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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,"<ref>[http://movies2.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/movies/30robi.html ''The New York Times'']</ref> while Lisa Schwarzbaum of ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' gave the film a "C" and said "This is one bumpy ride."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20016245,00.html |title=Meet the Robinsons (2007) |accessdate=2008-01-05 |author=Lisa Schwarzbaum |date=[[2007-03-28]] |work=[[Entertainment Weekly]]}}</ref>
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,"<ref>[http://movies2.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/movies/30robi.html ''The New York Times'']</ref> while Lisa Schwarzbaum of ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' gave the film a "C" and said "This is one bumpy ride."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20016245,00.html |title=Meet the Robinsons (2007) |accessdate=2008-01-05 |author=Lisa Schwarzbaum |date=[[2007-03-28]] |work=[[Entertainment Weekly]]}}</ref>


While the movie has not reached the box office heights of many animated films, it did gross $25,123,781 on its opening weekend only behind [[Blades of Glory]]. The film nevertheless grossed over $97,822,171 domestically with $71,410,782 overseas with $169,232,246 worldwide gross.
While the movie has not reached the box office heights of many animated films, it did gross $25,123,781 on its opening weekend only behind [[Blades of Glory]]. The film nevertheless grossed over $97,822,171 domestically with $71,410,782 overseas with $169,232,246 worldwide.


==Disney Digital 3-D==
==Disney Digital 3-D==

Revision as of 23:15, 7 March 2008

Meet the Robinsons
Directed bySteve Anderson
Written byMichelle Spritz
Jon Bernstein
Produced byDorothy McKim
StarringJordan Fry
Harland Williams
Tom Kenny
Steve Anderson
Angela Bassett
Tom Selleck
Nicole Sullivan
Music byDanny Elfman
Distributed byWalt Disney Pictures
Release dates
United Kingdom:
March 23, 2007
United States:
March 30, 2007
Running time
92 min.
LanguageEnglish
Box office$169,232,246

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 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 was rated G by the MPAA. It was released on DVD-Video and Blu-Ray on October 23, 2007.[1]

Plot summary

A young woman leaves her baby boy on the steps of an orphanage. Twelve years later, Lewis (voices of Daniel Hansen and Jordan Fry), the baby, has yet to be adopted. Confident that his birth mother abandoned him against her will, he attempts to invent a memory-scanner that will allow him to remember his mother in the hopes that he can find her. He keeps his roommate, Mike "Goob" Yagoobian (voice of Matthew Josten), up every night working, which causes Goob’s Little League baseball team’s performance to suffer. Goob attempts to be supportive but is finding things more and more difficult himself.

At Lewis’s school science fair, Inventco. representative Dr. Krunkelhorn (voice of Laurie Metcalf) is judging the event. Lewis is approached by a thirteen-year-old boy named Wilbur Robinson (voice of Wesley Singerman), who claims that he is a "time cop" from the future, and that a man wearing a bowler hat stole a time machine. The sinister Bowler Hat Guy (voice of Steve Anderson), for whom Wilbur is searching, sends Doris (voice of Ethan Sandler), a robotic hat with mechanical arms, to sabotage Lewis’s machine. As Lewis begins demonstrating his machine, it explodes, throwing the science fair into chaos. Lewis runs out, leaving his machine, and Bowler Hat Guy steals the memory scanner.

At the orphanage, Lewis goes to the roof, crushed by his "failure". Wilbur appears and tells Lewis to go back to the science fair and fix the machine. Lewis agrees, under the condition that Wilbur proves he is from the future. Wilbur then takes Lewis to a flying time machine, and uses it to take them to the year 2037, thirty years forward.

In 2037, Lewis meets Wilbur's grandfather, Bud (voice of Steve Anderson). Bud takes Lewis on a tour of the house, during which Lewis meets the rest of the strange and fun-loving Robinson family. This includes Wilbur’s friendly mother, Franny (voice of Nicole Sullivan). Assured that no one Lewis met knows that he’s from the past, a relieved Wilbur explains that his father, Cornelius, the only member of the Robinson family that Lewis did not meet, invented practically everything Lewis has witnessed, coining the motto "Keep moving forward". Together, and with the help of the large and multi-talented Robinson family, Wilbur and Lewis have to overcome the menace to the future posed by the time-machine-stealing Bowler Hat Guy and DOR-15 (aka Doris - the bowler hat) in order to ensure that the utopian future that the Robinsons live in will come to pass - and so that Wilbur will take Lewis to see his mother.

