Mr. Peabody and Sherman Review

2014’s 3rd feature film.

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My opinion right after watching movie

My opinion right after watching the movie is that it is a mixed bag. While it has a decent plot, and likable characters, the film lacks focus. It jumbles from plot point to plot point, and a lot of things are done for no reason. There are also the pop culture references. It has charm and beautiful animation, and I overall got what I expected.

Production

A Mr Peabody and Sherman adaptation was in the works since 2003, but it was live action/CG, but when the director Rob Minkoff went to DreamWorks in 2006, it became CGI fully and the development for the film as we knew it began in 2006.They tried to make the film with the same dignity that the series had during the entire production of this film.

Story

So the movie starts with Mr Peabody the dog (Ty Burrell) who explains his life, and how he was different from the other dogs, causing him to focus more on his knowledge. He ended up graduating college, and inventing a bunch of things. He then found Sherman (Max Charles) who he adopted and raised to be his son. He taught his son almost everything about everything through a time machine he invented called the WABAC. They travel to the French Revolution.

So after we waste 10 minutes on them barely escaping the French Revolution, he takes Sherman to his first day of school. The popular girl Penny (Ariel Winter) sees  him getting dropped off by his dog father, and decides to tease him the entire day, since he proves that he is smarter than everyone.

He says he learned all of this on his time machine, which makes me wonder…… Why is this time machine not accessed to the world? Mr. Peabody has contributed so much, so wouldn’t they have known about this? Anyways, things escalate at lunch, which ends up in a fight, with him biting her, and she calling him a dog.

I am confused. I do not know why the teacher, Penny and the other students look at him weirdly because he is raised by a dog, when A DOG GRADUATED COLLEGE, ALLOWED TO SIGN ADOPTION PAPERS, AND INVENTED MANY THINGS FOR THE WORLD? This will be something that confuses me for the entire film.

So they end up in the office, and their teacher/social worker Mrs. Grunion (Allison Janney) who is prejudice against dogs tells Mr. Peabody that she will come over tonight, and to expect Sherman to be taken from him. This causes him to want to invite Penny and her parents  The Petersons over to squash the issue. Mr. Peabody gets along with her parents, and the children are not getting along.

Penny calls him a liar, which causes him to reveal the WABAC. This causes Penny to run to the WABAC, and to travel to Egypt. We are 30 minutes in the film, and barely anything happened. Something about how they executed it feels….off. So the perfect Mr Peabody knocks out her parents, and they go to find Egypt.

Penny is extremely annoying and unlikable. Even when we are supposed to like her, she just comes off really badly. She gets them into more trouble than necessary. There is a formula for minimum 20 minutes where they go to a new place, and Penny gets them into trouble. This happens in Egypt when she abandons King Tut, and in Renaissance Florence when her and Sherman go off to fly a wooden plane.

So they are about to return home, and Peabody is upset at the children for breaking an ancient artifact. The annoying Penny does not give a crap and then tells him that he should be proud that his son flew a plane. Such a bad influence. Anyways, Sherman is going along with everything she says because apparently her opinion matters to him. She drops the bomb that their teacher is going to take Sherman away from Peabody And we have no idea how she knew this. They get sucked into a black hole, and Sherman lashes out at Peabody for not telling him.

Question: Why would you lash out (and not be sad) at the parent because someone wants to take them away. I would understand if the person is a teenager, but I would not outright lash at my parent for this. I just do not see why a little boy will lash out and insult the parent for this. Sherman also asks this at the WORST TIME POSSIBLE. THEY ARE IN A BLACK HOLE.

So he runs away when they land in Ancient Rome and join the Trojans. They get him, Penny needs saving, she gets saved, and Peabody somehow is “killed”.  The children return to present day and Sherman talks to Peabody (when he was entertaining Penny`s parents), and because the moment happened already, another Sherman shows up (the one who just came from Penny). This causes a casualty loop, and causes a mess. So everyone has to return things to normal, and Mrs. Grunion returns and is determined to take Shermans away. This is the usual sci-fi catastrophe that I am not going to go over in detail.

So this ends up with people from Ancient history showing up in the present day, a large chase scene into town, Grunion being taken to an older time (which is dumb, because it WILL alter the present day, but no one cares because she is the `villain that is half assedly inserted in the film). We get a bad ending of modern people and inventions being inserted in  the ancient world, which is supposed to be funny, but also stupid. So Penny and Sherman are friends, and Peabody gets to keep his kid.

While this film is not……a bad one, it could have been……a lot better. The storylines could have been executed and inter-merged better, but they are strong enough. It is predictable, but it does keep the integrity of the original series, and it has some great animation and action scenes. It is a mixed bad, and I am not seeing improvements from DreamWorks. I hope HTTYD 2 delivers.

Characters

The characters in this film are pretty flat, and somewhat likable. They pretty much only do and are only as deep enough to play a certain role in the film. While they are kind of entertaining, I could not get into them much.

Entertaining, but a Gary-Stu

He is too persuaded, and the typical boy. Not that engaging.

She is a brat in the first half, than has a contrived interest in Sherman in the second half. She is still annoying to me.

Ugh, she is such an ugly character; inside and out. Her point in the film is so there is a villain, but she is not really necessary.

Animation

The animation looks really nice. It is very detailed, and the movements are so fluid and captivating. Whenever the film went to a different location, half of the time, you are looking at the designs and the details instead of the characters. Speaking about the characters, they are probably the weakness of the animation; especially the human characters. It is not bad, but just generic and a bit weird. I also like the bold and bright colors.

Music

The music is utterly forgettable. All I remember about it is that there are no songs, and the score is the generic adventure score. DreamWorks should have gotten their regular Powell to handle the music.

Reception Today

Well the film was released in Britain on February 7th 2014 and North America on March 7th 2014, and it received positive reviews. Many called out on it’s weird and somewhat problematic plot, but they liked the voice acting, fun, animation, characters, and not ruining the dignity of the series…..much. With a $145 million budget, it made $184,296,595 so far. I think it will struggle to make $500 million.

Final Score

Story: 6.5/10

Characters: 5/10

Animation: 8/10

Music: 6/10

=25.5/40 = 64%

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