Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.
There is an itch that Hollywood just can’t seem to scratch. It’s a nagging, nostalgic yearning for something from its collective youth that try as it might, it just can’t seem to get to catch on with the modern audience. I’m talking, of course, of “The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show”. Hollywood keeps on coming back to this particular wellspring time and again, seemingly undaunted by box office flop after flop. First there was 1992’s “Boris and Natasha” which ended up as a TV movie and then in 1999 a live-action ‘Dudley Do-Right’ starring Brendan Fraser, Sarah Jessica Parker and Alfred Molina appeared, grossing less than 10% of its production budget. Undaunted, the following the year saw the release of the admittedly underappreciated “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle”, a good-naturedly ironic take on the classic cartoon, bring Moose and Squirrel into the ‘real world’, it too sank at the box office despite the presence of Robert DeNiro, Rene Russo and the appealing Piper Perabo. Now if the headliners of this much-loved but apparently now outdated cartoon couldn’t crack the modern box office what luck would any of the other supporting features have?
DreamWorks is banking that there’s still enough love and awareness of one of them to make it big at the box office, spinning off the “Peabody’s Improbable History” segment into the computer animated 3D feature “Mr Peabody & Sherman”. There’s a little revisionism in the mix: Sherman is Mr Peabody’s adopted son this time round, not his pet and the time travel element is driven more by their personal lives than a specific educational mission.
Essentially a junior primer for “Doctor Who”, “Mr Peabody & Sherman” tells the story of a super intelligent, resourceful and inventive dog (never queried, never explained), who travels through time in his WABAC machine. This time, they end up bringing Penny Peterson, one of Sherman’s classmates along for a whirlwind tour through history taking in Ancient Egypt, the Siege of Troy and the Renaissance.
Along the way, Mr Peabody and Sherman learn some valuable lessons about being a family and trusting in each other. The nature of father/ son bonds is clearly intended to be the moral core of the story and as I sat there watching the film with the Mertmas by my side, I’d be lying if I didn’t have at least a couple of moments where I stole a glance at him through ever so slightly misty eyes, especially when he pointed out the similarities to “Doctor Who”. Speaking of the Mertmas, he definitely enjoyed it, especially the action scenes which are well executed, and peppered with humour both slapstick and wordy. He thought it was good: exciting and funny but I’m not sure it will make his list of all time classics.
Like its source material, puns abound and there are a more than a few sly laugh out loud jokes squarely aimed at the parents but “Mr Peabody & Sherman” needs more than a handful of good jokes to succeed. When its only recent exposure to audiences is some token references in “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy”, it needs to be a superb, heartfelt family adventure, a story and characters that take you by surprise and become instantly unforgettable. “Despicable Me” pulled off this trick, “Mr Peabody & Sherman” does not.
It’s competently made and certainly a diverting hour and a half of animated adventure but it presumes a little too much existing affection for the characters and, especially outside the United States where “The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show” is less well known, that’s a mistake. There’s just not enough of a hook for “Mr Peabody & Sherman” to bring in audiences unfamiliar or uninterested in the nostalgia factor and, for better or worse, it’s going to be annihilated by “The Lego Movie” which comes out a week later.
