MR. PEABODY AND SHERMAN (7 out of 10) Directed by Rob Minkoff; written by Jay Ward and Craig Wright; starring the voices of Ty Burrell, Max Charles, Ariel Winter, Allison Janney, Stephen Colbert, Stephen Tobolowsky, Mel Brooks, Leslie Mann, Stanley Tucci, Patrick Warburton, Lake Bell, Zach Callison and Dennis Haysbert; rated PG (some mild action and brief rude humor); in general release; running time: 92 minutes.
Do you like time travel movies? Do you like puns? Do you like learning about history, at least a little bit, in a way only 1970’s era cartoons like Schoolhouse Rock can teach it?
Or, really, I should ask, are you a parent of a child under the age of 10 and you, yourself, were born in the late 60’s or 70’s? Then you’re going to like “Mr. Peabody and Sherman.”
By all accounts, this movie should be terrible. A reboot of a once-popular franchise, mining nostalgia for dollars, and gussying it up with 3D computer animation. (PS– the 3D is not necessary for this film. While it is cool for two scenes of rocketing through time, there is almost nothing else worth the extra expense, especially assuming you’re bringing kids.) And puns. Loads of puns.
And yet somehow, this all works.
I credit both the script and director, who seem to understand exactly what they’re doing here, but also the charm of Ty Burrell as the eponymous genius dog Mr. Peabody, who has adopted a human boy, Sherman, and attempts to teach him about history by using his time machine.
Burrell is funny, but doesn’t overplay the jokes. He delivers the punchlines perfectly, but during the tender moments is able to bring real pathos to an animated dog.
The rest of the voice cast is also amazing. Stephen Colbert and Leslie Mann play a couple who come over for dinner to much hilarity. But Patrick Warburton, who doesn’t show up until over an hour into the movie, threatens to steal the whole thing as Agamemmnon, the Greek King fighting in the Trojan War.
Especially compared to recent animated movies that were not made by Disney or Pixar, like The Nut Job, Free Birds, or Turbo, Peabody and Sherman knock it out of the park. Not only was it really fun for kids, there’s plenty of jokes and historical references that adults will enjoy. (There’s a Bill Clinton joke near the end of the movie that is probably the best of the film). Much like the similarly excellent Lego Movie, kids will laugh, but when revisiting this with kids of their own, will marvel at everything that went over their heads.
For fans of time travel as a genre, there’s also some fun here. As shown in the trailers, (so this isn’t really a spoiler) some of Sherman’s adventures end up tearing a hole in the space-time continuum. Lots of time-travelling-tropes are explored and dealt with satisfactorily.
This isn’t a perfect film. The sentimental notes and the main storyline of a dad and his son fall a little flat compared to the hijinks of the time travel adventure. And I much prefer the Mr. Peabody the genius who can play any musical instrument, engineer an escape from certain death to the one who has a hard time letting his son grow up. There’s also a storyline about Sherman feeling out of place because his dad’s a dog. Even the emotional payoff at the end doesn’t really hit home. Get back to the space-time continuum conundrum, already!
So go check this out. And anyone who tries to naysay this movie, just tell them, “Quiet You!”