Meet the Robinsons (2007)

Director:

Stephen J. Anderson

Writers:

Jon Bernstein (screenplay) and
Michelle Bochner (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

30 March 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Adventure | Comedy | Family | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

If you think your family's different, wait 'til you meet the family of the future.

Plot:

Lewis is a brilliant inventor who meets mysterious stranger named Wilbur Robinson, whisking Lewis away in a time machine and together they team up to track down Bowler Hat Guy in a showdown that ends with an unexpected twist of fate.

Plot Keywords:

Future | Hat | Bowler Hat | Memory | Invention

Awards:

1 win & 8 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Angela Bassett	...	Mildred (voice)
Daniel Hansen	...	Lewis (voice)
Jordan Fry	...	Lewis (voice)
Matthew Josten	...	Michael "Goob" Yagoobian (voice)
John H. H. Ford	...	Mr. Harrington (voice)
Dara McGarry	...	Mrs. Harrington / Receptionist (voice)
Tom Kenny	...	Mr. Willerstein (voice)
Laurie Metcalf	...	Lucille Krunklehorn (voice)
Don Hall	...	Coach / Gaston (voice)
Paul Butcher	...	Stanley (voice)
Tracey Miller-Zarneke	...	Lizzy (voice)
Wesley Singerman	...	Wilbur (voice)
Jessie Flower	...	Young Franny (voice)
Stephen J. Anderson	...	Bowler Hat Guy / Grandpa Bud / Tallulah (voice) (as Stephen John Anderson)
Ethan Sandler	...	Doris / CEO / Spike / Dmitri / Laszlo / Fritz / Petunia (voice)

Also Known As:

A Day with Wilbur Robinson (USA) (working title)
Beetle (Philippines: English title) (review title)
La familia del futuro (Argentina) (Colombia) (Mexico) (Venezuela) [es]
Bienvenue chez les Robinsons (Belgium: French title) (France) [fr]
A Família do Futuro (Brazil) [pt]
Descubriendo a los Robinsons (Spain) [es]
Familjen Robinson (Sweden) [sv]
Gnoriste tous Robinson (Greece) [el]
I Robinson - Una famiglia spaziale (Italy) [it]
La famille Robinson (France) [fr]
Riemukas Robinsonin perhe (Finland) [fi]
Robinson ailesi (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Robinsonid (Estonia) [et]
Robinsonovi (Czech Republic) [cs]
Ruisu to Mirai Dorobô (Japan) [ja]
Triff die Robinsons (Germany) [de]

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS | SDDS

Certification:

Finland:K-3 | USA:G | Australia:G | UK:U | Ireland:G | Singapore:G | Germany:o.Al. | Hong Kong:I | Argentina:Atp | Brazil:Livre | Malaysia:U | Philippines:G (MTRCB) | Portugal:M/6 | South Korea:All | Netherlands:AL | New Zealand:G | Sweden:7

Filming Locations:

Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Walt Disney Animation Studios

Trivia:

This actually started life as a live action project.

Goofs:

Continuity: During the T-rex attack, the train and pizza dough disappear after they are used against the dinosaur.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Michael "Goob" Yagoobian: Then, um, I didn't choose that one because it was gonna give me pimples so I choosed, um, another scary one cause for, um, all those years that I went for halloween I wasn't scary at all... I love baseball. It's my destiny to play that game. And I don't really care about winning...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)

Soundtrack:

Little Wonders

Disney is getting back on the right track

I'm writing reviews for a German movie website and thus got into a press screening of the new CG animated Disney movie "Meet the Robinsons" in Munich a little while ago. I'm a big animation fan myself and love many of the old Disney movies, although lately I've been more impressed with Pixar's films than anything Disney had to offer in the last few years. However, the story of this one is actually quite interesting and not as uninspired and generic as Disney's last traditionally animated feature Home on the Range or as messy as their first CG outing Chicken Little. It offers a number of nice surprises and even a good plot twist or two without causing too much of the old time-traveling headache. The humor also works quite well, although many of the jokes seem to be aimed at adults and little kids might not get all of them. (Didn't bother me, though…) Most importantly, this film does not contain a single fart joke nor any talking animals or even animal sidekicks (except for those singing frogs you might have seen in the trailers, but they're really not the same thing). I don't know how close this adaptation is to William Joyce's novel "A Day With Wilbur Robinson", as I've never read anything Joyce has written, but it all works pretty well and manages to be an exiting and entertaining family adventure movie.

One aspect of the movie that works particularly well is the design. The buildings, machines and landscapes of the future really look totally cool and have a very own look that is inspired by Joyce's illustrations and various visions of the future from the 50ies and 60ies. They're beautifully rendered, too. Furthermore, the animation is pretty awesome. The movements of the quirky characters are very fast but funny and cleverly stylized. The best example for this is the Bowler Hat Guy who moves in a unique style that makes him look like a giant Spider. This really is a welcome change from the hyper-realistic motion capturing stuff we've been seeing in a lot of movies lately. The character design isn't so bad either. However, the humans don't look quite as good as the ones in The Incredibles, the stylization of some characters makes them look a little too artificial for my taste. The voice-acting, which relies on solid voice actors and luckily doesn't involve any fancy stunt casting, leaves nothing to be desired. Danny Elfman's score is pretty fine, too. I could have done without the cheesy pop songs that were played at some parts of the film, though.

Altogether, I highly recommend seeing this warmhearted family film to any animation fan. It might not be as good as my Pixar favorites The Incredibles and Finding Nemo, but it sure is a lot better than most of the other studios' wisecracking-and-farting-animal flicks. With Pixar's John Lasseter pulling the strings at Disney's animation unit now, they finally seem to be getting back on the right track and I'm looking forward to their next projects, especially the traditionally animated The Frog Princess.

One last thing: as some of you might have heard, Disney wants to start putting original animated shorts in front of their feature films again. Meet the Robinsons kind of makes a start by showing the old Mickey, Donald & Goofy short Boat Builders in the beginning. It's a great experience to see one of those on the big screen again and the kids in the audience apparently loved it.