Meet the Robinsons

Meet the Robinsons is a computer-animated 2007 film and the 47th animated feature produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. This is the first Disney Film produced under the new Walt Disney Animation Studios, which was created after the agreement with Pixar expired.

In the United Kingdom, the 3D version was released on March 23, 2007. It was released in standard and Disney Digital 3-D versions in the United States and in its standard version in the UK on March 30, 2007. The film is based on the book A Day with Wilbur Robinson, by William Joyce. The film originally had the same title as the book. The voice cast includes Jordan Fry, Harland Williams, Tom Kenny, Steve Anderson, Adam West, Tom Selleck & Angela Bassett. The film was rated G by the MPAA. It was released on DVD-Video and Blu-ray on October 23, 2007.

Plot

The film begins showing a young woman leaving her baby boy on the steps of an orphanage. Twelve years later, this boy, called Lewis (Daniel Hansen and Jordan Fry), is an aspiring inventor. He has yet to be adopted and fears that he never will be. Convinced that his birth mother will want him, he attempts to invent a memory-scanning machine that will allow him to remember his mother in the hopes that he can find her. His roommate, Mike Yagoobian (Goob) (Matthew Josten), becomes his assistant during long hours of building, which causes Goob's Little League baseball team's performance to suffer.

At Lewis' school science fair, Lewis is approached by a thirteen-year-old boy named Wilbur Robinson (Wesley Singerman), who claims to be a "time cop" from the future and that a man wearing a bowler hat has stolen a time machine that Wilbur wishes to recapture. The sinister 'Bowler Hat Guy' (Stephen Anderson), sends Doris (Ethan Sandler), a robotic hat with mechanical arms, to sabotage Lewis' memory-scanner. As Lewis begins demonstrating the use of his machine, it explodes, throwing the science fair into chaos. Lewis runs out, and the Bowler Hat Guy steals his unattended memory scanner.

Wilbur tells Lewis to go back to the science fair and fix the machine. Lewis agrees to fix his memory scanner, under the condition that Wilbur proves he is from the future. Wilbur then takes Lewis to a flying time machine, and uses it to take them to the year 2037, thirty years forward. Meanwhile, Goob is visited by the Bowler Hat Guy in his room, who is looking for Lewis. After Goob fell asleep (a result of his long hours of inventing with Lewis) and missed the winning catch, his team beat him up; the Bowler Hat Guy sympathizes with Goob and advises him to nurture whatever resentment he has against Lewis.

After giving Lewis a tour of the fantastical world of the future, Wilbur then intends to return Lewis to the science fair. Lewis, however, realizes he can use the time machine to go back and see his mother. Wilbur insists he go back to fix the memory scanner, and while arguing, Lewis and Wilbur crash the time machine. Wilbur asks Lewis to fix it, and Lewis agrees under the condition that Wilbur take him back to visit his mother afterwards. Wilbur tries to hide Lewis in the garage of his house, but Lewis accidentally activates the house's automated transportation system and meets Wilbur's grandfather, Bud (Steve Anderson). Bud takes Lewis on a tour of the house, during which Lewis meets the rest of the fun-loving and overly-eccentric Robinson family. Wilbur explains that his father, Cornelius, the only member of the Robinson family that Lewis did not meet, invented nearly all the futuristic inventions earlier seen, coining the motto "Keep moving forward".

Meanwhile, Bowler Hat Guy and Doris follow Wilbur and Lewis to the future and attempt to kidnap Lewis so he can repair the memory-scanning machine and show them how it works. The Bowler Hat Guy uses the time machine to bring a Tyrannosaurus nicknamed Tiny (Joe Mateo) to accomplish this but the Robinson family work together to foil the plan. Tiny is defeated by Lewis and Wilbur, seemingly cementing their friendship. The Robinsons offer to adopt Lewis but change their mind when they discover that he's from the past. Lewis runs away in misery after finding out Wilbur lied to him about going back to see his mom, and encounters the Bowler Hat Guy, who lures him into his time machine by promising to bring him to his mother.

At an abandoned orphanage, the Bowler Hat Guy reveals himself as an aged and deeply embittered Mike Yagoobian (Goob). He also reveals that Lewis is Cornelius Robinson, making Wilbur his son and the Robinsons his family. He tells Lewis that, having been kept awake all night by Lewis' inventing, Goob was unable to stay awake during the crucial baseball game and missed the winning catch, which he blames for a miserable life. He later met DOR-15 (Doris), a failed and abandoned invention of Cornelius'. They co-operate to steal the time machine and plotted to use it to capture and plagiarize Lewis' first famous invention, thus ruining HIS life and future.

Goob and Doris prepare to present the stolen invention to a corporation in Lewis' time. Wilbur and his robot Carl save Lewis and escape, but Doris retrieves the memory scanner and travels to the past with Goob. The scenery around Lewis and Wilbur (still in the future) darkens, and Wilbur vanishes into oblivion as history is being rewritten. Lewis enters the derelict house and discovers the memory-scanner in the garage. Viewing its records, he discovers that after mass-producing the memory-scanner, Goob also mass-produces Doris, whereupon the multitude of robotic hats took control of their wearers (something Goob hadn't planned). The Utopian future founded by Cornelius' inventions is replaced by a smog-darkened industrial empire where all humans are slaves to hats.

Pursued by an army of DOR-15 hats, Lewis manages to repair the time machine and uses it to go to the precise moment and location whereat Goob signs the contract at InventCo. Lewis causes Doris to disappear into oblivion by promising that he will never invent her. Lewis then shows Goob the bleak future Doris would have created, which is transformed before their eyes back into the Utopian future. After they land near the Robinson house, Wilbur is brought back into existence. Lewis gets Wilbur to offer for the Robinsons to adopt Goob(after he beat Goob up with karate),but Goob, ashamed of what he has done hides and then walks off uncertain of what to do.

Cornelius (Tom Selleck) appears back from his business trip and meets his younger self. Wilbur fulfills his promise to Lewis by visiting the moment at which his mother abandoned him. Lewis nearly interrupts her from leaving the infant "him", but stops, choosing his Robinson future over a childhood with his mother. Finally, Lewis returns to his own time and prevents Goob from becoming the Bowler Hat Guy by waking him up in time to catch the ball that wins him the game. Lewis then returns to the science fair and demonstrates his memory scanner on the science fair judge, Dr. Krunkelhorn (Laurie Metcalf), revealing that she is Wilbur's grandmother, Lucille. Lewis also meets a young Franny, and flirts with her briefly. Bud and Lucille adopt Lewis, who adopts the name Cornelius and sets to work building Carl in an observatory bought by Bud and Lucile which one day becomes the Robinson house. Just before Lewis/Cornelius drives off with Bud and Lucille, he turns around and waves at Goob, who is also leaving the orphanage with his own new family.

The film ends with a quotation from Walt Disney.

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