Mr. Peabody and Sherman

Year: 2014 (USA)
Genre: Animated Comedy
Directed: Rob Minkoff
Stars: Ty Burrell, Max Charles, Lauri Fraser, Guillaume Aretos, Patrice A. Musick, Ariel Winter, Karan Brar, Joshua Rush, Stephen Tobolowsky, Allison Janney, Leslie Mann, Stephen Colbert
Production: DreamWorks Animation

Mr. Peabody’s Improbable History was a small sometimes five minute reoccurring cartoon sketch wedged into The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show (1959-1961) as a humorous quasi-educational segment. In it Mr. Peabody (originally voiced by Bill Scott), a dog and smartest mind in the world adopted a human child named Sherman (Walter Tetley). Needing a quality education, Mr. Peabody invents the Wayback Machine to give Sherman substantive lessons in World History. While throwing in some usefully factoids, the majority of the cartoon was filled with clever historical in-jokes and plays on words.

 

They also went hunting for Communists!

The full-length big-screen version of the time-travelling duo takes advantage of its dated material to make for entertaining fare. In it Peabody (now voiced by Ty Burrell) risks losing his son (Max Charles) after he gets into a fight at school and bites a classmate. “A dog can never be a father to a human boy” says Ms. Grunion (Allison Janney) of Child Protective Services. Attempting to patch things up before things get grave, Peabody invites the family of accosted classmate Penny (Ariel Winter) to dinner which leads to Sherman using the Wayback Machine and inadvertently leaving Penny in Ancient Egypt. Can Peabody and Sherman get Penny back home before they destroy the very fabric of space and time?

 

Evil Spock says no. But then again, he's a prick

First the good news; we all still exists (depending on who you ask). The space time continuum was not flummoxed by Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014). Additionally, the film provides some inspired lessons on alternative families, caring for your loved ones and discovering your potential. The color scheme in the film pops out at you and the animation is wonderful. Credit must be given to Rob Minkoff who also worked on such classic fare as The Little Mermaid (1989), The Lion King (1994) and Stuart Little (1999). Additionally as with the source material, the dialogue is amusing and the history for the most part works. If you’re a parent with young children I recommend Mr. Peabody & Sherman as it is both colorful and doesn't talk down to your kids.

On second thought, maybe Sherman should be in a better home

That being said, the film is not without its faults which includes some gags falling flat. While in a live action film it’s impressive to see a character make mixed drinks by juggling glasses, ice trays and bar shakers, in a cartoon its not quite fun unless someone’s prat-falling. Peabody himself is as smooth, elegant and self-assured as Dean Martin but Sherman’s Jerry Lewis-like antics come off as cloying more than they do entertaining by comparison. Perhaps if Peabody was a little more self-absorbed or a little more ascorbic we wouldn’t feel quite so bad for him every time Sherman or Penny screws something up.

As with all time machine movies Peabody has talk about time travel paradoxes and other metaphysical quandaries yet here there’s no effort to make those event and conversations believable or understandable to the audience. If the writers wanted to simply remove references to altering the present through the past a la Midnight in Paris (2011) they could have done so keeping the story centered on getting home. Or if they really wanted to go Back to the Future Part II (1989) on us it’d allow for decent after-film conversations with parents and their middle-schoolers. Unfortunately they wanted to have their cake and eat it too; leaving the audience without adequate info yet half-heartedly throwing in an explanation or too. All for the sake of seeing Beethoven on a Dance Dance Revolution machine.

Also aliens

 I now take a moment to be unreasonable. The criticisms below are more a reflection of my own delirium than valid criticisms of the film. Believe me when I tell you overall, Mr. Peabody & Sherman is worthwhile. That being said its rife with historical inaccuracies which I will expand on now:

First off Marie Antoinette never said “let them eat cake.” In the words of Sherman himself when explaining George Washington’s Cherry Tree story, “it’s apocryphal”. Robespierre was also in French province of Artois in 1789 during the Women’s March on Versailles and I also strongly doubt Robespierre made a habit of being upfront and center for guillotine beheadings. The Ancient Egyptians didn’t have a habit of killing and mummifying the wife of the late king. I strongly doubt Agamemnon was actually part of the raiding part inside the Trojan Horse through Odysseus (who appeared outside of the horse) likely was. Also the film portrays Achilles as dead and Ajax as alive and well while according to the Iliad the opposite is true. In addition I doubt Agamemnon knew Oedipus though kudos on the in-joke. Da Vinci did not make a model of his flying machine, George Washington did not say “we hold these truths to be self-evident” nor did he write it, that was Thomas Jefferson and finally Zumba was invented by Alberto “Beto” Perez not Mr. Peabody.

There now that I have proven to be a complete party pooper, I once again reiterate this film is decent. Kids will enjoy it, adults won’t despise it and the elderly will recall the segments of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show when Sherman and Mr. Peabody first made their debut. As for students of history or time-travel enthusiasts, maybe you should consider the movie apocryphal.

Presidential seal of tacit approval

Final Grade: C-