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Characters in the Present Time
Lewis
Voiced by: Daniel Hansen, Jordan Fry; Victor Naudet (European French Dub), Raúl Sebastián (Latin Spanish dub)
The main protagonist and a budding inventor.
- Adoptive Name Change: His family changed his name to Cornelius after they adopted him.
- Adorably Precocious Child: He is a responsible, pre-teen kid, and the things he says or when he smiles can melt your heart.
- Advertised Extra: Lewis appears on the cover of the console versions of the video game, even though he only briefly appears in a cutscene by dint of it being a prequel focusing on Wilbur.
- All-Loving Hero: Lewis' dream of inventing doesn't just stem from his love of it, but also how he wants to make the world a better place.
- Badass Adorable: Has his sweet, friendly moments and is a brilliant inventor.
- Badass Bookworm: His peanut butter and jelly sandwich gun, the memory scanner, fixing the time machine, eventually building Carl the robot, and the other numerous inventions he's made in the future with Robinson Industries.
- Badass Pacifist: Lewis manages to to stop Doris by simply saying the words, "I am never going to invent you.", which erases Doris out of existence in the process.
- Bungling Inventor: Many of the inventions he's made have not always worked, i.e. the PB&J gun.
- Character Development: Lewis learns that even though he'll fail sometimes, he shouldn't just give up. He has to "keep moving forward".
- Child Prodigy: He is ridiculously intelligent. Obviously he develops into a Teen Genius, as he ends up graduating from college at fourteen.
- Determinator: His Character Development really paid off, his future self spent five years of repeated failures to finally make a time machine.
- Doorstop Baby: His birth mother left him on the doorstep of the orphanage that he would grow up in for 12 years.
- Dumb Blonde: Inverted. Lewis is a blond who also happens to be one of the smartest characters Disney has ever made.
- Endearingly Dorky: His "adjustments" to being in the future and style of clothing. Too precious.
- Future Badass: What he becomes in the future as Cornelius. Many of the inventions he's built have really helped people. Lewis even learns he has his own invention company.
- Gadgeteer Genius: In the climax, with a newly regained confidence, Lewis manages to fix the time machine, as well as create the inventions that are used in the future.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Lewis is a blond, dorky Nice Guy.
- Happily Adopted: By Dr. