MEET THE ROBINSONS

'''Meet the Robinsons''' is a computer-animated film and the 46th animated feature produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. In the United Kingdom, the 3D version was released on March 23, 2007. It was released in standard and Disney Digital 3-D versions in the United States and in its standard version in the UK on March 30, 2007. It is based on the characters and events in the illustrated book ''A Day with Wilbur Robinson'', by William Joyce. The film originally had the same title as the book. The voice cast includes Jordan Fry, Harland Williams, Tom Kenny, Steve Anderson, Adam West, Tom Selleck, and Angela Bassett. The film is rated G by the MPAA. It is currently scheduled to be released on DVD-Video and Blu-Ray on October 23 2007.^[2]

Contents

Plot summary

Reception

Disney Digital 3-D

Credits

Voice cast

Crew

Other media

DVD & Blu-ray release

Soundtrack

Video game

Trivia

References

See also

External links

Plot summary

The movie opens with a woman approaching an orphanage at night in the rain, holding her baby. On the orphanage steps, she kisses her baby and then puts it down, but suddenly looks up as if she’s heard a noise. Mildred (voice of Angela Bassett), the head of the orphanage, answers a knock at the door and finds the baby.
As years go by, Lewis (voices of Daniel Hansen and Jordan Fry), the baby, has apparently become an avid inventor and is actually a genius – he teaches a class and takes college classes. His roommate, “Goob” (voice of Matthew Josten), is tiredly helping Lewis make yet another invention in his room. Lewis is always building and keeps Goob up every night, which makes Goob’s little league baseball career suffer. Mildred comes to the room and tells Lewis that there is another family coming to adopt him. During the meeting, Lewis tries to show off his invention, a machine to automatically make the perfect PB&J. However, it explodes and the family leaves in a huff.
Mildred finds Lewis on the roof where he always goes to think, and when Lewis says that no one, not even his own mother, wants him. Mildred tells Lewis that he doesn't know if that's true and that it's possible that his mother wanted to keep him and couldn't. Lewis gets an inspiration: he’ll invent a machine to look back into his memories and see his mother. Lewis invents this machine over the next couple of days and Goob is unable to sleep. He complains to Mildred about this and says that he won’t be able to keep awake during the baseball game. Lewis heads to the school science fair, telling Mildred that he’s given up on being adopted and will only settle for his real family.
A hyperactive judge named Dr. Krunklehorn (voice of Laurie Metcalf) is looking at all the science experiments along with science teacher Mr. Willerstein (voice of Tom Kenny). Lewis is approached by a young boy named Wilbur Robinson (voice of Wesley Singerman) who claims he is a time cop from the future and that a man with a bowler hat stole a time machine, came to this time, and is after Lewis. Lewis doesn’t believe him and Wilbur gets distracted, allowing Lewis to set up. However, the sinister Bowler Hat Man (voice of Stephen J. Anderson) lurks in the shadows nearby and sends Doris (voice of Ethan Sandler), a robotic hat with mechanical arms, to sabotage Lewis’s machine. As Lewis begins demonstrating the machine, Wilbur spots the bowler hat and tries to stop Lewis but the machine explodes and the science fair is in chaos. Lewis runs out and leaves his machine, which the Bowler Hat Man steals.
At the orphanage, Lewis goes up on the roof, crushed. Wilbur appears and tells Lewis to go back to the science fair and fix the machine, but Lewis refuses. Lewis then says that if Wilbur can prove he’s from the future, Lewis will go back to the science fair and fix the machine. Wilbur agrees then pushes Lewis off the roof onto an invisible flying time machine, and uses it to take them to the future.
Soaring through a world of flying cars, clean cities, robots, and machines, Lewis finally believes Wilbur. But Lewis then says that he wants Wilbur to use the time machine to take him back to the day he was left at the orphanage so he can stop his mother from leaving him. When Wilbur refuses, Lewis grabs the steering wheel and causes the machine to crash. Wilbur is devastated and explains that there are only two time machines in existence, both made by Wilbur’s dad, and now one is destroyed while the Bowler Hat Man has the other. The two make a deal: if Lewis fixes the time machine, Wilbur will use it to take him back to see his mother.
