‘Robinsons’ is lively, fun flick

At the Movies
By Senitra Horbrook

With the flurry of animated releases featuring talking animals over the last couple years, it’s refreshing to see Meet the Robinsons — an animated movie where people talk.
Disney’s Meet the Robinsons is not as impressive as last summer’s Pixar-produced Cars, but it is light years ahead of their boring Madagascar rip-off, The Wild.
Great graphics (3-D in select theaters, including AMC Neshaminy 24, the closest theater in this coverage area) coupled with the idea of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius meets Back to the Future makes for an inventive idea. The message of "keep moving forward" and never accept failure is embodied throughout, and both adults and kids will certainly remember this important life lesson.
The only downfall to Meet the Robinsons is the confusing story incorporating time travel, which may have some kids asking questions. But for most of 90 minutes, audiences will forget about the penguins, woolly mammoths, rats and the variety of talking animals in movies like Ice Age, Happy Feet and Flushed Away, and enjoy the quirky Robinson family and lovable orphan Lewis.
Twelve-year-old Lewis, who was left on the doorstep of an orphanage as a baby, is quite an intelligent young man, but has been rejected by every adoptive parent who comes to meet him. Science is his passion, and he thinks he has created something that will help him remember his birth mother so he can find her.
At a science fair, Lewis meets Wilbur Robinson, a teenager who warns him of a suspicious man lurking in the shadows. Unknown to Lewis, the man, named Bowler Hat Guy, has a bone to pick with Lewis and has come to steal his invention and make his life miserable.
Wilbur transports Lewis to the future, where he meets the Robinson family, including a grandpa who wears his clothes backward and a mother who conducts an orchestra of singing frogs. Lewis begins to grow attached to the Robinsons and wants to be adopted by them. But they can’t adopt him because he’s from the past and must go back. Of course, there’s still that pesky Bowler Hat Guy, who just happens to have one of the only two time-travel machines in existence — and who must be stopped before Lewis can return to the past.
Sound confusing? The film actually winds up with a nice twist that I completely didn’t see coming, and it tidies up all the loose ends.
The characters are all funny and endearing, even though there are a lot of them. There’s a dizzying introduction when Wilbur introduces Lewis to his family, and don’t feel bad if you can’t keep them all straight. They’re just a short diversion from the main story anyway.
Thirty years from now we probably won’t be able to experience time-travel, and it’s a good bet that frogs won’t be able to sing, but Disney’s Meet the Robinsons doesn’t care about that. It does care about leaving the audience with a positive feeling, something that it achieves — and exceeds.
This funny family of the future is one kids would want to hang out with.
Movie Grade: B+