Based on a recurrent segment from the late 1950s/early 60s TV series The Bullwinkle Show, this heavily trailed animation looks like a very wobbly idea indeed; a young boy, adopted by a super-intelligent dog, embarking on adventures through history with the aid of a homemade time-travelling machine. Images of the dismal Free Birds leap to mind.

Pleasant to report, then, that DreamWorks' latest offers a fairly consistent stream of sight gags and vocal slapstick, even as the plot veers wildly down a wormhole in the time-space continuum. At its best, it has a shambolic Bill and Ted charm, with assorted archaic icons (Leonardo da Vinci, Einstein, the Trojan horse) being tossed around amid the colourful chaos by Lion King co-director Rob Minkoff.