Mr. Peabody & Sherman Review

There have been a lot of movies in recent years that were based on cartoons that the baby boomer generation grew up watching, Yogi Bear, The Smurfs, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Rocky and Bullwinkle among others. Most featured CGI animated versions of these normally 2D characters interacting with live actors, and most have been notably bad. For the first time I can think of, one cartoon featured a fully digital animated feature based off of one of these cartoons. Namely the Peabody's Improbable History segment of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014). I've got to say, I was pretty impressed.

Mr. Peabody (Ty Burrell) is a business titan, inventor, scientist, gourmand, two-time Olympic medalist, and genius who also happens to be a dog. Using his most ingenious invention the WABAC machine, Mr. Peabody and his adopted boy Sherman (Max Charles) hurtle back in time to experience world-changing events first-hand and interact with some of the greatest historical figures of all time. But when Sherman breaks the rules of time travel, our two heroes find themselves in a race to repair history and save the future, while Mr. Peabody may face his biggest challenge yet - being a parent.

The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show originally ran from 1959 to 1964, but I still enjoyed watching reruns a great deal as a kid in the 80's. It was known for its quality writing and wry humor. Mixing puns, cultural and topical satire, and self-referential humor, it appealed to adults as well as kids. The art had a choppy, unpolished look and the animation is extremely limited even by television animation standards at the time. Yet the series has long been held in high esteem by those who have seen it; some critics described the series as a well-written radio program with pictures.

Holding true to its roots, Mr. Peabody & Sherman have a similar style of writing; it's witty, somewhat satirical, and chockfull of puns. In the original Mr. Peabody would take Sherman on time travel trips to educate the boy. While the lesson of the episode was a nice moral, it was always delivered as a terrific groaner of a pun. Mr. Peabody & Sherman opens with what would have been a typical episode of the original cartoon. The movie, though, features a lot more action than the cartoon's notoriously poor animation could deliver, but had just as much silly cartoon goofiness that made the TV Show famous. The voice actors also sound remarkably like the original characters.

Something unique the movie does which the cartoon never did was develop the characters. In the cartoon the characters were just means of setting up and delivering silly jokes. In the movie we see Mr. Peabody and Sherman face personal obstacles and interpersonal conflict with one another and other characters. This takes the form of token family bonding stuff that seems to be obligatory in most family films. Yet there are a few moments where it's done really well. There's a montage early in the movie as Mr. Peabody reflects upon photos of him raising Sherman which prompt some touching flashbacks. There's another scene where Mr. Peabody is getting advice from Leonardo da Vinci on the nature of children and how they learn and grow which ends up being more poignant than I would have expected. Then at the conclusion there's so much sweetness and love between the characters I actually got just a bit choked up.

On top of the common "what it means to be family" message, there's an oft overlooked exploration of adoptive families. Disney so often uses orphan characters for the purpose of garnering empathy from the audience, but never explores much once we feel for the characters. In Mr. Peabody & Sherman it uses the complications of adoptive familial relationships to add further depth to the characters. Sherman has to defend himself against school mates who insist that he doesn't really have a father, or more specifically endure bullying from kids who say he's a dog because his father is a dog. You don't see that kind of trouble in movie adoptive families, but it's a very real thing that real adoptive families endure. Mr. Peabody & Sherman get bonus points for that.

Another unexpected thing that I didn't expect was having issues with time travel and paradoxes. On the one hand that gave our heroes some obstacles to overcome and made for some interesting, though still very cartoonish, wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff to deal with. But on the other hand, I felt like that story arch moved a bit too far from the original whimsical slapstick-driven shorts on which it's based. Time travel was obviously important, but they got a little too close to a Doctor Who sort of story than what it should have. Don't get me wrong, I love Doctor Who; but Mr. Peabody & Sherman and Doctor Who are very different things and shouldn't overlap quite this much. Never the less, the concepts of time paradoxes were explained simply enough for kids to keep up with.

Mr. Peabody & Sherman is a whip-smart, consistently funny and good-natured film with some terrific voice performances. The fun does get a little strained as it goes on, but remains a mostly solid family film that anyone could enjoy. There's some touching moments of family love and some that were trying a bit too hard. The animation was pretty great, too. I saw it in 2D which I recommend since it seemed to rely on 3D gimmicks whole lot. Baby Boomers who grew up watching The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show or anyone who enjoyed the reruns growing up will likely get the biggest kick out of this movie. I'm not sure why Mr. Peabody & Sherman did poorly at the box office; it was way better than most of the baby boomer cartoon remakes I've seen thus far. I recommend seeing it, and possibly consider owning a copy if you've got small kids in the house. As of writing this review, it is available on Netflix streaming; go give it a shot!

