Mr. Peabody & Sherman is a time-travel movie, a father-and-son movie, a boy-meets-girl movie, and a movie that doggedly celebrates the art of the pun. 
 
 But most significant, it is a movie about the smartest creature on Earth - a Nobel Prize-winning scientist who just happens to be a beagle - and his adopted human boy, and the epic trouble that the bowtied canine and his bespectacled kid find themselves in, exploring history firsthand, and firstpaw, thanks to their WABAC Machine. (Yes, that's pronounced way-back.) 
 
 A smart, snappy CG-animated adaptation of the 1960s' "Peabody's Improbable History" segments of the classic Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon series, Mr. Peabody & Sherman has a cool, midcentury-modern look (dog and boy live in a populuxe Manhattan penthouse) and a voice cast that may not be A-list but fits the bill nicely. 
 
 Modern Family's Ty Burrell is just right as the aloof, erudite Peabody. As Sherman, The Neighbors' Max Charles brings the playfulness, and insecurities, of a 7-year-old to life. And Ariel Winter (Alex in Modern Family) is Penny, the prissy classmate who takes an immediate dislike to the know-it-all nerd, mocking and bullying him - until, without permission, Sherman tries to impress her by hopping the WABAC and heading for Egypt, 133 B.C. 
 
 Mr. Peabody & Sherman ricochets through the centuries: Renaissance Florence, the French Revolution, ancient Troy, Ben Franklin and his kite, and so on. As the plot thickens, our four-legged polymath protagonist faces challenges both parental and physical, as in laws of physics. Wormholes, black holes, and vagaries in the space-time continuum figure prominently. Where are Spock and Kirk when you need them? 
 
 Director Rob Minkoff (The Lion King, Stuart Little) and his animation team stay true to the spirit of the original episodes - created by the Valley Forge cartoonist Ted Key (also of the popular weekly single-panel cartoon Hazel). But the filmmakers inject a whooshy, propulsive sense of fun into the proceedings, too. And the relationship at the heart of the story, the brainiac dog and his eager-to-please pipsqueak charge, develops in ways that are emotionally genuine, if just a tiny bit far-fetched. 
 
 Fetch, Sherman, fetch. 
 
 srea@phillynews.com 
 
 215-854-5629 
 
 @Steven_Rea 
 
 www.inquirer.com/onmovies 
 
 Mr. Peabody & Sherman *** (Out of four stars) 
 
 
 
 Directed by Rob Minkoff. With the voices of Ty Burrell, Max Charles, Ariel Winter, and Stephen Colbert. Distributed by Twentieth Century Fox. 
 
 Running time: 1 hour, 32 mins. 
 
 Parent’s guide: PG (cartoon violence) 
 
 Playing at: area theaters ||||| Sherman asks a skeptical Mr. Peabody if he can take control of the WABAC in the animated "Mr. Peabody & Sherman." (DreamWorks Animation) 
 
 In that ever-expanding world of kid/grown-up movies, "Mr. Peabody & Sherman" reveals a case of conflicted allegiances. 
 
 While the characters from the beloved Rocky and Bullwinkle shows of the 1960s mixed arch intelligence with kid confusion to the delight of the Saturday-morning cartoon crowd a generation ago, the big-screen adventure is more Adult Swim than Saturday morning. Those are treacherous waters to tread. 
 
 The film is 3-D, but you barely notice that extra D. It's filled with the sort of erudite discourse that befits Mr. Peabody, the genius dog, with a genius choice for a voice in "Modern Family's" Ty Burrell, whose delivery is dry to the bone. 
 
 The story is "Modern Family"-friendly in other ways. Mr. Peabody is reimagined as an actual rather than implied father to the young boy Sherman (Max Charles). It's an adoption situation, one that is suddenly in jeopardy, a theme that drives the film. The explanation of why a canine could adopt a boy in the first place is none too subtle in suggesting contemporary dilemmas. 
 
