In 2005, Disney decided to go it alone and make a movie without Pixar. The result was Chicken Little. With that letdown, it seemed as though Disney was destined to rely on an outside animation studio to produce truly great films for them. The Disney magic, it would seem, had faded.
Then, in 2007, Disney released a little movie called Meet the Robinsons. In theaters, the movie was available in brilliant 3D. As if that visual treat weren’t enough, the story itself was right up there with the best of Pixar’s offerings (which is technically a moot point, since Disney now owns Pixar). With that move, Disney redeemed itself and effectively reestablished its role as a contender in the computer animation market.
The Movie
Meet the Robinsons follows the story of a bespectacled boy genius named Lewis, who lives in an orphanage. This 12-year-old mad scientist seems to have a degree of difficulty in finding adoptive parents, due largely to the fact that his experiments and inventions always seem to go awry. His latest invention, the memory scanner, is meant to help him remember his mother. He works tirelessly on this gadget, in hopes that he will be able to use it to reconnect with his family.
When Lewis debuts his invention at the school science fair, things predictably go wrong, and a huge mess is made. Just when he is about to give up inventing completely, Lewis meets Wilbur Robinson, who implores Lewis to finish the memory scanner for the sake of the future. When Lewis is (understandably) a little bit skeptical about this “future” talk, Wilbur decides to just show him, so Lewis is whisked away to the year 2037.
The future turns out to be a brightly-colored utopia, with people traveling via bubbles and flying cars. It definitely has an optimistic outlook on the world of tomorrow. In this future, Lewis meets Wilbur’s family, the Robinsons, who are inarguably dysfunctional. This part of the movie (where Lewis interacts with the Robinsons) very closely follows the book A Day With Wilbur Robinson, by William Joyce, on which the movie was based.
The obligatory villain (this is a Disney movie, after all) is a lanky, hunched over man in a black bowler hat, who bears more than a passing resemblance to Snidely Whiplash of Dudley Do-Right fame. Appropriately, his name is Bowler Hat Man. He and his hat/ partner in crime, named Doris, have plans to change the future, with the aid of a stolen time machine and a none-too-bright tyrannosaurus rex.
I don’t want to give away any more details, but suffice it to say that revelations are made, questions are answered, and Lewis gets a glimpse of what it’s like to have a family.
This movie is really good. I don’t know that I would go so far as to say that it is better than Pixar’s past movies, but it is definitely in the same arena. The story seems to lack a bit of the polish that can be found consistently in Pixar’s offerings, but as this is only Disney’s second effort, I’m very impressed.
The voice actors are mostly unknowns, which works beautifully in this case. Maybe it’s just me, but I find that animated movies seem less realistic when I can picture the actors whose voices are used. With no familiarity involved, I can feel free to assume that the voice coming out of Lewis’ mouth belongs to him.
One final thing that I feel compelled to comment on is the music in the movie. There are various pop songs, all of which work nicely, but the score is what really caught my attention. As a rabid fan of Tim Burton’s films, I instantly recognized the music as that of composer Danny Elfman. In Meet the Robinsons, Elfman doesn’t use the haunting melodies that can be found in movies like Edward Scissorhands or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but the music is unmistakably his, and it fits the movie perfectly.
The DVD
Meet the Robinsons is packaged as a single DVD in a standard case. The image on the front of the case conveys the tone of the movie nicely—it looks fun and, with the imagery of a spaceship and a t-rex, fairly epic in scale.
Audio is presented in Dolby 5.1 surround, which makes the movie even more immersive. When Wilbur and Lewis first travel to the future, and all the bubbles and flying cars are everywhere, surround sound makes you feel like you are there. This is one movie that definitely benefits from surround.
Special Features
This DVD includes the obligatory director’s commentary, as well as three deleted scenes. The commentary is nice, and gives more insight into the film and the decisions that were made by director Steve Anderson. The deleted scenes are interesting, but they really don’t add all that much to the story. Other features include:
- Keep Moving Forward—a featurette about inventors and inventions that have changed the world and defined our lives today
- Inventing the Robinsons—a featurette that shows the process of transforming William Joyce’s book into Meet the Robinsons
- 2 Music Videos: “Little Wonders,” by Rob Thomas, and “Kids of the Future,” by the Jonas Brothers
Overall
If you have kids, and/or if you are a fan of computer animated movies, or any animated movies for that matter, you owe it to yourself to buy Meet the Robinsons. I think you’ll find that it fits in quite nicely on your shelf, right alongside the other great animated movies of the past few years.
Overall: 8.0