Meet the Robinsons - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 10/23/2007 Run time: 95 minutes Rating: G

Amazon.com
Developing positive self-esteem and persevering in the face of difficulties are fundamental parts of growing up, but when 12-year old orphan Lewis (Daniel Hansen and Jordan Fry) can't seem to get adopted or make his inventions work despite repeated efforts, he begins to seriously doubt himself and his abilities as an inventor. A CGI picture by Disney with great animation and a fresh vision of what the future might look like, Meet The Robinsons follows Lewis from his lonesome days at the orphanage to his crushing failure at the school science fair when his newly invented memory scanner won't work. Then, an odd boy named Wilbur Robinson (Wesley Singerman) shows up to warn Lewis about the mysterious "Bowler Hat Guy" (Stephen J Anderson) lurking around the science fair, an evil man Wilbur claims is from the future. The next thing Lewis knows, he and Wilbur are on route to the future via time machine. Once there, Lewis meets the very quirky, extended Robinson family with whom he feels oddly at home. As the search for the Bowler Hat Man and his constant companion Doris (Ethan Sandler) becomes more and more dangerous, the Robinson family becomes crucial in keeping Lewis safe. In the end, Lewis returns to the present with a whole new inner strength, a sense of his place in the world, the knowledge that his actions directly affect others, and an optimistic determination to "keep moving forward." While comparisons with the Back to the Future films are inevitable, Meet the Robinsons stands apart from its predecessors as its own, thoroughly entertaining family film. (Ages 4 and older)

Included is the seven-minute 1938 short Mickey Mouse's Boat Builder in which Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and Donald Duck order and assemble a do-it-yourself boat kit and launch an impressive ocean liner dubbed the "Queen Minnie." Needless to say, hilarity reigns throughout and following the boat-building process. --Tami Horiuchi

Customer Reviews: Read 170 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

An Excellent Disney Film For The Geeky Kid In All of Us!! October 27, 2007
19 out of 21 found this review helpful

We saw "Meet the Robinsons" in the 3-D version at the theater and my kids laughed about it for days. Too bad they couldn't release the DVD in the 3-D version, but it's still an excellent film for children. Personally, I also loved hearing the voice of Adam West in the film.

The film is based loosely on William Joyce's, A Day with Wilbur Robinson. If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it. William Joyce ALSO was the artist behind Rolie Polie Olie series. The book is quite different from the film, but there are direct parallels. For instance, there is no orphanage theme in the original book and no Bowler Hat Guy. However, many of the other characters are present in both. Stylistically, the book and the movie have a pronounced retro- animation/cartoon feel to them. It is a very refreshing artistic style to watch and makes for a unique animated film.

The DVD contains a fairly extensive set of features, but nothing out of the ordinary. For future releases of children's videos, I'd suggest adding a reading of the original book. In the few DVD's we've purchased with this feature, it's encouraged my children to read the actual book.

I highly recommend this DVD for your child's video library. It's a film enjoyable by both adults and children. The film is funny and presents a very clear message about the need to celebrate our human differences and stresses the importance of family and friends(adopted or otherwise).

4 out of 5 stars

Past, Present, and Future Weave Entertaining Flight April 30, 2007
12 out of 13 found this review helpful

Evaluating `Meet the Robinsons' depends on whether you entered the theater offering 3-D glasses. Either way you receive excellent family entertainment, even if there are elements of the film you've seen before. Resembling an animated version of `Back to the Future' or `Peggy Sue Got Married,' `Meet the Robinsons' is a briskly based, nicely woven tale about belonging and achieving.

Starting we find the typical desperate mother leaving her baby on the orphanage steps. Her son Louis becomes a nervous inventor at the orphanage and a nuisance to everyone, especially his long-suffering roommate, Goob. Having an intellectual disposition doesn't help him in adoption interviews, and ingenious inventions that seldom work, don't endear him at school. Add to that a pure villain comes upon his scene, known as "Bowler Hat Man" (Whose hat makes him like a nimble, but less scary nemesis comparable to "Dr. Oct".) his life comes into disarray at science fair he's finally sure he'll win.

Using time travel well and peril and humor that truly entertain, `..Robinsons' message to always persevere and the plot's neat and heart-felt resolution will make every family member smile.

(This being my first 3-D adventure that actually worked certainly gave the movie a lift, too!)

5 out of 5 stars

Superlative. I had no plans on seeing this and was surprised August 14, 2007
11 out of 15 found this review helpful

My kids begged me to watch it with them on Pay-Per-view and I was unsure. I loved Toy Story and the Incredibles, but my later forays into animated movies left me bored and annoyed (Cars. Barnyard (Farmyard?))