They smuggle the machine into Wilbur’s garage where Carl (voice of Harland Williams), the neurotic family robot, yells at Wilbur. They tell Lewis to not leave the garage and hide his hair under a hat covered in fruit and tell him to fix the machine before Wilbur’s father returns in the morning. In private, Carl says that Wilbur shouldn’t have brought Lewis back, and that because he did there is a break in time and Wilbur could be erased. Downstairs, Lewis accidentally steps into an elevator and gets transported out of the house.
Back in the past, the Bowler Hat Man is talking with his hat, Doris. The two plan to take credit for inventing the memory machine, one of the things to do on Bowler Hat Man’s written checklist. That also includes: steal a time machine, steal an invention, and pretend that he invented it. However, because he doesn't know how to use the machine, Bowler Hat Man is thrown out on his face. Bowler Hat Man goes to Lewis’s room to kidnap him (another on his list of things to do) but finds an injured Goob there instead. He fell asleep during the baseball game while on the field, which cost them the game, and the kid son his team beat him up for it, though the coach (voice of Don Hall) assured him to let it go. Bowler Hat Man gets very emotional and gives Goob a speech about holding the sadness inside and converting it to rage. On the roof, Doris finds traces of Wilbur’s time machine and the two head to the future to track down Lewis.
Meanwhile, Lewis is wandering around the Robinson house. He meets Lefty (voice of Nathan Greno), the octopus butler, and Grandpa Bud (voice of Stephen J. Anderson), a crazy old man looking for his dentures and wearing his clothes backwards. Bud takes Lewis on a tour of the house while Wilbur goes on a frantic search for them. In the house, Lewis meets Uncle Gaston (voice of Don Hall), shooting himself from a cannon to race Aunt Billie’s (voice of Kelly Hoover) life-size toy train, Cousin Tallulah (voice of Stephen J. Anderson), wearing a skyscraper dress, who is fighting with her brother Laszlo (voice of Ethan Sandler), flying around on a jetpack and painting the walls, Billy’s husband, the obese Uncle Joe, who sits in his chair all day, Uncle Art (voice of Adam West) delivering pizzas in a flying saucer like a superhero, Bud’s wife, Lucille (voice of Laurie Metcalf), who dances to disco music, and Uncle Fritz (voice of Ethan Sandler), a spacey middle-aged guy, who argues with his wife – a ventriloquist puppet named Petunia. Finally, Lewis meets Wilbur’s friendly mother, Franny (voice of Nicole Sullivan), conducting her frog jazz band. The lead frog, Frankie (voice of Aurian Redson), is wearing Bud’s teeth. The entire family loves Lewis, but Wilbur sneaks in and takes him downstairs. Wilbur’s father is a master inventor and invented practically everything, coining the motto “Keep moving forward”. Lewis attempts to fix the time machine but it breaks again.
Meanwhile, Bowler Hat Man and Doris try to sneak into the house. Doris spawns a miniature bowler hat which the Bowler Hat Man controls. Mini-Doris finds and takes control of Frankie.
During dinner, Lewis pretends to be an exchange student from Canada. Franny is extremely nice and Lewis finds himself loving everyone very much, but when Franny goes to remove Lewis’s hat, Wilbur initiates a kung-fu style meatball fight between Franny and Gaston. Lewis says that he is an orphan and wishes that he had a family like the Robinsons.
For dessert, Carl is about to serve PB&J sandwiches with a machine similar to the one Lewis made earlier. When it breaks, Wilbur decides to get Lewis to fix it to raise his confidence, but Lewis fails – and the entire family applauds the failure, saying that a failure means you can try again. Frankie enters, but he is just a small frog and can’t seize Lewis. Bowler Hat Man gets rid of Frankie and sees a hedge shaped like a T-Rex in the garden. He takes the time machine back to the past and returns with a real one. The entire family attempts to stop the T-Rex (voice of Joseph Mateo), but it turns the tables and corners Wilbur and Lewis. The T-Rex is about to eat Wilbur but Lewis throws a shovel in his mouth to stop him.
Everyone is now slightly injured but also in love with Lewis. Wilbur is worried, and Lewis thanks everyone. But when says he has to go, Franny breaks down and says that she wants to adopt Lewis . Wilbur quickly knocks Lewis’s hat off and when everyone sees his hair, they are horrified. Franny takes back her adoption offer at once and says Lewis has to go. Wilbur explains the situation with the time machines and also blurts out that he never meant to take Lewis back to his mother. Lewis runs away, saying he won’t trust the Robinsons ever again. Everyone is furious with Wilbur, including Franny, who says that he is "grounded until he dies". Lewis is approached by the Bowler Hat Man and Doris and told that if he fixes the memory machine, they’ll take him to see his mother. Wilbur tries to stop him but Lewis, still angry with him, flies off with Bowler Hat Man.
