Popcorn: Meet the Robinsons

Last night I began working through my massive DVD pile, and Meet the Robinsons, the newest Disney opus, was on the top. I had wanted to see this in the spring when it was in theaters but that was pre-CI, and animated movies really didn't work so well (the characters' mouths often bear NO resemblance to words they are saying), so I waited for the DVD.

I am glad I finally saw this--it is awesome. Truly awesome. I liked it better than The Incredibles, and I really liked that one. This is up there with my top 5 favorite Disney movies, bar none.

The movie tells the story of a 12 year old boy named Lewis who was left at an orphanage as a baby. He spends most of his time creating inventions, which to the dismay of his roommate, Goob, and the potential parents that come to meet him (his inventions have a way of backfiring on him at inopportune moments).

Lewis's newest invention is the Memory Scanner--a device that allows you to "see what you've forgotten." He's hoping the scanner will help him recover the memory of his mother, who left him at the orphanage. Alas, at the fair, the machine is sabotaged and doesn't work.

Enter Wilbur, a kid from the future, who tells him that A Man In A Bowler Hat (yes, that is the character's name) is after Lewis's invention. Lewis is a bit skeptical that Wilbur is, indeed, from the future, so Wilbur takes him there. In the process, they break the time machine that Wilbur's dad invented. So now they have a broken time machine, the Bowler Hat Guy has the other one AND Lewis's invention, and there's going to be some problems with the space-time continuum (as Wilbur's robot buddy points out). So Wilbur has to get Lewis to fix the time machine (without anyone in his family finding out Wilbur took it in the first place, or that Lewis is from the past), get back to the Science Fair, get the Scanner, and stop Bowler Hat guy's evil plans (whatever they may be). Whew.

Wilbur's family, the Robinsons of the title, are, well, weird. The house has singing frogs, some sort of octopus as a butler, and twin cousins that live in flowerpots. Of course, Lewis meets the entire family, and they do discover that he is from the past. So what now? And why does the Bowler Hat guy want Lewis's machine anyway?

I'm going to leave it there, because all these questions are answered much better in the film. :) Great dialogue, funny characters, and best of all, it's a really sweet movie. I absolutely loved the ending. If you haven't seen this, get thee to a video store or Best Buy and pick it up.