Mr. Peabody & Sherman

Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014) is about a dog and the boy he adopted. Peabody is the smartest being on earth: a Nobel winning beagle in glasses. Sherman is his son. They travel through history in a machine called the WABAC, and when a fight at school damages the timeline everything comes apart. The characters come from the Peabody's Improbable History segments of the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons, which began in 1959. A fifty year old television joke turned into a feature. The idea underneath is unexpectedly serious. A dog adopting a human child is not legally recognised, and the film runs that through questions of adoption, belonging and who counts as a real parent. Rob Minkoff directed, having co directed The Lion King. It runs 92 minutes. Good for: history flavoured children's films, fast wordplay, and animation about family bonds. Less good for: the history is very thin, and most of the jokes are puns aimed over children's heads. It keeps reaching for toilet humour to hold the pace.