A_Different_Drummer Review of Mr. Peabody & Sherman

Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014)

"Extreme" re-imaginations really are threatening the space-time continuum..

[5/10 · 22 March 2014]

On the off-chance that there is anyone left in viewer-land who actually is interested in the source material (and this reviewer did cover the original Rocky show right here in the IMDb) let's be clear --- Peabody and Sherman, like their counterpart, the Fractured Fairy Tales, were simply a mechanism, an artistic device if you prefer, intended to introduce bite-sized "lessons" (albeit entertaining and pun-ny) into the body of the show. Which they did. Brilliantly. The one lesson that was however conspicuously missing from the original show is that, one day in the far future, writers and producers would run out of original ideas (or, alternatively, become afraid to invest in scripts lacking a guaranteed, pre-existing, audience) and start to relentlessly "mine" old franchises for new stories. Which, in a nutshell, is how we got here. Now, to paraphrase Seinfeld (who, at this rate, may himself end up "re-imagined" in an animated feature!) there is "nothing wrong with that" on its face. Re-imagining can be fun. The live action Casper in 1994, for example, was both fun and sweet. The 1990s re-imagining of the 70s version of Battlestar Galactica was nothing less than brilliant. But re-imaginings can also go wrong. Horribly wrong in some cases -- Johnny Depp as Tonto comes to mind. (You probably have your own faves.) Which brings us back to Mr. Peabody. In the original, the "backstory" was never really explored because -- see above -- the characters were simply a learning device and nothing more. Nonetheless (or, perhaps, in spite of that) the producers of this feature took the one single solitary "clue" that was offered in the original -- the catchphrase so often voiced by Peabody, sic, "every dog should have a boy" -- and built an entire full-length Hollywood feature with the sole goal and purpose of turning that single catchphrase into a punchline!! Was it worth it? Is there entertainment here? It is the considered opinion of this reviewer that (notice the irony) time will not be as kind to this production as the present generation of reviewers is. FROZEN this ain't. Nor is it in the same class as Toy Story, Lion King, Coraline, or even (one of my personal faves) Over The Hedge. The fact is, the many (too many!) attempts in this film to explore the implications of a dog adopting a boy not only don't work nearly as well as the writers expected them to, but (much like the reference to Oedipus in the Trojan War segment) are not just a little creepy. What does almost work somewhat is the story of a shy boy trying to connect with the kids at his new school by trying to make an impression on the Alpha-female. It is no coincidence that the funniest line here (and there are not many to choose from) is when Ariel Winter (who does a great job playing Penny) explains to Sherman that she has already figured out what happens after her intended husband, King Tut, goes to an early grave. She plans to "take it all." The irony, I suggest, is that the writers were capable of extracting humor from the idea of a 7 year old girl getting married -- !! -- but incapable of extracting entertainment from the story of a dog actually trying to raise a boy. If the "real" Mr. Peabody were here, he would, I think, find a lesson, and maybe even a pun, in that tail...