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Disney's latest animated movie may not have princesses, dwarves or clownfish; however, it won't fail to make you laugh or warm your heart. Based upon William Joyce's novel A Day with Wilbur Robinson, Meet the Robinsons opened in theaters last week. This computer-animated film illustrates the importance of family and magic of discovery.

Meet the Robinsons tells the story of Lewis, a unique orphan boy. His passion is unlike other that of other 12-year-old boys. He doesn't like sports or super heroes; rather, Lewis loves inventing. Though he's vivacious and friendly, he has yet to have a successful adoption interview. Every time he meets a couple, Lewis manages to scare them off with his unpredictable inventions over 124 times. It seems that he will never have a real family.

Lewis then decides to somehow find his mother who left him on the stoop of the orphanage. No one knows who she is or where she's from, but Lewis has one faint memory of her. To aid himself in his endeavor, he invents the Memory Scanner, a machine that scans your brain (your hippocampus, to be precise) for a specific memory and displays it on a screen. Little does he know that the evil Bowler Hat Guy covets his latest invention.

At the science fair, the Bowler Hat Guy steals Lewis' memory scanner and brings it back to the future. Luckily Lewis has a friend from the future on his side, Wilbur Robinson. Together the two young boys travel over 30 years into the future. Upon entering into the new world of flying cars and self-assembled buildings, Lewis meets Wilbur's family. The Robinson family consists of Grandpa Bud, who wears his clothes backwards, his disco-loving grandma, many crazy uncles, two even crazier cousins and his musically inclined mother. Franny Robinson, Wilbur's kindhearted mother conducts a big-band orchestra of frogs. Lewis has finally found the perfect family. Will he be able to stay in the future and become a Robinson? His presence in the future could eventually disrupt the entire space-time continuum.

This latest computer-animated film follows Chicken Little and A Nightmare Before Christmas as the third 3D digitally animated film from Disney. Surprisingly, the effects of 3D did not drastically change the experience. The computer-generated imagery could easily stand alone due to its detailed realism. The film has moments typical of 3D films, like a shot of the heroes flying through a cavernous steel framework. The 3D experience is not offered in all movie theaters, and may not be worth going out of your way.

Disney used a different tone of humor in Meet the Robinsons. There aren't as many witty one-liners like Toy Story or a particular character that acts as the comic relief like in Finding Nemo. The entire Robinson family acts as one hilarious character. The humor can only be described as zany and ridiculous. From frogs acting as mobsters to a meatball cannon being used in defense against a T. rex, Meet the Robinsons is simply outrageous. While the movie will have you giggling, its humor is not its particular strength.

The most unique feature of the film was the origin of its central theme. Meet the Robinsons incorporates a quote from Walt Disney himself. The mantra of all the characters of the Robinson family is "Keep Moving Forward," a phrase Disney coined. Lewis' character is consistently discouraged by his failed inventions, which usually explode in the faces of his classmates. The Robinson family teaches him an important lesson: to embrace his mistakes. Only from our mishaps do we truly learn. If we succeeded at everything, nothing would be gained. Mistakes are inevitable and should be embraced. The most important thing to remember is to never give up and continue moving toward the future. That's a lesson that most of us can relate to here at Hopkins.

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