March 21, 2014 -- This is nice, family-oriented cartoon adventure about a dog and his boy. It is funny and heartwarming, with a lot of bad puns. It tries to appeal to both children and parents, but much of it will probably go right over the heads of young children. It also has some slapstick comedy for the youngest audience members.

At the heart of the movie is Mr. Peabody, a Renaissance dog who is a genius and master of many skills. He is an awkward, but devoted father to his adopted son, Sherman, who gets into a fight with Penny Peterson, a girl at school. Sherman bites her, leading to an investigation of Mr. Peabody by a formidable child welfare advocate, Ms. Grunion. How does a dog attain the right to adopt a boy? With a creative legal decision, that's how. This is all explained in the film.

Mr. Peabody hopes to diffuse the situation by inviting Penny and her parents to dinner on the same night Ms. Grunion is to visit, but Penny and Sherman take off in a time machine (the Way Back machine) and cause all manner of troubles in Ancient Egypt, the Trojan War and they also crash Leonardo DaVinci's flying machine. An even bigger crisis looms with a major disruption of the space-time continuum as past and present collide.

Penny and Sherman start out this grand adventure as enemies, but end up as best friends. Sherman, like Mr. Peabody, is cautious and careful most of the time and not willing to try new experiences. Penny likes adventure and plunges into new experiences, like marriage, before really thinking things through.

The story gets pretty hectic at this point with a large number of historical characters and even historical buildings and other things all crowded into one place because of a rip in the fabric of space-time, caused by Sherman's misguided attempt to save Mr. Peabody. The resolution to this apocalyptic event is even less believable than the event itself. However, since it just a silly cartoon, it is all in good fun.

The story is about Mr. Peabody's relationship with Sherman. He is a bit over-protective and controlling. He learns though these adventures that Sherman is smarter and stronger when he lets Sherman strut his stuff once in a while. Penny seems to know this instinctively. It is a very sweet story, with plenty of humor and adventure too. The characters are well developed. The artwork is colorful and vivid (it is a 3D movie which I saw in 2D). This is a solid family animated feature. It rates a B.

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