The computer-animated feature Meet the Robinsons (Disney) is an adaptation of the 1993 William Joyce children's book, A Day with Wilbur Robinson, concerning a futuristically fanciful family. Now expanded with a time-travel plot and a comical villain, the movie downplays the book's theme of how "cool" other families can seem to a kid, focusing instead on persistence, faith in oneself and taking personal responsibility.
Fans of Joyce's Rolie Polie Olie and Dinosaur Bob books will recognize the author-artist's trademark "retro-future" style, a Crayola-crayon version of 1930s world-of-tomorrow images.
Director and co-writer Stephen Anderson and six other screenwriters import elements from the book and turn its narrator into a kid-genius orphan, the 12-year-old Lewis (voiced by children Daniel Hansen and Jordan Fry). An improvising inventor whose creations tend to explode or spurt peanut butter and jelly, he becomes convinced that a "memory scanner" will retrieve his long-dormant, infant memories of his birth mother.
Lewis is sabotaged at a science fair by the evil Bowler Hat Guy (voiced by Anderson), who has come from the future to steal the scanner and claim the credit for himself. Simultaneously, Lewis meets Wilbur Robinson (voiced by Wesley Singerman), a 13-year-old who whisks him to a Utopian future where people travel by giant soap bubbles and every building's architect appears to be Fisher-Price.
Here we get to the substance of the book, in which the various Robinsons have quirky hobbies such as life-sized model trains, shooting themselves out of a cannon and teaching frogs to sing. Eventually, Lewis must fix a damaged time machine and prevent Bowler Hat Guy from changing history.
Joyce's whimsical absurdity unfortunately just doesn't quite gel when expanded into a feature-length narrative. Likewise, the author's vision fits uneasily within the Disney mold, in which the depiction of a "kid genius" — oversized round glasses and a sweater vest — seems old-fashioned rather than retro. There are engaging moments, such as the Frank Sinatra frog and a gorgeously grim Dystopia, and the witty Danny Elfman soundtrack. But it's hard to sympathize with a hero as petulant and self-absorbed as Lewis. Very young children may be taken by the colors and shapes, but it's hard to imagine older kids being entranced.
The film contains some harmless explosions, a food fight with a dinosaur, and a boy thrown off a building to land harmlessly on an invisible platform. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-I — general patronage. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is G — general audiences. All ages admitted.
