Some kids are born light years ahead of their time, and as a sad consequence, find it difficult to be accepted by their peers.
One such kid, child prodigy inventor, Lewis (voiced by Daniel Hansen and Jordan Fry), who idolises Albert Einstein, works day and night in his laboratory. Because of his work, roommate, Goob (voiced by Matthew Josten) always looks half-asleep; two lonely orphans in an orphanage, longing to be adopted.
Attempting to please his prospective adopters, the gentle Lewis, with hair permanently spiked up like after an electric shock, shows off his latest inventions to them. But you can't really expect dumb folks to understand the mind of a great genius. Naturally, in all cases, the prospective adopters flee.
Entering his teens with almost a hundred and twenty five such rejections, dejection sets in; Lewis now sets out to create a Memory Scanner machine that will help him remember whatever memory he has of his mother, who abandoned him as an infant on the footsteps of the orphanage.
At a science fair, Lewis hopes to impress the judges with his machine, assembled using parts of a vacuum machine, a basketball hoop, a drill press, a lunch box, a colander, a portable CD player, and a soda bottle.
But he needs to be very careful from now on.
A bumbling, scheming scoundrel from the future, the Bowler Hat Guy (Stephen Anderson, the director himself) is out to destroy Lewis' happiness. This villain, dressed up like a stereotype witch, can't count beyond ten and has a rotten memory; in fact, he is helpless without his robot thinking hat. Quite a comic character this one, though evil; his facial expressions and animated body movements are a thrill to watch.
Luckily for Lewis, a kid in a time machine, Wilbur Robinson (Wesley Singerman),
It's astounding, the dizzying effects that 3D animators are being able to create these days! In a decade or so from now, perhaps most live-action will be digital. Debutant director, Stephen Anderson has come a long way since his first stint at Disney as a story artist for Tarzan. He's also delivered a wonderfully cackling voice-over for the villain.
The screenplay has been done by over half a dozen writers, including the director. Unfortunately, not many of them had a great sense of humor. Even the dialogues are stale. Based on the book, A Day with Wilbur Robinson, by William Joyce, this time-travel film reminds you of Back to the Future while taking you to the realm of Alice in Wonderland. Welcome to a world of frogs in 3-piece suits who play music, and a purple octopus serves as the family butler.
Not recommended for senile ignoramuses with no imagination.
The film throws up an important question: what makes negative people what they are, and could they have been otherwise? It ends with a quote by Disney, urging us to always go ahead in life.
Thank you, Walt Disney, for showing us, through the eyes of Lewis, that we indeed are the masters of our future, and that our actions determine what lies before us.
Rediff Rating: 