So imagine my surprise when I loved this movie - loved it, loved the soundtrack. I'm adding this to my collection.

4 out of 5 stars

Funny Futuristic Film for Families October 26, 2007
11 out of 17 found this review helpful

Lewis is an orphan. He was left on the steps of an orphanage almost 13 years ago by his mother. His deepest wish is to be part of a family. He has had lots of adoption interviews, but he always seems to scare off his perspective parents with his latest invention.

See, he's a genius. He's got these great ideas; they just don't quite work right, usually resulting in a mess. But this time, he's got just the thing. He's invented a memory retriever. He just knows it will win the science fair.

But there's a strange boy at the science fair. He claims his name is Wilbur and he's from the future. Wilbur is there to stop Bowler Hat Guy, also from the future. But he won't tell Lewis what BHG is planning.

When Lewis' invention malfunctions, he's crushed. But Wilbur shows up again, telling him to keep working on it. And to prove he's from the future, Wilbur takes Lewis there, only to have them crash land the time machine.

Meanwhile, BHG is trying to sell Lewis' invention as his own. Will he succeed? Does the machine work? Will Lewis get home? Does he want to?

This movie is an over the top comedy. Wilbur's family, while lovable, is also extremely strange. Silly yet fun. But the funniest character of all is BHG. He appears to have learned how to be a villain from the melodrama school of villainy. He comes complete with the black cape, mustache, and menacing laugh. I honestly felt like I needed to boo him when he appeared. Yet he is completely stupid, too. I haven't laughed that hard at a character in a long time.

While the movie was extremely funny, the plot was a little weak. I'm not bothered by predictable plots (which this was). What bothered me here was how simple it was. It needed to lose a few of the jokes for another twist or a better climax.

Saving the movie is the character of Lewis. I truly felt for him very early on and spent the rest of the film rooting for him.

The voice cast is mostly unknowns with one or two exceptions. This harkens back to the Disney of old that used a voice because it was right and not because it was already a name. The animation is fine without doing anything extraordinary.

Then there's the theme. Over the course of the movie, Lewis learns that you have to keep looking forward. You can't live in the regrets of the past or look at your failures. And you can't stop because of one success. You must keep pressing on. After the movie ends, they throw a quote from Walt Disney up talking about that very thing. I think they were making a point to fans like me who are upset with some of the changes they have made to the company in the last decade. And, while I hope they don't forget their past, I get their point. So I guess I must let them keep moving forward.

The movie is silly and will easily appeal to kids. Yet it isn't so stupid that it will turn off parents. And the underlying theme is good (even if I am reading too much into it.) This won't go down as a classic, but there are worse ways to spend an hour and a half.

2 out of 5 stars

Uses innocence to disguise it's mediocrity December 20, 2007
11 out of 17 found this review helpful

Meet the Robinson's is once again anothr lame attempt to recreate Pixar, it didn't work. Once again they tried to score for the magic of Pixar, but they missed the one thing that seperates Pixar from the rest: great filmmaking. The main character of the film is yet again another Hollywood orphan that the creators don't develope and expect you to pity simply because he's got no family, saw the same character 50 years ago in Oliver and have seen probably 30 times since, NEXT! the Robinson's, the fantastic family that the main character meets in his adventure is totally underdeveloped. Each family member speaks an average of 3 lines and you're supposed to know them and care for them, in fact, the main character accidentally calls Mrs. Robinson 'mom' within 15 minutes of knowing her, because he apparently feels some strong connection to the family, oh please. The movie also attempts at a twist ending, and fails horribly, I had figured it out within the first 20 minutes of the movie! (possible spoiler) The ending is also a rip of another movie, at the end of this film the world has been taken over by bowler hats. The buildings have been turned into bowler hats, the planes have been turned into bowler hats and bowler hats have shoved themselves over people heads and turn the people into zombies who follow their master's command. Sound familiar? It should, the exact same thing happened in the 2002 film "The Spongebob Squarepants Movie" Except, it wasn't bowler hats, it was buckets, could you get any more unoriginal? One positive thing about the movie is that it delivered a few laughs, though most of the jokes were only attempts that amounted to nothing but silence, one problem with the jokes is that scenes were created for them, they didn't help the film move along at all, they just wasted 6 minutes with one joke, most of which weren't funny at all.

Most people liked this film, for reasons beyond me, I would say don't watch it, your call.

4/10 stars

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