Time machines are always fun and the one in Mr. Peabody & Sherman is no exception. Based on Peabody's Improbable History from the television series The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show , Mr. Peabody & Sherman features an alternative look at history. When the super intelligent beagle, Mr. Peabody and his adopted human son, Sherman travel through time in their time machine, WABAC, they meet Marie Antoinette who is too busy stuffing her face with cake to notice the Revolution.
When the two travel with Sherman’s classmate, Penny, to ancient Egypt, further adventures unfold featuring King Tut, his wily vizier and sundry others. On the way back, there are stopovers in renaissance Italy where Leonardo da Vinci is trying to get his model, Mona Lisa, to smile and the Trojan War where King Agamemnon seems like an ancient Greek version of Moose Miller from Archie Comics.
The time travel results in a hole in the space-time continuum. Ancient history drops from the sky into present day New York. More goofy science ensures all is set right except that King Tut sports an ‘I love New York’ tee-shirt, while the Greeks discover a taste for pizza. The movie is fun, thrilling, smartly-funny and delivers history and life lessons in a busy, colourful, action-packed package.
Rob Minkoff, who directed Lion King , has made a cool film. Using Mel Brooks, whose History of the World, Part I was such fun, as the voice of Sigmund Freud is slyly referential — “What fool put a carpet on the wall?”
Genre: Animation
Voice cast: Ty Burrell, Max Charles, Mel Brooks, Stanley Tucci
Director: Rob Minkoff
Storyline: A hole in the space time continuum has to be repaired
Bottomline: Inventive and imaginative history lesson
