopy also became "Joe Cool" as he put on sunglasses and leaned against the wall doing nothing. Snoopy has also been a famous writer (who was actually published once, in an October 1995 storyline, in which one copy of his unnamed novel was printed, but it failed to sell); a bow-tie wearing attorney (who once defended Peter Rabbit), a hockey player, an Olympic figure skater (who used to skate with Peggy Fleming before he became "big time"); a world famous grocery checkout clerk who operated from the top of his dog house in an apron; the "Lone Beagle" (the first dog to fly solo across the Atlantic – a play on Charles Lindbergh, "The Lone Eagle"); and even the first astronaut to land on the moon. In "It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown", Snoopy becomes a Flash dancer named "Flashbeagle".
Outside of his fantasy life, he plays shortstop on Charlie Brown's Little League team; he is the best player, nearly passing Babe Ruth on the career home run list, and an excellent fielder due to his ability to catch fly balls in his mouth. Snoopy is also a "Beagle Scout", the Peanuts version of Eagle Scout and is the Scout leader for a troop composed of Woodstock and his other bird friends, such as Bill, Harriet, and Conrad. This Scouting theme reappears throughout the comic strip.
Snoopy is also a tennis player. He does tend to double-fault frequently, which sends him into rage-filled temper tantrums during which he screams and destroys his racket, a la John McEnroe. He has also played in mixed-doubles, usually pairing with the garage door (whose best quality as a player, according to Snoopy, is that "he never foot faults") and later teaming up with the short-tempered, cantankerous Molly Volley.
Snoopy loves root beer and pizza, hates coconut candy, gets claustrophobia in tall weeds, and is deathly afraid of icicles dangling over his doghouse. One of his hobbies is reading Leo Tolstoy's epic novel War and Peace at the rate of "a word a day". Snoopy also has the uncanny ability to play fetch with soap bubbles, and can hear someone eating marshmallows or cookies at a distance, or even peeling a banana. Snoopy is also capable of disappearing, like the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, as shown in an extended strip, whenever Charlie Brown reads the book to him. ("Grins are easy. Noses are hard. Ears are almost impossible."). Two things Snoopy dislikes are listening to balloons being squeezed and cats.
He can also use his ears to fly about as a "whirlydog". Snoopy even became a canine helicopter, with Woodstock piloting. This gag appeared in the strip several times, most famously rescuing Linus from the top of a barn after being commissioned by Sally. When asked by Linus where he learned to pilot, Woodstock replied in his usual apostrophes, which Linus interpreted as meaning "'Nam". The gag also appeared in It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown.
Snoopy "understands a little French." His dog food brand is called "For Dogs who flew in World War I and understand a little French". He later was also depicted as a sergeant in the French Foreign Legion (inspired by the film Beau Geste from 1966), with Woodstock and his avian friends as members of his patrol. He failed his high school geometry course, which was his excuse for not being able to follow a golf course's 90 degree golf cart driving rule.
Snoopy is also adept at the accordion, although his repertoire is limited to "polkas, waltzes, and schottisches", the names of which billow from the instrument as he plays.
Snoopy climbed trees at least five times—once to rescue Schroeder's piano, once to rescue Linus's blanket, once to see a "strange creature" in Woodstock's nest which turned out to be an egg, once after Frieda's cat Faron, and once with Charlie Brown, Schroeder, and an unnamed Peanuts kid. He fell out of the tree almost every time. (Note: In his "vulture" persona and when visiting Woodstock's nest, Snoopy was depicted in trees many times.)
