Back in the 1960s, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends became a fairly popular animated TV series, one that lived on past its cancellation via syndication – sort of. While Friends remained out there for public consumption, it never reached the cultural saturation level of era-mate The Flintstones.

In 2000, Hollywood attempted a big-budget film adaptation. Called The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle, the movie mixed live-action and animation, with stars like Robert DeNiro and Rene Russo in tow.

It flopped – and it flopped hard. With a budget of $76 million, Adventures only made $35 million worldwide.

14 years later, Hollywood returned to the well in a manner of speaking. Those old 1960s shows included shorts that starred a super-intelligent dog named Mr. Peabody and his “pet boy” Sherman as they experienced time travel adventures.

2014 brought a fully animated big screen tale logically titled Mr. Peabody and Sherman, and it did… okay. Of course, its $275 million worldwide gross obliterated the take of Adventures from 2000, but with a huge $145 million budget, it seems unlikely that Peabody turned a profit.

Which is probably why circa 2018, we’ve seen no signs of a sequel. This doesn’t seem like a shame, as Peabody offers a fairly mediocre animated tale.

Canine genius inventor, businessman and general bon vivant Mr. Peabody (voiced by Ty Burrell) uses his “WABAC” time machine to visit various time periods and meet the great people of the ages. He often brings adopted son Sherman (Max Charles) along for these adventures.

When classmate Penny Peterson (Ariel Winter) calls him a liar about his experiences in history, Sherman takes the girl for a jaunt in the WABAC. This inevitably leads to a slew of problems that Mr. Peabody needs to fix.

Given the massive historical template on which the film can paint, Peabody boasted ample opportunity for comedic shenanigans. Add a pretty good cast and I went into the film with moderately high hopes.

Alas, Peabody only sporadically lives up to these expectations. Instead, it tends to take the easy way out and opt for themes and gags that lack much creativity.

Granted, I get that Peabody shoots for a kiddie audience, but that doesn’t mean it needs to pursue so much lowbrow humor. The film pursues the scatological side of the street, with a slew of gags that veer toward bodily functions.

I can tolerate some of this in a movie meant for kids, but Peabody doesn’t leaven the potty humor with more clever material. Oh, the occasional witty bit arises, but these come out less often than I’d like or expect.

The film’s third act does semi-redeem the rest, though. With a slew of historical figures and all sorts of mayhem, Peabody offers better comedy than during the prior hour. Peabody also benefits from a pretty solid cast, and they add wit.

Unfortunately, these elements can’t make Peabody more than an intermittent success. Too much of the movie lacks intelligence or charm, as the film tends to shoot low.

Mr. Peabody and Sherman appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Expect a fine presentation.

No issues with sharpness occurred, as the movie offered crisp and detailed images from start to finish. If any softness marred the presentation, I couldn’t find it.

Jagged edges and shimmering remained absent, and only a smidgen of edge enhancement appeared. I also detected no source flaws.

Peabody provided a palette that featured a broad range of colors. While it could lean toward teal and orange, all the time travel adventures opened up the hues to become broader than that, and the tones seemed full and dynamic.

Blacks came across as deep and rich, while shadows presented good clarity and visibility. This was a very satisfying transfer.

I also felt very pleased with the DTS-HD 7.1 soundtrack of Peabody. With all sorts of action sequences, the movie boasted many opportunities to feature all the speakers, and it did so quite well.

Various effects elements zoomed around the room to create a fine sense of immersion. The pieces meshed together smoothly and transitioned well.

Localization was clean and precise, and the score featured solid stereo imaging. The mix turned into a broad, encompassing piece.

Audio quality also was very good. Speech seemed crisp and distinctive, as I noticed no flaws like edginess.

Music appeared warm and full, while effects added a real bang to the proceedings. Those elements showed good clarity and accuracy, and they offered tight, deep bass as well. The track seemed vibrant and dynamic as it accentuated the movie.

When we go to extras, two categories show up under Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends. First comes the 22-minute, 53-second premiere episode of Rocky & His Friends.

The show offers a Rocky/Bullwinkle adventure along with a “Fractured Fairy Tale” and the introduction of Mr. Peabody and Sherman. It’s a great addition to the disc.

We also find five “Mr. Peaboy & Sherman Segments”. These fill a total of 25 minutes, 48 seconds and cover “Robin Hood” (5:09), “Leonardo Da Vinci” (5:09), “Louis XVI” (5:10), “William Shakespeare” (5:11) and “Ludwig Van Beethoven” (5:09). They become another fun bonus.

Some featurettes follow, and A Tour of the WABAC Machine lasts two minutes, 51 seconds. Narrated by “Mr. Peabody”, we get a quick view of the device. It’s insubstantial but watchable.

With Time Travel: Mad Science, we find a five-minute, 58-second piece that features physicists Ken Wharton and Anthony Aguirre. They give us thoughts about theories of time travel in this short but interesting overview.

Hosted by actor Patrick Warburton, Mr. Peabody and Sherman: A Journey WABAC takes up 21 minutes, 50 seconds and involves executive producer Tiffany Ward, animation historian Jerry Beck, character creator Ted Key’s son Peter Key, author Darrell Van Citters, director Rob Minkoff, Back to the Future co-writer Bob Gale, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, producer Alex Schwartz, head of character animation Jason Schleifer. Character TD supervisor Lucia Modesto, and actors Stephen Colbert, Ty Burrell, Max Charles, Ariel Winter, and Allison Janney.

“Journey” looks at the origins and development of the original Peabody cartoons as well as aspects of the film’s creation. Though promotional in nature, it delivers enough useful material to merit a look.

Another reel called History’s Greatest Mystery goes for two minutes, 33 seconds. It offers a faux-serious look at how Mr. Peabody and Sherman appear in historical art. It’s a cute form of advertisement.

Peabody’s Paw Print On History fills three minutes, 52 seconds and takes us to a ceremony to honor Mr. Peabody. It all exists to promote the movie, and it’s not especially interesting.

Two games follow: The WABAC Jigsaw Puzzle and Time Travel Memory Match. The former presents four different puzzles you can assemble onscreen, while the latter offers a standard game of “Concentration”. Both are moderately fun.

A Gallery brings 24 images from the movie. We get no behind the scenes photos so it lacks much to create interest.

The disc opens with ads for Penguins of Madagascar, Rio 2 and How to Train Your Dragon 2. Sneak Peek adds promos for Free Birds, The Croods, Shrek: The Musical, and Turbo.

World of DreamWorks Animation adds more promotional material. We also get the trailer for Peabody.

A second disc provides a DVD copy of Peabody. It includes “Tour”, “Time Travel”, the gallery, the trailer and the other ads.

With a broad comedic palette on which to paint, Mr. Peabody and Sherman manages occasional mirth. However, it fails to live up to its potential and seems less engaging than I’d like. The Blu-ray boasts excellent picture and audio along with a pretty good collection of supplements. Peabody winds up as passable entertainment and not much more.