Meet the Robinsons (2007)

Movie Info

Hey, you’re the Robinsons…It is nice to meet you

Lewis is an orphan who is obsessed with finding out why his mother abandoned him.  With his roommate Michael Yagoobian, Lewis sets to change his future by uncovering his past.  Inventing a machine that taps into memories, Lewis sets to go to the school science fair…but finds he is being hunted by a man in a bowler hat.  When Lewis is saved by a boy named Wilbur Robinson, Lewis finds himself on a whirlwind tour of the future.  When the time machine breaks down, Lewis learns that he must fix the time machine to return to the past, and Wilbur hopes that Lewis’ interaction with his odd family won’t reveal to Lewis the truth about the future.

Lewis…Inventor by nigh…failure by day!

Directed by Steve Anderson, Meet the Robinsons is the forty-seventh film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and followed Chicken Little in 2005.  The movie took its story concepts from William Joyce’s 1990 picture book A Day with Wilbur Robinson.  The 3D computer animated film was met with relatively strong reviews but a so-so box office showing.

Meet the Robinsons goes for a sci-fi concept that is a bit different in Disney films.  The time traveling adventures starts out interesting with the idea that they could create a temporal disturbance by altering history if Lewis learns too much about his future (it is pretty obvious for older viewers that Lewis is most likely the unseen father).  This idea of creating a time problem is thrown out the window by the end of the film and it doesn’t even make any sense how Lewis can be changing things.

Another great joke in the film

The movie does employ a strong cast.  In general the main voice cast was made up of smaller character actors but the supporting cast is a bigger.  Angela Bassett voiced the orphanage caretaker and comedian Harland Williams was Carl, Laurie Metcalf played Lucille Krunklehorn, and Batman himself Adam West played Uncle Art.  One of the best jokes in the movie is that Wilbur’s says his dad looks like Tom Selleck to distract Lewis…and his dad is actually voiced by Tom Selleck.

The movie also unfortunately looks like a cheap Pixar knock off.  The character designs and the computer animation just aren’t up to the level they need to be to compete with other films.  I don’t condone Disney’s attempt to force cute characters on the audience, but Meet the Robinsons has no marketable characters to help kids to connect to the film.

To Infinity and Beyond! Wait, wrong movie…

Meet the Robinsons was released with little fanfare when you consider how Disney used to handle their films.  With a number of Disney films that are strong, you could probably do better than Meet the Robinsons.  The movie feels more like the beginning of a series of films rather than a stand-alone though I do have some admiration for the attempt.  Disney followed Meet the Robinsons with Bolt in 2008.

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