Meet the Robinsons (U)

Disney takes on Pixar at its own game in this wildly inventive though not entirely successful digimation about an orphan kid inventor whose longing for a family takes him via a time machine from a junior science fair to the future. Here he encounters an octopus butler, a pack of wise-guy frogs, a marauding T-Rex and the eponymous Robinson family, in no discernible order.

The screenplay is credited to no fewer than seven different writers, which is possibly why the frenzied, scattergun action that passes for a plot is well-nigh incomprehensible. Rather than throw everything at the screen, a streamlined selection of thrills and a clearer narrative line would have made a better movie. Still, it features a splendid villain (kin to Dick Dastardly from The Wacky Races) - and the best use of a bowler hat since Oddjob's in Goldfinger.