Mr. Peabody & Sherman – Directed by
Rob Minkoff and featuring the voices of
Ty Burrell, Max Charles, Ariel Winter, Allison Janney, Stephen Colbert, Stephen Tobolowsky, Mel Brooks, Leslie Mann and
Stanley Tucci, Mr. Peabody & Sherman opens November 1, 2013 in 3D.
Based on title characters created by
Jay Ward (whose daughter Tiffany is an executive producer on the film),
Mr. Peabody & Sherman centers on the smartest dog in the world and his boy, respectively. After being in various states of production over the last seven years, the project is currently under the direction of Rob Minkoff (
The Lion King). Since it’s still about a year away from being released, this picture had the roughest animation of the three. However, a finished and refined introductory clip for the title characters showed Mr. Peabody (voiced by Burrell) and Sherman (Charles) in fully-realized, computer-generated three-dimensional bodies, rather than the 2D cartoons of their forebears.
The opening sequence of the film was shown next, with Mr. Peabody and Sherman having arrived in late-18th century France during Queen Marie Antoinette’s reign and the French Revolution. When Sherman goes in search of cake, the duo runs afoul of the mob and Mr. Peabody is almost beheaded. Thanks to some quick thinking on his part, he manages to escape the guillotine, dodge the pursuit of Maximilien Robespierre and get the both of them safely back home. While the animation was still in rough stages, I can speak a little on tone. Mr. Peabody is basically Sherman’s father and educator, using his WABAC time machine to transport them back in time to discover the truths that history books have forgotten. This scene perfectly captured the dynamic between the characters and is a nice throwback to the original cartoon. Mr. Peabody is a stuffy know-it-all, but is quite the capable Renaissance man who has Sherman’s best interests at heart. Sherman is an innocent and ignorant young boy who is fiercely loyal to his father…though he occasionally disobeys him, as boys will do.
The next clip established the inciting incident of
Mr. Peabody & Sherman. After Sherman gets into a fight with rival classmate Penny, Mr. Peabody invites the girl and her parents to his penthouse in order to smooth things over. Matters get more complicated when Sherman shows Penny the WABAC machine and manages to lose her somewhere in time. The rest of the film follows the duo traveling through history, including stops in the Italian Renaissance and during the Trojan War, in order to bring Penny home safely and repair history in the process.
Mr. Peabody & Sherman looks like a fun addition to the DreamWorks line-up and could maybe even teach your kids a thing or two! Here’s the updated synopsis:
Mr. Peabody, the world’s smartest talking dog, has invented a time machine he calls the WABAC, which enables Peabody and his adopted human son Sherman to witness world-changing events first hand. But when Sherman breaks the rules of time travel, our two heroes find themselves in a race to repair history – and save the future. Kablooie! Reimagined for the big screen in CG and 3D, Mr. Peabody & Sherman is based upon the classic animated series produced by the legendary Jay Ward (“The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle”
.
Aside from that, I loved the **** out of that cartoon.