In a dark room somewhere, Lewis repairs the memory machine and explains how to use it. He is then tied up by Doris and Bowler Hat Man turns on the lights – they are in Lewis’s old room at the orphanage. Bowler Hat Man reveals that he is in fact Goob. After Goob lost his baseball game, he went into long-term depression and remained an orphan. Over the years, Goob decided that his bad life was Lewis’s fault. At the same time, Wilbur’s father invented Doris but Doris malfunctioned so he shut her down. Doris escaped and found Goob. The two of them then decided to steal Mr. Robinson’s time machine and go back in time to steal Lewis’s first working machine. Lewis suddenly figures out why they are attacking him to hurt Mr. Robinson – Lewis IS Mr. Robinson. This is why Franny recognized him and said that he had to go back to the past and also why Wilbur believes Lewis can fix the time machine. If Lewis doesn’t invent the memory machine, the future will be destroyed. Lewis realizes that by not letting go of the past and not looking towards the future, Goob’s anger destroyed him; the same way Lewis was letting his anger about his mother ruin his own life.
Carl and Wilbur arrive at the orphanage and rescue Lewis and the memory machine. Lewis then tells Wilbur that he knows that he is Wilbur's father. They are friends again but just as they reach the Robinson house, Doris shows up and attacks Carl. Bowler Hat Man steals the memory machine and goes back to the past. Bowler Hat Man manages to successfully demonstrate the memory machine. The time line is broken and Wilbur is suddenly sucked out of existence. The future is radically changed and Lewis finds the Robinson house empty. On a television screen, Lewis sees that after taking the credit for the memory machine, Bowler Hat Man mass produces Doris. The Doris hats then destroy the cities, enslave all of humanity, and Doris attacks Goob.
Possessed by Doris hats, the Robinsons appear and attack Lewis. Lewis climbs into the time machine as the family tries to push it off a ledge. Lewis suddenly figures out how to fix the machine and flies away, but the entire Robinson house, now a giant Doris, chases after him. Millions of Doris robots also chase after him. Cornered by the Robinsons, Lewis angrily says “I wish I’d never invented that stupid hat!” He suddenly realizes what to do and flies into the past to the boardroom where Goob is about to take credit for Lewis’s invention. Lewis tells Bowler Hat Man about Doris' plan and Doris lunges at Lewis. However, Lewis looks at her and says “I’m never going to invent you.” Doris dissolves into nothingness.
Taking Bowler Hat Man with him, Lewis returns to the future and sees it rebuilding itself. The Robinsons are restored and Wilbur and Carl are restored. Lewis explains and tells Wilbur to adopt Bowler Hat Man, but Bowler Hat Man is gone. Lewis looks down and sees Bowler Hat Man’s checklist with all the previous objectives crossed out, but there is a new entry, a question mark.
Lewis reunites with the Robinsons. He is happy to have found his family at last. And Lewis' future self, Cornelius (voice of Tom Selleck) returns. He takes Lewis to his lab and we see the tremendous success Lewis will become. Lewis climbs back into the time machine with Wilbur and promises to make things right. He says goodbye to the Robinsons, but Wilbur goes to the night Lewis' mother left him at the orphanage. . He gets out of the time machine and is about to talk to his mother as she puts the baby down, but stops, realizing that he already has a family. He slips on the stairs and hides – that moment during the opening when the mother thought she heard a noise. The mother leaves and Lewis knocks on the door of the orphanage.
Lewis returns to the day of the science fair and says goodbye to Wilbur, but says that he will never forget him. Wilbur jokingly tells Lewis that he’ll will keep coming back until he gets things right. On the way to the science fair, Lewis stops by Goob’s baseball game and wakes him up in time to catch the final out and preserve the win for his team. Goob's a hero. At the fair, Lewis demonstrates his machine to Dr. Krunklehorn again, but this time it works. Images are displayed of her wedding – to Bud. Lewis realizes that Lucille is Dr. Krunklehorn in the future, his foster mother-to-be. At the same time he bumps into a young Franny, who says that she is training her frogs to sing but no one believes she’ll do it. A young Uncle Gaston asks Lewis if he can write a story about him.
Everything is now fixed. Lewis is adopted by Lucille and Bud and leaves Mildred and Goob, now a good friend, at the orphanage. They move into a large observatory which will one day be the Robinson residence. Lewis sees the empty room that will be filled with all his inventions and gets to work building the robot that will one day be Carl.