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 We get the back story of Sherman found as an abandoned baby by the brilliant beagle along with a laundry list of Mr. Peabody's many accomplishments: Harvard degree, inventor, business titan, mixologist… Though maybe that last talent is saved for later. It serves as a setup for anyone unfamiliar with the basic conceit — the dog is the superior being — and a mechanism to explain the changes made in moving from short TV segment to main big-screen attraction. 
 
 The unwieldy opening also exemplifies the film's central difficulty in finding the right balance between riffing on the cultural zeitgeist for adults and seeding in enough silliness for kids. It's a problem that increasingly seems to be systemic to DreamWorks' animated films as the studio struggles to take the formula that made "Shrek" such a success in 2001 and play it forward. 
 
 Director Rob Minkoff, who was behind the mildly amusing animation/live-action mix of "Stuart Little," and screenwriter Craig Wright, whose credits include the very smart HBO series "Six Feet Under," have captured the characters' fundamental je ne sais quoi in sometimes delightful ways. 
 
 And they clearly understand the need to reach the kid quotient. There's a smattering of harmless scatological sight gags likely to make everyone giggle. The Trojan horse is the funniest, helped by Patrick Warburton's odoriferous Agamemnon. 
 
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 The animation style mirrors the original, which is simple in an appealing way. It is particularly effective in the action sequences, which make the most of animation's ability to create a playful reality. But the multi-layered historical references designed to be adroitly wry are a trickier gambit. 
 
 Rarely do I feel inclined to say this, but the film may actually be too smart for its own good. Many of Mr. Peabody's "teaching moments" will sail right over the heads of kids while requiring adults to pay attention. Sherman's frequent reaction —"Huh? I don't get it" — will likely be echoed by many youngsters in the audience. 
 
 As it happens, being "too smart" is Sherman's problem at school too. After all the pre-school educating Mr. Peabody has been doing, Sherman is in the unfortunate position of knowing too much. By outsmarting the smartest girl in class on the first day, the boy makes a formidable enemy. 
 
 Voiced by another "Modern Family" member, Ariel Winter, Penny's lunchroom taunting leads to Sherman acting out, and before you know it an officious female from Family Services named Miss Grunion (Allison Janney) is threatening to take the boy away. 
 
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 The rest of the film follows the misadventures that begin when Mr. Peabody invites Penny and her parents (Stephen Colbert and Leslie Mann) over for dinner in hopes the youngsters can work through their issues. 
 
 Instead they take their competing egos along with them in the WABAC machine, Mr. Peabody's time-traveling invention. Finally the film gets its footing. Time travel allows the kids, with Mr. Peabody's assistance, to have clever fun at history's expense: Smile, Mona Lisa, smile. 
 
 But the underlying 21st century issues — what makes a good parent, what makes a family, how can a friendship between feuding kids be forged — seem relatively rote. For all the ways the film reflects its earlier TV incarnation, the shadings have been softened. "Mr. Peabody" could use a bit more bite. 
 
 betsy.sharkey@latimes.com 
 
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 'Mr. Peabody & Sherman' 
 
 MPAA rating: PG for some mild action and brief rude humor 
 
 Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes 
 
 Playing: In general release ||||| So far, the wonderful world of Jay Ward — birthplace of a thousand magical baby-boomer Saturdays of creaky animation, bizarre characters and marvelously cracked puns — has remained a stubbornly foreign land to Hollywood explorers. 
 
 Remember the big-screen versions of "Boris and Natasha," with Sally Kellerman and Dave Thomas? Brendan Fraser as "Dudley Do-Right" and "George of the Jungle"? Robert DeNiro as Fearless Leader in "Rocky & Bullwinkle"? 
 
 Yes, I know. I've been trying to forget, too. 
 
 Which is why "Mr. Peabody & Sherman" — based on Ward's deliciously silly cartoon about a coolly intellectual talking dog, his geeky boy and their time-machine trips through history — is such a pleasant, mostly faithful surprise. 
 
 It's been given the full modern treatment by DreamWorks Animation, and that's not quite an endorsement. The 3D, the softened computer images, the occasional bathroom jokes, the well-worn pop song in the middle — all feel like their trademarked style by now. 
 