Finally, Lewis learns the horrible truth: The Bowler Hat Guy is actually an aged and deeply bitter Goob who has long angsted over missing a catch in Little League Baseball - his inner anger preventing him from making friends or finding a family - now being manipulated by the considerably more intelligent DOR-15 - a future invention of Lewis' that went horribly wrong. After Lewis, lacking faith in his abilities, fails to repair the Time Machine, the Bowler Hat Guy brings Lewis' memory scanner and the Helping Hat (DOR-15) to Inventco. Unfortunately for him, the future is horribly altered so that DOR-15 and the Helping Hats control the world - something he did not intend at all.

Lewis goes back to the past in the Time Machine and tells DOR-15, "I will never invent you." This must be true, because these words and intentions alone causes the hat to disappear into oblivion. Lewis then takes Goob back with him and shows him the future DOR-15 intended, which changes even as they watch back to the utopia that Lewis wants. Shocked and dismayed, Goob says simply, "I thought Doris was my friend..."

Wilbur takes Lewis back to see his mother, and Lewis almost touches her, but changes his mind. He goes back to the present, wakes the young Goob to catch the baseball, then goes to the science fair and tries out his project again. His experiment works, and he also finds a family to accept and adopt him. No longer embittered by his Little League failure, it's likely that Goob also found a family and the Bowler Hat Guy was altered as a result.Then later Wilbur's father thought of a plan to tell that Lewis is actually Wilbur's father.

The Robinson family, unusual and eccentric though they may be, teach Lewis a lot about what it means to be a family, and about accepting and learning from failures. Lewis learns that he can only realize his full potential when he's willing to move past his mistakes and "Keep Moving Forward".

Reception

The film received generally favorable reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 65% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 126 reviews.[2] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 61 out of 100, based on 27 reviews.[3]

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."[4] 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."[5] 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."[6] Kyle Smith of the New York Post named it the 10th best film of 2007.[7]

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,"[8] while Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "C" and said "This is one bumpy ride."[9]

While the movie has not reached the box office heights of many animated films, it did gross $25,123,781 on its opening weekend only behind Blades of Glory. The film nevertheless grossed over $97,822,171 domestically with $71,410,782 overseas with $169,232,246 worldwide.

Disney Digital 3-D

Main article: Disney Digital 3-D

Over 600 REAL D Cinema digital 3D-equipped theaters presented the stereoscopic third-dimensional version of the film.[10] The 3D version is preceded by the 1953 Chip 'n Dale 3D short Working for Peanuts.[11] The final credits of the 3D version were left two-dimensional, except for the names of those who converted the film to 3D.

In late 2005, Disney released Chicken Little in the same process, but in only 84 theaters.[10] 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. [citation needed]

Credits

Voice cast

Crew

Another cast member is Kevin Johnson, Cheryl Lynn Carnes.

Other media

DVD & Blu-ray release

The DVD & Blu-ray Disc versions were both 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]. The UK release was in September, and became number one in the DVD charts.

Soundtrack

Main article: 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 The Jonas Brothers, Rufus Wainwright, Rob Thomas, Jamie Cullum, The All-American Rejects, and They Might Be Giants. The Track "Little Wonders", recorded by Rob Thomas, has reached #5 on the Billboard AC chart. Although the song "This Much Fun" by Cowboy Mouth was featured in the trailer, it wasn't in the movie or included on the soundtrack.

