It’s the future of family, the tagline tells us, and it’s naturally not meant to be taken literally. The Robinsons are a collection of child-like adults embodying gags more than anything else. I suppose the message is that no matter how different or strange, family should take you as you are and support you unconditionally. Less preachy is the often moving plot of an orphan named Lewis whose genius for inventing scares off prospective adoptive parents, offering a lesson in perseverance and keeping one’s eyes forward. Into Lewis’ frustrated attempt to win a science fair comes Wilbur Robinson, a kid from the future who brings Lewis forward in time in an attempt to foil the time-traveling interference of the aforementioned villain and his sentient bowler hat. (Yes, the bowler hat is a character, too.) Nestled beneath the familiar paradox-inducing clichés of a time-travel plot, there’s a sweet (albeit highly predictable) story, but somehow in all the film’s noise it doesn’t come across as strongly as a similarly affecting story in last year’s “Monster House.”
Maybe it’s just that “Meet the Robinsons” doesn’t have wink, wink, nudge, nudge in-jokes for adults. Or, maybe the film lacks that certain complexity and richness of character that makes a film stand out as more than a tasty lollipop. Or maybe it’s just that the film’s novelty is only novel to people who haven’t seen “Back to the Future,” just about every Disney movie previously released, and so on. Either way, the film’s brassy charm is dulled by familiarity. Perhaps the film needed to take its own advice and “keep moving forward” instead of looking back to stories and jokes already done.
Meet the Robinsons. Directed by Stephen J. Anderson. Written by Michelle Bochner and Daniel Gerson. Based on the book A Day with Wilbur Robinson by William Joyce. 102 minutes. With the voices of Tom Selleck, Lucille Krunklehorn, Laurie Metcalf, Angela Bassett, Nicole Sullivan, Adam West, Harland Williams, Tom Kenny, Jordan Fry.