Meet the Robinsons (2007)

Released by Walt Disney Pictures, Meet the Robinsons (2007) is an animated science-fiction comedy film. The story follows Lewis, a 12-year-old aspiring inventor who resides in an orphanage. His youthful exuberance, quirky personality, and faulty creations have discouraged potential adoptive parents. In order to find his birth mother who left him at the orphanage as a baby, Lewis constructs a memory-scanning machine. While en route to his school’s science fair with the machine, he encounters Wilbur Robinson, a mysterious 13-year-old claiming to be from the future. Wilbur explains that he needs help retrieving a stolen time machine from a man sporting a bowler hat. During their encounter at the science fair, Lewis’ scanner malfunctions due to tampering from the Bowler Hat Guy, causing chaos in the event.

As Lewis departs, the Bowler Hat Guy enlists the help of his robotic sidekick, Doris, to swipe the scanner and pass it off as his own invention to a corporation. However, their scheme falls flat when he is unable to properly showcase its capabilities. When Wilbur catches up with Lewis, he requests that he repairs the scanner. Lewis demands proof of Wilbur’s claim of being from the future, prompting Wilbur to take him on another time-traveling adventure to 2037; a world of advanced technology. Delighted by this discovery, Lewis comes up with the idea of using the time machine to finally meet his mother. However, a disagreement between the two leads to a crash landing. In exchange for fixing the time machine, Lewis strikes a deal with Wilbur that they must visit his long-lost mother afterwards. At Wilbur’s residence, Lewis is introduced to the rest of the quirky Robinson family while Cornelius; Wilbur’s father and inventor extraordinaire remains absent on a business trip.