Quirky and clever

Meet the Robinsons
Starring: Angela Basset, Daniel Hansen, Jorden Fry
Directed by: Stephen Anderson

I'm a big animation fan and love many of the old Disney movies, although lately I've been more impressed with Pixar's films than anything Disney had to offer in the last few years. However, the story of this one is actually quite interesting and not as uninspired and generic as Disney's last traditionally animated feature Home on the Range or as messy as their first CG outing Chicken Little. It offers a number of nice surprises and even a good plot twist or two without causing too much of the old time-traveling headache. The humor also works quite well, although many of the jokes seem to be aimed at adults and little kids might not get all of them.

The only thing that kind of spoilt it for me was the singing frogs but I guess they are a negligible mistake. The design of the movie was impeccable. The buildings that came up within a minute and the entire futuristic approach made it interesting. But enough of this let me tell you what it's all about first. Lewis is a young orphan investor trying to make his way into the hearts of a couple who will be willing to take him home.

The entire process is a bit of a failure and he decides that the best thing he could probably do is to try and figure out who his real parents are. His answer to the question is to create a machine that is capable of going back to a moment in the past. The idea seems simple enough but in walks in this guy called Wilbur whose only focus is to make sure that Lewis stays away from Bowler hat man.

It's a little complicated initially but a little way into the movie you will be able to really enjoy it. Look out for the lovely dino related jokes which literally made me fall off my chair. I watched that little part thrice over and might do so again if the need for humour arises! This is a good movie to watch if you have kids over and are looking for a way to get them to sit still. But be warned some of the jokes are pretty adult – no not in that way – but they will be understood only by a relatively adult audience.

The animation is pretty awesome. The movements of the quirky characters are very fast but funny and cleverly stylized. The best example for this is the bowler hat guy who moves in a unique style that makes him look like a giant spider. This really is a welcome change from the hyper-realistic motion capturing stuff we've been seeing in a lot of movies lately. The character design isn't so bad either. However, the humans don't look quite as good as the ones in The Incredibles, the stylization of some characters makes them look a little too artificial for my taste. The voice-acting, which relies on solid voice actors and luckily doesn't involve any fancy stunt casting, leaves nothing to be desired.

Altogether, I highly recommend seeing this warm hearted family film to any animation fan. It might not be as good as my Pixar favorite – Finding Nemo, but it sure is a lot better than most of the other studios' wisecracking-and-farting-animal flicks. The tagline of this movie is perfect... because it describes exactly what Meet the Robinsons means for the Disney Feature Animation studios... a step forward. Disney had been on a slide in the last few years... they were beginning to make cheap comedy movies with thin characters and story lines. I am happy to report that those days are over.

Watch it if you liked – Click
Movie Hall of Fame – No
Tagline – If you think your family's different, wait 'til you meet the family of the future.

He said/she said – Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things... and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. – Walt Disney