A FUTURE LIKE NO OTHER:
FORGING THE FILM’S WILD DESIGN

As MEET THE ROBINSONS jets off into an electrifying sci-fi vision of an out-of-this-world future, the filmmakers faced the exciting challenge of making that future an animated reality.  In coming up with an overall artistic vision for the film, director Steve Anderson wove together many influences:  “It all started with the beautiful images and great characters from William Joyce’s book, then with the equally creative script, then with all the great ideas that came out of the storyboarding process followed by the incredible contributions of our design team,” he explains.  “Every step of the way, the creativity just kept flowing and we just kept pushing forward.  What came out of it all is an incredible array of designs that have a real child-like point-of-view.  They realize a lot of childhood dreams.  I mean who wouldn’t want to float around in bubbles flying through the air or who wouldn’t want to wear a propeller hat or have a family robot who can do all kinds of cool things?  This is a world I think anybody would love to visit.”   

Anderson and the design team began by forging distinct design rules for each of the three different time periods of the story:  The Present, The Good Future and The Evil Future. The director explains:  “We knew that we needed the future where Lewis meets the Robinsons to stand out in bold contrast with where Lewis is right now, so the present is filled only with boxy, rectangular shapes and lots of sharp angles and edges, whereas the Robinsons’ future is all curves and circles, inspired by the very soft, rounded and comforting images in William Joyce’s book.  And, contrasting with both of these, the Evil Future is very, very bad indeed.” 

In coming up with a driving aesthetic, Anderson and his team were especially inspired by the Futurism seen in the industrial design movement of the 1930s and 40s.  “We all loved the optimism and the complete and total commitment to creating something greater that you see in those images,” Anderson explains.  “We took a lot of our cues from that and from the curving forms of the 1930s architectural style known as Streamline Moderne -- so this exciting future also has a kind of fun, Retro feel to it. This really resonates with the theme of the story, because we were constantly looking back to the past to build the picture of the future.” 

Equally influential on the design was the forward-thinking vision of Walt Disney himself.  The film even pays homage to Walt Disney’s own take on the future, “Tomorrowland,” with its fun twist of “Todayland.” 

The visually invigorating mix of Retro and Futuristic also extended to the film’s non-stop assemblage of inventions – ranging from the Lewis’ rag-tag Memory Scanner pieced together out of a mélange of scrap parts and Peanut Butter and Jelly Making Machine of the present world to the moving sidewalks, monorails, travel tubes and insta-skyscrapers of the Robinsons’ futuristic world. 

To create the film’s endlessly innovative sets and props, Anderson worked closely with art director Robh Ruppel, who previously served as production designer on the traditionally animated “Brother Bear.”  Ruppel, who began his career as an industrial design major at Art Center College in Pasadena (where he has also served as a teacher), had a blast taking off into the future with digital tools at his disposal.  “Robh really took every element of the film’s design to another level,” says Anderson. 
Ruppel knew immediately that MEET THE ROBINSONS would be the creative challenge of a lifetime.  “There are so many different looks and elements and palettes to this story,” he muses.  “No matter where you are in the story, there’s always something visually exciting going on.” 

Ruppel and Anderson agreed right off the bat that one of the most visually interesting elements of the present had to be Lewis himself.  “Lewis doesn’t really belong in the present world, so he’s the brightest thing in it,” notes Ruppel.  “He’s red, yellow and blue and he’s always clashing with the world around him until he arrives in the future, where he fits right in.  His world at the orphanage is a little claustrophobic, very patterned and boxed-in a little too tight, but the future is wide open, full of blue skies and a clean, unobstructed view. The shapes move from squares and rectangles to sleek, rounded shapes. The palette also completely shifts from the present to the future – from muted to sharp and bright.” 

When it came to forging the city of the future in which the Robinsons live, the designer took cues from William Joyce’s book, as well as from a number of influential 1930s and 40s designers including:  Raymond Loewy, the “father of industrial design” whose work spanned from cars to spacecraft and who lived by his own famous MAYA principle – meaning “Most Advanced Yet Acceptable”; Harold Van Doren, who brought skyscraper shapes and lustrous, streamlined design to such everyday objects as bicycles and radios; and the prolific Henry Dreyfuss, whose forward-thinking designs ranged from the first-ever answering machine to the Hoover vacuum cleaner.

 “We were very influenced by retro-futuristic shapes in creating the future city and all the Robinsons’ household inventions,” Ruppel explains, “but we updated them by using newer materials, like what Apple does, with lots of anodized, iridescent finishes.”

As for some of his favorite sets, Ruppel has trouble choosing, but picks three:  the Robinsons’ garage, Cornelius’ laboratory and the Evil Future.  “The Robinsons’ garage is a like a 1950s car showroom, all sleek and with that bank of lights keeping things very bright,” says Ruppel.  “And I love Cornelius’ laboratory because it’s filled with so much whimsy.  But the Evil Future is also awesome because its really pushes the edge more than usual in a Disney film.  It’s based very much on Doris’ dark vision of the future, so all the architecture is centered on the theme of bowler hat shapes.  But it’s also one giant, grungy, polluted, petroleum bowl.” 

For Ruppel, one of the biggest challenges was lighting this complicated digital world, especially since the story takes place all in one day, from sunrise to sundown, with constantly progressing light conditions.  “It’s a bit like working in the dark when you’re lighting with virtual tools,” he notes.  “It’s something you take for granted on a live action film but it’s a very challenging process in digital animation and I’m really pleased with how well the lighting turned out.”

The integrated vision of the entire design was gratifying to Steve Anderson.  He cites the Memory Scanner as one of his favorite props.  “It feels like something a child would invent.  It’s very organic and made up of found objects and it’s really got that great Retro feeling,” he says.  “The Memory Scanner is also especially close to my heart because of its emotional resonances and all that it means to Lewis.” 

Another of Anderson’s favorite designs blurs the line between prop and character – the wicked bowler hat, Doris.  “Doris was an idea that came along when we were looking for a reason for Bowler Hat Guy to always be wearing a bowler hat,” he notes.  “Then we hit upon the fun idea of a ‘hench hat’ who is also an invention that went very wrong.  Like all of the other design elements in the film, Doris has an organic reason for being how she is.  Form follows function in our designs which helps to give everything that cool factor.”