Meet the Robinsons (2007)

  Happy day-after-Memorial-Day!  This was supposed to go up yesterday but a candle gave me a migraine and that was that.  This was the Movie Club pick for the week, paired with Dumbo, and also one of Tyler's favorite Disney movies.  I had never seen it before.

Lewis (Daniel Hanson) is an orphan in search of a family.  He hopes one of his many inventions will either reunite him with the mother that gave him up for adoption or find him a new family but he can't seem to get any of them to work as intended.  His latest, a machine that images memories, is his entry at the science fair but sabotaged by a mysterious man in a bowler hat (Stephen J. Anderson).  Wilbur (Wesley Singerman), a well-coiffed stranger Lewis' age, tells Lewis that Bowler Hat Guy is from the future and it's vitally important that Lewis complete his Memory Scanner.  Lewis only hears the words "time machine," however, and badgers Wilbur into taking him to the future where he meets the Robinsons, Wilbur's family, and finally feels he might have a home.

I'm not going to hate on this too hard.  If you saw this as a kid (or an adult) and wished you too had a time machine so you could find a family that loved you, I'm not going to tell you you're wrong.  There is space for all kinds of movies and kids from broken homes need representation too.  

I will say that you can absolutely tell this was written and re-written and re-written by seven different screenwriters.  The message is increasingly muddled and threads are just left hanging, making it much harder to connect with the characters.  It desperately wants to be a cool, Atomic Age found family film but just manages to be a knock-off Back to the Future.  Not my favorite.

Unlike some recent releases, this is available to stream on Disney+.  Watch it while you can.