To prove to Lewis that he’s telling the truth, Wilbur takes Lewis into the future. The movie really jets forward at this point. Of course, the boys don’t agree about things and the time machine ends up getting crashed. Wilbur expects Lewis to know how to fix it.

The action turns incredibly zany at this point as Lewis meets Grandpa Bud and is taken on a tour of the house. In this madcap section, the humor is over-the-top funny but laid my ten-year-old and I both to waste as we struggled to keep up with all the rapid-fire cuts from one scene to the next. This is truly great stuff, and works perfectly in the movie at this point.

Lewis ends up getting to stay for dinner and getting to meet the rest of the family, including Wilbur’s mom, Franny, who conducts a frog band. The frog band, although only a small part of the overall movie, is unforgettable. The lead frog acts and croons like Frank Sinatra, and leads the other frogs like a Mafia hard guy. One of the best scenes is when mini-Doris (the robotic hat that controls/leads Bowler Hat Guy) gets captured by the frogs and thrown into the back of a toy Cadillac.

The rest of the movie will probably be easy to figure out, even for the little people, but it’s still a wonderful trip to take on family night viewing. My youngster and I finished up the film and he immediately watched it again.

The headlong rush of the plot to get causes viewers to gloss over the great voice acting of some of the people involved with the film. Angela Bassett is wonderful as Mildred, the director of the orphanage. Her constant support of Lewis as he deals with his inventing bug and the fact that he can’t get adopted is great.  She even still manages to put a trace of exasperation into her delivery.

Goob, Lewis’s roommate, is a gem. I love him in his little league baseball uniform and talking about how much he stunk up the field. As a little league coach, I try not to let any kid on my team feel that way, but I know there are a lot of kids who end up feeling exactly like that anyway. 

Meet the Robinsons isn’t the best of the Disney films, but it’s definitely a welcome addition. In fact, Cornelius Robinson’s motto, “Keep moving forward,” comes from a speech Walt Disney himself made on several occasions to the creative minds that worked for him, and that's just what Walt Disney Studios is doing.