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Unfortunately, it is stolen by the creepy Bowler Hat Guy (Stephen J. Anderson), who has a time machine (which looks like a Jetson car-plane) and is aided by a sinister and powerful spider-like robot. This changes the future in a disastrous manner, but there is hope for humanity. Wilbur Robinson (Wesley Singerman), a boy from the future, has arrived at the science fair to foil the Bowler Hat Guy and thus undo his futuristic damage.
This involves Lewis travelling into the future, where he meets Wilbur's family. It is large, varied, and eccentric. But in a good way. They take to Lewis promptly, and are even pleased when all heck breaks loose because of his presence. But they are mortified when they learn that he is from the past. Will the Robinsons become Lewis' family? Have you seen a movie before?
How others will see it. Past magnificent Pixar features have raised the bar for computer-generated animated features to such an extent that many viewers take the animation quality of the present film for granted. The same viewers compare Meet the Parents to prior similar films (The Incredibles, Toy Story, Toy Story 2) and have made an unspoken collective decision: it isn't quite as good. Which is true enough, but it is still a fine effort.
User ratings at imdb.com show a surprisingly wide spread between males and females. Women liked it better, although the gap narrows (and the ratings decrease) with advancing age. One can presume from this that women sympathize with the plight of orphans Lewis and Goob, and that older audiences have a built-in prejudice against wild and silly computer-generated animated features targeted to pre-teenaged children and their thirtysomething parents.
Despite comparative audience indifference, Meet the Robinsons was a box office hit, although not on the massive level of Cars or Finding Nemo, which may be more accessible but are also less imaginative. The present movie was completely passed over by the Academy Awards.
How I felt about it. An otherwise knowledgeable movie maven once told me that there is no such thing as a great animated film. Of course, this is nonsense, since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Dumbo rank among the best feature films ever made. Animation has important advantages over live action. For example, live action is constrained by the high budget required to produce the fantastic sets, creatures, and action readily obtained via computer generated animation. It is also easier to create intense color schemes.
Best of all, animated characters don't age, a fact that has allowed "The Simpsons" to remain on the air these past twenty years. The stasis of characters also came in handy when the production of Meet the Robinsons dragged on long enough to require young Jordan Fry to replace Daniel Hansen as the voice of the prepubescent lead. Aging quickly kills real-life film franchises starring children or teens, such as The Karate Kid and Home Alone.
But back to Meet the Robinsons. The film works because the story and characters come together. The revelation of the identity of the Bowler Hat Guy is more rewarding than that of Luke Skywalker's dad, and it immediately turns an ordinary villain caricature into a much more sympathetic figure. Similarly, the relationship of Lewis to the zany Robinsons proves to be more than that of Alice to Wonderland. And it all comes about for a single, simple reason: Wilbur wants to get out of trouble for leaving the garage door unlocked.