Meet the Robinsons: Movie Review, DVD Review, Blu-ray Disc Review (2007)

Where would Disney be without its orphans, those who long for a family they either lost or never had? Up the creek, likely.

Still, while it might seem cliched at this point that the studio still is manufacturing films with those very storylines, their latest animated tale, "Meet the Robinsons," once again proves they know how to do formula right.

In "Robinsons," a 12-year-old boy named Lewis (voice of Daniel Hansen) is saved from an uncertain future at the hands of one sinister-looking villain when into his life comes Wilbur Robinson (Wesley Singerman), a boy with time machine who snatches Lewis into the future, where he meets Wilbur's eccentric family.

Though Lewis would prefer to travel back into the past to face the mother who abandoned him, he is at the mercy of the plot, which has a point to underscore--keep moving forward, kids, don't look back--and where it takes him is to a new level of understanding.

The pacing is problematic--it's an uneven, scattershot rush--but the film rarely is dull and the retro-looking animation favorably recalls "The Incredibles."

Rated G. Grade: B