Mr. Peabody and Sherman: Only If You Have Children

As the credits began to roll in the theater packed with children, I couldn’t help but to think of my most recent ex-girlfriend. I actually liked Director Mark Minkoff’s Mr. Peabody and Sherman, just like I liked my ex-girlfriend. In fact, just like a kid would say I LIKE-liked my ex, and I LIKE-liked Mr. Peabody. But I’m kind of an old fart now, and my biological clock is ticking, so now I kind of need to be in love to date someone an extended period time. And I’m also now a film reviewer, so I have to be honest.

But as the responsible journalist, I feel obligated to tell you that I’m not “in love” with Mr. Peabody, and unless you have children, you probably shouldn’t go see it.

First of all, Peabody, I realize your film being based off of a popular children’s series, means you can skim over some character development and history, but it was a popular children’s series in 1960, my own mother, who is approaching grandma age, was 5 then. Maybe give us a few more scenes to help up brush up on your character’s ancient history.

And Mr. Peabody fails to tie up underlying subplots in a tidy and satisfying way. Over the course of the movie, Mr. Peabody berates and is downright mentally oppressive towards his adopted son Sherman. At the end, you want Mr. Peabody to acknowledge that he’s basically driving his child to have a very significant mental disorder. And while he does call him a genius in that way someone would call their henchman a genius for having a benign thought that leads you to a brilliant observation, he never quite acknowledges how much of a miserably oppressive hardass he is sometimes.

I have to admit though, Mr. Peabody is beautifully animated, and I laughed out loud at several scenes. If you have a child, I would definitely recommend taking them to see Peabody.