Mr. Peabody and Sherman

Imagine a the smartest dog on the planet. Like smarter than Einstein, Newton and Steve Jobs combined. You’d end up with Mr. Peabody. When you are a dog this intelligent, well the courts will also let you adopt and that’s what he did. Sherman is the son of Mr. Peabody. This is one area of the relationship between Peabody and Sherman that was expanded upon from the original Jay Ward cartoons Peabody’s Improbable History which originally aired in the 50s and 60s. I remember the reruns on Sunday mornings here in Southern California.

Ty Burrell (from Modern Family) is the voice of Mr. Peabody a super intelligent dog who is raising a seven year old boy Sherman voiced by Max Charles. Like any father, he wants his son to be smart and knowledgeable. The concept from the original show was that Mr. Peabody uses his WABAC time machine to journey back in time and teach Sherman about history, or at least a slightly twisted version of history. That premise lies in the background to the adventure in the new movie and leads to hilarious consequences. However, the spin in the story comes when Sherman finds another use to Mr. Peabody’s invention, which wreaks some havoc across time. The show pays homage to what made the original magical and includes plenty of humor to keep the adults entertained but without ever being inappropriate.

Ariel Winter plays Penny, Sherman’s rival and ultimately, travel companion. Winter and Burrell might seem obvious casting choices due to the popularity of Modern Family, but when they were initially cast over 2 years ago, Modern Family was only in it’s first season. Winter has been doing voice work for cartoons since she was a young child. She currently also voices Sofia the First on television.

“Another talking dog movie” you might be asking? Mr. Peabody is not just any talking dog. He’s a brilliant one. When asked about how they chose animation over live action for the film, Director Rob Minkoff (who directed The Lion King)responded, “I started to feel like the whole notion of a talking dog and a boy would be better in the kind of a fantasy world where you can accept a talking dog much more easily than if it’s a live action world. Because suddenly, there are a lot of questions about why does the dog talk. How does he talk? Is it weird? Do people think it’s normal? So, that’s really not the sensibility of the original show. The sensibility was that it’s an amazing character. He happens to be a dog, but nobody cares. Nobody bats an eye about it.”

Mr. Peabody and Sherman opens March 7th in 3D!