What has been your favorite movie based on an old school cartoon? George of the Jungle is probably mine. Comment below and let me know!

Muppets Most Wanted

And now for my second Muppet movie in a row. Only three years after The Muppets, we've got a sequel; Muppets Most Wanted (2014). This particular Muppet movie parodies a lot of other films while retaining vaudeville and musical numbers that are Muppet signatures. It ended up being pretty good.

Picking up at the exact moment the previous movie left off, Kermit the Frog and friends are elated by their revival's success and are approached by Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais) to go on a world tour. Unknown to them, this is all part of a sinister plan of Constantine, the world's most evil frog, to become the greatest thief of all time. After making sure that Kermit is jailed as himself, Constantine impersonates him to use the Muppet's tour as a cover for his scheme. While Sam the Eagle of the CIA and Inspector Jean Pierre Napoleon (Ty Burrell) of Interpol investigate, the Muppets find their boss seems strangely changed even as Kermit desperately attempts to escape only to be thwarted by prison guard Nadya (Tina Fey). Only when Walter, Fozzie, and Animal realize the truth is there a chance to prevent Constantine from pulling off the crime of the century.

Muppets Most Wanted is a caper movie. Nevertheless, there are still plenty of sketch comedy and musical numbers included and it still has that variety show vibe that The Muppets are known for. I was actually worried that there would be less of that since the main plot was about the hero being swapped with the villain and trying to rob museums. But as per tradition, there are plenty of bits of surreal humor, meta-references, catchy songs, and a prolific use of cameos. I'll only mention two here because it would ruin some of the gags in the movie to reveal more of them. Many times the cameo is the punch line, after all. Lady Gaga and Tom Hiddleston both make appearances in this movie. Tom Hiddleston is an inmate at the prison after being jailed in Thor: The Dark World.

Most Wanted makes many references to other movies, including spy movies, prison movies, and crime capers of the 60's and 70's. It was clearly inspired by The Great Muppet Caper and The Muppets Take Manhattan and The Pink Panther. The movie starts out with a song "We're Doing a Sequel" which is not only funny and catchy, but it also comments on movies and the film industry. There's a line in the song that goes, "And everybody knows the sequel's never quite as good." It's funny to have a movie actually say that, but I hope it wasn't an attempt to excuse the film for possibly being a bomb. While trying to pitch ideas for this sequel, The Swedish Chef appears in a spoofed scene from the old Swedish film The Seventh Seal playing chess with death. The idea is shot down because Americans don't like to read subtitles. Other movies that are referenced include The Shawshank Redemption, Citizen Kane, Gone With the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia, The Spy Who Loved Me, A Chorus Line, The Silence of the Lambs, and Mission: Impossible among others. They're easy to miss if you haven't seen those movies. I haven't seen some of the movies referenced, but I could still identify them because they are classics. The references will go over kids' heads, but adults will probably get a kick out of them. I  mean, seeing Kermit wearing a Hannibal Lecter face mask while in prison is just funny.

Watching The Muppet Show as a kid, I thought it was weird that we'd see these singing and dancing characters, but rarely see their feet as they danced. That seemed like an important part of dancing to me. There's a scene in Most Wanted that features Constantine and Badguy singing and dancing. Constantine, basically the Kermit puppet, is doing some pretty impressive dance moves for a puppet. I'm truly not sure how this was managed, it doesn't look like CGI or anything. Maybe one or more puppeteers were in "green screen suits" and edited out afterwards? The Muppets excel most when special effects are kept to a minimum and allow the magic and novelty of the puppeteering to shine. And shine it does! The puppet work was amazing. The Constantine and Badguy scene was remarkable. Others were impressive but you could tell where the puppeteers where probably hidden. A lot of scenes made me want to watch the special features on the DVD when it comes out to see how they actually pulled off some of the scenes.

As Kermit said, the sequel isn't quite as good. It's predecessor was better, but Muppets Most Wanted was a good time and a decent movie. It lacked the nostalgia of previous Muppet movies, but I still think The Muppets are moving in a good direction. There is a lot of fun songs and laughs to be had with this film; I laughed a lot at the gags and jokes because it's my kind of weird humor. The many cameos were hilarious and fun to watch for since many appear so unexpectedly. This is a decent movie that parents and kids will get a kick out of. It's worth getting a copy to enjoy as a family if you are fans of The Muppets. If not, it's still worth renting for a few laughs.

Who is your favorite Muppet? Comment below and tell me why!