Directed by: Stephen J. Anderson
Premise: An animated 3-D film. A twelve-year-old
orphan (voice of Jordan Fry) is taken on an adventure to the future and meets a
kooky family while being pursed through time by a mysterious figure (voice of
Stephen J. Anderson).
What Works: The theatrical presentation is in 3-D
and features a 3-D Donald Duck cartoon that has not been shown theatrically for
decades. Fans of Walt Disney animation may want to check out the film for this
reason.
What Doesn’t: Despite some visual flair, Meet
the Robinsons is not a very entertaining film. The gaudy backgrounds and
fast paced editing get very annoying and the humor of the picture is lame.
Adults will be very bored by the picture but children will probably not be that
entertained by it either. There is no story to speak of and the filmmakers
clearly had no intention of creating any coherent narrative, preferring instead
to string together camera tricks that are disconnected from each other and do
not add up to anything. Meet the Robinsons constantly cuts from one joke
to the other and from one nauseating shot to the next but the cumulative effect
is just numbing. The underwhelming quality of the picture is largely a result of
stealing so much from other films. Meet the Robinsons takes liberally
from the Star Wars prequels, The
Matrix, Blade
Runner, The
Incredibles, Robots, Back to the
Future, and Lost
in Space but it does not do anything interesting with these ideas or
images. The result is a film with lame jokes, obnoxious cinematography and
editing, and bunch of recycled content. On top of that, the 3-D effects are not
particularly good, as the imagery largely goes into the screen rather than
sticking out of it.
Bottom Line: Meet the Robinsons is a serious
let down. The only reason to see it would be the 3-D effects, since this is a
rare commodity outside of theme parks, but in its 2-D presentation, Meet the
Robinsons is largely a waste of time.