Meet the Robinsons
By Nick Manteris · 0 Comments · Leave a Comment
Meet the Robinsons starts rather stereotypically, and doesn’t really stray far from that format through the entire film.
When it starts, we see Lewis, the main character, being abandoned as a baby in front of an orphanage and then the story cuts to the present time, where Lewis seems to be a second rate Jimmy Neutron. We learn that he believes himself to be unloved and unwanted after having over a hundred prospective foster family interviews. He decides to invent a memory scanner to remember what his mother looked like and enters the device into the school’s science fair. At the science fair Lewis is warned (by a “time cop” from the future) that a “Bowler Hat Guy” might be after him. This “Bowler Hat Guy” just happens to be the stereotypical evil villain with the mustache …and this particular stereotype has served its purpose; we no longer need to perpetuate it. The Bowler Hat Guy’s hat moves around like the baby-headed spider thing from Toy Story …yet another thing that we’ve already kinda seen before. (Later on in the story we encounter some singing frogs… Looney Tunes can probably tell you where they’ve seen a singing frog before.)
- Score
- 5/10
Admittedly, this is a movie for children (about time travel!) so there’s a good chance that the intended audience hasn’t seen everything that is referenced here, and, as they say, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” And while it may have started stereotypically, it ends on a somewhat higher note with this quote from Walt Disney: “Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious...and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
