MEET THE ROBINSONS, the first feature under the new Walt Disney Animation banner, arrives Oct. 23 on DVD ($29.99) and Blu-ray Disc ($34.99) from Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.
Based on William Joyce's illustrated book A DAY WITH WILBUR ROBINSON, this 3D-animated time-traveling journey is breathless, zip-a-dee-doo-dah adventure. It's about an orphan named Lewis who's a genius inventor on a quest to find his birth mother, who's whisked away in a time machine by a mysterious kid named Wilbur Robinson who needs him to save the future from a strange Bowler Hat Guy. It's a madcap cross between BACK TO THE FUTURE and BRINGING UP BABY, and instantly appealed to director Stephen Anderson, a Disney vet who was story supervisor on BROTHER BEAR and THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE, and storyboard artist on TARZAN.
"We worked with Bill [Joyce, who served as an exec producer] in designing all the elements from the very beginning," Anderson told AWN. "We loved the charm and warmth of his illustrations, and a lot of the ideas that he has in his book, like the hairstyles. Lewis has a broom-bristle style and the Bob's Big Boy do of Wilbur, and Uncle Art, the guy who drives the spaceship, looks very much like he came out of a `50s sci-fi movie. We knew we had such a range of emotion after boarding our movie, and the dynamics we'd have to achieve with our acting, so we kept pushing to find the balance between a realistic and cartoony kind of human. The trick for me was that the choices we made could never pull the audience out of the movie and distance them from the characters. That was the journey that we had from the very beginning. I'm really pleased with what we came up with because there's a very simple graphic language with a real appeal to their faces. But you feel the flesh, you feel the muscles, you feel the chins and knees."
Daniel Hansen (STUART LITTLE 2) speaks for Lewis with Wesley Singerman (7TH HEAVEN) voicing Wilbur. Other notable cast members include Laurie Metcalf (ROSEANNE) as the highly caffeinated science fair judge Dr. Krunklehorn and Angela Bassett (WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?) as compassionate orphanage housemother Mildred. Adam West (FAMILY GUY) as Uncle Art and Tom Selleck (BOSTON LEGAL) as Cornelius round out the star-studded voice cast. Anderson voices Bowler Hat Guy.
MEET THE ROBINSONS' space age DVD bonus features include deleted scenes ("Arriving in the Future," "Meeting Carl," "Bowler Hat Guy's Redemption"); "Keep Moving Forward: Inventions that Shaped the World"; Grammy Award-winner Rob Thomas' "Little Wonders" music video; "Kids of the Future" music video by the Jonas Brothers; FAMILY FUNCTION 5000: FAMILY TREE game; "Inventing the Robinsons" (from Joyce's original creations through the animation process and production); and Anderson's audio commentary (with a special guest appearance).
The Blu-ray Disc edition includes these additional bonus features: extra deleted scenes and the BOWLER HAT BARRAGE! game. Navigate Lewis' time machine through armies of bowler hats to save the city of the future, and fire through the ranks to reach the big boss hat at the end of each level.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
