Nobody makes clever historical jokes like the time-traveling dog Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman did in Peabody's Improbable History.
After seeing the big-screen animated adaptation of these segments from the Rocky and Bullwinkle show, that’s still true.
Lion King director Rob Minkoff gives the story the visual pizazz that the original cartoons of the 1960s lacked. He throws in an intriguing but predictable story of the battle Mr. Peabody (Ty Burrell) wages to keep Sherman. They face off against a woman (Allison Janney) trying to take Sherman (Max Charles) away because she believes a dog has no right to adopt a boy.
But the time traveling that Mr. Peabody introduces as a way to teach Sherman history is likely to leave kids confused. How many will be familiar with Robespierre or the Trojan horse or why Leonardo da Vinci needs to get Mona Lisa to smile? In the original cartoon, Mr. Peabody put the trips in context. He set the machine back to a specific time and explained to Sherman why it was important to help a historical figure accomplish a particular task.
Here the time travel is mostly used as a device to conjure trouble from which the pair must flee. It leads to at least one great line in ancient Egypt, when Peabody tries to repel an angry mob by threatening them with plagues. One of the Egyptians slaps his head: “Oy! Again with the plagues! Why did I ever move back to Egypt?”
If you’re looking for more, you’re better off taking the time machine back to when the original show aired.
MR. PEABODY & SHERMAN (C+)
Directed by Rob Minkoff. PG (some mild action and brief rude humor). 92 mins. In wide release.
