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    Mr. Peabody & Sherman

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

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    There are a few too many juvenile jokes in “Mr. Peabody & Sherman” that to make it a film that will last the ages, but the strong story, moments of clever writing and slight tint of educational material make it a very enjoyable film for children and their parents. I went to see this one with a 9-year old friend's son and I actually think I ended up liking it better than he did. I’m not really going to discuss the visuals of this film because frankly, computer animation has become so sophisticated at this point in time that any computer-generated film looks great as long as you throw enough money at it. What really stands out in this film are the relationships between the characters and the moments where the movie takes itself a bit more seriously. The bulk of the film centers around Mr. Peabody, Sherman and Penny getting into all sorts of time-related adventures, but throughout the film there is an elephant in the room that all the characters have to acknowledge at one point or another, the fact that Mr. Peabody is a dog. Despite the fact that Mr. Peabody is a genius and a very capable father, Penny’s early jab at Sherman about his father hurts him deeply and it lingers on his mind during the whole thing. She tells him that his father is a dog and that therefore, he is a dog. An animal, unfit to be with the other human members of society, except as one that performs tricks and gets rewarded with treats. There’s really something to that moment because a lot of children start feeling self-conscious when they begin going to school. Think of children from single-parent families, who love their parent and wouldn’t trade their lives for any other in the world when they’re happy, but become ashamed or embarrassed when they’re ostracized by the other children and begin to wonder if they wouldn’t be happier with a more “ordinary” family. When those feelings are brought home, the parents think the same thing, if their children wouldn’t be better off in a household with one father, one mother, the white-picketed fence and the two kids. Take that idea and crank it up to eleven because here, the two members of the family literally are not of the same race and their situation is totally unique. There are no other talking dogs in this movie and everyone involved knows it and even though Mr. Peabody is capable of being a great father, he knows that it only takes a slipup for his whole world to come crashing down. That’s some heavy stuff and I’m going to admit that sitting there I got pretty misty eyed watching the flashbacks to Sherman’s adoption and seeing the inevitable moments where the characters said or did something hurtful really stood out as genuine. They made me really care about the characters. That part of the film is terrific and both children and adults will really be satisfied by it. This movie isn’t all heavy emotions and complicated drama. There are plenty of laughs and some cleverly written bits of dialogue too. For adults, there are many puns related to history (I think I may have been the only one who laughed at the Oedipus family reunion joke while the three heroes where in ancient Greece, but I laughed hard at that one) and for kids, there is plenty of humor as well, the kind of stuff where Trojan warriors have bad body odor or a creepy wooden puppet shambles around scaring full-grown adults out of their boots. The kid stuff doesn’t always work and I rolled my eyes a couple of times, wishing the movie was consistently written with real intelligence. That said another element of the film I admire is its willingness to throw in a couple of educational segments in there, without making them obvious. In the time travel adventure we get to see France during the French Revolution, Ancient Egypt, Greece during the Trojan War, Leonardo Da Vinci and a slew of historical characters. There are also some really clever moments of action. With Mr. Peabody’s genius brain, he is able to pre-plan and execute some amazing stunts and there’s a nice variety in them. With the varied locations our heroes are pitted against a slew of different obstacles and opponents, meaning you never see the same thing twice. You’ve got the big splashy stuff in the story’s foreground and some nice emotional moments in between, with some nice messages about having children grow up, parenting, making friends and accepting others too. Yeah some of that stuff you’ve seen before but here it’s all blended in seamlessly. This is a very enjoyable film to watch and I really encourage you to see it. That said, I can’t ignore some of the sloppy jokes thrown in there. Yes I know the film is meant for kids, but every single child’s movie out there has jokes about things that stink and people getting comically beaten up. This movie didn’t need those and would have been better without it. It really could have been a fantastic, must-see children’s animated movie that could have become a staple in families’ collections but it just isn’t. It sounds harsh but when you see something that so full of emotion and imagination, you hold it at a high standard and even if it doesn’t quite become all it could have been, it’s still a very good movie. If you’re even mildly interested you’ll thoroughly enjoy yourself and your kids will eat it up too. (3-D Theatrical version on the big screen, March 8, 2014)

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    adamwatchesmovies@  9.3.2014 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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