 But the film also has the original show's spirit, and some of its old-fashioned charm. 
 
 The set-up for the old cartoon was that the superior Mr. Peabody and nerdy Sherman would take a trip back to some crucial historical moment; things would inevitably go wrong, Mr. Peabody would save the day and it would all end with a groan-worthy pun. 
 
 The movie replicates that, only now having several separate trips — to Troy, the French Revolution, ancient Egypt and the Renaissance — strung together with a linking story which has Sherman trying to make friends at school, and a social worker challenging Mr. Peabody's parental custody. 
 
 It's a lot of material, and although Sherman and Mr. Peabody are fine, the rendering of the supporting characters falls back on some computer-animation cliches — spindly limbs, big flat feet and, for the bad guys, chins like battering rams. 
 
 But Ty Burrell, who voices Mr. Peabody, does a truly wonderful job. There was always something a little foppish about that beagle, with his little red tie and bachelor pad; Burrell gives him just the right amount of cosmopolitan snide, somewhere between Tony Randall and Clifton Webb. 
 
 And although a few other guest voices show up, briefly — including Allison Janney and Stephen Colbert — the movie doesn't go overboard with celebrity drop-bys. In fact, most of the rest of the heavy lifting is done by 10-year-old Max Charles, who does an excellent job of making Sherman sound like a real, somewhat overexcited boy. 
 
 The script, to its credit, also avoids the usual DreamWorks fallback of shoveling in pop-culture jokes whenever possible; although there's a brief "Spartacus" gag, much of the humor comes from Mr. Peabody's painful puns and a fractured view of history. 
 
 And director Rob Minkoff — who also helmed "The Lion King" and "Stuart Little" — moves things along briskly. Actually, too briskly, for my taste; whatever the period, whatever the crisis, every segment ends with an all-out, Spielberg-esque chase, with breakneck turns, hairbreadth escapes and always-soaring music. It's a little exhausting. 
 
 Fifty years ago, animated entertainment was a lot quieter. 
 
 But that was my "Mr. Peabody & Sherman." This is someone else's. And it should give them, and even a few open-minded parents, almost just as much giggly fun. 
 
 Ratings note: The film contains some mildly rude humor. 
 
 'Mr. Peabody & Sherman' (PG) Fox (92 min.) 
 
 Directed by Rob Minkoff. With the voices of Ty Burrell, Max Charles, Stephen Colbert, Allison Janney. Now playing in New Jersey. 
 
 ★ ★ ★ 
 
 
 

– Critics and audiences alike seem pleased with Mr. Peabody & Sherman, a remake of Jay Ward's classic cartoon—made famous on the Rocky & Bullwinkle Show—about a smart talking dog, his adopted human son, and their travels through history via their WABAC (think way-back) machine. What reviewers are saying: Mr. Peabody & Sherman "is such a pleasant, mostly faithful surprise," Stephen Whitty writes for the Star-Ledger. It has "the original show's spirit, and some of its old-fashioned charm," which should give kids and parents alike "almost just as much giggly fun," even if it does leave the audience just a bit exhausted. Colin Covert at the Minneapolis Star Tribune admits he had his doubts about a movie version of the 1960s show, but says, "I needn't have worried." The visuals have stepped up "to sleek 21st-century standards," and "the essential charm of the series survives more or less intact." Plus, "some of the archaic jokes are absolute crack-ups." Betsy Sharkey agrees that "there's a smattering of harmless scatological sight gags likely to make everyone giggle," but says "the film may actually be too smart for its own good," she writes at the Los Angeles Times. "Many of Mr. Peabody's 'teaching moments' will sail right over the heads of kids while requiring adults to pay attention." Still, Ty Burrell's voicing of Mr. Peabody was "a genius choice." Steven Rea agrees on Burrell, whom he calls "just right." The film is "a smart, snappy CG-animated adaptation" that is "true to the spirit of the original series," he writes at the Philadelphia Inquirer. And as a bonus, "the filmmakers inject a whooshy, propulsive sense of fun into the proceedings, too."