Reception

Reviews have been mixed. RottenTomatoes.com rates it fresh at 66%, with the "Cream of the Crop" at 62%. The user rating at Rotten Tomatoes is currently at 88%. ''Realmovienews'' stated that it has "a snappy plot that demands close attention as it whizzes back and forth in the space-time continuum, touching on serious ideas and proposing some rather disturbing alternate realities. And the witty story twists are handled with rare subtlety and intelligence. In the end it may get a little weepy and inspirational. But it's so charming that we don't mind at all." ^[3] Danny Minton of the ''Beaumont Journal'' said that "''The Robinsons'' might not be a family you want to hang out with, but they sure were fun to meet in this imaginative and beautiful 3-D experience."^[4] And Andrew L. Urban of ''Australian Urban Cinefile'' said that "Walt Disney stood for fantasy on screen and this is a loving tribute to his legacy." ^[5] On the other hand, A.O. Scott of the ''New York Times'' wrote: "''Meet the Robinsons'' is surely one of the worst theatrically released animated features issued under the Disney label in quite some time,"^[6] while Lisa Schwarzbaum of ''Entertainment Weekly'' felt that "This is one bumpy ride."^[7]
While the movie has not reached the box office heights of animated films such as ''Aladdin'' or ''The Lion King'', it has nevertheless grossed over $152 million worldwide.

Disney Digital 3-D

Over 600 REAL D Cinema digital 3D-equipped theaters presented the stereoscopic third-dimensional version of the film.HollywoodReporter.com New dimension at Real D Accessed 12 March 2007 The 3D version is preceded by the 1953 Chip 'n Dale 3D short ''Working for Peanuts''./Film 3D Meet The Robinsons Advertisement, Featurette, and Fun Facts Accessed 31 March 2007 In late 2005, Disney released ''Chicken Little'' in the same process, but in only 84 theaters.HollywoodReporter.com New dimension at Real D Accessed 12 March 2007 According to the trade figures discussed on line and in the press, that film earned nearly three times as much per screen as the standard release and encouraged Disney to release the new film on a larger scale.

Credits

Voice cast

★ Chuck Riley - Narrator

★ Jordan Fry - Lewis

★ Wesley Singerman - Wilbur Robinson

★ Aurian Redson - Frankie the Frog

★ Jamie Cullum - Singing Voice for Frankie the Frog

★ Don Hall - Uncle Gaston

★ Ethan Sandler - DOR-15, Uncle Fritz, Aunt Petunia, Uncle Dmitri, Uncle Spike, Cousin Laszlo

