Meet the Robinsons

What’s the Story?

Plucky orphans are perfect protagonists in children's adventures. Whether human (Annie>, Oliver Twist) or animal (Stuart Little, Wilbur), they're the ultimate underdogs, and only the most hardened heart could root against them. In MEET THE ROBINSONS, Lewis (voiced by Daniel Hansen) isn't just an orphan -- he's a child genius. He invents practical gadgets, like a peanut-butter-and-jelly gun that makes sandwich preparation a cinch. He has scared off, by his count, 124 sets of potential In hopes of finally seeing the mother who left him at the orphanage's doorstep, Lewis pours his energy into creating a memory machine that projects specific recollections onto a TV monitor. After a mix up at the school science fair, he winds up having to zoom to the future with a mysterious tween boy who knows about a strange nemesis who wants to ruin Lewis' life. Trying to explain the movie's time-traveling plot is as confusing as figuring out the implications of the Terminator timeline, but the point of the future is to show young Lewis that he fits nicely into a zany family: the Robinsons, who have more wacky relatives than the Addamses, the Fockers, and the Tenenbaums put together. After Lewis fails to fix a PB&J device, the Robinsons celebrate his failure as a path to success. And when the film's villain -- a mustachioed man with a robotic bowler hat -- unleashes a T-Rex on the family, the clan joins forces to defend the young inventor. At last, he has a home -- at least in the future.

Is It Any Good?

It's not as touching as Finding Nemo, as technically brilliant as Cars, or as parent-appealing as The Incredibles,, but Meet the Robinsons is an entertaining step in the right direction for Disney's non-Pixar offerings. And who doesn't love an orphan hero?