Kid’s Movie Review: Disney’s “Meet the Robinsons”

I never knew all cartoons were NOT created equal until I had kids.  Cartoons are so different once you have preschoolers who need to be shielded from the world.  I remember watching “The Incredibles” in the theaters, and I loved it SO much. It was clever, funny, and action-packed! As I viewed it again with Isabella, I realized, “Whoa, this is kinda scary.” “Whoa, there are lots of guns, shooting and violence in this.”  I have now moved that movie into the “You can watch this when you are 13” category.

One movie that I love watching with the kids is “Meet the Robinsons.”  Now, mind you, I think they say the word “stupid” and there are some minor action-packed chase scenes with the bad guy character and dinosaur, but for the most part, the movie struck me as “four-year old safe.”

I don’t know how to explain it without writing about the whole movie,  so let’s see if I can try.

Why I Love the Movie: Two values I want to teach my kids

1.  Acceptance:  The main character, Lewis, is an orphan whose mother left him at the doorsteps of the orphanage when he was just a baby.  Growing up, he turns out to be “different” from the other kids because he is super creative and all he ever does is invent gadgets that do weird things, i.e. a peanut butter & jelly squirting machine attached to his head.  Potential adoptive parents come to “interview” him, and they all leave him, unable to handle his uniqueness.  Throughout the movie, he struggles with this desire to belong, and finally at the end,  Lewis gets adopted by two scientist/inventor parents who understand, accept and love him for who he is. They build him a science lab for him to invent and create, and this ends up inspiring little Lewis to become the big Lewis who invents time machines, robots, and all kinds of other gadgets.

2.  Failure is Okay!  The general storyline is about Lewis’ son from the future coming to get Lewis to fix a broken time machine.  Lewis’ son takes Lewis back to his future home, the home of the Robinsons.   The Robinsons are quite eccentric.  The mom teaches frogs how to sing, Grandpa wears his clothes backwards, and Uncle and Mom have food fights in slow motion like Chinese action films.  Lewis is taken aback by this crazy family, but also falls in love with them. This is the family he never experienced in his life.  In one scene, he is asked to fix the peanut butter &  jelly squirting machine, but it ends up bursting and getting the peanut butter & jelly on everyone.  At that split second, Lewis expects everyone to get mad at him, just like the potential adoptive parents he met. But instead, all the Robinsons congratulate him on his first failure! They throw a party in his honor for failing!  They yell, “Keep moving forward!” How awesome is that??

I want to be that kind of parent that rejoices at failure with my kids so that they know there is no pressure to perform with us.  I want them to feel the freedom of love and know that in love there is no fear.

I love it when a movie is fun for kids and we can all glean some God values from it:)

Gosh, but my explanation doesn’t do it justice, so just watch it!