Disney’s “Meet The Robinsons” is the same story told many times by the filmmakers, yet this story still seems fresh and new. Based on the book A Day with Wilbur Robinson by William Joyce, the story starts as most Disney adventures do with an orphan. It then quickly goes into a sequence of the orphan trying to find a family.
For Lewis it is about making a machine that can recall memories that will set the ball in motion for the search of his birth mother. Wilbur Robinson meets a boy from the future who is on the lookout for the Bowler Hat Guy that is trying to sabotage Lewis’ invention.
Through catastrophic events Lewis finds himself in the future meeting Wilbur’s strange family. In the story the family deals with mind controlled frogs and dinosaurs. The journey forces Lewis to look into his own life and see what power his own future can hold.
Whenever a film deals with time travel you have to look at the space-time continuum, the idea that if something changes in the past it will affect the future. This is something that can take a lot of time in a film and something that Disney had kept to a minimum. They kept that aspect really simple while focusing on the story around family and self-discovery. This kept the story moving forward without huge explanations.
Bowler Hat Guy is the typical villain that Disney is famous for. You see him for the first time with his large chin and funny grotesque looks and right away you know he is the villain of the story. There are a lot of fun and different characters, the only one out of the future that seems any where near normal is Wilbur Robinson.
The story gives you the chance to dream and learn lessons of never giving up, and how even the small things can make a difference.
The film is shown in 3-D at select locations. It is recommended if you can, see the film at one of these locations. The 3-D technology is advanced, allowing you to move your head and still maintain the 3-D experience. 3-D technology has gone a long way since the 1940’s. The 3-D effects are designed to draw you into the movie, an important detail. This film is not an amusement park novelty.
The story boarding went from A to Z instead of the steps most films use, that breaks the film into different parts which would cause filmmakers to have to go back and rewrite the first part to connect to the end. “Meet the Robinsons” was storyboarded in its entirety.
“Meet The Robinsons” brings the magic of Disney straight to the screen. Combining the winning formula that makes Disney films classics with new technology and new thinking that brings this old story new life.