computer science

Meet the Robinsons

Meet the Robinsons is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Meet the Robinsons rather than just read about it. In short: Meet the Robinsons is a 2007 American animated science fiction comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. Based on the 1990 children's book A Day with Wilbur Robinson by William Joyce, the film was directed by Stephen Anderson, and written by Anderson, Don Hall, Nathan Greno, Joe Mateo, Jon Bernstein, Michelle Spitz, and Aurian Redson, and stars the voices of Daniel Hansen and Jo…

Key takeaways

Meet the Robinsons belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Meet the Robinsons to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Meet the Robinsons from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Meet the Robinsons is a 2007 American animated science fiction comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. Based on the 1990 children's book A Day with Wilbur Robinson by William Joyce, the film was directed by Stephen Anderson, and written by Anderson, Don Hall, Nathan Greno, Joe Mateo, Jon Bernstein, Michelle Spitz, and Aurian Redson, and stars the voices of Daniel Hansen and Jordan Fry, Wesley Singerman, Angela Bassett, Tom Selleck, Harland Williams, Laurie Metcalf, Nicole Sullivan, Adam West, Ethan Sandler, Tom Kenny, and Anderson. In the film, Lewis, an orphaned 12-year-old inventor, meets Wilbur Robinson, a young time-traveler who takes him to the future, before an incident wrecks Wilbur's time machine. Lewis agrees to help him fix the machine and ends up acquainted with Wilbur's eccentric family. Meanwhile, a mysterious man with a sentient bowler hat aims to sabotage Lewis' fate, and, by proxy, the future. Development began in 2002, with production starting in 2004 under the working title A Day with Wilbur Robinson, with a release initially slated for 2006. Anderson developed a personal connection to the main character, Lewis, as he himself grew up an orphan and was later adopted. Disney originally planned to adopt Joyce's style, but it was decided to slightly rework the style due to his involvement stylistically in Blue Sky Studios' Robots. The animation crew had the challenge to animate CG humans, being inspired by Pixar's The Incredibles. Inspiration for the film came from Disney animated classics, such as Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, and Peter Pan, as well as Warner Bros. Cartoons, to capture a 1950s aesthetic. Disney's acquisition of Pixar in early 2006 led to nearly 60% of the film, including the villain and the ending, being scrapped and reworked. Danny Elfman composed the film's score, while artists such as Rufus Wainwright, Rob Thomas, The All-American Rejects, and They Might Be Giants contributed to its soundtrack. Meet the Robinsons premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on March 25, 2007, and was released in the United States on March 30, 2007. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and audiences but was a box office disappointment, grossing $170.5 million against a budget of $150 million.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Meet the Robinsons: Director Stephen Anderson at the film's premiere — Director Stephen Anderson at the film's premiere

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Meet the Robinsons

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Meet the Robinsons claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Meet the Robinsons before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Meet the Robinsons ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Meet the Robinsons

In research: Meet the Robinsons appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Meet the Robinsons in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Meet the Robinsons is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2000s coming-of-age comedy films, 2000s dystopian films, 2000s films about time travel, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Meet the Robinsons outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Meet the Robinsons in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Meet the Robinsons means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Meet the Robinsons out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Meet the Robinsons in simple terms?

Why does Meet the Robinsons matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Meet the Robinsons?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Meet the Robinsons.