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Techtite's DVD Reviews! |
"A cute family movie whose only major flaw is its poorly chosen title, and an equally poor publicity campaign." --from the review ------------- Sidebar :: ------------- No sidebar comments for this review. Yet... ...
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Meet The Robinsons
Click pictures to order either version of the movie. A Review by TechtiteAs always, a review of The Film and the DVD extras. The Film Review: If you love Disney movies, this much can be said: Meet the Robinsons is, without a doubt, one of the finest Disney animated works in years. Not that the "professional" (cough, cough) critics agree with me. "This thing is one bumpy ride," claims Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly. A.O. Scott from the New York Times grumbled that this was "one of the worst [Disney] theatrically released animated features...in quite some time." Did we see the same movie? Did they even see this movie? What really sets this Disney film apart from its predecessors, is how it deals with a very sensitive subject to some kids: adoption. Yet it does so in such a way that any typical kid (or adult who remembers their childhood well) can relate to. The fact is: Lewis, the lead character of the movie, just wants to fit in. As a young baby, Lewis was put on the front doorstep of an orphanage. Now a young boy, he is just about to have well over his hundredth interview with potential foster parents...to no avail. Why? Because, to be blunt, he isn't "normal" ...whatever defines "normal" in modern pop culture these days. Anyone who has had trouble fitting in can relate to Lewis. The movie picks up around the time Lewis has given up on finding "new" parents. Instead, Lewis (who is a bit of a child genius) sets out to create the ultimate invention. This invention is "ultimate" indeed, because no less than two people from the future come to the past looking for it. One is there to protect Lewis: the other is there to, well...not. The latter breaks his time machine escaping from the former, which inevitably strands Lewis in the future. His first mission is to get back to the present. His second is to figure out why these future folk are so interested in his seemingly obscure science fair gadget... It's the futuristic part of Meet the Robinsons that gave the film its namesake. It's not only imaginative, it is one-hundred-and-ten percent Disney, with an exciting, colorful view of the future that I've waited to see in movies for decades. For years now, we've had a "post apocalypse" view of the future in movies, and I say: enough. Even Blade Runner, while a dark view of the future, was still filled with cool flying cars and vibrant technological imagination. Whatever happened to imaginative views of the future, and not all this "Mad Max" rubbish? That, in G-rated form, is what this view of the future is, complete with exotic buildings and flying cars and "toy trains" the size of a house. It is also, without a doubt, the best part of the movie. You may wonder why they don't just go to the time machine repair shop and send Lewis home. Well, that's the problem: the time stream can't be affected too much, so Wilber says Lewis must stay in the garage as repairs to the time machine are finished. Of course, yadda yadda yadda, Lewis gets swept up in a travel tube and meets Wilber's family, The Robinsons. Some critics say that this family is crazy. Frankly: some critics don't get it. Lewis' "perfect" family is not a bunch of rubber stamp rejects from a Rockwell painting. He is a free thinker who needs a family that's willing to think outside the box. While the Robinsons are one part Addams Family and two parts Jetsons; that's the perfect family for Lewis. They're quirky, though they're fun, and they're happy. In fact; after hearing Lewis is an orphan; they want him to stay! Yet what can be done when they find out his importance in history...and must send him home? It's here where I must remind you: this is a Disney movie. So yeah; the villain is funny looking. In fact; he's in a bowler hat. Why? Without giving any spoilers, suffice to say that this guy is a loser, if just because he stopped dreaming and started just being mad at everything. He feels that Lewis' invention will be his ticket to a dream future, even if that dream is someone else's. While this is hardly a villain similar to Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty, be forewarned: mild spoiler notwithstanding, the alternate future this idiot creates is not pretty, so anyone who says the "villainy" of this film is too jovial has, quite frankly, not seen this movie. That's my opinion, and I stand by it. It's the morals that sells any Disney movie. I like how this movie's message is to keep a positive attitude and if yesterday was bleak, keep looking ahead. Tomorrow is another day. Within this core message is a nice tale of "fitting in" that will really tug on the heartstrings of not just adopted kids, though anyone who had trouble being part of a group and happy at the same time. How did only 65% of all professional critics "get" this movie? I'm still wondering if they even saw it. If anyone didn't like this movie, they're a lightweight who cruised through school kissing serious tush to fit in. That sort of person won't "get" this movie. Apparently; that sort of person is now a movie critic. Lucky us, eh? To be fair, however; this film is hardly flawless. I loved it, mind you, though no it isn't flawless. For one thing there isn't nearly enough of a view of the future than one would want. As Lewis flies quickly through this future, we see such vibrant images of it that we only want to see more. We later see The Robinsons, who are imaginative and hardly boring, though I'd love to have seen more of the outside world as well. This would've also been good to the story, since when this future is altered, the emotional effect would've been even stronger. My nephew also voiced a slight grievance that the "T-Rex" scene shown in the trailers really doesn't last long at all. Not that this should matter to all kids, or even any adults, though it's worth mentioning as one viewer's (slight) grievance with this movie. He still said he'd give the film "four out of five stars," though, so we're in total agreement. As a parting thought, keep in mind that this is not the rant of a Disney fanboy, by any means. I love quality Disney fare, though to be honest, "quality" has been questionable in Disney animation lately. I really was not terribly impressed with Chicken Little, nor, to be candid, Pixar's Cars. I adored The Incredibles, though largely because I was a comic book fan in my youth, and a computer animated superhero cartoon was a brilliant idea. In this film's case, I simply love time travel stories; particularly ones that forgo the "future is set" nonsense and keep a positive attitude about the future. After all; if the future was so horribly bleak, why is everyone so forward to see what the future holds for us?
The DVD/Blu-Ray Extras: The good news for high definition fans is how the DVD extras, unlike many earlier Blu-Ray discs, are not a DVD-only option. In fact; the Blu-Ray disc, being several times larger in size, has even more features, which I'll mention later. So: if you often buy the DVD version just for the bonus features, keep in mind that in this rare case the Blu-Ray edition has more extras. The audio commentary by director Stephen Anderson is worth listening to, if you usually overlook such commentary tracks. Call it the nature of the story ---of a boy seeing his future--- though with the added commentary track, along with the particular voice of the director, the whole experience felt like an episode of The Wonder Years, or the typical child's story narrated by an adult. I like it when audio commentaries have an entertainment value above simnply "why I did this scene in that way." The obligatory behind the scenes featurette is just the right length at 18 minutes. An additional video clip is a short piece called "Inventions that Shaped the World," plus two music videos of the film's biggest songs, and an interactive game, "Family Function 5000," which seems to have been made with an older gamer in mind, so be ready to play it along with your much younger kids, so they don't get too frustrated. Aside from the obligatory trailers and whatnot, that leaves the deleted scenes. Let's start with the three deleted scenes offered on both the DVD and Blu-Ray editions. This trilogy of scenes were scrapped long before they could be produced, so you have to enjoy only the storyboards of such scenes. Director commentary explains the reasoning towards the scene, and each scenes eventual deletion. Now for the Blu-Ray extras. To be honest this is more of a "anything extra is good" affair, since the three additional deleted scenes are similarly deleted during the storyboard stage, so it's mostly just a slide show of what-might-have-been in alternate scene ideas. In addition is a sort of Bowler Hat target game, which should look familiar to anyone who played the video game based on the movie (which, in case you were wondering, really isn't that bad, especially if you loved the movie).
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