DreamWorks presents Peabody and Sherman

[droosan]

(And I assume they had some plot excuse for upgrading the WABAC into a flying ship instead of a door.)

The door is still there; they walk through it to get to the 'spaceship' portion of the WABAC.

There are some nifty visual gags afforded by the WABAC's vehicle form, which I quite enjoyed.

But (again, IMO), there are just as many nonsensical "we can fix this problem -- because, TIME MACHINE!!" plot developments.

[James]

Droosan is exactly right about the plot -- all over the place and problems get wrapped up too easily. But even worse for me was that it was all pretty bland and unfunny. I know I didn't laugh much and I barely heard a peep from the kids in the rest of the theatre.

[droosan]

I spied Kevin Dart's name in the end credits (background artist/stylist for Sym-Bionic Titan, Steven Universe and the recent Powerpuff Girls special; also creator of the faux 'girl-spy' franchise Yuki 7).

Turns out he'd done some concept art early-on in MP&S' development. He posted a couple of these paintings on his blog, earlier this week .. which (as he notes) didn't seem to make it into the final film, in any way .. but are still kinda fun.

[James]

AV Review: http://animatedviews.com/2014/mr-peabod ... rman-film/

[ShyViolet]

Is this still to come out in the States?

Next week. Easter-vacation kids-rush, which DW now pins their entire year's fortune on.

Actually, How to train Your Dragon 2 is coming out June 13th, so that's summer vacation too. I think it'll be a big hit!

[Randall]

I've only watched the Press Kit featurette on Netflix, but I was disappointed that the background designs are so... literal. Why do CGI directors/producers think that everything has to look photoreal/realistic? What happened to making cartoons? The visuals I saw have almost none of the charm of the TV version. Now, I realize that doing an exact translation of the TV show's minimalistic (and sometimes amatuerish) graphics onto a big screen wouldn't be great either, but a little more artistic creativity onscreen would have been nice.

"Art of... (the Movie)" books are filled with amazing visuals done by conceptual artists, but so often the director simply chooses to make their CGI films look like what's come before, and it's getting boring.

Regardless, I still want to see this one.

[ShyViolet]

Saw it a couple of days ago, enjoyed it very much, although I really could've done without the scatological jokes. Regardless, I rate it about a "B" as far as enjoyment factor and clever jokes. Yeah, the plot was a bit...like a rubber band (constantly bouncing back and forth) but the father-son relationship is quite touching and what really anchors the film. Oh, and the audience I saw it with loved it...a bunch of them even clapped at the end.

[Bill1978]

Why do CGI directors/producers think that everything has to look photoreal/realistic?

Totally agree with this statement, and it's one of my pet peeves. One of the many joys I have in watching an animated movie is marvelling at the idea that everything was created by hands, and it does annoy me a bit when emphasis is placed on making a 'cartoon' appear real. If that is the goal of the production team, why not just make a live action movie and impress me with your talent that way. Often it takes me out of the movie. It's why still enjoy the hand drawn features cause I can marvel at the talent on display and be amazed with what has been drawn. I'm not saying there is no talent in CGI, but the need to make things look real and not 'cartoonish' defeats the purpose of using the medium in my opinion.

Still waiting for this to be released in Australia. Apparently March 27 is my date. It looks interesting, but as is the case with Dreamworks it could go either way for me, so I shall keeop my expectations low. At the moment, I'm gonna guess it will be my 2nd favourite Dreamworks animted feature for 2014, behind Dragon 2 and way ahead of Home.

[ShyViolet]

Doing well. All right!

http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/r ... ce-1969929

[ShyViolet]

Some more info from the TAG blog:

http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/ ... ation.html

[LotsoA113]

And now a 2D animated TV Show based on Mr. Peabody and Sherman is headed to Netflix in October.

http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/mr ... 201557948/

[EricJ]

He could take it to Hulu, however, they ALREADY have a 2D animated TV show based on Mr. Peabody & Sherman. From 1961.