It’s the classic story of a dog and his boy traveling
through time, and while I haven’t had great things to say about DreamWorks
animation in the past, I had more fun than I was expecting with Mr. Peabody & Sherman, a delightful
kid’s movie with as much if not more to offer older audience members.Mr. Peabody (voiced by Ty Burrell), having conquered every field of knowledge known to man, adopts a boy named Sherman (Max Charles) and builds a time machine called the WABAC (way-back) Machine. Not bad for a talking dog, eh? Mr. Peabody’s greatest challenge, though, comes when Sherman is bullied at school, and a reconciliatory dinner party with the bully Penny (Ariel Winter) and her parents goes awry. Mr. Peabody, Sherman, and Penny end up bouncing through time, where/when they meet King Tut, Leonardo da Vinci (Stanley Tucci), and – on the eve of the Trojan War – Agamemnon (Patrick Warburton).
Mr. Peabody & Sherman is roundly the most enjoyable film adapted from The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. It succeeds where its predecessors – Boris and Natasha, Dudley Do-Right, and The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle – failed because it attempts to be neither too zany nor too self-aware. Instead of banking entirely on nostalgia or on excessively cartoonizing reality, Mr. Peabody & Sherman creates its own world with its own rules and briskly justifies its own existence with a series of quick jokes about a genius talking dog.
I’ve seen Mr. Peabody and Sherman referred to as “Dogtor Who,” and it’s an exceptionally apt comparison – one I wish I’d thought of, to be honest. Like Doctor Who, this film carries an infectious exuberance about the opportunities afforded by time travel, the sense of limitless adventures to be had by slipping through the timestream. At the heart of it all is a refreshing optimism about humanity, the idea that we could all be a little better if we surrender to the search for knowledge and compassion. But both Peabody and Who perform that critical function of any work targeted to younger audiences; that is, they both work on multiple levels for varying audiences. There are jokes in Peabody that the kiddies simply won’t get – the implications of Bill Clinton’s “I’ve done worse” or the potential awkwardness if one accepts Oedipus’s invitation to holiday dinner – and that’s fine. In fact, it’s great; it ensures the adults will be guffawing just as loudly at the asides as the young’uns at the word “doody.”
I concede that I had my doubts about this film, particularly after hearing that Robert Downey, Jr. wasn’t playing Mr. Peabody. After all, he’d have been a perfect match for Bill Scott’s pointed delivery on the original series. But the greatest compliment I can pay Ty Burrell – other than to say that his Phil Dunphy on Modern Family never fails to split my sides – is that I forgot all about RDJ as a Peabody candidate and found Burrell a creditable Peabody. Burrell manages to weave Peabody’s exceptional intellect with his unique pun-based sense of humor and of course his “deep regard” for his adoptive son Sherman, giving a performance that is both clever and affective. The rest of the voice cast is strong as well, particularly Stanley Tucci as a put-upon if caricatured da Vinci, but it’s undeniably Burrell’s show.
Mr. Peabody & Sherman could have pandered to an audience of children, but instead the filmmakers have turned in a movie that can be enjoyed by just about anyone. Mr. Peabody & Sherman is so much more clever than it could have been, and as a result I found myself having a fantastic time in the theater – which in the end is all I ever ask from a film. No need to go back in time to un-see this one; if I could, I’d see it all over again. Until then, I’ll tide myself over with the original clips on YouTube.
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