In news that will surely elicit a symphony of “huh”s, Variety reports Netflix and DreamWorks Animation are teaming to bring a rebooted version of Mr. Peabody And Sherman to the streaming service this fall. And no, there are still no plans for this time-traveling genius dog and his boy companion to use their history-altering machine to travel into the past and kill Hitler.
Debuting October 9, the 13-episode half-hour series is planning to blend inspiration from the original series—it will be 2-D animation, not 3-D CGI—with some of the events from the 2014 film, which ended with the characters being outed as time travelers. In this iteration, the duo will be “hosts of a late-night comedy show broadcast from their swank Manhattan penthouse in front of a live studio audience. Guests from bygone eras will include Mozart, Napoleon and Edgar Allan Poe, as Mr. Peabody and Sherman embark on new adventures using their famous WABAC machine.”
Presumably, the simpler animation style and primary setting are forms of cost-cutting bet-hedging, as last year’s film reboot ended up incurring a $57 million loss for the studio. Chris Parnell will be the voice of Mr. Peabody, because he’s apparently become addicted to voicing animated characters, while Sherman will again be voiced by the film version’s Max Charles. Executive producer Dave Smith has helmed numerous Cartoon Network projects, so hopefully he’ll bring something new to the series that constantly makes you wonder why they don’t just go back in time and do some good things. Just like, one to start, even.