Meet the Robinsons (2007)
Loosely based on the 1990 children’s book A Day with Wilbur Robinson by William Joyce.
A women leaves a young baby in front of Sixth Street Orphanage. 12 years later and having grown up in the orphanage, Lewis is now an aspiring 12-year-old inventor. His energy and eccentricity have been scaring off potential parents (124 times to be exact). After a discussion with Mildred, the head of the orphanage, he decides to work on a machine to scan his memory to locate his birth mother, with the reluctant help of his roommate Michael “Goob” Yagoobian (“Another Believer”).
While taking the scanner to his school's science fair, Lewis meets 13-year-old Wilbur Robinson, a mysterious boy claiming to be a time cop from the future. Wilbur needs to recover a time machine that a man wearing a bowler hat has stolen. Lewis tries to demonstrate the scanner, but it has been sabotaged by “Bowler Hat Guy” and falls apart, throwing the science fair into chaos. Lewis leaves while the Bowler Hat Guy, with the help of his robotic bowler hat named Doris, steals the scanner, and unsuccessfully passes it off as his own to an invention corporation, destroying the scanner in the process.
Wilbur meets Lewis at the orphanage and asks him to repair the scanner. Lewis demands proof that Wilbur is telling the truth. Wilbur does so by taking them in a second time machine to the year 2037, which is highly advanced technologically (“The Future Has Arrived”). When they arrive, Lewis realizes he can simply use the time machine to meet his mother; the resulting argument makes them crash. Wilbur asks Lewis to fix the time machine, and Lewis agrees on the condition that Wilbur has to take him to visit his mother afterwards. Reluctantly, Wilbur agrees and hides Lewis in the garage. Lewis accidentally leaves, however, and ends up meeting the rest of the Robinson family including Wilbur’s mother who conducts a band of frogs (“Where Is Your Heart At?”). He does not get to meet Cornelius, Wilbur's father and the inventor of the time's technologies, who is away on a business trip.
Lewis attempts to fix the time machine but fails; Mrs. Robinson calls them up for lunch (“Give Me The Simple Life”). Having followed Lewis so he can fix the broken memory scanner, the Bowler Hat Guy and Doris try to kidnap him. Lewis attempts to fix a PB&J gun that he had also attempted to create previously but it fails, however the Robinsons encourage him, quoting Mr. Robinson’s famous motto “Keep Moving Forward”. Suddenly a dinosaur from the past, being controlled via a mini-Doris by Bowler Hat Guy, attempts to kidnap Lewis but Lewis and the Robinsons beat it back and free it from Bowler Hat Guy’s control. The Robinsons offer to adopt Lewis, but change their mind when they see his distinct hair and learn that he is from the past. Wilbur admits to lying to Lewis about taking him back to see his mom, causing Lewis to run off in disgust.
The Bowler Hat Guy and Doris approach Lewis, and offer to take him to his mother if he fixes the memory scanner. Once he does, they betray him and tie him up. The Bowler Hat Guy reveals that Cornelius Robinson is, in fact, Lewis's future self, and that he himself is an adult version of Lewis's roommate, Michael "Goob" Yagoobian. Because he was kept awake by Lewis's work on the scanner, Goob fell asleep during a Little League baseball game and failed to make an important catch, costing his team the championship. Goob became so withdrawn and bitter that he was never adopted and remained in the orphanage long after it closed. Doris is "DOR-15", one of Lewis's failed and abandoned inventions. They both blamed Lewis for their misfortunes and decided to ruin his life. Leaving Lewis in the future, they return to the past and enact their plan. However, it is revealed that Doris tricked everyone; once mass-produced, the Doris hats dispose of Goob and enslave humanity. Lewis repairs the second time machine, confronts Doris in the past, and destroys her by promising to never invent her, restoring the future to its utopian state. Wilbur tries to ask the adult Goob to join the family, but he has fled in remorse.
Back in Wilbur's time, Lewis finally meets Cornelius face to face. Cornelius explains how the memory scanner started their successful career, and persuades Lewis to return to the science fair. Wilbur takes Lewis back, but makes one stop first: as he promised, he takes Lewis back to see the moment when his mother abandoned him. Lewis nearly taps his mother's shoulder, but stops himself and leaves with Wilbur.
Wilbur drops Lewis off in his own time and leaves. Lewis heads to the fair, en route waking up Goob just in time for him to make the winning catch, and Goob is adopted later that day. Back at the fair, Lewis asks for one more chance to demonstrate his scanner, which this time succeeds. Lewis is adopted by Lucille, one of the science fair judges, and her husband Bud, who nicknames him "Cornelius" and takes him home. Lewis also meets another student at the fair who’s science project involves frogs, which turns out to be Cornelius’ future wife (“Little Wonders”).
The film ends with a quote which reiterates the message of not dwelling on failures and "keep moving forward", attributed to Walt Disney.
TRIVIA
Visual Style
The designs of the characters were inspired by Pixar’s The Incredibles.
The studio planned to adapt William Joyce's style to the film, but due to his involvement stylistically in Blue Sky Studios' Robots, the style was slightly reworked. While still taking cues from his retro style, influenced by everything from Technicolor movies to '40s architectural design, the crew also took inspiration from the company Apple.
Many of the inventions of the future look like Tomorrowland attractions.
Music
The soundtrack includes four original songs written for the film by various popular artists.