Mr. Peabody and Sherman take the Wayback Machine to the big screen

Posted Friday, September 15, 2006 at 11:47 AM Central

by Tim Briscoe

DreamWorks Animation is bringing the '60s animated shorts titled "Peabody's Improbable History" to the big screen for a computer-animated feature film. The Lion King and Stuart Little director Rob Minkoff will lead the project.

The cartoon shorts, better known as simply Mr. Peabody and Sherman, were a segment on the Rocky and Bullwinkle animated series. The talking dog Mr. Peabody would lead his young owner, the similarly spectacled Sherman, on twisted tales. They used a time-traveling Wayback Machine to visit historical figures like Ben Franklin and William Shakespeare.

Rocky and Bullwinkle received the live-action treatment with the 2000 movie starring Robert De Niro.

DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg worked closely with Minkoff on The Lion King. "I've waited more than a decade to have an opportunity to work with him again, so I could not be more excited to welcome him to DreamWorks Animation," Katzenberg said in a statement.

No world on a timeline for the project. As with most CGI films, it will probably be long in production.