MEET THE ROBINSONS
US, 2007, 102 minutes, Colour.
Voices of: Angela Bassett, Daniel Hansen, Jordan Fry, Laurie Metcalf, Don Hall, Stephen J. Anderson, Ethan Sandler, Harland Williams, Adam West, Tom Selleck.
Directed by Stephen J. Anderson.
Meet the Robinsons has also been released in some theatres in 3D, so best to see it in that process if possible.
This is a family-friendly animation film from the Disney Studios. Lewis is an abandoned orphan who has the makings of a scientific genius. However, he really wants to invent a machine for the memory so that he can find his mother. Unfortunately, his chattering best friend in the orphanage is only interested in baseball and, even more unfortunately, Lewis gets wound up and can’t stop explaining his machines to prospective adopting parents, splattering one overwhelmed couple with the contents of his peanut butter and jelly squirter. Will he ever be adopted?
A young lad named Wilbur turns up with a time machine and whisks Lewis off to the future which is where he and we meet the Robinsons, a gallery of eccentrics and oddballs that might make Fellini envious. But, in that future is a moustachioed man with a bowler hat who wants to patent Lewis’s inventions, and is aided and abetted by a malevolent hat who transforms the future into drab dinginess. When Lewis is abducted and discovers who this bowler-hatted man is, he finds he has to save the planet. Who wouldn’t!
A complication arises about the Robinsons when they want to adopt Lewis. Lewis is so happy because he has never had a family. Better not spoil the rest as everything is revealed, Lewis is able to change the past where necessary and launch into the future, a master inventor. Who could ask for anything more!
1.An entertaining animated film? For children? Adults? 20th century style and interest? Computer animation? The story, the future? Moral fable?
2.The characters, the drawing and design, their idiosyncrasies? The eccentric Robinsons? Serious, comic? The dinosaurs? The sets, the future, action, comedy? The songs? Danny Elfman’s score?
3.The title and expectations, the Robinsons in the future, funny, the range of characters?
4.Lewis, his mother going to the orphanage, leaving the baby, Mildred taking him in, his growing up, his being a science nerd? His friend, their talking, his inventing things, wanting to invent a memory machine for finding his mother? The interview with the various adopting parents – the fiasco, his explanation of his inventions, the peanut butter and jam machine and splattering them? The further interviews? The sense of failure? Mildred and her concern?
5.Wilbur, his appearance, arrival, coming from the future, the machine, friendship with Lewis, working together, taking him to the future? The pledge to find his mother? The return, going to the time of his mother, Lewis watching, Lewis knocking at the door, going on to the future rather than trying to find his mother?
6.The future, the machines, the homes, Wilbur and his place in society, Cornelius his father, Fran his mother, the range of supporting characters, uncles and aunts, the robot? The whole gallery of eccentricity and its comedy?
7.The arrival of the dinosaur, the fights with the dinosaur, his being tamed?
8.The man in the bowler hat, the moustachioed villain, sinister? The sinister invention of the hat, its power, his wearing it? The conflict, abducting Lewis? Wanting to change the future? The man wanting to make a contract for producing the hat? Lewis and his telling the truth, the flashbacks, his being the companion who dropped the ball, people spurning him, his revenge? The hat and the betrayal of the man in the bowler hat? The effects for the hat, its behaviour, its transforming the future into drab industry?
9.Lewis, his adventures, the family inviting him to stay, Wilbur and his wanting him to go, his wanting a family? His leaving?
10.His going back to the present, not looking for his mother, his further inventions, seeing his friend at the baseball match, waking him up, his catching the ball and becoming a hero? The happy future, going to the fair, the teachers, the range of inventions, being adopted, taken to the house – and the forming of the Robinsons?
11.Entertaining, moral, a Walt Disney film – and Walt Disney’s exhortation to go into the future?
