Meet the Robinsons

***Meet the Robinsons*** is a 2007 American computer-animated science fiction comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures on March 30, 2007. The 47th Disney animated feature film, it was released in standard and Disney Digital 3-D versions. The film is loosely based on characters from the children's book *A Day with Wilbur Robinson*, by William Joyce. The voice cast includes Jordan Fry, Wesley Singerman, Harland Williams, Tom Kenny, Steve Anderson, Laurie Metcalf, Adam West, Tom Selleck, and Angela Bassett. It was the first film released after then-Pixar executive John Lasseter became chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios.

## Plot

Lewis is an aspiring 12-year-old inventor who grew up in an orphanage, whose inventions have been scaring off potential parents. He works all night on a machine to scan his memory to locate his birth mother, who abandoned him at the orphanage when he was a baby. While taking the scanner to his school's science fair, Lewis meets 13-year-old Wilbur Robinson, a mysterious boy claiming to be a time cop from the future. Wilbur needs to recover a time machine that a man wearing a bowler hat has stolen. Lewis tries to demonstrate the scanner, but it has been sabotaged by the Bowler Hat Guy and falls apart, throwing the science fair into chaos. Lewis leaves while the Bowler Hat Guy, with the help of a robotic bowler hat named Doris, repairs and steals the scanner.

Wilbur meets Lewis at the orphanage and asks him to repair the scanner. Lewis agrees to do so only if Wilbur can prove he is telling the truth, which Wilbur does by taking them to the year 2037 in a second time machine. When they arrive, he and Wilbur get into an argument and crash. Wilbur asks Lewis to fix the time machine, however Lewis realizing that he can simply use the time machine to see his mother instead has another condition: Wilbur has to take him to visit his mother afterwards. Reluctantly, Wilbur agrees and hides Lewis in the garage. Lewis does not stay there for long, however, and ends up meeting the rest of the Robinson family except for Cornelius, Wilbur's father, who is away on a business trip. Having followed Lewis, the Bowler Hat Guy and Doris try to kidnap him, but the Robinsons beat them back. The Robinsons offer to adopt Lewis, but change their mind when they learn that he is from the past. Wilbur admits to lying to Lewis about taking him back to see his mom, causing Lewis to run off in disgust.

Lewis then discovers that Cornelius Robinson is, in fact, a future version of himself, and Wilbur is his future son. Lewis also finds out that the Bowler Hat Guy is a grown-up version of Lewis' roommate, Michael "Goob" Yagoobian. Because he was kept awake by Lewis' work on the scanner, Goob fell asleep during an important Little League game and failed to make an important catch that cost the game. Goob became so bitter as a result that he was never adopted and remained in the orphanage long after it closed. Doris is "DOR-15", one of Lewis' failed and abandoned inventions. They both blamed Lewis for their misfortunes and decided to ruin his career by stealing the memory scanner and claiming credit for it. Leaving Lewis behind, they take off with the scanner, drastically altering the future to a world where Doris' clones have enslaved humanity. Lewis repairs the second time machine, confronts Doris and destroys her by promising to never invent her, restoring the future to its Utopian self. After persuasion from Lewis, Wilbur tries to ask the adult Goob to join the family, but he has disappeared, apparently ashamed by what he has done.

Back in Wilbur's time, Lewis finally meets Cornelius face to face. Cornelius explains how the memory scanner started their successful career, and persuades Lewis to return to the science fair. Wilbur takes Lewis back, but makes one stop first: as he promised, he takes Lewis back to the moment when his mother abandoned him. Though Lewis approaches his mother, he ultimately decides not to interact with her, realizing the family he will come to have with Wilbur and others.

Wilbur drops Lewis off in his own time and leaves. Lewis heads to the fair, but en route wakes up Goob just in time for him to make the winning catch. Back at the fair, Lewis asks for one more chance to demonstrate his scanner, which this time succeeds. He is adopted by Lucille, one of the science fair judges, and her husband Bud, who nicknames him "Cornelius" and takes him home.

The film ends with a quote which reiterates the message of not dwelling on failures and "keep moving forward", attributed to Walt Disney.

## Cast:

* Jordan Fry as Lewis
	+ Tom Selleck as Cornelius, Lewis' older self
* Wesley Singerman as Wilbur Robinson
* Steve Anderson as Bowler Hat Guy\*\*Matthew Josten as Michael "Goob" Yagoobian, Bowler Hat Guy's younger self
	+ Anderson also provided the voices of Grandpa Bud and Cousin Tallulah
* Harland Williams as Carl
* Nicole Sullivan as Franny Robinson
	+ Jessie Flower as young Franny
* Angela Bassett as Mildred
* Adam West as Uncle Art
* Laurie Metcalf as Lucille Krunklehorn
* Ethan Sandler as:
	+ DOR-15 (Doris)
	+ Uncle Fritz (and Aunt Petunia)
	+ Spike and Dimitri
	+ Cousin Laszlo
	+ The CEO of InventCo
* Don Hall as Uncle Gaston
	+ Hall also provided the voice of the Gym Coach
* Tom Kenny as Mr. Willerstein
* Kelly Hoover as Aunt Billie
* Tracey Miller-Zarneke as Lizzy
* Joe Mateo as Tiny the T-Rex
* Aurian Redson as Frankie the Frog
	+ Jamie Cullum as the singing voice of Frankie the Frog
* Paul Butcher as Stanley
* Dara McGarry as InventCo Receptionist, Mrs. Harrington
* John H. H. Ford as Mr. Harrington
* Nathan Greno as Lefty

## Production

Originally titled ''A Day with Wilbur Robinson'', production began in June 2004, and was scheduled for a 2006 release. While the film was in production, Disney announced on January 24, 2006 that it would be acquiring Pixar, and as a result, John Lasseter became the chief creative officer of both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. When he saw an early screening for the movie, he told the director Stephen Anderson that he did not find the villain scary or threatening enough, and suggested that he make some changes. Ten months later, almost 60% of the film had been scrapped and redone. The villain had improved and was given a new sidekick, a dinosaur chase had been added, and the ending was changed.