★ Harland Williams - Carl

★ Jessie Flower - Young Franny

★ Tracey Miller-Zarneke - Lizzy

★ Joe Mateo - Tiny

★ Kelly Hoover - Aunt Billie

★ Adam West- Uncle Art

★ Laurie Metcalf - Lucille Krunklehorn

★ Matthew Joston - Michael "Goob" Yagoobian

★ Nicole Sullivan - Franny Robinson

★ Steve Anderson - Bowler Hat Guy, Grandpa Bud, Cousin Tallulah

★ Tom Kenny - Mr. Willerstein

★ Angela Bassett - Mildred

★ Tom Selleck - Cornelius Robinson

Crew

★ Music by Danny Elfman

★ Executive producers John Lasseter and Clark Spencer

★ Based on the book A Day with Wilbur Robinson by William Joyce

★ Adaptation by Jon Bernstein

★ Written by Michelle Bochner and Jon Bernstein

★ Produced by Dorothy Mckim

★ Directed by Steve Anderson

★ CG Stereoscopic Supervision by Phil McNally

Other media

DVD & Blu-ray release

The DVD & Blu-ray Disc versions will both be released on October 23, 2007. Both versions feature 1.78 widescreen aspect ratio and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, plus music videos, the "Family Function 5000" game, deleted scenes, and other bonus features. The Blu-ray also includes uncompressed 5.1 audio and a BD-J game, "Bowler Hat Barrage!". You can see more details on the releases here for DVD[1] and Blu-ray[2].

Soundtrack

Main articles: Meet the Robinsons (soundtrack)

The soundtrack album was released by Walt Disney Records on March 27, 2007. Contributors to the album beyond the Danny Elfman score include Rufus Wainwright, Rob Thomas, Jamie Cullum, The All-American Rejects, They Might Be Giants, and The Jonas Brothers. The Track "Little Wonders", recorded by Rob Thomas, has reached #5 on the Billboard AC chart.

Video game

''Disney's Meet the Robinsons'' is available from Buena Vista Games for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo DS and PC.

Trivia

★ First film to feature the Walt Disney Animation Studios logo.

★ Wilbur tells Lewis that his father looks like Tom Selleck, who happens to be the voice-actor.

★
★ In the German version, Wilbur says his father looks like Thomas Gottschalk, who happens to be the voice-actor in this version.

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★ In the Latin American version, Wilbur says his father looks like José Luis Rodríguez "El Puma".

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★ In the Italian version, Wilbur says his father looks like Giovanni Muciaccia, the Italian Art Attack presenter, who is his voice-actor in this version.

★ The 3-D version is preceded by the 1953 Donald Duck/Chip 'n Dale short ''Working for Peanuts'', which was originally made in 3-D.

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★ The normal version of the film is preceded by the 1938 Mickey Mouse/Donald Duck/Goofy cartoon ''Boat Builders''.

★ At several times the camera focuses on DOR-15's red "eye". This is a reference to the camera eye of ''HAL 9000'' from the ''Space Odyssey'' series.

★ It is possible that the spelling of DOR-15's name (which is simply pronounced "Doris") is a reference to leetspeak, which occasionally uses the numbers one and five to (respectively) replace "i" and "s".

★ The Little League team Goob plays on, the Dinos, is a reference to another of Joyce's books, ''Dinosaur Bob''.

★ Lewis's school is called Joyce Williams Elementary, an obvious reference to the original book's author, William Joyce

★ At the end of the film, Lewis and his adoptive parents move into Anderson Observatory, a reference to the film's director, Steve Anderson.

★ In the background of the baseball field when Goob is sleeping during the game, Mowgli on Baloo's stomach from ''The Jungle Book'' can be seen. In the same scene a poster of Woody, Bullseye, and Jessie from ''Toy Story 2'' can also be seen.

★ When Lewis and Wilbur first approach the garage, both the door guard scene in ''The Wizard of Oz'' and the cave of wonders dialog in ''Aladdin'' are loosely referenced.

★ The Song "This Much Fun" by Cowboy Mouth, which was featured in the trailer for this movie, wasn't in the movie or on the soundtrack.

★ Wilbur's voice changes from the film's trailers to the theatrical release, possibly since the character's voice actor, Wesley Singerman, had his voice continuously maturing during production.

★ For the 3D version, the credits are still the same as in the 2D version, and are even in 2D, except the final credits of the people who converted it to 3D are listed in 3D.

★ Space Mountain and the Rocket Jets, attractions of Disneyland's Tomorrowland, appear in "Todayland"

References

1. http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2007/ROBNS.php
2. http://disneydvd.disney.go.com/moviefinder/products/5270203.html
3. ''Real Movie News''
4. ''Beaumont Journal''
5. ''Australian Urban Cinefile''
6. ''The New York Times''
7. ''Entertainment Weekly''

See also

★ Disney Digital 3-D

★ List of animated feature-length films

★ List of computer-animated films

External links

★ ''Meet the Robinsons'' Official Site

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★ Meet The Robinsons Review on ''Variety.com''