Meet the Robinsons (2007)

Film: Meet the Robinsons (2007)
Stars: Jordan Fry, Wesley Singerman, Steve Anderson, Nicole Sullivan, Tom Selleck, Angela Bassett, Laurie Metcalf, Adam West
Director: Stephen Anderson
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

You know what, in these coronavirus times, it's important to keep distracting ourselves, so I lied this morning-we will have a few more animated films coming down-the-pike in terms of reviews over the next few days, as one of the projects that I'm doing (I'm always doing at least a dozen film-watching projects) is trying to see all of the official Walt Disney Animated Studio films (the 58 films we most commonly associate with "Disney" rather than subsidiary like Pixar or ImageMovers) and with the coronavirus being really depressing, Disney films feel like a good anecdote.  With one exception (Winnie the Pooh), the films I'm missing fall entirely under two time periods: the post-Bambi/pre-Cinderella era where Disney was often making movies that were more a series of shorts than a long-tale narrative, and the post-Tarzan/pre-Princess and the Frog era where Disney was seeing its crown threatened by inter-company rival Pixar.  The latter group has been where I have been focusing my attention with recent viewings of Treasure Planet and Home on the Range, and it's where we're continuing today with one of the least-discussed films of that era, Meet the Robinsons.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film focuses on Lewis (Fry), a brilliant young inventor whose mother abandoned him as a boy at an orphanage.  Lewis, because he's constantly trying to impress with his inventions, never seems to make a connection with parents trying to adopt a child, and thus lives a solitary life, frequently to the chagrin of his roommate Goob.  One day, at the science fair, a different boy, apparently from the future named Wilbur (Singerman), comes and convinces Lewis to come from his time to help stop a man in a Bowler Hat (Anderson).  Along the way, Lewis suddenly befriends Wilbur's family, having them become the surrogate family he's always dreamed of, and suddenly he understands they are the family he's always dreamed of-Wilbur is actually his son, and these are the parents & spouse he's always hoped to have (the man in the Bowler Hat is a constantly jealous Goob).  The film ends with Lewis getting adopted in his own time by what he knows will be his new family, and starting the life he's always dreamed for himself as a successful inventor.

The movie is well-intentioned, but kind of a mess.  There are far, far too many characters, as the expansive family is hard to keep straight.  You have to wonder if Disney, which when it started this movie didn't own Pixar and when it was released did, was hoping this might become a television show or franchise, something where you could highlight the plethora of characters in a meaningful way rather than just introduce & dispose them.  The film is also littered with sight gags that don't really work, and music that feels atonal to the film (not many movies could put Rufus Wainwright & All-American Rejects on the same soundtrack).  It does feature the smash hit "Little Wonders" by Rob Thomas, which...did you know that was from a Disney movie?

Worst of all, though, is the animation.  Some might chalk up the gaudy, cable animated characters to simply being 2007, but that isn't really a valid excuse.  While Meet the Robinsons was coming out, movies like Cars and Ratatouille were showing that computer animation could be stylish, distinctive, and beautiful.  That's not the case here.  The characters are drawn as empty and vapid, not so much leaning into the uncanny valley as just skipping it over for a computer game version of animation.  Meet the Robinsons is perhaps one of the only Disney films I may ever say this about, but-it looks ugly.  I'm curious as I move into some of the other films of this era (I'm taking my #FlattentheCurve very seriously here so I'll be sticking to home as much as is humanly possible) if this is also the case, because even when the story is a failure, Disney almost always gets the aesthetic right.  Just not with Meet the Robinsons.