Meet The Robinsons

'Meet my boredom'

Hmmm...I would love to rant at this point and rip this film a new perforation, but my thoughts and experiences have been tempered on this film by the people I saw it with, a bunch of seminarians and their significant others. Maybe that explains the general thoughts on how great the movie was after the show, but sinc I do respect their judgements, perhaps I am just too elitist and snobbish to enjoy the movie as it is supposed to be. So despite the rant that might follow, keep in mind that I was the only one of a large group of people who disliked the film. The film works well for people interested in seeing something amusing and very childish. It certainly won't threaten your child's soul and the only thing that conservative Christians might be opposed to is the use of dinosaurs and the unnatural idea of time travel. You want somethings safe, unchallenging, and with an interesting look at the future, go see this movie. Now, my point of view.

This film was already in the works before Pixar rejoined Disney and John Lasseter took over the animation division. Apparently, after he rejoined he yanked this film from its original release date and reworked it to its present state. Even the great John Lasseter couldn't save this film. The film starts with a decent if predictable plotline of an orphan inventor boy who can never be adopted because he isn't sporty enough and too involved in inventions that explode. After that, there is some plot of old-school creepy guy in black coat revenge thing and future boy trying to steal back his father's time machine to keep from being in trouble. Actually, the plot despite its predictability holds together pretty well, the only real problems being how does Tiny the T-Rex come to the future if h can't fit in the time travel machine and why is the main character's hair a dead giveaway? Of course these are easily overlooked especially by children. The real problem are the villains and the half baked conception of the future. All of the villains except the hat named Doris are ridiculously simple. The running joke of the film is how the main villain can't think through revenge properly to the point where even a T-Rex is smarter than he is. Even the hat is just a bad rip off of pretty much any A.I. computer villain with ties to The Matrix and Hal evident in its design. At best, the villains are amusing at moments. When I say that the funniest parts of the film are in the trailer, I'm being serious. The film fails and it is completely the fault of the writers, the director, and especially Disney for not being better about what it chooses to create.

The failure of the film is that unlike most Disney theatrical films, it doesn't really try to make an attempt at appealing to older audiences. Sure, there are a couple of tongue-in-cheek jokes here and there that no kid will understand, but for the most part, the script is written to be entertaining for children. The moral lessons and life lessons for which Disney films are known are highly muted and deal with the idea of being adopted and coming to terms with the lack of having a parent. That was actually the best part of the script since I don't think many Disney films have dealt with that as directly as this one. Sure, Aladdin was an abandoned street thug and Bambi lost his mom, but their parents were never a prominent part of the story(Aladdin III doesn't count). The script is meant for kids who have no idea where the ideas and storylines are stolen from or copied. Its sad because the CG is top-notch and quite enjoyable. Unfortunately, the idea of the future is so fantastical that it seems to have been visualized in that sense simply to have something interesting to look at on screen. Also, the script is so scatterbrained that certain characters set up to be important are quickly discarded or glanced over and left me feeling cheated of trying to invest time in knowing them. This is especially true of the liberally catholic sized family of the future.

Conclusion
For children, this film will not challenge them and might teach them something about family, but for everyone else who enjoys good film, this offers nothing new, funny, or really interesting except for a couple of amusing visuals and some laughs at a T-Rex. If you enjoy getting in touch with your inner child, then feel free to go see it, but at this point I would highly recommend any Pixar flick, classic Disney, or other child movie currently released to this one. It just doesn't have the same careful thought or study invested in the script and story that is the usual trademark of the Disney quality. Hopefully this is the last CG non-Pixar movie by Disney since I found the traditionally animated short at the beginning of the film more interesting than the feature. If nothing else, go see the short and leave, it does a great job of preparing the viewer for the reminder of childhood to come after it in the form of a feature.

2.8 out of 5 for feature
3.4 out of 5 for short

Wannabe