Meet the Robinsons Discussion [Merged]

[Christine]

I just finished reading a brief synopsis of "Meet the Robinsons", and I have to say that I may not be going to see this one.


"Based on William Joyce's book "A Day with Wilbur Robinson," this comedic-adventure follows Lewis, a brilliant twelve-year-old with a surprising number of clever inventions to his credit. His latest and most ambitious project is the Memory Scanner, which he hopes will retrieve early memories of his mother and maybe even reveal why she put him up for adoption. But before he can get his answer, his invention is stolen by the dastardly Bowler Hat Guy and his diabolical hat - and constant companion - Doris.

Lewis has all but given up hope in his future when a mysterious boy named Wilbur Robinson whisks our bewildered hero away in a time machine and travel forward in time to spend a day with Wilbur's eccentric family. In a world filled with flying cars and floating cities, they hunt down Bowler Hat Guy, save the future and uncover the amazing secret of the Robinson family."

As an adoptive parent, I refuse to take my child to a movie that could prove to be upsetting to her, and I also am upset for birth parents "getting a guilt trip" so to speak for doing what they truly believe is best for their child.

I know some may think I am being too sensitive about a cartoon movie, but in the life of a young child, cartoon movies ARE reality.

[conorsmom2000]

You know, I was just going to post today to see if anyone knew what this movie was about - Conor's birthday is March 31st and he wanted to do a movie theater party (where you have a private showing of a movie) and this was the movie the theater would have for us. I didn't really know anything about it and being the average age of the child is 7, I didn't know if it was geared towards them. Now, I'm a little unsure of what to do as I would hate for anyone to be upset by this.

Christine, I can understand why you'd be upset by this. Hopefully the message is much more positive than it might appear. Honestly, though, I'm not sure what to do now.

[Christine]

Jen, if I find out any more about the movie, I will pass it on to you. I think my main concern stems from when we saw "Country Bears" and "Snow Dogs" on the Disney Channel.

Both movies dealt with a child (one was grown, one was a bear ) that somehow regretted being adopted, and their struggle to "find out who they really are".

Yes, both movies ended up "happy" in that they blended both of their family backgrounds together, but my daughter was very worried as to why they were portrayed like "something was wrong" with being adopted. And blending her families is NOT an option here.

Again, I don't mean to hyper-analyze a cartoon to death, but I just wonder, why do they even have to go there???

[offwego]

Yes, both movies ended up "happy" in that they blended both of their family backgrounds together, but my daughter was very worried as to why they were portrayed like "something was wrong" with being adopted. And blending her families is NOT an option here.

Again, I don't mean to hyper-analyze a cartoon to death, but I just wonder, why do they even have to go there???

Christine (at the risk of going a little off the topic of the movie) do you think it may have something to do with the trend (newish) around open adoptions or birth parents providing more info on the "why" to adopting families then was common in the past?

I know my best friends brother doesn't feel compeled to find his birth parents (he's adopted she's not) as they both wrote letters to him explaining their choice and why etc so he claims he doesn't feel any need to find out anything more than what they wanted to tell him. Previously most adoptions were so closed that the children didn't know anything making it more of a looming question perhaps? Without any information I guess there was more room for artistic fantasy. (after all step-mom's aren't all pushing nasty apples either)

I don't think your being senstive at all however!It's a great thing to find out more about what we expose our kids to!!

[PirateLover]

I can understand where you are coming from, but if you really look at the whole picture almost every fairytale/Disney movie has some kind of parental issues going on. The plot description you shared does not say that he was necessarily unhappy with his adoptive family, just that he wants to find his real parents. And most adopted children eventually do want to find their parents and it doesn't mean that they don't care for their adoptive parents. In fact last year VH1 ran a special last year called "My Adoption Journey" in which middle aged Darryl "DMC" McDaniels searches for his birth mother. He realized that he never would've had the life and success that he achieved had he stayed with his birth mom but he still had that desire to find her and it ended happily, with everyone getting along. If this can never be the case with your daughter than you just have to be honest with her and explain things to her. If she can't handle it yet, than maybe you are right to stay away, but without a more detailed description or having seen the movie, I am not ready to condemn Disney just yet.

[Christine]

The plot description you shared does not say that he was necessarily unhappy with his adoptive family, just that he wants to find his real parents.

Just FYI, adoptive parents are real.

And I hope it did not appear that I was asking for anyone to condemn Disney for making this film.

I hope you enjoy the show!

[PirateLover]

Just FYI, adoptive parents are real.

I think you know what I meant. I have plenty of respect and admiration for adoptive parents. I myself have considered adopting children in the future. I had 3 friends in high school who were adopted. But it is a reality that many adopted children at some point start to ask questions about their birth parents and some go on to seek them out, and this is not necessarily because they resent their adoptive parents or are not happy with them. It is just human curiosity and the desire to know where you came from and why things happened the way they did. It is not always a negative thing, and to me it isn't clear how Meet the Robinsons is portraying the situation. That is all I was pointing out.

[Jessie]

I can totally understand why you personally wouldn't feel comfortable taking your child to see this film, but I also think in the general sense, it's just exploring another part of life and the thoughts some people may have. I'm sure not all adopted children want to seek out their birth parents, but I suppose for those that have and are curious, it will hit home with them and it may have a very positive ending.

I am sure it is a sensitive subject for you. Maybe you can watch it first and then see if it's something you'd be okay with?

