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Film review

Looking forward to good fun

The latest Disney animated movie blends science fiction with enjoyable characters and an interesting plot. Characters you can relate to make this film a hit.

By STEVE PERSALL and ARLIA DELPHONSE
Published March 29, 2007

Meet the Robinsons is a strange blur of freakish characters, hyperactivity and half-baked emotions, truly one of the oddest animated films produced by Disney.

Inspired by William Joyce's picture book A Day With Wilbur Robinson, a platoon of seven screenwriters pile up silly non sequiturs within a dense time-travel plot owing much to Back to the Future.

They also create a new hero besides Wilbur, a bookish orphan named Lewis voiced by Daniel Hansen and Jordan Fry whose obsession with crazy inventions leads him to Wilbur's family in a weird new world.

As an infant, Lewis is deposited at an orphanage where caretaker Mildred (Angela Bassett) and roommate Goob (Matthew Josten) patiently endure his scientific hobbies. Mostly his inventions scare away potential parents, convincing Lewis that he should create a memory scanner to recall his biological mother and find her.

The memory scanner draws attention from Wilbur (Wesley Singerman), a teenage time traveler, and the angular Bowler Hat Guy (director Stephen Anderson), who scramble to do something with it, we're not sure what. That's the part of Meet the Robinsons that's refreshing yet mildly frustrating: rampantly wild imagination that becomes grounded in some sort of reality almost too late to save the movie.

Wilbur takes Lewis into the future and hides him in a basement away from the rest of the family. That isolation doesn't last, and when Lewis meets the Robinsons he - and we - aren't sure what to think. The extended clan is made up of Pee-wee's Playhouse rejects, a robot servant and too many idiosyncrasies to count. The screenplay zooms past any explanations for their strangeness, especially when the family tree is traced by climactic twists.

The Bowler Hat Guy is an enjoyable villain, modernly patterned after Snidely Whiplash and outsmarted at every turn but clumsily persistent. He provides some reason why a T-rex would find itself in Tomorrowland but not until after a much less intimidating minion fails. His hat has a mind of its own, calling most of the shots with a Hal 9000 eye glowing.

Some sequences are witty - a science fair judging, the dinosaur chase - and others feel cobbled together on the fly. Computer animation creates arresting sci-fi backgrounds, while Danny Elfman's melodic yet intrusive musical score points out everything along the goofy ride.

I saw Meet the Robinsons in Disney Digital 3-D, and the process impresses, although Anderson's movie doesn't attempt many in-your-face stunts. Check theater ads for locations where it's offered, but be advised that 3-D tickets will be a few dollars extra. You'll get your money's worth from the added cartoon Working for Peanuts starring Donald Duck and Chip and Dale that was produced in old-style 3-D and hasn't been exhibited since 1953.

Steve Persall can be reached at (727) 893-8365 or persall@sptimes.com.

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We've all seen the ads: "I have a BIG head - and LITTLE arms," the dinosaur grunts. And if you think that was funny, that's just one of the laughs in Meet the Robinsons. This movie, filled with lots of laughs and a good message, is fantabulistic!

Based on the book A Day with Wilbur Robinson by William Joyce, Meet the Robinsons is well worth your price of admission.

Lewis, who lives in an orphanage, is the smart, funny-looking kid with glasses who isn't really accepted by anyone. He's my favorite character because I can relate to him - trying hard, but feeling really down if I don't succeed.

My favorite part of the movie was - wait, I can't tell you that. It would take the fun out of you going to see it.

But I can tell you a part about the future. Franny Robinson teaches frogs to sing and play music. It's just so funny to watch these yellow-green amphibians strum little basses, bang on mini drum sets and croon into tiny microphones.

Meet the Robinsons has awesome animation (especially in 3-D), great music, fabulous writing and a fun plot. It even has a good message. Kids, teens and adults all should go and Meet the Robinsons.

Arlia Delphonse, 11, is in seventh grade at Tarpon Springs Middle School.

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Review

Meet the Robinsons

Steve Persall grade: B-

Arlia Delphonse grade: A

Director: Stephen J. Anderson

Cast: Voices of Daniel Hansen, Jordan Fry, Wesley Singerman, Angela Bassett, Harland Williams, Laurie Metcalf, Tom Kenny, Tom Selleck, Adam West

Screenplay: Jon Bernstein, Michelle Bochner, based on the picture book A Day with Wilbur Robinson by William Joyce

Rating: G

Running time: 102 min.

[Last modified March 28, 2007, 09:57:55]