Mr. Peabody and Sherman

(2014)
Directed by Rob Minkoff
Written by Craig Wright. Additional dialog by Robert Ben Garant
Starring (voice): Ty Burrell, Max Charles, Ariel Winter, Stephen Colbert, Leslie  Mann, Allison Janney
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When I was growing up, I had a clear favorite cartoon show:  Rocky and Bullwinkle* and my favorite part of them was “Peabody’s Improbable History.” It had everything I liked and it was always a treat.** When I heard they were making Mr. Peabody and Sherman, I was wary. I didn’t think they could keep up the craziness of the original.*** It took a while for me to catch it, but when I did, I realized it was a pretty good adaptation.

Mr. Peabody (voice of Ty Burrell) is a genius dog who adopts Sherman (Max Charles) as his own.****. He uses his time machine – the WABAC***** – to teach him about history.  In school, however, Sherman contradicts the teacher when she says George Washington chopped down a cherry tree, leading to teasing by Penny Peterson (Ariel Winter), leading to Sherman biting her, ultimately bringing in the Child Protective Services agent, Karen Grunion (Allison Janney). In an attempt to smooth things over, he invited Penny’s parents (Stephen Colbert and Leslie Mann) to try to smooth things over. Despite warnings against it, Sherman is goaded into telling Penny about the WABAC, and she ends up in ancient Egypt to be married to King Tut.

That’s the start of various frenetic adventures through time, with some nice animated action sequences, until the entire thing escalates so that Mr. Peabody has to save the day.

The main difference from the original is that they develops the relations between Mr. Peabody and Sherman, turning it into father/son situation. Of course, the original had no time to delve into such things, but when you’re turning a five-minute cartoon into a feature film, something has to be added.

It also changed the structure from the original. Mr. Peabody would go back in time to see historical events and had to act to make things work out as history was written.******

The voice cast is excellent. Ty Burrell manages to make Mr. Peabody into a know-it-all without him sounding like one. And there are quite a few surprising voice cameos.

And, of course, the puns. The original was notable for ending each episode with a terrible pun.******* It probably led to my lifelong love of the form.

There were also some great references to the original, and to other Jay Ward cartoons. I especially liked the final gag, which refers to the original TV opening sequence.

Definitely worth a look. A new take on the characters that shouldn’t disappoint long-time fans.

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*In all its titles:  The Rocky Show, Rocky and His Friends, and The Bullwinkle Show.

**Nowadays, they don’t quite hold up as well as the main Rocky and Bullwinkle segments, but at still pretty good.

***I was also wary of the live action Rocky and Bullwinkle movie, but found it better than I expected.

****Leading to the line taken from the original: “If a boy can adopt a dog, I don’t see why a dog can’t adopt a boy.”  (Though the original used “own” instead of “adopt.”)

*****Also spelled “Wayback,” which is the most common way it’s referred to.

*****Much like Quantum Leap.

*******Just like in Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot, which may have been an influence.