Meet the Robinsons (Dvd) - Family Ski Trip

The wasteland of children’s cinema these days is immense. Strewn about this vast dessert are great production companies whose animation heyday seems ions ago. Children’s movies now consist of four or five trite staples that can be seen a mile away. To list a few: The spunky, dare I say gay (though a children’s movie would never admit such a thing!) sidekick, a villain whose motives seems questionable at best, a second spunky, dare I day black, sidekick (usually voiced by Wanda Sykes), toss in some funky fresh references to pop culture and you got yourself a hit. Maybe I’m nostalgic in thinking children’s movies when I was a child were inventive, thought provoking, and unique. Honey I Shrunk the Kids (1989)? All Dogs go to Heaven(1989)? Not to mention all of the now classic Disney musicals! I’ve read that when I was a child it was Disney’s golden age. Beauty and the Beast (1991), Little Mermaid (1989), Lion King (1994), Aladdin (1992), need I go on? Have you seen a recent children’s movie? Barnyard (2006), Chicken Little (2005), Happy Feet (2006) They are train wrecks. I hardly waste my time.

[This diatribe disregards Pixar. I have no beef with them and think nothing but great things about all their movies, save Cars (2006).]

Meet the Robinsons certainly isn’t perfect, but it has a lot more going on than Everyone’s Hero (2006) or Flushed Away (2006). The story is a well crafted, for children, mystery. They drop hints that any adult could figure out, but I can picture children having a blast trying to connect all the pieces. The dialog is truly funny. I laughed out loud several times, and was repeating lines after the movie. The characters were well constructed and humorous, especially the villain, though I thought the protagonist was never a fully realized character, just a camera for us to view the events that transpired. This isn’t to say the movie didn’t have its faults. The chase sequence seemed to be an excuse thrown in at the last second for the video game. The crazy family was a bit much; they could have toned it down a bit. But largely this movie was great fun to watch. I didn’t mind the moral ending; adopted kids can be well rounded successes! And the soundtrack wasn’t even that bad. It certainly aint no Flight of the Navigator (1986), but it has its moments.

6 out of 10: Won’t bring you your childhood back, but you will be laughing. Oh, and watch for the villain’s reveal.