Movie review: The truth about dogs and boys in ‘Mr. Peabody & Sherman’

Mr. Peabody the talking, genius dog invented planking, the fist bump, the backside Ollie, and zumba. He’s also hella cute in his bowtie and round glasses. But as far as accomplishments go his best invention has so far been a machine that can let you travel back in time.

Baby boomers will likely go see this one for the nostalgia trip. See, Mr. Peabody and Sherman were characters in a 1960s series titled "Peabody's Improbable History," which aired between "Rocky & Bullwinkle" episodes. It’s the granddaddy of the 90s Comix Strip cartoons “Eek the Cat”, “Silverhawks” and others. The premise was simple: the talking dog and his adopted boy roamed through time to visit important events in history through what they called a WABAC machine.

DreamWorks Animation and 20th Century Fox have certainly outdone themselves visually with the sleek kind of animation they’ve chosen: a melding of the analog 2D used in ye olde 1960s series and the streamlined, lighting-heavy design that many of today’s American anime illustrators prefer (think “Up”). I had my doubts about the flatness of the characters in the trailer but I’m glad they went that way instead of going for a crazy 3D blow-off.

Mr. Peabody (voiced by Ty Burrell) is adorable in his white shortness and the seven-year-old Sherman (Max Charles) comes across as both sweet and foolish in his cluelessness.

In this reimagining of the old cartoon, the story focuses on the father and son bond between the dog and his boy. After a brief history of how he came to adopt the kid and their adventures in time, we’re dropped in on Sherman’s first day in school, where the enthusiastic yet none too clever boy comes into conflict with the class mean girl, Penny Peterson (Ariel Winter).

Accusations of violence and a bite mark on Penny’s arm become the basis for a visit to the principal and an investigation by the child services office. In the form of an obese and (I guess you can call it a species-ist) aspersive Mrs Grunion (Alison Janney), the adoption agency informs Peabody that they will reclaim Sherman if any more such incidents occur.

To try and smooth things over, Peabody invites Penny’s parents over. Penny and Sherman are left alone in his room to hash things out between them but, instead, Sherman ends up showing Penny the WABAC machine after explicit instructions from his father not to do so. Trying to impress a girl with complex, scientific equipment never ends well, and Sherman's misuse of the WABAC leaves the girl in ancient Egypt, facing disastrous and droll consequences.

From there, things end up becoming more screwed up as the friction between father and son escalate, leading up to how time itself is sucked into their problems.

I do love the prickly dilemmas that Mr. Peabody and Sherman are stuck in when the latter discovers the joys of rebellion against authority and when the former finds out that building a time machine is easier than raising a little boy. Having said all that, this movie is often all over the place.

I have no idea if this is the nature of the original series and it’s a homage to it, but I must tell you that, as fair to middling a father-and-son movie this is, things don’t really pick up until they have to make a pit stop at Greece on the eve of the Trojan War. Hands down, Agamemnon with his football platitudes, jock swagger, and brutal body odor (“Smell my victory!”) is my fave historical character reimagined.

I didn’t understand it at first but, really, this is not at all made to be strictly a kid’s movie. There are way too many jokes for educated teens or adults. It’s also been mentioned that the environments allude to real-world locations (like Mr. Peabody’s awesome penthouse apartment looks very much like the Seagram Building in Manhattan) and art as treasured nuggets for the baby boomers.  

I did like how the Italy scenes turned out, when they visit the Renaissance and interact with Da Vinci. The humor and tongue-in-cheek jabs at funking up historicity are at its best there and a great hoot to anyone with a working knowledge of the guy who made the Vitruvian man. Just see their attempts to make Mona Lisa—a dour and mouthy Italian lass—smile and tell me if they aren’t hilarious. The screenwriters sure brainstormed a typhoon with that one.

There’s also a precious exchange between Da Vinci and Mr Peabody. “Why can’t children be as efficient and simple as machines?” asks the dog. To which Da Vinci replies: “They are not machines. Children are complicated. Trust me, I tried to build one. That was creepy.” Later on, we see the talking abomination that is Da Vinci’s baby automation. A cross between a Chuckie doll and a rolling matchbox, and it IS creepy.   

The premise of this movie should be simple: talking dog adopts boy and, with it, all the attendant problems of parenthood. “How hard can it be?” Mr Peabody responds to the judge who awards him adoption rights. The answer is hella hard of course. My point being the premise that explores the relationship of a dog and a human is further complicated by the following: time travel, boy meets girl, dog meets child rights services, dog meets irate parents of girl, and (likely the most screwed up) dog and boy must restore the stability of the time-space continuum.

That’s a lot to take in for a kid’s movie.

Sometimes too many elements make the stew go wrong, especially in an animated movie where you can really just MAKE anything.