Review of Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014) by Jacob M — 25 Apr 2014

"Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, they get married too young in Ancient Egypt... or perhaps I'm just some old Giza.".

When first hearing of Mr. Peabody and Sherman, a modern take based off the characters from the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon series, I thought I wouldn't really enjoy it that much, mostly because I never grew up with these characters, nor had I heard of it prior to seeing advertisements. But still, I liked the thought of a dog raising a human boy, and stories involving time travel are usually fun to watch. However, I had lost hope of DreamWorks Animation after that horrendous piece of junkpile titled The Croods and thought the long, entertaining studio was losing it. After watching Mr. Peabody and Sherman, it's fair to say that DreamWorks is back in action again.

Mr. Peabody is a smart, genius dog who adopts an orphaned boy named Sherman. He builds a time machine called the WABAC to teach Sherman world history. But things go out-of-control when Sherman shows a girl named Penny the WABAC and takes her on a joyride, unintentionally messing up the time continuum and eventually creating a hole in the universe. In order to save the day, Mr. Peabody has to prove he's a good dog father and make his mark in history.

Considering I have never heard nor watched the original cartoon, I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed Mr. Peabody and Sherman. Not only is the animation great (as usual for DreamWorks standards), but the clever humor is brilliant and the situations are memorable. I thought it was fun seeing historic figures like Marie Antoinette, King Tut, the Trojan Army, Gandhi, Albert Einstein, George Washington, baby Moses, Leonardo da Vinci, Abraham Lincoln, and even Bill Clinton all in one movie. Much of the jokes, which revolves around poking fun of a lot of these characters, with my favorites including Marie Antoinette being obsessed with cake and a reference to Bill Clinton's sex scandal, while it definitely will go over young kids' heads, those familiar with what these people did in the past will crack hysterically. For youngsters, they'll enjoy some of the cruder moments, such as the characters flying out of the Sphinx's butt, which even I cracked up on considering my despise for obnoxious humor (it's funnier than any so-called comedic moment in The Croods and Bee Movie combined).

What surprised me the most about the film is that I actually felt a connection in the more "serious" moments of the film. As the film progresses, Mr. Peabody's custody of Sherman is threatened by the law as they fear a dog bite will cause bad influence. Without being to syrupy in drama, the filmmakers do good at feeling sympathetic towards the characters facing their inner struggles, especially considering that both Mr. Peabody and Sherman were orphaned. I think what causes the dramatic moments to work is that the film was directed by Rob Minkoff, who also directed what's arguably the greatest animation film of all-time, The Lion King, which excels in compelling drama. While Mr. Peabody and Sherman doesn't have any dark themes of murder and corruption, Minkoff clearly was dedicated in telling a good story, and he succeeds well. Maybe he can direct the sequel if DreamWorks ever decides to make one (rather see it over The Croods 2).

As for the voice casting, like with most of DreamWorks' films, the casting is well-done. Ty Burrell (of Modern Family fame) voices Mr. Peabody, and voices him brilliantly. His quirky personality suits a genius dog well. Max Charles is good is Sherman, doing well in handling the innocence of what troubled childhood is about. His scenes with Peabody, especially those involving personal struggles, are the most heartwarming moments of the film. Ariel Winter voices the girl Penny, and while I was a little annoyed at the voice, which sounds like an obnoxious brat in some places, I found the dynamic between Penny and Sherman a very interesting one. Also involved on the film is Patrick Warburton as Trojan soldier Agamemnon (who does his greatest voice work since Kronk in The Emperor's New Groove), Stanley Tucci as Da Vinci, Steven Colbert and Lesie Mann as Penny's parents, and comedy legend Mel Brooks as Einstein. Let's just say if you were let down how wasted the voice talent was in The Croods, then this makes up for it.

Danny Elfman's score for the film is probably the weakest aspect of the film. While it's not a terrible score to listen to, as it works well in the memorable moments of the film, it's not really that memorable. Good news is he has much better scores out there, with my favorites being much of his music from Tim Burton movies.

It looks like 2014 is going to be a much better year for animation, as the first animation experience for me this year was surprisingly entertaining. While DreamWorks has better films than this, it looks like the studio is coming back on track after my despise on The Croods (skipped out on Turbo as I had a prediction it would be horrible). The comedy is brilliant, the animation is great as usual (loved the retro look of the film), the voice casting is well-done, and the story is surprisingly heartfelt in places. It's an excellent way to introduce kids into world history (considering it's satire of it) and I think it's a frontrunner for Best Animated Feature. DreamWorks, welcome back in making good quality animated films!

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men - and some dogs - are created equal. ".