Some movies blindside you, in a good way …a very good way. Meet the Robinsons is one of those films. Released just after Disney animation was emerging from several challenging years that saw disappointing box-office results with films like Home on the Range, and just before new leadership brought a new decade of successes, with hits like Tangled and Frozen, Meet the Robinsons “slipped through the cracks.”

This is sad and unfair, as the film is an offbeat, original, purposefully quirky, and emotional ride. Thankfully, in the fifteen years since its release, many have noticed and appreciated this, singing the praises of Meet the Robinsons.

On the outside, the film may seem like a fast-paced animated variation of Back to the Future and other time travel movies, but Meet the Robinsons is a movie that beats with a heart that includes messages around how our family shapes who we are and how each step, and mis-step, we make in life, shapes who we become.

Meet the Robinsons is based on the children’s book A Day with Wilbur Robinson by noted author and illustrator William Joyce. Director Stephen Anderson, who had been working in animation as a story artist since the early 90s and had joined Disney in 1999, felt a personal connection to the story and the main character of Lewis since they both grew up adopted.

Lewis (voiced by Daniel Hansen and Jordan Fry) is a 12-year-old inventor growing up in an orphanage. He is working on an invention to scan his memory so that he can locate his birth mother.

At a local science fair, Lewis’ scanner is damaged by the film’s unconventional villain, the Bowler Hat Guy (voiced by Anderson himself). After, Lewis meets a mysterious boy named Wilbur (Wesley Singerman), who claims to be a time cop from the future. He asks Lewis to repair the scanner and takes him to the year 2037.

Here, Lewis meets Wilbur’s ultra-eccentric family, which includes Grandpa Bud (Anderson again), who wears his clothes backward, Uncle Fritz (Ethan Sandler), whose spouse seems to be a ventriloquist dummy, Aunt Billie (Kelly Hoover), who has a full-size toy train, Uncles Spike and Dmitri (both by Sandler), who live in a giant flower pot, Lewis’ Mom (Nicole Sullivan), who has taught frogs to sing like big-band crooners, Gaston (Don Hall), the stunt man, Art (Batman himself, Adam West), an intergalactic pizza delivery man, Lefty (Nathan Greno) the pet octopus and Carl (Harland Williams), the family robot.

While with this outrageous family, Lewis discovers they’re more than they initially appear to be. He also learns that his always-exhausted roommate from the orphanage, Goob (Mathew Josten), isn’t quite what he seems, and that the Bowler Hat Guy is a threat to them all.

No spoilers if you’ve never seen it, but suffice it to say, Meet the Robinsons is a wholly imaginative vision.

This includes the look of the film, which infuses the distinctive artistry of William Joyce, coupled with traditional Disney character designs. Joyce’s style was being adapted for another studio’s animated film, Blue Sky Studio’s Robots, so the artist’s style wasn’t adapted exactly.

As evidenced by Robinson’s off-kilter family, the characters in Meet the Robinsons were also one-of-a-kind. Lewis is crafted as very empathetic from his first scene. He’s intelligent, sincere, and, because of this, brings the audience along with him on his journey.

At the other side of the spectrum is the villain, The Bowler Hat Guy, a reed-thin, gangly, mustache-twirling bad guy, who looks devious, but, as we find out, is entirely clueless. He winds up letting a mechanical bowler hat make his decisions for him.

The villain’s scenes constitute a lot of the humor in the film, such as the scene where he attempts to describe Lewis’ stolen invention to a board room of corporate executives or when he brings a t-rex back from the prehistoric age (only for the beast to discover that his arms are too short to help him).

The unusual Robinsons constitute the balance of the laughs in the film, and they also bring the heart, as well as the central, positive message of Meet the Robinsons. They embrace each other’s imperfections so much that they even celebrate their failures and successes. Their motto is “Keep Moving Forward,” meaning that setbacks are all part of the process in life. These moments are essential because they help us learn, grow, and know that there are better times ahead.

The conclusion of the film, which quickly brings a tear to many eyes, shows Lewis finally being adopted and, just before the film’s ending credits, features a quote:

“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long.

We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious…and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

– Walt Disney

It’s one of the many ways that the movie always blindsides us in a good way.