Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Meet the Robinsons Blu-ray Movie Review

An enjoyable adventure marks an important régime change at the Walt Disney Studios.

Reviewed by Lindsay Mayer December 12, 2007

Common filmmaking practice would dictate that producing a film in a haphazard patchwork is not prudent. It's expensive, creates continuity issues, reduces morale in the crew - all manner of problems can come cropping up if you don't have solid preproduction material.

The Disney animation studios of the Michael Eisner era were particularly notorious for their major film production overhauls, oftentimes for the worse. But with the ousting of Eisner, and the insertion of creative heads like John Lasseter and Ed Catmull - men who possess a real appreciation of the art and the studio's legacy - a change in business has been swift and immediate. Meet the Robinsons is a direct result of that corporate "changing of the guard." In production at the time, the film was a mess, micromanaged beyond a semblance of a good story. Lasseter reined Robinsons in and performed a good deal of damage control in order to salvage the film and convert it into something a pinch more intelligent.

Thus, a Tyrannosaur was added, the Bowler Hat Guy was significantly tweaked, and a hat was bolstered as a villainous character, among other changes. Such piecemeal treatment would have palpably degraded the flow of most other films, but not so with Meet the Robinsons. From its literary source material on upwards, the titular characters are so exceedingly insouciant, random, and offbeat, that any whacky additions or omissions thereof fit perfectly within the film's whimsical boundaries.

To... the future! *whoosh*

The story itself is fairly straightforward, even though it does not progress in a linear fashion. 12 year old Lewis is a child prodigy who resides in an orphanage, abandoned there by his mother when he was a baby. Plagued by one unsuccessful adoption interview after another, the avid inventor concludes that his mother was the only person who ever wanted him; she merely did not have the means to care for him at the time. This leads Lewis to build a homemade memory scanning device after exhaustive research. Before he can properly demonstrate its capabilities, however, the scanner is stolen by a mysterious man in a bowler hat, hotly pursued by Wilbur, a brazen youth about Lewis' age.

As extraordinary a development as it is, Lewis discovers Wilbur is from the future, and is traveling through time attempting to capture the Bowler Hat Guy and reclaim his father's stolen time machine. Lewis is pulled thirty years into the future, where all architecture sports rounded edges and the landscape looks like a Windows XP 'Bliss' wallpaper image. Lewis incidentally runs into the rest of the Robinson family, a motley collection of eccentric, carefree individuals that welcome Lewis warmly into their home. Lewis almost gives up the search for his mother in favor of staying with this odd, but loving family. The plot takes a twist, however, and the Bowler Hat Guy's nefarious plans still must be foiled in order to set straight the sequence of events in history that have been altered by actions large and small.

Meet the Robinsons Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Being a Disney Blu-ray Disc, Meet the Robinsons boasts incredible picture. With an AVC encode that ranges between 15 and 35 Mbps, the attention to detail and shot composition is astounding. The utilization of lighting and color palettes is especially noticeable. The muted earth tones of present day, the golden glow of the sunlight in a hallway, the steely harsh reds of a grim alternate future. Wilbur Robinson's Technicolor future pops off the screen, exuding bright optimism at every corner. Environment and prop textures stay unflinchingly true to the digital source; every scale on the Tyrannosaur or leaves of the topiaries can be singled out. Even the Bowler Hat Guy's long grimy teeth and oily, receding hairline induce winces upon sight!

Meet the Robinsons Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Meet the Robinsons' multiple language tracks do not disappoint. The disc features both English uncompressed PCM 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. French and Spanish tracks are provided in Dolby Digital 5.1, in addition. The PCM track does an excellent job featuring the playful Looney Tune-esque score, commenting on the onscreen action as composer Danny Elfman emulates Carl Stalling. The sound mixes are fantastic, as well; from the high mechanical bleeps of DOR15 the disgruntled Helping Hat to the low rumblings of Tiny the Tyrannosaur. The French and Spanish Dolby Digital mixes are just as well-produced, and a well-appreciated addition, besides. Disney has a generally good track record of including equal French and Spanish tracks on their DVD releases, when one or the other is often omitted from many other discs. That these Blu-ray tracks are both 5.1 mixes makes the film experience even more enjoyable, and a suitable compromise betwixt uncompressed and 2.0 stereo.

Meet the Robinsons Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The extra features are rather standard fare for a Disney Blu-ray; nothing too extravagant and in-depth, but not barebones either. Deleted scenes show a glimpse the former iteration of Robinsons, like an alternate ending that was less than gimpy. A standard definition feature titled "Inventions That Shaped the World" looks at a few broad-reaching devices that have influenced human culture, like Gutenberg's printing press, Edison's light bulb, and television. Two music videos from Rob Thomas and the Jonas Brothers are included, though it would have been more of a point of interest if they were included in high definition. Rather, both are presented in 480i standard. The Bowler Hat Barrage, a target shot game, and Family Function 5000, which relies on your memorization abilities, are mildly amusing, but of course I am not the intended audience for said trivialities, so I am rather impartial to that whole affair.

Among the best extras are the Inventing the Robinsons featurette, filmed in 1080p, and the director's commentary. The former is an informative and concise look at the film's production, yet given the facelift the film had undergone rather late in production, it's a bit disappointing that the crew did not discuss that aspect more candidly. Director Stephen Anderson gives a fairly good commentary, keeping the "it was a privilege to work with so-and-so" anecdotes to a tolerable level. When DOR15 and the Bowler Hat Guy "pirate" Anderson's audio signal three times during the course of the commentary, it's fairly amusing, but little more than a novel joke. The director also discusses at length his connection to the film's story and its protagonist, as Anderson was an adopted child as well; he shared Lewis' desire to search for his birth mother from a young age. He also sheds a bit of light on the film's ultimate message, "keep moving forward," its connection with the Disney studios' past and its optimistic motto for the things to come.

Meet the Robinsons Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As a Blu-ray Disc, Meet the Robinsons is top-notch; an entertaining film, superb picture and sound, and well-rounded extras. But Robinsons is a special film to me because, as a fan of animation and of Disney history, the film acts as a symbolic gateway to the wonderful things to come at a studio awakening from a painful creative dormancy. Small details that accompany the film's major production overhaul are testament to this. The film is bookended with loving touches - a new "Walt Disney Animation Studios" logo at the start depicting a Mickey Mouse moving from drawn pencil images to full animation in the classic short Steamboat Willie, and a quote from Walt himself shown at film's end before the credits roll. During Robinsons' theatrical release, the film was preceded by classic Disney shorts - Boat Builders for the normal screenings, and Working for Peanuts for the digital 3D screenings. This small touch demonstrates a respect even for the animated shorts program of yesteryear, when new animators could flex their artistic muscles; many new shorts are soon to come from the studio for upcoming theatrical releases.

Small changes - little things to shape the future. Regarding the past with respect, learning from it, but not dwelling in it. No, we must keep moving forward. These are the lessons learned from Meet the Robinsons, embraced by the present day Disney Studios, and projected as a philosophy for all to abide in the lifetime ahead of us. I, for one, will gladly be part of it.