Age Recommendation: All ages
While I can’t recall the first time any of us saw this niche 2007 Disney film, I can tell you that Meet the Robinsons left a permanent, positive mark on my family and especially on me. It’s quirky charm and wit leaves everyone laughing while sharing the crazy and sometimes odd beauty of tightly-knit family life, where love wins out over selfishness, self-pity, control, and loneliness.
The movie follows Lewis, an orphan who was abandoned in infancy and now, as a twelve-year-old genius, works tirelessly to invent a time machine, return to the past, and change his mother’s mind, consequently changing his lonely fate. Following Lewis’ seeming failure at the school science fair, he becomes discouraged in his talents and loses hope of time travel. But just then, a boy from the future, Wilbur Robinson, arrives and insists that Lewis go back to school and fix his attempted time machine. While he can’t elaborate, Wilbur claims that, without Lewis’ time machine, the future as it stands is lost. Through a series of bickering, bargains, and unfortunate events, Lewis finds himself stuck in a future timeline with Wilbur, the time machine broken. Despite Wilbur’s protests and warnings, Lewis meets the Robinsons - a diverse, quirky, and deeply loving family - whose chaos first overwhelms but then attracts the orphaned boy.
As the plot progresses, we learn that the “Helping Hat” known as “Doris,” an artificially intelligent bowler hat robot, has led a lonely, curmudgeonly man known as “Bowler Hat Guy” to believe that “she” is his only friend. Both villains hold something against the Robinsons and Doris convinces Bowler Hat Guy that, together, they can destroy the happiness of the successful and popular family. As Bowler Hat Guy, an embarrassingly bad villain, and Doris pursue control of the future, Lewis works with Wilbur to save what may be the future chances that he believed only existed in the past.
Amidst singing frogs, a hunt for the garage, and dinosaur chases, Lewis and Bowler Hat Guy learn three key lessons in finding hope, which I believe resonated with my family in a particular way. Meet the Robinsons teaches the value of hope in grit or persistence, in hospitality, and in dependability.
The first lesson is found in the Robinson family motto: “Keep Moving Forward.” Wilbur’s dad, Cornelius, leads his family in believing that success is only achieved in trial, error, and trying again. Living out this motto means that the family celebrates failure - not in an “everybody wins” kind of way, but rather, in a way that only views giving up as the real loss. My parents, but especially my dad, exemplified this kind of mentality and expected us kids to embrace failure as lessons, no matter how hard the disappointment was. Trying and commitment mattered more than winning in our house and Meet the Robinsons emphasizes the same lesson. To keep moving forward is to persist in the small and big difficulties. Such persistence builds grit, confidence, and an ability to never give up, especially when it comes to cultivating talents and gifts in an individual.
During one particular scene, Lewis fails while trying to fix a peanut butter and jelly gun, spraying everyone around him with the gooey mixture. Instead of receiving criticism as from teachers and classmates in the past, the Robinsons cheer Lewis on, congratulating him on his “brilliant failure.” They explain that, “from failing, you learn. From success? Not so much.” Throughout the film, the Robinsons remind us in word and example that, as long as you are honest in your pursuits and keep moving forward, there is always hope.
The Robinsons also point to hope as it exists within positive familial relationships. Growing up and to this day, my parents hold an “open door” policy for their home. Regardless of who visits and for how long, my dad always follows his “goodbye” with a “the door’s always open!” This leads to a rotating door of visitors in my family’s home, with blood relatives, close friends, and sometimes complete strangers spending time, eating meals, sharing laughs, and spending the night under their roof.
Likewise, the Robinson home is full of family, friends, and strangers, all treated with equal love, respect, and hospitality. When Wilbur discovers that, despite his warnings, Lewis has been accidentally introduced to the entire family, Wilbur quizzes his friend on the Robinson family tree. Through the quiz, we learn that Cornelius and his wife, Franny, both have their extended family members living in the house - 13 people altogether. There is also Lefty the Butler and Spike and Demitri, the twins, “And,” Lewis continues hesitantly, “I don’t know who they’re related to.” “Neither do we,” replies Wilbur casually, “Go on.”
The Robinson home welcomes all as long as all are happy to be part of the comfortable chaos. The Robinsons know who they are as a unit and as individuals; they are comfortable with their crazy, and are happy to have anyone in their home who embraces rather than seeks to change it.
One of my family’s favorite scenes in Meet the Robinsons takes place around a dinner table. In this scene, meal time is anything but formal - everyone is talking over one another, having bizarre conversations. Everyone at the table wants to get to know Lewis - where is he from? Is he in Wilbur’s class? Is he related to Phil Gunderson? How bad is his hat hair? A food fight ensues between two adult siblings. It’s sheer chaos and Lewis can’t get a word in edgewise. Following the food fight, as the family applauds Franny for winning, Lewis asks Uncle Art, “Is dinner like this every night?” To which Uncle Art replies sincerely, “No, last night we had meatloaf.”
The chaos, familiarity, playful rivalry, love, and honesty within the Robinson family is something foreign to young Lewis. However, he is not deterred, but attracted to it. He, a stranger, is welcomed at the Robinsons table as comfortably as the family members. Spike and Dimitri are accepted as family even though nobody knows to whom they’re related. In fact, all the Robinsons seem unconcerned that they don’t know to whom the twins “belong”; Spike and Dimitri are their family and nothing else matters. Hospitality brings all kinds through the doors of the Robinson household. Comfortable, chaotic love keeps them there.
Hope has to exist when a family welcomes everyone - blood or not - with warmth and authenticity because, to be welcomed as family is to be accepted as you are. To have people around you, interested in your story, your well-being, or simply your likes and dislikes is to have hope that, even on a bad day, someone who cares about you. And no matter how bleak things are, that familial hospitality and relationship brings a hope that cannot be matched. It also paves the way for the third lesson - hope found in dependency.
Meet the Robinsons and a strong family life both teach that no one achieves anything great on their own and rarely does anything go according to plan. Both point to dependency being a strength, rather than a failing in life. Along with hospitality and persistence, dependency teaches you that there is always hope for a happy ending, even when everything seems out of control. Bowler Hat Guy and Lewis discover that happiness is not found in control, solitude, revenge, or clinging to the past; it requires sacrifice, loyalty, love, and, therefore, family and dependency.
Meet the Robinsons beautifully reflects what is sometimes overwhelming and yet wildly attractive about tightly knit families. Everyone is comfortable with who they are together. Everyone helps out. Everyone goes through the good and the bad as one. You call each other out and up; you push each other to be better; you always are challenged to put someone else first. These are not easy lessons to learn, but they are lessons built into the structure of family life and, ultimately, they make you a better person.
Lewis and Bowler Hat Guy are both lonely, sad, and feel forgotten at the beginning of the story. Everything changes only when they stop thinking about themselves, forgive past wrongs, take responsibility, and “keep moving forward” in hope - hope in persistence, hospitality, and dependence. Both learn that, just because you feel as if all hope is lost, if you keep moving forward with those who love you, hope cannot be lost. Tomorrow is a new day. Hope in it because change could be just around the corner.
In the end, family and love win out, bringing all to a happy conclusion. While the future is saved, in order for it to actually occur as ‘present’, Lewis must return to his timeline where Wilbur first found him - on the roof of the orphanage after the disastrous science fair. While a bitter-sweet departure, Lewis’ return has new light shed upon it. While he must wait, fail, and work a little longer, Lewis has hope that, if he ‘keeps moving forward,’ he will eventually receive all he ever needed, which is more than he ever planned.
