19. Mr. Peabody and Sherman
This movie is positively delightful, there’s no doubt in my mind about that. However, despite its placement here I feel as though I may prefer watching it above some of the films that are above this spot. Why? I guess that’s just personal preference speaking. However, I couldn’t in good faith say that certain movies on this list were worse than this one when I knew they weren’t. It’s fine to recognize when you prefer to watch something over something else despite it not reaching certain heights that other films do.
Though again, I must reiterate, this is a really good time.
The thing about Mr. Peabody and Sherman is that I was pleasantly surprised and excited to hear of this film’s existence. I was shocked that Dreamworks was making a film in 2014 based on characters that originated from a segment on the old Rocky and Bullwinkle show. For those who don’t know, that show began in 1959 and ran through the first half of the 60s. I watched the re-runs for it on Cartoon Network when I was a kid and even then I barely remembered Mr. Peabody and Sherman. However, I was aware enough of them to feel my interest get piqued.
Mr. Peabody (Ty Burrell) is this dog who for some reason isn’t like the other ones. He’s super, hyper intelligent and extraordinarily capable in hand to hand combat, sword fighting, and a number of other things that action heroes do. He can play pretty much any instrument, concoct any drinks, cook any meal, teach you any subject, and is credited for inventing a number of different things from the fistbump to zumba.
Normally, having a character this perfect at everything would be considered narrative suicide but there’s one thing good ol’ Mr. Peabody hasn’t perfected; the art of parenting.
Because he was isolated as a pup for being so different when he found a little baby in a cardboard box in the fucking rain with nothing but a nametag on him that read “Sherman” he decided to adopt the boy and raise him as his own. He’s built a time machine called the WABAC to take Sherman (Max Charles) on adventures throughout time to both entertain and enlighten him on the ways of history and the world.
Of course, general knowledge alone isn’t enough. They learn that the hard way when Sherman meets a little jealous and outgoing (sometimes crazily so) girl named Penny (Ariel Winter) and they end up getting into a fight because she tossed his food on the floor and called him a dog. Mr. Peabody’s ability to remain Sherman’s parent is called into question by Ms. Grunion (Allison Janney) when Sherman bites Penny in an act of self-defense. It’s really just a ploy to get him removed from the house because he’s a dog and him taking care of Sherman is “unnatural” no matter how many nobel prizes he’s won.
Circumstances being as they are see Penny being invited over with her parents Paul Peterson (Stephen Colbert) and Patty Peterson (Leslie Mann) for dinner and she ends up lost in Ancient Egypt... as you do.
An adventure spans from there where Sherman and Mr. Peabody go to get her back but on their travels this time, Sherman’s getting to be more defiant and outgoing than Mr. Peabody usually allows and a rift kind of forms between the two of them.
It’s a little fascinating to watch because there’s quite a lot of complicated feelings on display here and not all of them surface at the same time. Because Sherman’s finding more flights of fancy (literally) with Penny he’s becoming a lot less likely to listen to Mr. Peabody but at the same time, Mr. Peabody is kind of stuck due to wanting Sherman to thrive but can’t handle the idea of being left behind. He’s so prim and proper and secure in his ways that he can’t deviate from the way things are. He can’t even really say “I love you” to Sherman at the start of the film and it’s not because he’s too proud either. He thinks too much like a scientist despite adopting Sherman for reasons that he knows have nothing to do with science.
The style of the film is great. There’s a lot of times in this film where it does something really cool and inspirational with the design. Words will appear to match what a character is doing elegantly (or inelegantly) on a bunch of tiles on the floor or Mr. Peabody will run down a series of flashbacks he’s had with Sherman but backwards, with it revealed at the end that he was walking down a line of pictures framed along the wall. Really interesting stuff like that.
There’s also a lot of action set-pieces in the film. It oozes adventure. There’s traps, contraptions, fights, chases, and all of the above mixed in with an insanely colorful cast of characters. Maybe these historical figures didn’t at all act like this in real life, sure, but when you see Mr. Peabody being so friendly with Leonadro Da Vinci (Stanley Tucci) you can’t help but smile at how wholesome the relationship is.
I think one of the best performances is Patrick Warburton as Agamemnon. Almost everything he says and the way he says it with the particular way his character is animated got a laugh. In fact, the general absurdity of what’s going on in this film is largely taken advantage of to the point where I laughed out loud several times. This is a funny film.
High spirited, adventurous, well-animated but stylish in its own way, and a well-told story with loveable characters. It’s a great film and one I’m not ashamed to say I was a little obsessed with at one point in time. Even had a poster repping it in my room for a bit.
That poster kept falling and I kept trying to keep it up with tape and it just wasn’t working. Posters suck without proper framing. I wish I had figured out how to do that at the time. I might have still gotten to keep it.
| Viewed: |
15 times |
| Added: |
1 month ago
10 Apr 2025 00:27 CEST
|
|
|
