Mr Peabody and Sherman

DreamWorks’s latest animated escapade charts the time-travelling adventures of Mr Peabody, an exceptionally intelligent dog, and his adopted human son, Sherman. Based on characters from the 1960s cartoon Peabody’s Improbable History, this film explores the perils of parenthood in an entirely new (and refreshingly so) context.

When Mr Peabody, an inventor, Nobel laureate, gourmet chef, and two-time Olympic medallist, finds an abandoned baby, he decides to adopt him and give him the life he himself never had. Growing up, Sherman experiences every child’s dream of being able to travel through time in Mr Peabody’s greatest invention: the WABAC. But when he uses it to impress his classmate Penny, Sherman disrupts some of the most important in events in history and creates chaos for the universe. Expect to meet King Tut, Leonardo DaVinci, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, as Sherman, Mr Peabody and Penny travel through various ages to try and put history back on track.

Expect the usual mix of child-friendly puns and the ones thrown in especially for the parents. At times it can feel a little like a history lesson with the sheer abundance of historical figures. Nevertheless, Mr Peabody and Sherman is not just a film for kids; talking dog aside, at its core is a heart-warming premise of what it means to be a family. It’s light-hearted and genuinely funny and an interesting take on the age-old theme of parent-child relationships.

Jess Walker