Walt Disney Animation Studios: Part 47: Meet the Robinsons

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Series Intro: This is Part 47 of a multi-part retrospective of Walt Disney Animation Studios' endeavors.

Official Title: Meet the Robinsons
Release: March 23, 2007
Running Time: 95 minutes
Estimated Cost: n/a
Estimated Revenue: $169.34 million (ouch!)
Overall Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Plot Summary:
Orphan child, Lewis, is a poor inventor, but on his way to stardom, when one day he meets a boy from the future, Wilbur. Because of the Bowler Hat Guy, Wilbur and Lewis wind up in the future. Lewis finally feels like he’s part of a family while he works on the time machine at Wilbur’s. Things turn bad when Bowler Hat Guy follows Lewis into the future, bent on stealing Lewis’ inventions. It’s revealed that the Wilbur’s family is actually Lewis’ family, in the future. And Bowler Hat Guy is Lewis’ roommate from the orphanage. Lewis’ inventions save the day, and as his dream of seeing his birth mother (before she left him on the steps of the orphanage) becomes reality, he realizes that the past is behind him and he mist “keep moving forward” and think of his future family. Lewis is adopted by the judge of the science fair, and we can see how his future family evolved out of the people surrounding him during the science fair.

Songs:
Not a musical, but a great score.


Plot Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Overall, I enjoyed this movie.


Animation Rating: 2 out of 5
WDAS did up it’s game. The animation was less bulky and more fluid than Chicken Little, but was still amatureistic when compared to PIXAR’s current release Cars. In fact, the animation was reminiscent of 1997’s Toy Story.

The Test of Time:
Hasn’t stood up at all!

Through the Modern Lens
PIXAR’s John Lasseter took over this film and rewrote about 60% of it. That would explain why the plot was SOO much better than Chicken, but not as to why the animation wasn’t up to par. I LOVED the future world (think about it). There were lots of nods to the Tomorrowland areas of Disneyland and Magic Kingdom. Not only was there Space Mountain and the Astro-Orbiters, but the bit that sent me rocketing, was the People Movers (last time I was in WDW, I road the People Mover about three times a night across three or four nights). Plus, “Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” (from Carousel of Progress).


Next Up:
Bolt