Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014) Directed by Rob Minkoff

Best way to sum this movie up; it's not a great movie but it's some great children's entertainment nevertheless.

And that's all that matters really of course. After all, this is a kids movie, mostly aimed toward young teenagers and those below the age of 10. I really strongly believe that those kids are going to have no problems with watching and enjoying this movie. In that regard, you really have to call the movie a successful and effective one, despite the fact that I personally still had more than a few problems with it.

The story itself is too basic and straightforward for my taste. It's isn't anything too original and once you really start thinking about it, it all isn't anything too creative either. Just a basic time travel story, in which our heroes travel to well known time periods, historical places and meet up with historical figures. It's never anything that surprising who they meet up with and what happens next in the story. It also isn't a terribly educative movie for young kids, since it hardly tells anything about the particular historical figures or places the movie is taking place at. This does feel a bit like a missed opportunity but perhaps this is something they saved for a video game or TV series. Or perhaps it's something that the Mr. Peabody & Sherman characters just never were about in the first place. I'll admit I don't know enough about the character's history to tell.

But that brings me to another small problem that I had with the movie; it more or less assumes that you're at least a tiny bit familiar already with the Mr. Peabody & Sherman characters. It doesn't really first introduces or sets the characters up for you in this movie and it pretty much jumps right into the action, so to speak. This is somewhat annoying at first but of course as the movie progresses you start to get a better sense of the characters and their world.

The foremost reason why I still feel and believe that kids are going to enjoy this movie, regardless of everything, is the fact that it's a perfectly fun and adventurous movie. The settings constantly provide the movie with plenty of opportunities to turn into a fast paced, visual spectacle, that never dwells on things for too long, since the movie is basically set at a new different place and time period, every 10 other minutes or so. The humor of the movie is also pretty decent and luckily doesn't just relies on characters jumping around and constantly crashing into things. It also still is a pretty entertaining movie for adults and some of the jokes are definitely aimed toward the more adult crowd.

Visually it's a perfectly fine movie. The animates look pretty simplistic and 'childish' but that perfectly suits the style and atmosphere of the movie. It's besides never anything cheap or formulaic looking. The movie definitely has a style of its own and it's a pleasant one to look at!

Further more, I also liked the musical score by Danny Elfman. Really has been a while since I have heard a decent enough Elfman score but he did a pretty good job for this movie. It's a fun and uplifting score, that's perfect for an animated movie of this sort.

Really a far from great or very original animated movie but most kids will probably really like it! It's some perfectly fine and enjoyable children's entertainment!

7/10

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