There won't be a future unless you fix the time machine! Look, I messed up. I left the garage unlocked, and I've tried like crazy to fix things, but now it's up to you. You can do it dad.
„
~ Wilbur encouraging Lewis before he disappears.
“
I never thought my dad would be my best friend.
„
~ Wilbur as he hugs Lewis goodbye.
Wilbur Robinson is the 13-year-old son of Cornelius, a.k.a. Lewis, and Franny Robinson, and is the deuteragonist of Disney's 2007 feature film Meet the Robinsons as well as the main protagonist of the video game of the same name, which takes place before the events of the movie.
Wilbur is a teenager of average height who has black hair that points upwards. He also wears a shirt with a lightning bolt and jeans with a yellow belt.
Personality[]
Wilbur is someone who often acts confident, although he usually finds himself in some kind of trouble. Despite this, he always has a plan to get himself out of it. Wilbur is also sneaky, moving quickly during his time travels, often being stealthly and using his fake persona of a "Time Continuum Task Force" officer until Lewis sees through his act.
Although normally confident and outgoing, he is rather careful and discreet about trying to keep Lewis' cover from being blown. Even though he tries to manipulate Lewis into fixing the time machine, he has good intentions and considers him a friend, showing regret and remorse when his lie of taking him back to see his mom was exposed.
Role in the film[]
While taking the scanner to his school's science fair, Lewis meets 13-year-old Wilbur Robinson, a mysterious boy claiming to be a time cop from the future. Wilbur needs to recover a time machine that a man wearing a bowler hat has stolen. Lewis tries to demonstrate the scanner, but it has been sabotaged by Bowler Hat Guy and falls apart, throwing the science fair into chaos. Lewis leaves while the Bowler Hat Guy, with the help of his robotic bowler hat named Doris, steals the scanner.
Wilbur meets Lewis at the orphanage and asks him to repair the scanner. Lewis agrees to do so only if Wilbur can prove he is telling the truth, which Wilbur does by taking them in a second time machine to the year 2037, which is extremely advanced technologically. When they arrive, Lewis realizes he can simply use the time machine to meet his mother; the resulting argument makes them crash. Wilbur asks Lewis to fix the time machine, and Lewis agrees on the condition that Wilbur has to take him to visit his mother afterwards. Reluctantly, Wilbur agrees and hides Lewis in the garage. Lewis accidentally leaves, however, and ends up meeting the rest of the Robinson family except for Cornelius, Wilbur's father and the inventor of the time's technologies, who is away on a business trip. Having followed Lewis, the Bowler Hat Guy and Doris try to kidnap him, but the Robinsons beat them back. The Robinsons offer to adopt Lewis, but change their mind when they learn that he is from the past. Wilbur admits to lying to Lewis about taking him back to see his mom, causing Lewis to run off in disgust. Wilbur then feels remorse for how he mishandled the situation and goes off to look for him, only to catch him just as he's leaving with Bowler Hat Guy after agreeing to help him fix the Memory Scanner in return for being taken to see his mom.
After Bowler Hay Guy goes back on said deal and reveals that he's really Lewis' old roommate, Mike "Goob" Yagoobian and how he blames Lewis for ruining his life and is therefore, trying to ruin his future, Wilbur and Carl track him down just as they're leaving the building the were in and both rescue Lewis and take back the Memory Scanner. However, in the resulting pursuit, Doris ruthlessly impales and murders Carl to take back the Memory Scanner, and she and Bowler Hat Guy then go back in time. Due to their actions changing history, Wilbur is suddenly sucked into a vortex just after he implores Lewis to do what he can to fix things. Thankfully, Lewis manages to fix the other time machine and warns Bowler Hay Guy/Goob just as he's signing a piece of paper to take credit for his invention about how Doris is only using him to get what she wants, and that when she has no more use for him, she'll get rid of him, much to his dismay. He then erases Doris from existence by promising to never invent her, thereby undoing the dystopian future where she mass-produced herself and enslaved humanity, and conversely, restoring the original utopian future and bringing Wilbur back into existence. He then promptly attacks Goob due to still being under the impression he's a bad guy, but Lewis stops him and explains that he's merely his disgruntled former roommate and even implores that the Robinsons adopt him. While Wilbur is initially very against the proposal, he reluctantly agrees, only for Goob to run off out of a combination of remorse and no longer knowing what to do with his life.
Back at the Robinson's house, Lewis finally meets Cornelius, his future self, face to face, when he arrives home from work, during which his mother Franny, somewhat comically, rats out Wilbur for all the trouble that was caused with the time machine when he inquires about what happened to them. After calmly, but sternly acknowledging this and likely planning on giving him a talking to later, Cornelius takes Lewis aside and explains how the memory scanner started their successful career, as well as persuades him to return to the science fair. After Lewis subsequently says one more goodbye to the rest of this future family, Wilbur takes him back to his own time, but makes one stop first: as he promised, he takes Lewis back to see the moment when his mother abandoned him. After Lewis decides he doesn't need to speak to her, both because he now feels he already has a family and doesn't want to put the future (and by extension, Wilbur and Carl's existence) at risk, Wilbur drops him off in his own time and gives him some words of encouragement by telling him that if he messes up again, he can keep coming back and allow him to redo it until he gets it right before leaving.
Other media[]
Wilbur Robinson appears in the short film Once Upon a Studio, which marks the 100th anniversary of Walt Disney Studios. In addition, it marks Wilbur's first appearance in 15 years.
Gallery[]
Lewis getting a tour from Wilbur
Wilbur leaning against the time machine
Wilbur watching Lewis while he fixes the time machine
A portrait of Wilbur Robinson
Lewis and Wilbur's first appearance in over 15 years in Once Upon a Studio
Trivia[]
In the book A Day With Wilbur Robinson (which Meet the Robinsons is based on), Wilbur was just friends with Lewis rather than his future son. In the film, Wilbur is an only child whilst in the book, he had two sisters; Tallulah (who is his first cousin once removed in the film) and Blanche. In the film, Wilbur has four uncles; Gaston, Art, Dimitri and Spike whilst in the book, he has eight uncles; Gaston, Art, Wormly, Judlow, Nimbus, Orbley, Dimitri and Spike. In the book, Wilbur has a cousin named Pete.