Meet the Robinsons

There's not much at the theaters right now for kids. Spider-man is in the spotlight but it is not the best movie for the younger ones. A movie our family enjoyed is still around - Disney's Meet the Robinsons. It is a good movie with a good message.

Meet the Robinsons was in the works before Disney purchased Pixar (who had a partnership with Disney for Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Cars and etc.). With that purchase, Disney made Pixar's John Lasseter (who directed Toy Story and others and had worked at Disney many years ago) Chief Creative Officer of Disney Animation. Pixar's Ed Catmull became president of Disney Animation (in addition to Pixar). They reviewed what was currently in the works at Disney Animation including Meet the Robinsons. There is a lot of talk about how the movie was vastly improved because Pixar came in and "fixed" it. Well, I won't argue that but the movie was largely done already by the time John Lasseter, came into the picture. Here is a quote from John Lasseter (made at a stockholder meeting if I remember correctly):

"... the day after the announcement of the merging of the two studios, Ed and I walked in the Disney Animation Studios, and there we got to meet all of the artists. And each of the directors took us through all the films, and the one director, the young guy named Steve Anderson, was directing this movie called "Meet the Robinsons," which was the next motion picture that's coming out from Disney Animation Studios. And he talked about this story, which is about a boy who is given up for adoption and he always wondered why. Why did his mom give him up?

And, as he told this story, Steve mentioned, "I'm adopted." And his personal story touched me so deeply that when I finally saw the movie, which, by the way, I have to say, it was about 80% finished when Ed and I walked into that studio. I looked at it and it was like the film didn't have in it what Steve's personal story had.

His personal story story brought me to tears, right, and I thought, ah, this feels like it's had too many cooks trying to stir this soup. So we gave him a lot of notes, some really strong notes. We were very honest with him about the movie, but then I gave it back to him. I said, Steve, make the movie you want to make. Tell your story.

And he came back with changes to this film, minor changes, but it made all the difference in the world, and this movie about Lewis, the main character Lewis, who is focusing on the past, and he's wondering, why did his mom give me up? And he wants to focus on his past, but this focus actually takes him to the future, where he meets this amazing, crazy, wonderful, appealing group of characters that actually
turns out to be his future family.

And he learns through this experience to look forward in life, not to look back. And this story, it's Steve's story. We're really excited about this. I'm very, very proud of the film and what Steve and his crew have done. The film is really beautiful too. They have a stylization in this film that is really striking."

So it is a personal story that teaches an important lesson. No wonder the story is touching (and it seems many are agreeing with that assessment of the movie).