Meet the Robinsons (2007)

Written by Jon A. Bernstein, Michelle Spritz, & Nathan Greno
Directed by Steve Anderson

As we enter the final 10 films of the marathon (as of the time of this review), I’m struck by how it seems as if we’re in the midst of a second Disney Renaissance: after the low point of Chicken Little, the films that follow generally begin increasing in quality; I’d say the Second Renaissance begins here, with Meet the Robinsons.

There is a lack of “photo-realism” here in the animation, but it’s still not bad

I didn’t think I’d like this film very much (I remember not being all that impressed by the trailers), but sitting down to finally watch it, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. The animation quality still isn’t the greatest, but it’s only Disney’s second fully computer-generated feature.

Lewis in his first flying car

Time travel is always a fun topic to explore (for me, at least), and the film plays with it in some inventive ways (I loved the “Todayland” gag in the future city). The film uses time travel to discuss choices and cause & effect. It’s fun to see how tiny choices can have ripple effects throughout the future, and the film has some moments of showing some alternate realities, based on the choices of the characters.

The film’s wonderfully incompetent villain

It does suffer, conversely, from time travel tropes, mostly centering on paradoxes: by seeing his future, won’t Lewis be preoccupied by weighing his decisions to ensure he gets the future he wants? More importantly, at the end of the film, Lewis goes back to his time to begin setting those wheels in motion, and changes the course of the villain of the story. But, by doing that, doesn’t he then open the possibility that the future that he loved and wanted now will be different because of how he changed things in his own past? See? It starts to become a brain teaser, and maybe I’m just thinking too much about a CARTOON.

For me, the biggest thing I loved was the sudden Walt reference right at the end. The phrase “Keep Moving Forward” pops up a lot in the film, and at the end, it’s revealed to be part of a bigger, well-known Walt quote, and it made the film feel much deeper. Released 41 years after his passing, it was a nice sentiment to him and his beliefs.

Paradoxes aside, the film is actually quite a lot of fun, and while it’s not the best film of the group, it was much better than I expected. That’s been the fun of this project: finding the hidden gems amongst the Big Name greats.

FINAL GRADE: B+