New Movie's Got a Decades-Old Connection to Delaware Valley Artist

By Mike DeNardo

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A new animated movie opening today is based on characters created by a local artist.

You might have to use the "Wayback Machine" to remember the genius dog Mr. Peabody and his adopted boy, Sherman. They appeared on the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon shows in the '50s and '60s.

And it was the late Valley Forge, Pa. cartoonist Ted Key who conceived the characters who became the stars of the new animated movie, Mr. Peabody and Sherman (see Bill Wine's review).

Key died in 2008. Journalist Peter Key says his dad would have appreciated how their personalities were developed for a feature-length film.

(Local artist Ted Key with his family, in 1958 photo. Youngest son Peter Key is being held by his mother, Anne, at right. Photo provided by Key family)

"I think he'd like the way that the characters are rendered," Peter Key told KYW Newsradio. "I also think that he'd like the idea and understand the idea of making the characters more well-rounded than they were in the TV show."

Ted Key also created the maid "Hazel," who appeared in a comic panel and later in a '60s television program starring Shirley Booth.