Video game

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

Trivia

  • This is the first Disney animated feature in their line-up to use the new opening sequence for the newly renamed Walt Disney Animation Studios. Along with the Walt Disney Pictures opening which appears on every Disney film, the new opening sequence including Mickey Mouse from Steamboat Willie whistling and driving the boat and then showing the new Walt Disney Animation Studios logo. This is the first time that the division formerly known as Walt Disney Feature Animation has an opening specifically used for its films, as films made by the division previously just had only the Walt Disney Pictures opening sequence.
  • The name of Wilbur Robinson references the character Will Robinson from the 1960s program Lost in Space.
  • In the scene with Aunt Billie and Uncle Gaston, Lewis times them using a Mickey Mouse stopwatch.
  • Wilbur tells Lewis that his father looks like Tom Selleck, who happens to be the voice-actor of future Lewis.
  • 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.
  • Lewis's school is called Joyce Williams Elementary, an obvious reference to the original book's author, William Joyce.
  • The Little League team Goob plays on, the Dinos, is a reference to another of Joyce's books, Dinosaur Bob.
  • 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.
  • In the scene where Lewis runs away from the family, hedges shaped as Mrs. Pots and Chip from Beauty and the Beast can be seen in the background.
  • Adopting a tradition found in the credits of the Pixar films, the credits list the Production Babies, which are the names of the children born to those who worked at Walt Disney Animation Studios during the production of the film.
  • Space Mountain and the Rocket Jets, attractions of Disneyland's Tomorrowland, appear in "Todayland". Also, right after we see Space Mountain the Time Machine goes through a set of lit rings that simulate a tunnel that begins the Space Mountain ride.
  • The name of Lewis's new home is called Anderson Observatory after the film's director Steve Anderson.
  • This is the first Disney animated film to have the director do the voice of the villain, which is Steven Anderson as the Bowler Hat Guy.
  • Bud imitates Charlie Chaplin's dancing breadrolls gag (but with meatballs) during the dinner scene.
  • Lewis's red wagon is clearly a "Radio Flyer" with a logo depicting a boy riding a wagon. This references either the "Radio Flyer brand," famous for their red wagons, or the "Radio Flyer" movie which is about a boy who converted one into a makeshift plane.
  • In Meet the Robinsons, Harland Williams voices a robot named Carl, which has a slight resemblance to the art style of the robots in the 2005 animated movie Robots. Both films are executive produced by William Joyce (writer). Late in production, the design for Carl was changed and re-animated so he would look less like the Robots characters. Also, In the movie Robots Harland Williams voices a robot named Lug.
  • In the scene where the Bowler-hat Guy tells Lewis of his meeting with Doris, when they're in the Playtime Planet restaurant discussing revenge on Cornelius Robinson, the castles etched on the seat embroidery resembles Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom Park at Disney World in Orlando, Fl.
  • In the sequence detailing DOR-15's origin, when she latches onto the head of a human and turns him into a zombie, she makes a noise almost identical to that of the headcrabs from the video game Half-Life, which do basically the same thing.
  • In the scene where Wilbur is dropping off Lewis a poster of a bowler hat, with features that strikingly resemble Dorris, can be seen in the background.
  • After Doris creates "Little Doris" her hatband changes from purple to black and then back to purple again.
  • The flash made by the time machine when it disappears is reminiscent of that made by the De Lorean in the film Back to the Future.
  • The look of the alternate reality ruled by the Helping Hats shares some elements with the world depicted in the film Blade Runner.
  • The manner in which Doris jerks her robotic arms is eerily similar to the machines in The Matrix.
  • The scene where Lewis is flying the recently-fixed Time Machine away involves aerial maneuvers as seen done in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi by Luke Skywalker.
  • In the dark future, where Lewis' future family is chasing him wearing Bowler Hats, it is reminiscent of how the robots in I, Robot starring Will Smith, chase the lead character, down to the red flashing lights.
  • The film ends with a quote from Walt Disney himself featuring the words "keep moving forward", which is used in the film as the philosophy of the future.
  • The generic name of the movie's villain appears to come from the title of a 1973 Stackridge album, The Man in the Bowler Hat.

References

  1. ^ Meet The Robinsons (English/French/Spanish DVD)
  2. ^ "Meet the Robinsons - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  3. ^ "Meet the Robinsons (2007): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  4. ^ Real Movie News
  5. ^ Beaumont Journal
  6. ^ Australian Urban Cinefile
  7. ^ "Metacritic: 2007 Film Critic Top Ten Lists". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  8. ^ The New York Times
  9. ^ Lisa Schwarzbaum (2007-03-28). "Meet the Robinsons (2007)". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2008-01-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ a b HollywoodReporter.com New dimension at Real D Accessed 12 March 2007
  11. ^ /Film 3D Meet The Robinsons Advertisement, Featurette, and Fun Facts Accessed 31 March 2007

See also

External links

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