Father-son relationship issues, bullying at school, parent/principal/social worker meetings, loads of anger, frustration, serious tones and no laughs. All the ingredients of a bad, live-action family comedy. But, amazingly, these are only some of the unnecessary plot elements in DreamWorks’ latest animated feature, “Mr. Peabody & Sherman”, which lacks all the fun and wonder of the classic 1960s shorts the movie is based on.
This unusual father-son duo (it’s an adoptive relationship) made time travel and history exciting in the segments on “The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show”, thanks to clever, imaginative stories, filled with intelligence, witty puns and an overall positive attitude.
Unfortunately, director Rob Minkoff (who 20 years ago co-directed the Disney’s classic, “The Lion King”) decided to incorporate real-life issues and drama into an animated movie about a seven-year-old boy and his genius, talking dog father. The trailers and the adorable teaser posters make you think this is going to be light, funny ride through time. That’s what makes the experience of watching “Mr. Peabody & Sherman” so stunning.
The introductory on-screen narration from the initially likeable Mr. Peabody (voiced by “Modern Family”‘s Ty Burrell) and human son Sherman (Max Charles of fellow ABC sitcom “The Neighbors”) is promising. But then the tone changes. Outside of a few effective scenes, “Mr. Peabody & Sherman” tries way too hard: to get laughs, get us emotionally involved in the story and make us care for these characters. Frankly, watching this film left me a little depressed.
The script is so focused on setting-up conflicts: Young Sherman and classmate/bully Penny, Peabody and Penny’s father, Peabody and the school social worker and, yes, Mr. Peabody and Sherman, that it completely ignores the reason people were anxious to see this duo on the big screen – to ENJOY them. There were times when I couldn’t believe what I was watching. The overall mean and negative feel is so far off from where it needed to be for this material.
If you’re not familiar with the premise: Mr. Peabody has invented a time machine (the WABAC) that he uses to take Sherman back to historical events so he can learn history the best possible way – by living it. So the possibilities for the writers of “Mr. Peabody & Sherman” were endless. And yet all the supporting characters are flat and uninteresting, which is incredible because they include Leonardo Da Vinci, King Tut, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. Even Peabody’s puns, made famous in the shorts, fail to work here because the writers feel the need to point them out to the audience, instead of being confident with their work.
On the positive side, the animation is absolutely gorgeous. But that’s simply not good enough. There’s only one scene, early in the film, that truly works and, oddly enough, it’s a flashback sequence involving Peabody looking back at his early years as Sherman’s dad. It’s smart, charming and effectively sweet. Four great minutes out of 90.
“Mr. Peabody & Sherman” is rated PG for some mild violence and rude humor. It’s appropriate for kids 8 and up. This isn’t a terrible movie, and will be a mild distraction young audience members. But for fans of the originals, or fans of top level animation, it’s a major disappointment.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “Mr. Peabody & Sherman” gets a C.
Debuting before “Mr. Peabody & Sherman” is the short, “Almost Home”, a teaser for DreamWorks’ upcoming animated film, “Home”, which will be out next year. The short (and the film) star Steve Martin as the voice of the leader of a group of aliens. The good news is the studio has some time to make the upcoming feature much stronger than this very average effort.