To sum up: Lewis is left at an orphanage as a baby. He grows to be a precocious kid, constantly making up new inventions from plans scribbled in a marbled composition notebook. However, he has trouble finding parents who want to adopt him, what with the explosions coming from his room all the time. At a disastrous science fair, a kid named Wilbur Robinson approaches him, claiming to be from the future. Wilbur explains that a villian with a bowler hat is after him and they fly into the future. Lewis meets Wilbur's family, which is eccentric at best and downright crazy at worst. They must pursue Bowler Hat Guy and stop his fiendish plan.
This movie is seriously the best Disney animated feature I've seen in a long time (not including the Disney/Pixar collaborations). It's probably the best one I've seen as an adult. Its greatest quality is the sheer imagination that pours out of it. Having not read the original book (A Day With Wilbur Robinson by William Joyce), I can't tell how much credit for that should go to the author. It's futuristic, so there's a lot of room to really go nuts. It's sorta like the Jetsons...on acid. The scene where Lewis meets Wilbur's family is a great example. He is escorted from room to room, outside then in then back out, meeting strangers being strange. There are men in the flower pots and an octopus at the door, a woman directing a chorus of frogs, plus a guy fired out of a cannon and an old man with his clothes on backwards. The scene is fast-paced, so you can't quite decide if you want to learn more about what you just saw or see what's coming next. My general reaction was, "Uh...wait, what?"
I can see how some people might not enjoy this sort of imagination gone wild. I say to these people, Embrace the silliness.
The villian is particularly interesting. He's a moron, and I admittedly got a little tired of the boy-is-this-guy-stupid jokes, but only because some of them were too obvious. He is only known as "Bowler Hat Guy" because he wears a little hat with a purple ribbon and a HAL 9000 eye - the hat is actually a robot and the true mastermind of the whole scheme. Bowler Hat Guy is a good villian, because he looks dastardly (wearing clothes like those of Snidely Whiplash), but is mostly harmless and entertaining to watch.
Aside from the general chaos, there are lots of clever quips and gags that we come to expect from big budget animated kids' movies now. They're put in there for the adults, to keep us interested between the toilet jokes (I counted only one) and kicks in the crotch (none that I can remember). For instance, Lewis asks Wilbur what his dad looks like (who is not seen til the end). Wilbur says that he looks sort of like Tom Selleck. Later, we do meet Wilbur's dad, and he looks nothing like our favorite mustached private investigator, but he is voiced by Tom Selleck. That's for you parents out there.
My one complaint is that it got a little heavy with the message, which is "Keep Moving Forward." In this context it means to learn from your failures and move on. Keep on keepin' on. Never, never, never, never give up.* You get the idea. It's repeated all the time, and at one point, it's spelled out in fireworks. So when the film is starting to wrap up and it goes into cheesy mode, the continued stressing of the point is a bit much. I wanted to yell out "Keep moving the plot forward!" That being said, it's a good attitude for kids to develop. It's much harder to learn as an adult.
It's clear that the Disney company is trying hard to get back to its roots. Before the movie was a classic Mickey cartoon. At the end, an inspirational quote was shown, which contained the words "Keep moving forward." The quote was from Walt Disney himself. It's a good marketing move, as the company is seen as more and more of an evil corporate giant. I was torn. It was such an obvious PR scheme, but at the same time, I have to admit that I do respect Walt Disney the man. The guy was a visionary. I might have been more receptive to it if I hadn't already been bludgeoned with the motto.
I saw Meet the Robinsons at a second-run theatre, so it can now be viewed on a big screen for a couple of bucks. I highly recommend it. Take your kids. Sneak some candy in your pocket. Enjoy yourself. Embrace the silliness.
* In doing research to determine just how many nevers to use for this quote, I learned Churchill's actual words: "Never give in — never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." Just in case you were curious or about to correct me.
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