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Author
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Topic: Mr. Peabody and Sherman (2014)
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Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 03-11-2014 08:55 PM
This is another entry from the Dreamworks cartoon assembly line. Their modus operandi is to stitch together frantic action with a kid-friendly storyline. They're never as fully realized as the Disney toons, but they're good to look at and there is usually enough tongue in cheek humor for the adults don't get bored.
This movie takes the classic characters from the Rocky & Bullwinkle TV show (they usually had a 4 minute segment in between Bullwinkle story segments), drops the title "Peabody's Improbable History" and heaps on a humongous helping of wild action, sci-fi nonsense and fart jokes in addition to the little history lessons provided in the original series. They should have called it "Peabody's Improbable Sci-fi Movie."
The humor of the original series is pretty intact, but not as classy; the voices are pretty good except Peabody has much too deep a voice.
The weirdest thing about this movie is the character design; the human kid characters seem to have heads that are about twice the size they should be and they just looked off to me, even for cartoon kids. No way will this ever be confused for a Disney movie.
There is a 4-minute cartoon called "Almost Home" attached to the beginning of the movie. It is, quite simply, a group of weird looking aliens visiting planet after planet, trying to find a suitable place to live. There's not much here storywise, but the lead alien is voiced by none other than Steve Martin, who is in full wild-and-crazy-guy mode and gives the toon an enormous amount of humor. The only disappointment in this little thing is, it ends just as it's getting started! I won't spoil the ending here, but I was just getting curious how this latest development would pan out and ... that's all, folks! Maybe they're gunning to make a real movie out of these characters.
There are notes on the internet saying that originally, the cartoon short was supposed to be a Rocky and Bullwinkle toon with June Foray (the original voice of Rocky) on board. But that never happened and I haven't been able to find an explanation why this other toon was swapped in.
Mr. Peabody and Sherman: 2.5 stars
Almost Home: 3 stars (maybe more if it had not ended so abruptly)
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Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 03-12-2014 10:39 PM
Ah yes. The non-ending makes sense then. Here is a plot summary about "Home" from Wikipedia:
quote:
An overly optimistic, yet inept, alien race named Boov, led by Captain Smek, invades Earth to hide from their mortal enemy and make it a new home. Convinced they are doing a favour, they begin to relocate the human race, but one resourceful girl, Tip, manages to avoid capture. When on the run, she is accompanied by a banished Boov, named Oh, who has accidentally notified the enemies of his whereabouts.
Back to Mr Peabody....this movie is getting terrific word of mouth. We've had one teenage couple come to it 3 times already. So, it's no Frozen but it's holding steady.
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Stu Jamieson
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 524
From: Buccan, Qld, Australia
Registered: Jan 2008
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posted 04-19-2014 08:34 PM
Based on the Peabody's Improbable History short segments from The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show featuring a genius dog, Mr Peabody, and his pet boy, Sherman, who use the WABAC machine to travel back through time to ensure historical events follow their "proper", subsequently written course. The premise is given a contemporary makeover with 3D CG animation and a modern socially conscious theme. This new incarnation features Sherman, not as Mr Peabody's pet boy, but rather his adopted child.
After being home-schooled for 7 years, Peabody enrolls Sherman in public school where his know-it-all demeanour promptly gets him into a fight with the resident school smartypants, Penny. This puts Mr Peabody at loggerheads with the local rogue child safety officer who means to prove that Peabody is an unfit parent and have Sherman taken into the protection of the state.
The moral to the story here is that parents come in all shapes, sizes and creeds - here a single unorthodox father (a 'gay dad' metaphor, perhaps?) - and that this is unimportant as long as the welfare of the child is maintained and paramount. Quite a heady theme indeed for a children's movie! But the theme is suitably (and correctly) unallowed to dominate the main thrust of the proceedings, which is to be entertaining to children and introduce them to significant historical events (albeit loosely accurate). Outwardly the film presents itself as a "Bill and Ted" kind of deal and the results are surprisingly entertaining and witty and liberally littered with Mr Peabody's delightful "dad" jokes.
The film has a strangely limited unavailability in it's intended 3D format but it won't be missed. Like most 3D releases there's little presented to suggest a compelling viewing in a 3D format.
As is fashionable once more, the feature has a preceding short, Almost Home, and it's fun for the most part but ends on a disappointing anti-climactic note. It does, however, act as a taster (and audience tester) for Dreamworks' upcoming animated film, Home, due for release at the end of the year. Almost Home, however, looks like a precis of the start of the upcoming feature rather than a specifically written short and it shows. It's of little consequence, though, as the short will be long forgotten by the time the entertaining main feature rolls to it's close.
7 out of 10
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