Movie Review - Mr. Peabody & Sherman

Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014)

Featuring the vocal talents of Ty Burrell, Max Charles, Ariel Winter, Stephen Colbert, Leslie Mann, Stanley Tucci, Lake Bell, Patrick Warburton, and Allison Janney

Directed by Rob Minkoff

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

The voiceover talent of Ty Burrell and Max Charles as the amiable titular characters Mr. Peabody & Sherman -- the former an incredibly intelligent dog and the latter his adopted elementary school son -- really do all they can to make this animated film come together, but something doesn't quite click in this Rob Minkoff-directed piece.  Based off a segment from the Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoon series, the characters Peabody and Sherman are amusing to watch and, as I previously stated, Burrell and Charles breathe life into the characters, but the punny humor of the old tv show doesn't translate as well as it should to the big screen.

The dog and his human son have had many adventures thanks to Peabody's WABAC machine -- a time machine that allows Peabody and Sherman to travel anywhere in the past they'd like.  While this travel has certainly provided an education to Sherman, Peabody makes the determination that he needs to send his son to a real school.  On his very first day, Sherman gets into a fight with obnoxious bully Penny (Ariel Winter) which results in Penny's parents coming over to Peabody's luxurious abode to hash out punishment.  While there, Sherman invites Penny into the WABAC machine and the two young kids create a bit of chaos that may even be difficult for the genius Peabody to resolve.

Animation-wise, we're looking at typical Dreamworks stuff here -- it's not bad, but there's certainly nothing beautiful about what we're seeing (although Peabody and Sherman themselves are amusingly drawn).  Despite some nice voice work for our titular characters, the story feels episodic -- we move from one period in history to the next -- and the through-line of Sherman trying to make Penny a better person doesn't work or appeal to this viewer.  Mr. Peabody and Sherman isn't bad, but it didn't quite come together in the end.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

A Book a Week - I Am America (And So Can You!)

Book Twenty-Nine of the Book-A-Week Quest

I Am America (And So Can You!)
by Stephen Colbert (2007)

I don't really watch The Colbert Report, but I'd certainly rather watch Colbert than Jon Stewart's mug on The Daily Show. If they must make fun of my peeps (that'd be us conservatives...and note, us conservatives are certainly hip enough to use the term "peeps"), I'd rather be made fun of by someone who's at least pretending to be one us.

Colbert's book is clever -- a manifesto, of sorts, detailing how his conservative America would look if all liberals understood the errors of their ways (I kid, I kid...sort of...).

I laughed aloud several times as he takes his conservative character to outrageous extremes. That being said, the book is about 100 pages too long. Halfway through, I was getting bored of his humor...it kind of felt like I was reading the same thing over and over again. Sure, there were certainly bits and pieces in the 2nd half that were clever, but it just got to be too repetitive.

Overall, though, a funny book. As a young person with conservative leanings, I can honestly say that I laughed more than enough to recommend the book.

Movie Review - Monsters Vs. Aliens 3D (2009)

featuring the voice talents of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Will Arnett, Hugh Laurie, Kiefer Sutherland, Rainn Wilson, and Stephen Colbert
directed by Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon
written by a bunch of people

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge Disney fan. Anyone who knows me knows that I typically despise Dreamworks films. They lack heart, they lack soul, and they get all their humor from pop culture references. Last year's Kung Fu Panda was moderately successful (review), but it still fell apart at the end. With Monsters vs. Aliens, Dreamworks is continuing to improve...although they definitely haven't reached Pixar's quality level yet.

When a meteorite with special unearthly powers lands on Susan (voiced by Witherspoon) on her wedding day causing her to grow to gigantic proportions, she is seized by the government and placed in a holding tank with four other monsters -- a blob named Bob (Rogen), a man/cockroach (Laurie), a Creature from the Deep (Arnett), and a giant furry insect. A friendship develops between them all, and, this being a kid's film and all, they come together despite their differences and fight the evil alien invader Gallaxhar (Wilson) who desires to destroy Earth.

There is very little story here. In fact, the whole story is in that paragraph above. And while the film tried to develop the characters (especially Susan), it fell flat...although Witherspoon's vocals were engaging.

There is definitely humor in this one that does not stem from the pop culture variety (although there are a few of those jokes here and there). I am utterly sick of Seth Rogen as a one-note actor, but he was hilarious here (well, his voice was hilarious). Kiefer Sutherland's General W.R. Monger also provided quite a few laughs. I guess the problem is that even though I laughed quite a bit (a lot, really, when comparing it to other Dreamworks films), there's not enough story to connect those laughs. It's like watching a stand-up comedian and only laughing at every third joke. You feel like it's good when you're watching it, but when you really think about it, you realize that you feel like you didn't quite get your money's worth.

Still, the film is Dreamworks' best effort ever and is certainly worth a look.

But...it's certainly NOT WORTH A LOOK in 3D. There is no reason to shell out the extra bucks and see this in the 3D format. There is an incredibly corny 3D effect at the beginning that I literally rolled my eyes at, but after that, there is very minimal 3D-ness to this film. Unlike other films I've seen in 3D, there's very little depth to this one either. If you decide to see this in a theater, there's no reason to see it in 3D. I can't imagine this 3D "fad" lasts if companies keep putting out films with lackluster effects.

The RyMickey Rating: C+