I Demand a Refund, I Never Met the Robinsons!

As is our wont, Stacy and I decided to take the girls to the latest Disney computer animated movie last week, Meet the Robinsons. The local theaters offered this one in Disney Digital 3D. Scarlett is a bit young to wear the glasses, so we dropped her off at a sitter. I love Scarlett, but it was a whole new experience going to a movie with the girls that are old enough to enjoy it.
I don’t go to these movies expecting to be blown away by their cinematic excellence, thought-provoking scripts, fantastic plots, or even special effect. I usually figure I’ll get a few laughs out of the jokes they put in for the adults and enjoy a night out with the family.

This movie made me cry. I ain’t too proud or ashamed to admit that touching moments in movies get me choked up. You give me a movie about a lonely orphan obsessed with finding his mom who “is the only person who wants me,” and is whisked to the future to meet the perfect family that actually wants him to stay, but then he finds out he is the family patriarch, so he has to go back to his dismal life at the orphanage until he makes his family the old-fashioned way, and I’m going to tear up a bit. Oops, spoiler alert.

Besides the frequent tear-jerking scenes, the movie entertained with plenty of frenetic action and visual gags. Mrs. Robinson’s singing frogs were great. Their leader, Franky, did a perfect impression of Old Blue Eyes right down to the questionable good fellas connection. Of course, there’s the T-Rex scene from the previews, still funny even after the pre-release trailer blitz.

I was surprised to hear Adam West’s voice, but amused to see him as a heroic pizza delivery uncle. I’m a fan of Harland Williams as a comedian, but the visuals of his robot character in the movie were too distracting to find his performance entertaining. The joke of having Cornelius voiced by Tom Selleck would be lost to anyone that hasn’t seen the movie, but it was funny. There were a few other real actors mixed in with the voice over artists, but none that really set themselves apart with fantastic (or dismal) performances.

As far as kids movies go, this was a good one. There is enough humor in it to keep adults interested, not to mention the complex concepts surrounding an orphan story. There is plenty of action, sight gags, and eye candy for the kids, too.

I give this one three out of four bowls of orphan soup on a scale I just made up that doesn’t mean anything.