Taryn Aguilar
Staff Writer

Sticky floors and sticky little hands attached to little people yelling, “Mommy,” all around me sucked me back to my childhood, a time when the next Disney movie was the biggest event on my social calendar. "Meet the Robinsons" was this year’s big one, complete with imaginative characters, the best of computer animation and of course singing animals.

"Meet the Robinsons" tells the story of young genius Lewis, an orphan with an insatiable love of inventing new gadgets.  His latest invention is a memory scanner that he hopes will take him back to see the face of his birth mother, who left him at the orphanage when he was only a baby. 

Wilbur Robinson, a boy from the future, comes back in time to meet Lewis and he opens Lewis’ eyes to the idea of time travel and the family he’s always dreamed of, the Robinsons. The Robinsons are a large, quirky family who opens its big weird arms to Lewis and Lewis is more than happy to accept. 

Of course, there are obstacles, a.k.a. the ever-present villain played by the Bowler Hat Guy who tries his best, or rather worst, to ruin Lewis’ plans.

This movie, I believe, will be another huge hit for Disney and their computer animation effort.  The graphics were absolutely amazing with the way they make the characters so life-like and charismatic. 

The storyline makes you fall in love with the characters.  The eccentricities of each personality make every character more than a one-dimensional figure on the screen.  This is probably helped out by the fact that the film was shown in 3-D.

Wearing the funny 3-D glasses and being surrounded by families with children ranging from 3 to 10, made me feel like, well, a kid again.  Perhaps I’m just a softy for orphan kids, singing frogs, and dinosaurs with a “big head and little arms,” but I enjoyed this movie like any other big kid would. 

There were things about the film that would entertain any member of the family.  The adults will enjoy the sneaky adult innuendos tossed in places that go over the heads of children.  The children will of course love the flying cars of the future, the singing frogs, and funny voices.

Even the moodiest of teenagers would love the overall fun, fast-paced nature of the movie.  It truly was one for the whole family to enjoy.

The movie is reminiscent of Tomorrowland, as in the futuristic part of Disneyland.  The animators had their work cut out for them with this sci-fi world with amazing colors, design, and swift movement.  This computer animated film seems to put all others before it to rest with its innovative techniques and aesthetically pleasing make-up.

The movie was quick and complicated at times, with the time shifting from future to present and back again.  I can see a lot of children not entirely understanding the whole movie but I don’t think that will be a factor of their enjoyment and Disney will keep “moving on.”  The film even ends with a promising quote from Walt Disney, “Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long.  We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things…and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

Taryn Aguilar can be reached at taguilar@ulv.edu.