Visual delight

This is a delightful animated film of a talking dog/man Mr Peabody who is the smartest thing in the world and his dog/son Sherman, a sumptuous romp through history, taking pot-shots at historical figures with utter disdain.

Mr Peabody (voice of Ty Burrell) is a dog who is too clever to be adopted by man. So, he does the inevitable --- adopts Sherman (Max Collins). In school on the first day, Sherman gets into a tiff with nosey classmate Penny (Ariel Winter) and the principal sends for Mr Peabody.

The rapprochement with Penny’s parents and Mr Peabody is what the film is all about as director Rob Minkoff borrows H.G. Wells “Time Machine” to take us on a rollicking ride which brings us face to face with George Washington of the cherry tree fame, Marie Antoinette who ate her cake and had it too, the Egyptian pharaohs, Tutankamen or Tut for short and Leonardo da Vinci, not Di Caprio; they try hard to make Mona Lisa smile and accost many, many others. Somehow one missed Mel Brooks as Sigmund Freud. The point oft mentioned is that the space-time continuum, whatever it means, must not be destroyed. We surely do not dispute that but using music (Danny Elfman’s) to good effect and the state of arts computer graphics is fun and games with food for thought too, especially for GenNext children who’ll be guffawing in the aisles.

We thought the 92-minute is a tad too log but who are we to say so, it’s for the children to say so and you know what Like Oly Twist they may well ask for more. –EEM