We took the kids to see Walt Disney’s Meet the Robinsons this weekend. I love Disney movies, always have, so I was excited. We had seen the trailer before and so the kids were as well. The movie tells the tale of a young, orphan boy who is also an inventor. An evil villain from the future is out to get him. The movie tells his story of how he thwarts the villain’s plans and finally finds a family of his own.

I enjoyed the movie, as did the kids, although, no one came running out of the theater shouting, ‘Wow, that was great!’ My wife actually disliked the film. She didn’t like the fact that the whole story was about this poor kid whose mother gave him up and couldn’t find a family to adopt him. To me that’s par for the course with Disney. Bambi, the Lion King, Cinderella, all orphans. Even in the Disney films in which the main character has at least one parent, there are always familial problems. I liked the plot (sorry no spoilers). It was funny but, not outrageously so. I definitely enjoyed this movie more than Chicken Little, Disney’s last attempt at a 3D animated film without Pixar. The animation was good but, Disney still can’t come anywhere near the level of 3D animation from Pixar.

One thing I did really like was at the beginning of the movie they showed an old time Mickey Mouse cartoon as a short. That was great! It was like seeing the movie on the Wonderful World of Disney TV show as a kid. I was hoping my kids would dig it but, they just thought it was ok and maybe a little weird. Kids today are not used to the same kinds of cartoons many of us watched as kids like Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Woody, etc. which is too bad. It actually made me a little sad in a way.

Meet the Robinsons was probably better than your average kids movie but mediocre by Disney standards. It was not a bad way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon though. I would say our overall impression of the film was, ‘It was good, not great, but good’. I’d give it a 3 out of 5. Disney really needs to step it up a notch. Hopefully, the Frog Princess, which comes out later this year will be better.

You can view the Meet the Robinsons Preview video here.