These Meet the Robinsons facts are everything every fan of the film needs! Get ready to learn some amazing facts about the film – the creators, the voice talent, the reason the director was attracted to the project, and the backstory behind the soundtrack! And we’ve got lots more quizzes and facts for Disney lovers when you’re finished reading! See how well you know the Disney channel, find out which Disney princess you are, or test your knowledge of the Disney parks with this trivia quiz!

Without further ado, let’s start the Meet the Robinsons facts!

1. It’s based on a book

The film isn’t an original idea, but based on a 1990 book by American author William Joyce. The book is called A Day With Wilbur Robinson, and it’s quite different from the film – for one thing, it doesn’t have any time travel! The main plot of the book is the scene where the boys search for Grandpa’s teeth.

2. William Joyce pitched the story to a lot of other filmmakers

Author William Joyce imagined his book becoming a film for a long time, and he actually approached a number of famous filmmakers with his pitch, including Steven Spielberg, George Miller, Peter Jackson and Francis Ford Coppola. His original pitch was for a live-action film, but it was picked up by Disney as an animated feature.

3. William Joyce also created another famous animated film

William Joyce isn’t just an author – he’s also an illustrator and filmmaker! He worked with Pixar, doing character design for Toy Story and A Bug’s Life, and along with director Chris Wedge he came up with the concept and character designs for the 2005 film Robots! You might notice some of their aesthetics of Robots are kind of similar to the futuristic design in Meet the Robinsons – that’s thanks to William Joyce! The filmmakers had to work hard to make sure the designs of the two films weren’t too similar.

4. It’s made by the team who made Chicken Little

The animation crew for Meet the Robinsons had just finished working on Disney’s 2005 film Chicken Little. This was a new challenge for them though – unlike Chicken Little the main cast of Meet the Robinsons were humans. Humans are a lot harder to animate than you might think, because our brains have a hard time accepting animations of humans, and we tend to find them creepy if they aren’t done right. That’s one reason why Pixar’s earlier films only had humans as minor characters – it was easier to make bugs, toys and fish into expressive characters, because the technology just wasn’t there yet!

5. The Incredibles inspired the human character designs

Animation changed with The Incredibles, which was the first Pixar film to have an all-human cast and inspired a lot of other animated films. The characters in Meet the Robinsons were especially inspired by The Incredibles – if you compare the two you will definitely notice the similarities! They were also inspired by older Disney films like Cinderella, Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland.

6. Stephen Anderson had a special connection to the film

The story was very personal to director Stephen Anderson. He worked as an artist and story developer for Disney, with credits on Tarzan, The Emperor’s New Groove and Brother Bear already under his belt. He was especially interested in Meet the Robinsons because, just like Lewis, he was adopted as a child.

7. Two actors played Lewis

Main character Lewis is voiced by two different actors, Jordan Fry and Daniel Hansen. This is because Daniel Hansen’s voice broke, which is when a boy’s voice deepens when he hits puberty. This is also one of the reasons why boys in cartoons are often voiced by adult women!

8. Ethan Sandler plays seven characters

If you think some of the characters sound similar to each other – you’re right! Actor Ethan Sandler played seven characters: Doris, Fritz Robinson, Aunt Petunia, Uncle Spike, Uncle Dimitri, Cousin Laszlo and the CEO of InventCO! Director Stephen Anderson also voices several characters, including the Bowler Hat Guy!

9. There’s a subtle voice-acting joke

Wilbur says that his dad looks like Tom Selleck, an actor known for his role in detective series Magnum P.I. and for his glorious moustache. When we finally see his dad (no spoilers here!), he doesn’t look like Tom Selleck at all – but he is actually voiced by the real Tom Selleck!

10. Jim Carrey was almost in it

The Bowler Hat Guy might have sounded very different! Jim Carrey was offered the role, but turned it down to work on the thriller The Number 23.

11. It was partially scrapped and redone

Meet the Robinsons started production in 2004 and was set for a 2006 release, but there were a lot of behind-the-scenes complications that got in the way. One of them was Disney buying Pixar in 2006. The creative director of Pixar also became the creative director of Disney, and he thought Meet the Robinsons needed a scarier villain and a better ending. About 60% of the film was totally changed from the original version – this included adding the dinosaur chase!

12. Weird Al was offered the role of Carl

Another voice talent we missed out on is legendary comedy musician “Weird” Al Yankovic, who was considered for the role of Carl, the Robinson family robot! Weird Al did work on the lyrics for the Jonas Brothers song “Kids of the Future”, which appeared in Meet the Robinsons.  

13. There are some famous portraits in the orphanage

Disney loves putting background references in their films, and Meet the Robinsons is no exception! In the orphanage you can see pictures of inventor Nikola Tesla and producer Walt Disney in Lewis’s room. Of course Disney is the founder of the Disney company, but he was also an entrepreneur, a tech-lover and a creator, which is what Lewis aspires to be.  

14. It features a cover of an iconic Disney World song

There are some great songs in the Meet the Robinsons soundtrack, including “Another Believer” by Rufus Wainwright and sleeper hit “Little Wonders” by Rob Thomas. Another song that features on the soundtrack is a cover of “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow”, and if you’re lucky enough to have been to Walt Disney World, you might recognise it from the show Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress, which can be found in the Magic Kingdom! The song and the show are all about the development of technology and being optimistic about the future – which totally fits the theme of Meet the Robinsons! The song was written by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, who wrote a lot of music for Disney including the Mary Poppins soundtrack.

15. Todayland is a real place

Speaking of theme parks – did you know that Todayland in Meet the Robinsons is based on a real place! Tomorrowland is part of the Magic Kingdom park in Walt Disney World in Florida, and the original Disneyland park in California, and it looks a LOT like Todayland in Meet the Robinsons – one of the buildings in the film is almost identical to the iconic ride Space Mountain!

16. The characters appeared in Disney’s 100 year celebration

In 2023 Disney released a short film called Once Upon A Studio to celebrate 100 years of the Disney company. The short features just about every animated Disney character ever made, and that includes Lewis, Wilbur, Bowler Hat Guy, Carl, and Lucille from Meet the Robinsons! Their models had to be redone because animation technology has moved on a lot since 2007.

17. A sequel was planned

Let’s finish up these Meet the Robinsons facts by looking forward, just like the film! Disney loves sequels, but we haven’t had one for Meet the Robinsons yet! There was a planned direct-to-video sequel which was titled Meet the Robinsons 2: First Date, but it was cancelled after the Disney-Pixar merger. Who knows, maybe we’ll get a sequel in the future – or a live-action remake?