My friend Mike Holcomb wrote me “The Scott/Ward universe has been extremely ill-served by Hollywood. I’m not expecting this one to turn things around.” and I told him not to worry. But I should have said, not to worry too much. For fans of Jay Ward’s relentlessly witty and smart “The Rocky And Bullwinkle Show” and so badly done to by “George Of The Jungle” and the historically atrocious live action Rocky and Bullwinkle, who agree with Mike, well, they have every reason to fear “Mr Peabody And Sherman”.
But this isn’t that, and despite its overt sentimentality, it doesn’t descend to the previous lows. But it isn’t quite right at all either. Mr. Peabody is a dog genius, Sherman his adopted son, and together the animated duo roam through time having run ins with the denizens of history in their WABAC. In this movie version that includes everyone from Moses in the bulrushes to King Tut.
On their five minute cartoon segments, this was a fast farce forward into the past filled with puns and jaundiced vision of history added to cheapo animation. In the movies, it is 80 minutes of kiddie movie replete with back story and feel good family values which still manages to retain enough of Jay Ward’s spirit to be worth the while.
Sherman (Max Charles) bites a girl at school and Mr. Peabody (Ty Burrell) is in danger of losing his son, so he invites the girl Penny and her parents to their penthouse (a real beauty!) apartment in Manhattan along with the social worker who doesn’t believe a dog can raise a boy.
Soooo, Sherman takes Penny on a trip in the WABAC where the child king King Tut wants to marry her and Sherman must get Peabody into the mix. From ancient to Troy to the Renaissance where Peabody has to make Mona Lisa smile is just a small step for mankind. It all ends in body talk and bruises and before you can say “The Family Guy” , Peabody is dead.
The movie looks fabulous and despite its inevitable gooeyiness, it is light on its feet and the slim 80 minutes go buy in a whirl of jokes and plot points. I could have done without the montage of Sherman’s pre-8 years old childhood to Lennon’s “Beautiful Boy” (which probably cost them more bucks than all the voice talent in the movie combined) but the end result was a movie that honors at least some of the spirit of Ward and will make for a late Sunday afternoon HBO treat for years to come.
Grade: B+
