Meet the Robinsons (2007)

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	Menu Animation & Audio Deleted Scenes Music Video-X 2 Game Featurette-Making Of-Meet The Robinsons Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Keep Moving Forward Audio Commentary-Director
Rating
Year Of Production	2007
Running Time	90:47
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (48:46)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Stephen J. Anderson
Studio Distributor	Disney Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.	Starring	Angela Bassett Daniel Hansen Jordan Fry Matthew Josten John H. H. Ford Dara McGarry Tom Kenny Laurie Metcalf Don Hall Paul Butcher Tracey Miller-Zarneke Wesley Singerman Jessie Flower
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Danny Elfman Rufus Wainwright Jen Rudin

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Czech Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Slovak Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired Czech Hungarian Slovak	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

"Keep Moving Forward"

    The box office has been flooded in recent years with animated children's films which has produced quite a few classics, lots of good films, more than a few quite average efforts and a small number of gems which didn't hit the monetary heights of some lesser films. One example of this is Meet The Robinsons, which hit the cinemas earlier this year. It did not break the $100 million mark at the US Box Office, despite going close, and is so far holding the Number 2 slot for US G rated films released in 2007 (behind the over-hyped Ratatouille). It is a respectable Number 22 on the 2007 box office takings list in the US. I am not sure of the local box office numbers however it did not seem to stay in the cinemas very long. My young boys and I enjoyed this film very much, in fact, even one of the menu pages had my 3 year old cackling for 10 minutes or more just watching it repeat.

    The film follows the story of a twelve year old boy, Louis, who has grown up in an orphanage after being abandoned on the doorstep as a baby. He shares a room with Mike "Goob" Yagoobian, a fellow orphan. Louis has a very keen technical mind and spends his time trying to invent things to benefit the world. Unfortunately, not all of them are a success and he manages to scare off many potential adoptive parents with his madcap ideas. He yearns to discover who his mother was and tries to invent a machine to unlock his memories from when he was a baby. He plans to show this latest invention at the local science fair but something goes horribly wrong after he is warned by a strange kid that the 'bowler hat guy' is looking to steal his invention. The strange kid follows Louis and eventually introduces himself as Wilbur Robinson and says he is from the future. Louis, of course, doesn't believe him however soon changes his tune when Wilbur shows him his time machine and whisks him off to the future! Once they arrive, Louis quickly meets Wilbur's eccentric, wild, wacky and wonderful family, The Robinsons. There are about 12 or so of them; including a robot, Wilbur's parents, his mother's brothers and their children and other assorted relatives. They are all mad keen inventors who spend their whole time trying strange ideas, living together in a great big house. Wilbur's father, Cornelius, runs Robinson Enterprises a company which has invented most of the things in use in the world of the future. Louis quickly befriends the family and they offer to adopt him, however, a number of problems stand in the way including the bowler hat guy, a T-Rex (who gets the funniest line of the movie), remote controlled frogs (who also sing), meatball cannons, Grandpa's missing false teeth, a megalomaniac hat and intergalactic pizza delivery boys.

    Despite a slightly slow start, this is a good quality children's animated film which has an interesting science-fiction premise, excellent animation, good voice acting by a cast of mostly unknowns, some fun jokes and a light and friendly style. There is lots of fun and excitement for children and parents alike in this family-friendly film. It manages to have excellent warmth and heart without being cloying and sentimental. It has a good message about keeping on trying when something doesn't go right the first time, which is what the quote above refers to. It also has some nice quirkiness which also sets it apart from many other children's films. The story is based on a children's book called A Day in the life of Wilbur Robinson by William Joyce who also executive produces.

    Highly Recommended.

Video

    The video quality is excellent with only a couple of very minor blemishes.

    The feature is presented in a 1.80:1 aspect ratio, 16x9 enhanced, which is close to the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1.

    The picture was wonderfully clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise or grain of any description. The shadow detail was excellent.

    The colour was fantastic with incredible richness and depth of colour. There were no colour blemishes of any kind.

    I noticed two minor artefacts which were moire on a building at 24:32 and some very minor aliasing such as at 37:35.

    There are six sets of subtitles on this disc. Firstly there is an automatic English subtitle stream which is for onscreen captions and subtitles for the dinosaur. The others are English, English for the Hearing Impaired, Czech, Hungarian & Slovak.

    The layer change occurs at 48:46 and was not too obvious.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is very good.

    This DVD contains five audio options (not including commentaries); an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 384 Kb/s, an English Dolby Digital 2.0 Audio Descriptive soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s, and Czech, Hungarian & Slovak soundtracks in Dolby Digital 5.1 at 384 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was very clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The score by Danny Elfman is wonderful, highlighting the warm and playful tone of the film. It includes some jazzy sections and some choral work. Pop songs are also included by artists such as Rob Thomas and Rufus Wainwright.

    The surround speakers were used regularly for music, explosions, the baddie laughing and other directional effects along with lots of atmosphere.

    The subwoofer is also well used for explosions, crashes and the music.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The menu is preceded by Disney's fast play option which automatically plays the feature and some extras if nothing is done to stop it. This would be more useful if you didn't have to select a language first. Otherwise the menus were a lots of fun, featuring some animation not included in the film and lots of music and sound effects. According to what I read on retail sites there is supposed to be an Easter egg on this disc but I can't find it.

Menu

    The menu design is very good, simple to operate, uses the excellent score throughout (and not the same music on each screen either) and also provides disc indexes to ensure you don't miss anything. Excellent. The booklet in the case also gives information on the layout of the menus.

Deleted Scenes (6:55)

    This section includes three deleted scenes with director's introduction. 16x9 enhanced, Dolby Digital 2.0. They are:

• Arriving in the Future - A different version of Louis arriving in the future which actually explains Wilbur's father better.
• Meeting Carl - Different version of first meeting the robot.
• Bowler Hat Guy's Redemption - Alternate version which doesn't offer much.

Music & More

    Two video clips for songs in the movie. Non-16x9 enhanced widescreen:

• Little Wonders by Rob Thomas (3:48) 
• Kids of the Future by The Jonas Brothers (3:17)

Games & Activities - Family Function 5000 : Family Tree Game

    My four year old enjoyed this game, which requires you to answer a question by choosing the right family member. The pictures are a little small on a normal TV.

Backstage Disney

Inventing The Robinsons (17:13)

    Featurette about the production covering the source book, the director, the process story, characters, design, voice cast and music. Not bad. 16x9 enhanced.

Keep Moving Forward : Inventions that shaped the world (6:25)

    A short history of inventions aimed at kids. It includes lots of scenes from Disney productions and is a worthy extra.

Commentary with Director Stephen Anderson (and in character as Mike 'Goob' Yagoobian)

    A quality commentary which covers his personal link to the story, the development, casting and also some interjections by the character he voices in the film.

    The Region 1 version of this disc seems to be exactly the same as ours.

    The video quality is excellent with two very minor blemishes.

    The audio quality is very good.

    The disc has a good selection of quality extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall