Review of Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014) by Nicole O — 25 Aug 2014

Every dog deserves a human - who will get in troublesome funny historical adventures while traveling through time.

Mr. Peabody & Sherman has everything you want from a wonderful family animation: laughs and lessons.

I never watched the 1960?s show that originally featured the characters now headlining their own movie. I can't speak as to whether the Mr. Peabody & Sherman characters in this film are representative of and retain their authentic characters' likenesses.

Mr. Peabody is a dog. He is also smart, like genius smart, and an inventor. In addition to coming up with many things like Zumba, he's invented a time-traveling machine called the WABAC. His son Sherman is a human, it's an adoptive relationship, and is just starting school. When he gets in trouble for getting into a fight with a girl Penny, Mr. Peabody invites Penny and her family over for dinner to mitigate the issue. Sherman accidentally mentions the WABAC to Penny and she just has to see it to believe it. Mr. Peabody works frantically to save the children and right the ensuing time-traveling troubles.

While flying around wormholes in the WABAC audiences will experience ancient Egypt, the Italian Renaissance, ancient Troy, and the French Revolution but will meet even more historical characters. Parents should take the time to use this as a learning tool because this film is not meant to be educational in the historical sense - it's an animated film, would you really expect it to? All figures are satirized caricatures and Dreamworks gets a bunch of easy laughs at their expense. Parents will get laughs too because with most good animated movies there are smarter jokes hidden within the dialogue.

I could not not laugh while watching this film. There was a ton of pop culture crammed into the plot in addition to history which kept it fun, light and enjoyable. Sherman was just the right amount of funny kid. Mr. Peabody was charming and Ty Burrell could not be more perfect to voice the caring father but intellectual juggernaut.

The film kept me completely engaged the entire time and I was surprised at just how smart the film felt. I've already watched it twice and will definitely watch it again.