When I was growing up, just about the only animated movies that were released to theaters were ones made by Disney. That started changing several years ago and now there are usually several new animated movies released each year. I still enjoy animated movies and tend to see many of them. Meet the Robinsons is the newest animated movie released by Disney.
Lewis was a young inventor living in an orphanage. He had met with several couples, but things usually went wrong during the meetings. Lewis got the idea for a new invention that he was sure would win the school science fair. At the science fair, a boy named Wilbur Robinson showed up from the future to warn Lewis about Bowler Hat Guy. Lewis got very discouraged when his invention didn’t work and didn’t want to listen when Wilbur told him to keep working on it. Lewis thought that Wilbur made it up about being from the future, so Wilbur took him there in his time machine.
The time machine broke when they arrived in the future. Wilbur got Lewis working on fixing the machine. Wilbur didn’t want his family to see Lewis because it was bad that he brought someone from the past to the future. The Bowler Hat guy had a plan to pass of Lewis’s invention as his own for some reason. When he couldn’t do that on his first attempt, he returned to the future in his stolen time machine to find Lewis.
Meet the Robinsons was based on a book written by William Joyce. I haven’t read that book, so I don’t know what might have been changed for the movie. Before the actual movie started, a cartoon featuring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy was shown. That was the first time I’d seen one of those cartoons in a theater. The plot was very straight forward and really didn’t have anything in it that surprised me. There could be a surprise or two for children, depending on if they are able to pick up on a few things. There were a few hints earlier in the movie for what was probably intended to be a big surprise. I still enjoyed the movie even though I figured out what the surprise was ahead of time.
Meet the Robinsons made me laugh several times throughout the movie. Some of the things that happened were a bit silly, but they still worked for the movie. Early in the movie, Lewis was shown working on one invention. It was funny when he first used it and it didn’t work like he planned. The Bowler Hat man added humor to every scene he was in with the things he did. A lot of the humor was added by the Robinson family once Lewis traveled to the future. The members of the family were very unique and did several things that made me laugh. The movie could be too silly for some viewers. Children will probably end up liking it more than most adults.
Meet the Robinsons also included some more serious moments and dealt with the very serious subject of adoption. The beginning of the movie showed how Lewis’s mother left him on the steps of an orphanage when he was still a baby. There were scenes that dealt with Lewis meeting couples who ended up deciding that they didn’t want to adopt him, which did cause him to feel a lot of rejection. As the movie progressed, a few other things related to that were touched on again. Those scenes were more serious and did slow the pace of the movie down a bit. It wasn’t so bad that I was bored by what was going on. The parts of the moving dealing with adoption could be upsetting to children that have had to deal with that in their own lives.
Disney has been known for their animated movies. In the last few years, they have moved away from traditional hand drawn animation in favor of computer animation. I have liked a lot of the computer animated movies, but I also think there is still room for traditional animation. I was happy when I read that Disney was going to return to making some traditional hand drawn animation in addition to the computer animated movies. Meet the Robinsons was the second completely computer animated movie done by Disney. The animation was well done, but it wasn’t as good as what Pixar has done in their movies. There was something a little off in the way the characters looked.
Lewis and Wilbur ended up being in more of the movie than the other characters. There really wasn’t a lot of development for either character, though I think Lewis received a bit more than Wilbur. Some of the members of Wilbur’s family really didn’t do anything except show up in the background of a few scenes. There were just too many of them for them all to be developed. Only a few characters had their voices provided by well-known actors. I thought that all of the voices fit the characters really well.
Voice Talent
Stephen J. Anderson - Bowler Hat Guy/Tallulah/Grandpa Bud Angela Bassett - Mildred Paul Butcher - Stanley Jordan Fry - Lewis Daniel Hansen - Lewis Matthew Josten - Michael “Goob” Yagoobian Laurie Metcalf - Lucille Krunklehorn Tom Selleck - Cornelius Nicole Sullivan - Franny Adam West - Uncle Art
Stephen J. Anderson - Director
Meet the Robinsons was an entertaining animated movie that is worth watching. It was fun for the most part even though there were some more serious moments that might upset some viewers.
I would have given this one three and a half stars if I had that option. Since I don’t, I rounded up to four stars.
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