Every Veterans Day, Snoopy dresses as an army veteran and goes to army cartoonist Bill Mauldin's house to "quaff root beer and tell war stories."[6]
Snoopy has been as much a failure at love with female dogs as his owner Charlie Brown has been at baseball and kite flying. In early 1965, he met a girl beagle at an ice skating rink and fell in love. However, his girlfriend's father forbade marriage between the two; "he could never allow his daughter to marry an obedience school dropout", as Snoopy put it, and so turned to eating to attempt to forget her. It didn't work: "I'll always have a few memories and a fat stomach", he griped. Later that same year he met her again on the beach and tried surfing to impress her, only to wipe out. Charlie Brown told Snoopy he'd been making a fool of himself for nothing; the girl beagle in question had been seen walking on the beach with a golden retriever, which broke his heart all over again. In 1977, he met a female while serving as guard dog for Peppermint Patty, fell in love with her, and gave her a proposal of marriage. But he was crushed on his wedding day when she ran off with the "best beagle", Spike, although when they arrived in Needles, she left Spike for a coyote. (Snoopy's Getting Married, Charlie Brown follows this same storyline, except Snoopy's bride-to-be ran off with a golden retriever.) In 1970, he went to the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm (where he'd allegedly taught Sunday school at one point) to give a 4th of July speech. However, as he was about to begin, he was beaned with a supper dish by anti-Vietnam War protesters, and a full scale riot broke out, during which police used tear gas to control the crowd. In all the confusion, Snoopy ran off the podium and was lost in the crowd. While blinded by tear gas, he felt a girl beagle's paws, but the tear gas prevented him from seeing her. By the time Charlie Brown had tracked her down, the farm informed them that she'd been sold, thus breaking Snoopy's heart again. By this time, Snoopy had regained his vision. "What do you do?" Snoopy woefully asks, and then immediately answers: "Back to eating!" And in the TV special Life Is a Circus, Charlie Brown, Snoopy met a circus-performing female French poodle named Fifi and fell so hopelessly in love with her, he left Charlie Brown to join the circus as "Hugo the Great". But eventually, he tried to take Fifi with him when he ran away from the circus. Fifi, after considering a while, would have no part of it, feeling that her proper place was the circus. They parted ways, again leaving Snoopy brokenhearted. It is said that Snoopy's only regret was that he was not a Golden Retriever, as his loves usually fall for one. Snoopy frequently falls for Lucy van Pelt, and when he kisses Lucy, she yells in disgust about having been "kissed by a dog" and having "dog germs". However, he has also been seen kissing the other female characters, who are far more accepting of his gestures than Lucy is.
Snoopy also served a short term as the "Head Beagle," the dog apparently in charge of all other dogs in the world. The pressures and responsibilities of the job became too much for him, and he was replaced.
Puppyhood and siblings
Over the course of the strip's run, it was revealed that Snoopy had been born and raised at the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm. His father used to run with hunting dogs, but would secretly run ahead and warn the rabbits. His mother is famous for her tapioca pudding, and in a 1990s Peanuts strip, came over on a World War I-era troopship to visit Snoopy and Spike, who had been ill with the flu. Out of all his siblings, Snoopy's brother Olaf was sold last. Before they were sold, Snoopy and his brothers and sisters made a band and one by one each was sold. Snoopy's original owner was a little girl named Lila, who had to return him to Daisy Hill after her family moved to an apartment where dogs were forbidden.Shortly after his return to the farm, Snoopy was selected by Charlie Brown's parents as a companion for him. In the strip for January 30, 1972, Charlie Brown says that his parents bought Snoopy for him to cheer him up after another child threw sand in his face while they were playing in a sandbox. In the strips for November, 1972, while accompanying Woodstock on his winter migration, Snoopy realizes he is near the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm. He decides to show Woodstock where he was born, only to find that the puppy farm has been replaced by a six-story parking garage, causing Snoopy to wail, "You stupid people! You're parking on my memories!" (November 24, 1972). This is also reflected in the 1991 animated special Snoopy's Reunion, where Snoopy and his siblings get together at the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm for a picnic, but sadly find out that it was demolished for a parking garage.
Snoopy is usually depicted as having seven siblings, five of whom appear at some point in the strip: Andy, Belle, Marbles, Olaf, and Spike. Most often seen is Spike, who lives in the desert (near the real-life locale of Needles, California). Sharing Snoopy's penchant for a fantasy life, he is friends with saguaro cacti. Spike is very thin, wears a fedora and has long whiskers. (Spike was the name of one of Schulz's childhood pet dogs.)
Andy looks like a disheveled version of Snoopy. Olaf, who wears a fur cap, is round in both body and face. Marbles is the smartest in the group. He has spots on his fur (making him look somewhat like a Dalmatian), wears shoes, and considers some of Snoopy's behavior very odd. Belle, who looks like Snoopy with long eyelashes, is most notable in that there was a Belle stuffed animal available for many years.
Although Snoopy often mentions that he was one of eight puppies, the two other siblings never appeared in the comic strip. According to the animated special Snoopy's Reunion, they are named Molly and Rover. They all play in a country band in that special, with Snoopy on the acoustic guitar.
In a 1965 strip, Snoopy set up a "family reunion" and it was stated that he had two brothers (one lived in Washington and the other in Texas) and three sisters (one in St.Louis, one in Hollywood and the last one in Kansas). After the reunion, Snoopy was apparently disappointed, for immediately after arriving home he stated, "The anticipation far exceeded the actual event."
Many years before his siblings appeared, Snoopy referred to himself as an "only dog" who had no brothers or sisters.
Like Snoopy, his siblings' thoughts are communicated via thought balloon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snoopy
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