ETA: For clarification, I don't think the film in and of itself is negative for taking on this subject in this way, but I also totally sympathize with your feelings on it.

[Carol]

As the Mom of 2 adopted sons - I totally understand, Christine.

[murphy1]

My sister adopted as well. My kids aren't even interested in this one at all. I will have to pass that one to my sis.

[Kingmob31]

I found some mor einformation on another web site that might help you decide wheter or not to see the movie.
First, the director, Steve Anderson, was adopted himself.

Second, this part may be considered a SPOILER, so :







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.




Hopefully, this will help in your decision.

[January-2007]

Wow. That is rough. If I were in your situation I think I would feel really uncomfortable having my daughter go see the movie and then be all confused about why she isn't looking for other parents and wow. You are her mom. I guess I wouldn't have thought about it so deeply, but it is a really serious thing, if a child is watching something like this and then starts to wonder if they're ok. I am really drawn to this movie because they have Space Mountain in "Todayland" and the dinasour with the "huge head! tiny arms!" looks so funny to me. But I'm not in your situation. I don't have any children yet to protect. I am glad that you protect your child so well by checking things out before you expose them to her. This is just not something a 7 year old needs to think about.

[MsMin]

Roughly the way it was explained to us last year was that the boy goes into the future and finds he fits there and the boy from the future finds he fits in the past.
I have spent hours looking into Disney movies b/c we use them for therapy and when we do we have to have a "lesson" kids in group therapy can't just enjoy the movie it has to make a point to help many stuggling w/ issues of abandonment and loss.
When I went to the seminar last year at the Red Stick Animation Festival and listend to the artist describe how important it was to have the characters express the appropriate emotions I was surprised they didn't use anyone in mental health to keep them on track as personality clusters have specific traits that cluster.
I think that many artists are very intuitive and introspective naturally and Disney has an excellent history with making movies express the appropriate emotional components.
I trust/hope they will handle this in a very sensitive way as they have with issues in other movies.
I do agree w/ your concern b/c it is a very fragile issue and one that should not promote fantasy that could be hurtful. Having experience with the issue yourself is not justification for all truth. So many situations are different.
I hesitate to say too much b/c while for one child something may work (connecting w/ the past or looking) it's horribly wrong for another.

I plan to see the movie, and now it's a must since I have to know if it contains an appropriate theme or storyline for some kids. I can't promise I can fully analyze it b/c it takes me hours w/ the movie usually on DVD so that I can stop, take notes review etc. I can give you my opinion but b/c of the variance w/ different children's needs I don't know that I can give blanket feedback.
I would definitely wait before going to see it.

Bless all the loving mothers who have found room in their hearts and homes for children in their time of need and know that your love has made permanent impression on their hearts.

[NASCARVW]

Anyone else going to Pleasure Island tonight for the premiere of Meet The Robinsons?
I'll be heading over that way for the 7:30 showing in Disney Digital 3D.
Should be pretty good.

[McLiberal8]

Does anybody know a place that lists all the theaters that are playing Meet the Robinsons (the 3D version)? I want to see it tonight, but I would rather see it in 3D!

[Mufasa]

The easiest way to find which theaters are showing Meet the Robinsons in 3D is to check the REAL D website:

http://www.reald.com

there you can enter in your zip code and find REAL D equipped theaters in your area.

Meet the Robinsons is only showing in Disney Digital 3D (aka the REAL D process)- you won't find it in IMAX-3D.

It's a good idea to verify with the theater as several theaters may be showing Meet the Robinsons on multiple screens, but only have 1 theater in their complex equipped to show it in 3D (when you book your ticket look for it to say REAL D or Disney Digital 3D in the listings).

[KathyMO]

Below is a link to the official website. In the top right hand side click on get tickets. It will show which theaters will be showing it in 3D with a 3D symbol at the end of the theater listing.

Kathy


http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/meettherobinsons/

[Mufasa]

If you have an opportunity to see Meet the Robinsons in 3D, then I'd recommend you take advantage of it because the difference with Meet the Robinsons from Chicken Little is that the 3D process was taken into consideration during the creative development of Meet the Robinsons at a much earlier point in the process than Chicken Little.

From the beginning with Meet the Robinsons the idea was to use 3D to advance the story telling and they actually art-directed the use of 3D (through what they call a "depth script")- they knew what the confines were of how much 3D they could apply to a scene and used that as a dramatic element.

Chicken Little and Nightmare before Christmas in 3D were more about just adding some depth and dimension to the scenes after the fact- maybe enhancing the realism, but now filmmakers are opening things up and thinking about how they can fully use 3D (while not resorting to those cheap, cliche sight gags).

It's really a fascinating process of taking a film and turning it into 3D. This time around, Disney enlisted Digital Domain to produce the color right-eye images (because of the number of scenes and complexity of some shots basically Feature Animation's computer systems were busy rendering the 2D or left-eye images and we had no capacity to do the rendering of the right-eye effects so those were farmed out to Digital Domain)- in effect you're really working on two versions of the movie at the same time.

[ElenitaB]

My son had a half-day at school today so we took advantage of the free time and saw MTR this afternoon and really, really liked it! The 3D was seamless! And there are some nice surprises before and at the very end of the movie... I must admit that I got pretty choked up at the end (I know... I'm a dork ).

[KathyMO]

Thanks for the information Mufasa. It sounds great. We plan on seeing it in 3D tomorrow.

Kathy