Title: Meet The Robinsons Director: Stephen J. Anderson Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Studio: Walt Disney Pictures Genre(s): Comedy Rated:         Buy From Amazon.com: COMING SOON

CONSUMER ADVICE

Parents, there is nothing offensive in this film. Recommended for all ages.

With Disney having pioneered animation in almost every form we can imagine, it's kind of amazing that for the past several years animated movies with the Disney logo on them have been pretty lame (save for the movies that also have the Pixar logo on them). "Home On The Range" was a weak way to end the legacy of hand drawn animated films (it felt like a direct-to-video film), and "Chicken Little" felt like it was made by a bunch of marketers. And considering that Disney's competition has been churning out high quality films like "Happy Feet," "Shrek," "Monster House," and "Curious George," what Disney really needs is a movie to show people that they can still make entertaining movies that can be considered classics. Alas, "Meet The Robisons"is not a classic movie, but it is an entertaining one...for the most part.

The movie opens with a hooded mother abandoning a baby on the doorsteps to an orphanage on a cold, rainy night. The boy is named Lewis, and by the age of twelve he's a genious inventor. His inventions don't always work, but he takes pride in them. So much pride, in fact, that when he goes to interviews to hopefully be adopted, he shows off his inventions to hopeful parents. To his great disapointment though, almost none of these inventions work, and when a memory retrieving machine goes haywire at the science fair Lewis decides he wants to call it quits. Then, from out of nowhere, a boy named Wilber Robison grabs Lewis and takes him to the future (mainly to prove to Lewis that, yes, he IS from the future). Lewis then finds himself in a future where people travel by bubbles, frogs sing, and Tomorrowland is now called Todayland.

It's the kind of future that presents fun ideas and wild gizmos, something Walt Disney himself was quite good at imagining when he was alive. This is where the movie takes a turn for the worst, as it throws us into situations that make little to no sense, but also move so fast and jerky that I doubt people with A.D.D. will be able to fully follow it all. This is where we meet the Robisons, who are all quirky and wacky, but lack any real substance to them. One character who does provide some fun is the evil Bowler Hat Guy (no, I'm not kidding, that's his REAL name). Bowler Hat Guy has an evil scheme, which is to go back in time and steal Lewis's science fair project invention, and...you know, it just accured to me that I'm feeling a bit nostalgic for when Disney made REAL villains! When was the last time there was a really real bad guy in a Disney film?

Alameda Slim from "Home On The Range" yodeled to steal cows. There was no villain in "Chicken Little." I don't think Yzma from "The Emperor's New Groove" counts. Now we have Bowler Hat Guy, a bad guys who's major traits are laughing like a maniac and doodling in his pink unicorn notebook. Still, I have to confess, Bowler Hat Guy ends up being the most interesting character in this movie. Despite the fact that he's a flamboyant freak, he does have a identifiable personality, a history, and reason behind his motivations. His sidekick, a robotic hat named Doris, also has more personality then any of the Robison family members. The problems with this movie are very apparent. Based off the book "A Day With Wilbur Robison," the movie tries to make the entire Robison family a major player while having no idea what to do with them.

Lewis, Wilbur Robison, and Bowler Hat Guy are the only characters that do anything of significance in this movie. The whole middle section of the movie is just a bunch of random jokes and visual gags, all of which have nothing to do with the storyline at all. What does work is a very strong opening, giving us a reason to like Lewis and care about him, followed by a very strong ending. The ending in particular is going to have people talking, as it's predictable what's going to happen (considering there's a message about looking towards the future that is rammed into your head throughout the film), but I find it interesting Disney chose to go in that direction in the first place.

With "Chicken Little" Disney lost the game do to a major strike out. With "Meet The Robisons" Disney has won the game and made a fairly entertaining movie, but it's no home run. Let's just say it's more like a couple of good hits that results in a winning game, but the middle part of the game is a bit of a drag.  On a final note, I noticed during the credits that seven people worked on the screenplay.  If ever there was an example of too many cooks being in the kitchen, this is it.