Rob Minkoff, director of the “Stuart Little” films and co-director for “The Lion King,” casts Ty Burrell and Ariel Winter in this reboot* of characters first introduced over 60 years ago.

    Featuring an intelligent*, talking, time-traveling dog and his boy, 3-D animation “Mr. Peabody & Sherman” is pleasant, but not so impressive*.

    The first 15 minutes of the film explains how super dog Mr. Peabody (Ty Burrell) becomes a father to the orphaned Sherman (Max Charles). Although the opening scene shows how Peabody became the first case of cross-species adoption*, and makes every effort to educate Sherman — especially with the help of the WABAC, their time-travel machine — he is a very serious parent.

    The first threat* to their happiness is social worker Miss Grunion (Allison Janney), who believes that a dog “could never be a suitable* parent for a little boy.”

    When Penny Peterson (Ariel Winter), a classmate of Sherman’s, annoys the boy so badly with her words, he bites her. Then, when the Paterson family comes over to Peabody and Sherman’s house for dinner to try make peace*, Sherman disobeys* his dad and uses the WABAC to prove to Penny how he knows that George Washington never chopped down* a cherry tree. And so begins an adventure* through history, that starts in ancient Egypt with Penny getting engaged* to 9-year-old tyrant* King Tut (Zach Callison), and carries on through meetings with Leonardo Da Vinci (Stanley Tucci) and Agamemnon (Patrick Warburton) on the eve of the sacking* of Troy, among others.

    The climax, involving a rupture* in the space-time continuum*, ties things up with action to satisfy younger viewers, but some might find the end of the story not very satisfying. It’s also unconvincing* to see Penny, who brings nothing but trouble, suddenly becomes Sherman’s love interest and friend.

    The film’s saving grace is its character design and use of 3-D techniques to speed things up in every sense when the plot becomes weak.

    (SD-Agencies)