Meet the Robinsons

This film is a great example of the importance of story. This film would have been quite poor if John Lasseter had not become chief creative officer for the Walt Disney Company and I will explain why later. “Meet the Robinsons” has a good story and its major theme is a powerful one. Because Lasseter did not oversee the project from its commencement, the movie still has a few hiccups unfortunately and they mostly have to do with pacing and design. The film has a nice twist but I made the mistake of watching the film from the halfway point the first time I saw it. I wish I had seen the film from the start to the end like normal.

When Lasseter saw a screening of this film during its production, he wanted to make changes. As with “Toy Story 2”, most of the film was discarded and replaced. The ending for example was changed. This film has the heart that Lasseter is so good at injecting into a story. That is its best quality and the overall story is also quite good. The protagonist, Lewis, is established very well as a kid with hopes and dreams. In addition, these desires of Lewis are relatable because they deal with love, acceptance and identity. The film starts out in a way we were not expecting as we see a women leave a baby at an orphanage. With this opening scene, “Meet the Robinsons” portrays genuine heart from the beginning. Even though Lewis is a passionate, imaginative kid, we are led to ask ourselves whether he is capable of inventing something that works or maybe he just has too much of a wild imagination. Lewis becomes focused on the wrong thing in life. He is stuck in the past instead of trying to work on his future. I like the foreshadowing of Doris' army by way of “The Brain Scanners from Mars”. I also love the ironic moment when Wilbur runs into his future mom and calls her an “annoying little girl”. While the character of Lewis and his hopes & dreams are well established, the events that cause him to be taken to the future lack the correct pacing. This becomes a common flaw up until the climax. A good example is when Lewis meets Wilbur’s family. It is all way too fast for normal people. The movie also lacks smart humor but I did enjoy the “Todayland” gag. While Lewis is in the future, the scene back in the present with the receptionist shows that Bowlerhat Guy is actually a little bit of a loser. The hat is revealed to be the master villain. Wilbur’s part in the story is entertaining because he acts just like a kid would to fix a mistake he made. Usually when a kid takes matters into his own hands, it doesn’t work. Wilbur tries to stop Bowlerhat guy himself by going into the past instead of telling his parents the truth. It isn’t as easy as he thought it would be. Then, when Wilbur proves to Lewis that he is from the future, that plan also backfires on Wilbur because Lewis wants to use the time machine instead of fix his original invention. I enjoy the interesting scene with Bowlerhat guy and Goob. I wonder if I would have caught on that they are the same person if I had seen the film like normal. I am pretty confident that if I had seen this film from the start the first time, I would have realized the big story twist once Carl says that Wilbur has a chance of not existing. I for sure would have figured it out when Carl brought out the P.B. and J. Machine. During that scene when the family eats dinner, I was bothered by the North Montana joke. At least they pointed out the fact that “North Montana” is too big to know everyone. After the T-rex battle, I didn’t quite buy how fast the Robinsons are to want to adapt Lewis. Also, one might ask why Lewis trusts Bowlerhat guy. I feel it is just out of anger towards Wilbur. On a positive note, the climax of the film sort of makes up for the little imperfections story-wise. I like Lewis’ line, “I’m your father. You have to do what I say”. Another moment of the diminuendo that I would like to point out is how Lewis must put what he learned to the test when he has the chance to meet his mom. He decides against it because as he says, his happy future is all he needs now. I also like how the judge of the science fair ends up being Lewis’ adoptive mom.

My favorite joke in the whole film is when Wilbur lies and says that his dad looks like Tom Selleck. The filmmakers then cast Tom Selleck as the voice of Cornelius. I enjoyed hearing other cast members in “Meet the Robinsons” such as Nicole Sullivan, Laurie Metcalf and Adam West. The child actors I felt didn’t work all that well unfortunately. Also the design/animation of the characters felt too artificial. It is as if we are watching animated dolls as opposed to the human characters we saw in the Pixar films around 2007. The Pixar humans look and act more realistic in my opinion. “Meet the Robinsons” was also a little too cartoony for my taste in terms of action and certain story moments. That might sound contradictory, seeing as how I like “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” but it all has to do with the beginning of each film. “Meet the Robinsons” is established as a heart filled movie and the silly comedy comes later where as in “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”, the silly comedy and heart are set up together. Because the opening of “Meet the Robinsons” contrasts the goofy future time period that we later see, it bothered me a little.

When you built a house, all of its qualities must work together to make it truly appealing. The story in this film was quite good but other characteristics did not work as well. At least the filmmakers achieved genuine heart in this film. I am grateful for the changes that were made in its story. Had Lasseter been overseeing the project from the start, the design and pacing problems would most likely have been eliminated. The theme in this film is also an inspiring one. “Meet the Robinsons” was produced at a time when the destiny of Disney 2D feature animation was in question. For Lasseter, there was no question. Not only has Disney returned to making traditional animated features but their computer animated films have improved.

3.5 Stars