Mr. Peabody & Sherman –PG

Running Time—92 min

Director: Rob Minkoff

Main Voice Actors: Ty Burrell, Max Charles, and Ariel Winter

Rating: 5

This was a movie that my mother desperately wanted to see. Incidentally, she is still desperate to see it; I didn’t actually take her to the theatre when I went. That aside, I was slightly more expectant from this film than otherwise, as she was heartbroken when I saw it without her. Needless to say by glancing at the rating I gave it, I wasn’t knocked out of my socks. The film focuses around a dog named Mr. Peabody (voiced by Ty Burrell), who has excelled in everything in life due to his extreme intellect and has chosen to adopt a boy named Sherman (voiced by Max Charles) as his son, familial love being the only thing he found missing from his extraordinary life pursuits. The movie is a huge adventure through time, space and relationships between Mr. Peabody and his son, who must learn how to find a place in his community as he embarks for his first day of elementary school.

The animation in this film was charming, both of the main characters were depicted as rather cute, in my opinion. There were a few childishly cliché cartoon moments—the father of Penny a particularly flexible feat—as well as many pop culture references such as Zumba and the use of terrible puns (though that might just be a Peabody thing).

What lacked was emotion. I don’t suspect that with better screenwriting and voice acting, this could have been a voyage full of laughs and tears. I saw great potential in the great conflict; Sherman struggling to accept his position between the world of people and dogs, and Mr. Peabody struggling to cope with problems of the heart rather than of the mind.

The issue with this movie and trying to write a review on it is its emptiness.  There’s nothing so specifically bad about it that makes me say “meh” to it, it’s the fact that there is nothing to really pick at or analyze. The story was surface level, left no room for interpretation at any point, and it really held your hand the whole way. Granted, it does seem to be meant for children, but many children’s movies have deeper meanings—I’m looking at you Disney—so it’s not even a good excuse. There’s plenty more jokes or meanings for adults other than bad puns that can be added to a film such as this, and especially since it could have been such a promising story about parenthood and identity, it’s disappointingly mediocre.