Meet the Robinsons DVD Review
Posted by Ryan Byers on 10.23.2007
Disney takes viewers on CGI romp through the future, though it fails to live up to the standards that it set in the past.
Meet the Robinsons is Disney's 2007 entry in to its decades-old series of animated features. As with many Disney films, it found its inspiration in literature, specifically William Joyce's children's book A Day with Wilbur Robinson. Though many Disney adaptations, including Peter Pan and The Little Mermaid have gone on to become veritable classics that are a part of any American child's upbringing, Robinsons misses that mark. However, it does still provide enough entertainment that it remains a quality children's film, albeit one that misses the high standard of Disney's best.
The story focuses on the life of a young orphan (I believe a first for a Disney movie) named Lewis, whose two passions are inventing and attempting to reconnect with his birth mother, who abandoned him as an infant. He combines those two passions by inventing a "brain scanner" to recover repressed memories, which he hopes will allow him to recall his parent's face. Oddly enough, the machine attracts two visitors from the future, the first an anonymous villain who seems intent on derailing Lewis' life, while the second is Wilbur Robinson, a boy Lewis' age who is just as intent on making sure that our villain (dubbed "Bowler Hat Guy") is thwarted. Lewis quickly learns that Wilbur is not necessarily the heroic time traveler that he seems but rather a teenager attempting to avoid getting punished by his parents for a.) allowing Bowler Hat guy to steal the family's first time machine and b.) taking the family's second time machine out for a spin himself.
Naturally, this results in young Lewis making a journey in to the future, where the time machine crashes. Wilbur hopes that his genius of a new friend can make the necessary repairs, although it doesn't happen before the duo is distracted by Wilbur's eccentric family. The Robinson clan, which appears to consist of no fewer than five thousand individuals, warmly welcomes Lewis and ultimately invites him to join the family after assisting him in a battle against the Bowler Hat Guy. The invitation from the family is rescinded, however, when they learn that he is from the past. Of course, there's not much time to focus on that plot point, as Bowler Hat Guy is still attempting to ruin Lewis' past and advance his own future. Ultimately, the villain is foiled through rather unconventional means, as Lewis helps him to learn a lesson about how he should live his life. Lewis learns something from Bowler Hat Guy as well, namely that he is the patriarch of the futuristic Robinson family, as well as the individual responsible for virtually all of earth's great technological advantages.
Speaking of technology, the science behind modern animation was on full display in this particular film. The movie is brilliantly animated, with advances from the first wave of CGI animated features being readily apparent. The textures, the details, and the backgrounds are all top notch and make the visuals of the movie among the best in Disney history. Danny Elfman's score is also amazing, swinging back and forth between the present and the future in a seemless manner, in addition to providing each major character with their own themes that fit like gloves.
Yet, despite the excellent visual and auditory experience that the film provides, I have difficulty calling it a great movie because there were some serious problems with pacing and character development. Though there is a clearly defined hierarchy of characters, with Lewis, Wilbur, and Bowler Hat Guy being at the top, there were far too many b-level characters crammed in to a ninety minute film. Though I haven't done an exact count, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that there were ten members of the Robinson clan, all of them introduced within three minutes of each other and all of them playing roles in at least three critical scenes. It makes the movie too busy, and, even though efforts were made to give each family member defining characteristics, I was left unable to connect with a family whose members were nothing more than sight gags and perpetual screaming. The movie would've been served far better by either spending more time fleshing out the backgrounds of the family members, or, at the very least, reducing the number of members featured. The fact that the middle portion of the movie felt too busy was even more confounding when I watched the portion of the film that occurred after the climax of the action. It had to have lasted at least fifteen minutes and consisted entirely of cute little references made as Lewis met characters in present day that he had already met in the future. One of these jokes would have been funny, but the number that we got was just overkill. It would have been easy to lop off some of the conclusion and devote that time to fleshing out the middle acts of the film a bit more, but that decision was not made for whatever reason.
At the end of the day, though, my impressions of watching the movie as an adult mean little. This is a movie for families and children. Given the beautiful visuals, the catchy music, and the amusing, easy to understand gags, I can't imagine that children wouldn't enjoy Meet the Robinsons. On top of that, the moral of the story ("Keep Moving Forward") is simple enough for children to grasp, and it is exactly the sort of optimistic life lesson that one would expect a kid to take away from a Disney movie.
Special Features
Deleted Scenes: There are three in total, each with an introduction by director Stephen Anderson. These are more interesting than the typical deleted scenes from a comedic film. Instead of being jokes that were cut for time or because they flat out didn't work, the sequences featured here were different conceptions of critical plot points that would have radically altered the tone of the movie if included. I suppose that one of the advantages of watching a DVD released by a company like Disney is that they have the resources and the archives necessary to provide mostly-finished versions of deleted scenes for an animated feature such as this one.
Audio Commentary: Anderson flies solo on the alternate audio track, although there is a gimmick in which Bowler Hat Guy (who Anderson voiced) periodically cuts in and attempts to provide his own in-character story of how the movie came to be. The Bowler Hat inserts weren't particularly funny, though I did enjoy the main commentary from Anderson, who provided some interesting stories about the film's production and came off as a guy who is legitimately in love with his work.
Inventing the Robinsons: This is an eighteen minute featurette discussing the film's production. Features like this are commonplace on DVDs nowadays, but this one seemed to provide more substance than the vast majority of the others that I've seen. Anderson is interviewed, as are key voice talent, Danny Elfman, William Joyce, and individuals from the character design department at Disney. This feature gets an easy thumbs up, and I hope that there's enough footage on the cutting room floor for it to be expanded to thirty or even sixty minutes when and if Robinsons gets a two disc release.
Inventions that Shaped the World: Eight minutes of stock footage and clips from classic Disney cartoons are intercut as a backdrop for a narrator discussing great inventions throughout history. Of course, this is geared towards children. That fact made it all the more sick when after discussion of the invention of the light bulb, the printing press, and the television, WALT DISNEY got top billing among all of the inventors as the man who created theme parks and audio animatronics. Talk about warping a child's perspective on history.
Music Videos: Two videos are included, one for Rob Thomas' "Little Wonders" and one for the Jonas Brothers' "Kids of the Future." Thomas' song, which is featured in the final scenes of the film, is a little too saccharine sweet for my tastes, though it certainly fits the movie's motif, and I can see hardcore Disney fanatics getting in to it. "Kids of the Future," though, was wretched. It's a version of the Kim Wilde song "Kids in America" with the lyrics changed to discuss the movie. The commercialism here seemed crass even by Disney standards.
Family Function 5000 Game: It's a simple game in which players answer questions about members of the Robinson family. Children will most likely enjoy it.
The 411: Meet the Robinsons will likely be a welcome addition to any child's video collection. However, it fails to display the mark of the best children's movies in history, namely that it transcends kiddie entertainment and can be enjoyed by adults just as well. With a focus on jamming in as many pretty colors and zany characters as possible, I can't see anybody over the age of twelve falling in love with the picture. Ultimately, that may be what hurts the movie's place in history, as the ability to bring generations together is what has allowed other Disney classics to thrive throughout the years as opposed to simply remaining popular in the months immediately following their release. So, for its target audience in 2007, the movie is undeniably a success. Only time will tell how history treats it, though I can't imagine that it will be nearly as kind to the Robinsons as it was to Snow White or even Aladdin.
