Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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MARCH 19-25, 2014 UCW 21 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Clearly, I was not the target audience for Mr. Peabody & Sherman (92 minutes). That's a shame, because I really wanted to like it. First, the entire film is based on the "Peabody's Improbable History" segments of the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons, and, if you don't know Rocky and Bullwinkle then I don't want to know you. Second, it's got a good cast and characters that are pretty cute on first glance. Finally, it's a DreamWorks production and those are generally pretty enjoyable (except for Shrek the Third). The story is pretty simple. Mr. Peabody (Ty Burrell) raises Sherman (Max Charles) from a baby, but on Sherman's first day of school he catches the eye of a social worker, Ms. Grunion (Allison Janney). She blames Sherman for getting into a fight with Penny Peterson (Ariel Winter), and Mr. Peabody invites the Peterson's over to smooth the waters. Penny finds out there is a time machine in the house and commandeers it, setting up a series of wacky hijinks that culminate with a hole being punched into the space- time continuum. I guess problem number one was trying to figure out why in the world the writers shoehorned in a childhood romance. I mean, it's okay to let 7-year-old kids just be friends — it's not really necessary to make them secretly in love with each other. You know what is not okay? Dressing a 7-year-old cartoon girl up and plastering cartoon make-up on her face like she is appearing on the latest episode of Toddlers and Tiaras. Also not okay? The puns in every other line of dialogue. These are not good puns. And the odd backstory for how Sherman ended up with Mr. Peabody just confused me. If it hadn't been brought up at all I'm sure most of the audience wouldn't have thought twice. Like, how often do you wonder why Goofy is a talking dog who wears clothes and drives a car but Pluto the dog can't talk and is put on a leash? It never comes up in the cartoons so most of us don't think about it. Here, though, there is a long complicated story about how Mr. Peabody found Sherman on a rainy street in a box and got a judge to agree interspecies adoption was a reasonable way to go, and it fails to provide us with any real answers. Like, who abandoned Sherman in the rain? Were his parents superheroes? Kidnap victims? Neglectful monsters? Is there some vast conspiracy that involved Mr. Peabody traveling through time with his WABAC machine to pluck an innocent baby from the arms of its unsuspecting parents to drop it in the street so his younger self could find it? Is he secretly training Sherman to seek revenge on all those heartless boys who wouldn't adopt Mr. Peabody when he was a puppy? I need answers, people! Inquiring minds want to know! Anyway, Mr. Peabody homeschooled Sherman by using his WABAC machine to visit various historical events, such as the French Revolution. This seems like it would be rife with danger, so I am a bit puzzled that the time machine isn't set for automatic retrieval in the event of catastrophe. Mr. Peabody takes a very casual approach to an invention that bends time and space. Perhaps if he were a little more security conscious the events that set the narrative into motion would never have happened? After all, it was lack of security that allowed Penny to compromise the time stream. Mr. Peabody also plays fast and loose with established historical fact, preferring the popular version of events. For example, historians agree (which is rare, historians are generally at each other's throats) that Marie Antoinette never said "Let them eat cake," it was either a mistranslation or a misattribution. Nevertheless, screenwriters had her say the line, in French-accented English, no less. It's like, if you can't learn accurate history from whimsical cartoons, then what can the children turn to? Absolutely Punishing Mr. Peabody & Sherman (Rated PG) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@upand- comingweekly.com. 910.484.6200. feeling under the weather? EXPRESSCARE 4 convenient locations :: open 7 days a week CAPE FEAR VALLEY EXPRESSCARE 1638 OWEN DRIVE Cape Fear Valley Medical Center at the Melrose Road entrance 7 days a week: 11 am - 9 pm (910) 615-4372 HEALTH PAVILION NORTH EXPRESSCARE 6387 RAMSEY STREET Ramsey Street & Andrews Road 7 days a week: 9 am - 7 pm (910) 615-3879 CAPE FEAR VALLEY HOKE EXPRESSCARE 300 MEDICAL PAVILION DRIVE Highway 401 & Johnson Mill Road 7 days a week: 9 am - 7 pm (910) 904-8020 HIGHSMITH-RAINEY EXPRESSCARE 150 ROBESON STREET Downtown Fayetteville 7 days a week: 7 am - 11 pm (910) 615-1220 www.capefearvalley.com Your Community Handbook News, Views, Arts and Entertainment. 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