Mr. Peabody and Sherman

2014 animated adventure

Rating: 14/20 (Jen: 16/20; Emma: 15/20; Abbey: 18/20; Buster: 20/20)

Plot: A really smart dog and his adopted son have time travel adventures. Sherman, the boy, is sent to school though where he bites a bully. This puts the adoptive relationship in jeopardy, and when Mr. Peabody tries to have the bully and her family over to patch things up, the dog, the boy, and the bully are sent into a series of time-hopping adventures that threaten to dismantle space and time.

There sure is a lot of story here, and the logic of the world created here and its cartoonish sciences doesn't always seem logical. But I suppose it's just as illogical to start picking apart a movie like this. It's animated well, utilizing all the abilities of modern CGI to create lush backgrounds and cartoon action while at the same time remaining faithful to the 2-D characters. Those characters are lovable enough, and I thought Ty Burrell's voice worked perfectly for Mr. Peabody. The modern spin put on these characters' time-travel escapades is fun, and the movie is really pretty funny. There's enough juvenile hijinks for young audiences and enough to keep adults engaged for most of the running time. However, it is the sort of thing that just seems like it would work better as a television show. And I didn't like the Penny character at all. And I'm not sure time travel story aficionados would like this because the time travel logic doesn't always add up. But the fun historical cameos and almost insanely-quick pace of this whole thing--it really only slows down a few times to get a little sappy with the "father"/son relationship stuff and the Penny/Sherman budding friendship--make this worthwhile family movie night entertainment. Inevitably, there will be sequels although this really would probably work better in smaller chunks on television.