After revealing the first piece of artwork, Dreamworks Animation is securing the voice cast for their new film, Mr. Peabody & Sherman, from director Rob Minkoff (The Lion King). They just pushed the release date up from March 14, 2014 to Nov. 8th, 2013 and now they’ve announced that Stephen Colbert and Allison Janney have just joined the ensemble for the upcoming adaptation of the iconic cartoon series.

Modern Family‘s Ty Burrell will play Mr. Peabody while Max Charles (Peter Parker from the new The Amazing Spider-Man cartoon series) will star as Sherman. They lead a cast that includes Ellie Kemper (Bridesmaids, Somewhere), Ariel Winter (Modern Family) and Stephen Tobolowsky (Groundhog Day, Californication).

Colbert will play Paul Peterson, Peabody’s arch-enemy, while Janney will play Paula Peterson, with Winter as their daughter Penny, the lovable bully in Sherman’s life. This will be just one of Colbert’s many animated appearances, having appeared in DreamWorks’ Monsters v. Aliens as well as on The Simpsons and American Dad.

Check out the synopsis here [via THR]:

Based on Jay Ward’s classic cartoon, Mr. Peabody is the world’s smartest person — only he’s a dog. When he and his “pet” boy Sherman use their WABAC time-traveling machine without permission, events in history spiral out of control and it is up to the duo to put things back on track.

Like many of my fellow college students, I’m member of Colbert Nation. I thought his work in Monsters v. Aliens was strong and given Janney’s work on The West Wing, I will follow the actress anywhere. Although these DreamWorks animated films are usually filling out their voice cast by celebrity status, it’s nice to see Minkoff behind the camera in an animation capacity after his live-action efforts like Flypaper and The Forbidden Kingdom left much to be desired.

Are you looking forward to a Mr. Peabody film?

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