Meet the Robinsons

Meet the Robinsons is based on William Joyce's 1990 children's book A Day with Wilbur Robinson. Disney had originally optioned the book as a possible live-action film; the animated version went into production in 2004 under director Stephen Anderson, who had a personal connection to the material: like Lewis, the film's orphaned hero, Anderson had been adopted. In the story, Lewis is a 12-year-old inventor whisked to the future by Wilbur Robinson, where he meets Wilbur's eccentric family — voices include Angela Bassett, Tom Selleck, Adam West and Laurie Metcalf — while the Bowler Hat Guy (voiced by Anderson himself) and his scheming hat try to sabotage his future. At one point there is a Tyrannosaurus. The Robinsons celebrate failure, because failure is how you learn, and their motto is "Keep Moving Forward."

The production lived by that motto whether it wanted to or not. In January 2006, mid-production, Disney announced it was buying Pixar, and John Lasseter became chief creative officer of Disney's animation studio as well. After an early screening he told Anderson the villain wasn't scary or threatening enough. Ten months later the film had been substantially reworked — nearly 60 percent of it cut, by the most widely repeated account, while the animation supervisor put the redone animation at about 30 percent. Either way: an improved villain, a new dinosaur chase, a changed ending.

The finished film opened in the United States on March 30, 2007, with a Danny Elfman score and soundtrack songs from Rufus Wainwright, Rob Thomas, the All-American Rejects and They Might Be Giants. More than 600 theaters showed it in Disney Digital 3-D, and it was the first Disney animated feature to open with the Walt Disney Animation Studios logo. Reviews were generally positive; the box office was a disappointment, at $170.5 million worldwide against a $150 million budget. The DVD did better, selling roughly 4 million copies by January 2008. A direct-to-video sequel, tentatively titled Meet the Robinsons 2: First Date, was cancelled when Lasseter ended the Disneytoon sequels.

What lasted was the ending. "Keep Moving Forward" comes from Walt Disney's own words, and the movie closes with the full quotation on screen — the part people who grew up with the film still quote back.