Meet the Robinsons (2007) - Film directed by Stephen J. Anderson

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A very light and fluffy animation which is lovely because now-a-days everything is becoming grittier however this is slightly too sweet for anyone over the age of about 5. Lewis is an orphan inventor who is looking for his real family but when a mysterious time-traveller called Wilbur adventures happens.

It is very heart-warming because Lewis finds what he is looking for in an unexpected way. I always welcome a happy ending and this one definitely fits the bill. To juxtapose a happy ending however it is fairly necessary for there to be periods of unhappiness and there wasn't really any of that. Moments of sadness, such as a failed adoption interview, were punctuated with humour, in one case a malfunctioning peanut butter and jam sandwich filling machine. Taking a leaf out of Pixar's book the creators could have brought the film into much darker territory and still make it happy in the end.

There is a quirky cast of characters as with essentially every animated film or comedy ever. Most are fairly boring despite their eccentricity and there are far too many so the audience cannot focus on someone long enough to really care about them. My personal favourite characters were Goob, who is Lewis's fellow orphan room-mate, and a dinosaur who acts very much like a dog.

The film is good and definitely made for children. It is colourful and loud and showy and doesn't have a huge amount of substance other than the strong concept of family love. I wouldn't recommend it over other films but if someone wanted to watch it I wouldn't say that they shouldn't either.