Meeting That Which has No Substance
The '70s and the early '80s are normally considered the Dark Ages for Disney animated films but I'm starting to think the latter '00s were much worse. 2007's Meet the Robinsons is at least better than Chicken Little, easing up a bit on the cynical, imitation Family Guy humour. Meet the Robinsons chooses instead to ape Futurama with its story of a smart kid who winds up travelling to the future. The strongest parts of the film are the beginning and the climax. The middle, when the main character actually meets the Robinsons, is comparatively weak but still not as bad as Chicken Little. Even so, it's never as interesting as some of the worst of Disney's pre-2000 films. The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Pocahontas might be failures at heart but they both have definite points of interest. The best Meet the Robinsons can manage is to be adequately entertaining. There's nothing memorably bad, good, or strange about it.
The first act introduces Lewis (Jordan Fry), a precocious orphan who invents devices that tend to explode, in one case splattering people with peanut butter and jelly. Fed up with rejections for adoption, Lewis decides to seek out his birth mother. To do this, he decides to unlock his infant memories with a new invention he calls a "Memory Scanner".
Disney shows once again how skilled they are at animating children. Lewis and his roommate, "Goob" (Matthew Josten), have the natural mannerisms and vocal habits of real children, especially Goob.
This is yet another film with a male protagonist. With the one notable exception of The Lion King, Disney films post-The Little Mermaid always fared better with a female protagonist. Why were they trying so hard to get movies about boys off the ground? I suppose that makes it ironic that, after buying Star Wars, they've felt obliged to make the new films about women.
Lewis meets a time traveller at the school science fair, Wilbur (Wesley Singerman), and goes off to the future with him to meet those Robinsons.
It's difficult not to think of Futurama as the soft edged, brightly coloured ship swoops through the soft edged, brightly coloured city. The resemblance deepens as Lewis is introduced to the alien shock gags and antics of the Robinsons.
The cast is light on celebrity voices though it does bring in Adam West again, following on his role from Chicken Little. This time he plays a superhero pizza delivery man.
After the early scenes successfully get you invested in Lewis' endeavour, these middle scenes succeed in divesting the story of all emotional appeal, being a series of lame gags.
One scene in the climax, featuring an evil bowler hat turning people into zombies, is surprisingly creepy. Still, it's not quite enough to elevate the whole film.
Meet the Robinsons is available on Disney+.
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This is part of a series of posts I'm writing on the Disney animated canon.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Pinocchio
Fantasia
Dumbo
Bambi
Saludos Amigos
The Three Caballeros
Make Mine Music
Fun and Fancy Free
Melody Time
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Cinderella
Alice in Wonderland
Peter Pan
Lady and the Tramp
Sleeping Beauty
101 Dalmatians
The Sword in the Stone
The Jungle Book
The Aristocats
Robin Hood
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
The Rescuers
The Fox and the Hound
The Black Cauldron
The Great Mouse Detective
Oliver & Company
The Little Mermaid
The Rescuers Down Under
Beauty and the Beast
Aladdin
The Lion King
Pocahontas
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Hercules
Mulan
Tarzan
Fantasia 2000
Dinosaur
The Emperor's New Groove
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Lilo and Stitch
Treasure Planet
Brother Bear
Home on the Range
Chicken Little