4. Meet The Robinsons
Not all children's book adaptations are created equally. Any Dr. Seuss fan will attest to the fact that it's hard to make a full length feature film based on a simple, singular concept. It's even harder to make a film that spans age ranges and entertains all equally, and it's even harder still to do so without getting too mushy on your audience. Basically, only fools and madmen make children's films without a game plan and expect them to be successes. And yet, Disney somehow struck gold with Meet The Robinsons. What's more, they managed to pull together one of the best non-musical soundtracks in Disney history, as well as include some really good musical moments into the film itself (the singing frogs are a huge hit in my book). But even replete with modern gimmicks, we're treated to an old school Disney tale of Lewis, an orphan just wanting to have a home and family to call his own. His quest for parents is only matched by his quest to invent something awesome and hugely ambitious: a machine that can see into the past, so that way he can see the mother who orphaned him. This quest for identity, a major theme in most Disney classics, is wrapped up in a trip to the future. You see, Wilbur Robinson's in town from decades into the future, and he's trying to stop something from happening. Something that literally the fate of the world hinges upon (doesn't it always in these scenarios?), and something that Lewis is going to do. Through shenanigans and goings on, Lewis ends up in the future and meets Wilbur's eccentric family. A bunch of funny, yet family friendly, gags, a particularly interesting villain and one mind controlled Tyrannosaur later, the film arrives at a genuinely heartwarming conclusion. Meet The Robinsons is one of the most "classic Disney" movies to hit in recent times, right up there with Tangled and The Princess and The Frog. Sadly, it didn't find the audience of either of those films, yet it's highly recommended that you give it a try. Unless funny dinosaurs and singing frogs aren't your thing.