Animated Duo: Meet the Robinsons & Surf's Up

Meet the Robinsons
Directed by Stephen J. Anderson
Released March 30, 2007

Surf's Up
Directed by Ash Brannon & Chris Buck
Released June 8, 2007

Alright, so I know that I am not a member of the target audience for these films. If it has not been clear, I have been trying to see as many of the eligible fims for the Best Animated Feature Oscar category as possible. This now makes 9/12, missing only "Aqua Teen Hunger Force", "Tekkonkinkreet", and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", so I think I got the important contenders. Anyway, watching a number of animated kids' films in a row can be extremely straining ("Persepolis" was a nice break from the childishness of "Shrek the Third" and this pair, but I could go for some real-live people right about now. I was going to review each of these film separately, but figured that I would not want to repeat myself too much.

Maybe I am working from a set of standards that is too high, but I am remembering the grandeur of some of the great recent-ish animated films from my childhood, like "The Little Mermaid", "Beauty and the Beast", "Aladdin", "The Lion King", "Toy Story", "Mulan", "A Bug's Life", "Antz", "The Prince of Egypt", "Shrek", "Monsters' Inc", "Finding Nemo", and "Cars". That list is simply from memory; those are the animated films in my lifetime that I remember and that have made a lasting impression. The characteristic of all those films, however, is that they can work for both kids and adults. I still see the wonder of "The Lion King" and the brilliance of "Aladdin".

I would say that these two new films were made almost exclusively for kids, which is not necessarily a detractor, though my enjoyment level certainly goes down. A "PG" rating would seem to indicate that a few sexual innuendos are permissible (in the case of "Shrek" certainly, and here in the case of "Surf's Up"), as opposed to the tame G rating which might still include some adult-ish concepts that are not obvious on the surface to children. Regardless, I can see why the makers of these films may have thought that adults would enjoy them (and judging by Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes rating, they kind of did).

The issue I have is that a kid's film should not sacrifice all coherence just for the sake of juvenille entertainment. Why are there singing frogs in "Meet the Robinsons"? The future suddenly means that all these animals can talk? I will not judge the fact that the film's surprises can be seen from a mile away. The sad thing is that, for all its senselessness, "Meet the Robinsons" probably has a great grasp of the space-time continuum than NBC's Heroes. My feeling is that if you are going to come up with an intriguing concept that can be entertaining to all ages, why not give it a shot?

That is where "Surf's Up" goes horribly wrong. I cannot gauge by any means the target audience of that one. I can imagine that the producers thought to themselves, hey, let's take "Cars" and "Happy Feet", smush them together, and make another popular movie of it! Oh yeah, let's make it into a mockumentary! Why camera crews needed to be following everyone around and constantly taking interviews is a mystery to me. It added nothing whatsoever to the story, and I was bored enough to almost turn it off after about three minutes ("Meet the Robinsons" held my attention for at least forty). I always tell myself that I need to watch the end of a movie because it might just redeem itself. In this case, it just proves that it is a complete rip-off of "Cars" yet manages never to reach an exciting climax moments.

Again, I am not the crowd these films are trying to attract. But I expected more. These films will likely occupy the 6th and 7th spots on the tallies for the Best Animated Feature Oscar category. Read my upcoming Best Animated Feature predictions for more details.

Meet the Robinsons: C-
Surf's Up: D+