5 Reasons to See Mr. Peabody and Sherman + Ty Burrell and Rob Minkoff Interview

By Nancy Johnson Horn, Editor —  

Mr. Peabody and Sherman is opening tomorrow and I’m so excited. I recently got an opportunity to preview the film and attend a roundtable with director Rob Minkoff and stars Ty Burrell (Mr. Peabody) and Max Charles (Sherman). Here we are with Ty Burrell and Max Charles (I’m to Ty’s left).

 And here we are with director Rob Minkoff.

 It was really cool to sit down with director Minkoff and stars Ty Burrell and Max Charles.

Minkoff is best known for directing “The Lion King” and “Stuart Little”. We learned about his motivations behind the movie. 12 years ago he was working with producer Jason Clark (Ted), who he did “Stuart Little” with. Jason asked him, “What do you think of Mr. Peabody and Sherman? Let’s make it into a film.”

They secured the rights from original creator Jay Ward’s daughter and brought it to Dreamworks in 2005 to Jeffrey Katzenberg. After working on development for 6 years, they finally had a script by Craig Wright that they liked in 2011. Minkoff told us that the script that was green lit was nothing like the script that was shot. Which I personally thought was fascinating! Sherman’s nemesis was changed into the character of Penny , and she is supposed to put pressure on the relationship between Mr. Peabody and Sherman. In the original series, Mr. Peabody is more of a tour guide than a dad. Penny changes things and it’s not necessarily a bad thing.

In the old series, Mr. Peabody was not very father-like, he considered himself Sherman’s mentor. In the movie, it’s pretty interesting to see their relationship  change and evolve from mentor/mentee to father and son. Minkoff based the Mr. Peabody on his own father (the warmer parts of Mr. Peabody, of course).

There were also other locations added that weren’t in the series (which they went to many, many places in). Troy was addition, because they had the concept that this was a place that Sherman could run away to.

We heard from Ty Burrell and Max Charles next. Ty told us that he loves the process of acting. He spoke about playing Mr. Peabody and how he’s a mentor first and then becomes a father to Sherman. Max Charles, who’s on ABC’s The Neighbors, was adorable and really had the Sherman voice down (watch the videos on YouTube and you’ll see). Ty Burrell told us that when you’re doing voice work for animation, you record your part alone. So, he didn’t get to hang Max Charles or his TV daughter, Ariel Winter (who plays Penny) very much. Burrell told us the first scene he had with Max, they had to yell at each other. The two clearly liked each other and it was really cool finding out motivations behind their characters.

Here’s 5 reasons to see Mr. Peabody and Sherman

1. History – This movie really makes history fun. See my post about Mr. Peabody and Sherman: Hopping Through History.

2. Mr. Peabody is just so suave – he invented Zumba, he’s well read, brilliant, titan of industry, inventor, scientist, gourmand, two-time Olympic medalist. Is there anything he can’t do?

3. The WABAC Machine – This Time Machine rocks. So much fun to travel around in time.

4. Action – this movie is full of action, you will be on the edge of your seats.

5. Perfect for kids ages 5- 95. Different ages will get different things from the movie. Adults won’t be bored either. In fact, there’s going to be a lot of interest in the original series (PS, there may be a sequel and it may be turning into a TV show).

Should you see this movie? Yes.

Check out the trailer for Mr. Peabody & Sherman:

I was a guest at the Mr. Peabody and Sherman junket, hosted by DreamWorks Animation and 20th Century Fox. I was not compensated for these posts.