Mr. Peabody (voice of Ty Burrell) is a genius who lives in a huge penthouse over-looking Central Park in New York City, his son Sherman (voice of Max Charles) is adopted. Did I mention that Mr. Peabody is a dog, Sherman is not, he’s human but if a human can adopt a dog than why couldn’t a dog adopt a human? Apparently in this smartly done animated film, they can!
Mr. Peabody has built a time machine he likes to call the WABAC in which he and Sherman like to go back in time to explore the past wonders of the world and the people who lived there. In 1789, they stopped in to have cake with Marie Antoinette but once the reign of terror began they had to flee for their own lives. Sherman of course had his responsibilities and Mr. Peabody made sure he fulfilled them for instance school. On his first day after Mr. Peabody dropped him off Sherman encountered Penny Peterson (voice of Ariel Winter) and after lunch found out that his life would never be the same. Penny was a bully and decided to make Sherman’s life at school miserable. A visit to Principal Purdy’s (voice of Stephen Tobolowsky) office and a horrific encounter by Ms. Grunion (voice of Allison Janney) from child services and Mr. Peabody finds himself fighting to keep custody of Sherman.
Mr. Peabody knows he has to perform some damage control so he invites the Peterson family Paul (voice of Stephen Colbert) and Patty (voice of Leslie Mann) along with Ms. Grunion over for dinner. Once again though Penny creates a mess as she coerces Sherman into showing her the WABAC leading to an unexpected journey to 1332 B.C., Ancient Egypt and the loss of Penny to King Tut. When Sherman returns to seek the help of Mr. Peabody they all find themselves in 1508 Florence Italy visiting Leonardo Da Vinci and Mona Lisa soon thereafter inside the Trojan horse in 1184 B.C. during the war. Although when they end up taking a trip back in time when they actually existed everything began to fall apart and the past started to fall into the present through a rip in the space time continuum. Everything and everyone they ever visited has all of a sudden come to visit them leading Mr. Peabody and Sherman no choice then to save the world. In the final moments they all learned it’s better to be a dog, I love you are very strong words much more than saying you have deep regards for someone and that in a perfect world every dog should have a boy.
I loved this movie and it should do very well. The one liner's from Mr. Peabody are hysterical and funny for both young and old. The 3D works well for the story and the animation along with the score and obviously the writing which will have you laughing throughout the story, all is brilliant. As for the voices they were all spot on and perfect for each of the characters but it was the emotional connection between a human boy and a dog that will truly touch your hearts causing you to laugh and at times tear up wishing that you yourself could also experience that bond and that unconditional love as both boy and dog discover themselves and the fascinating world, past, present and future that surrounds them. Loved this film and you will too so definitely make a plan to check it out in a theater near you. With three paws out of four I’m Jon Patch.
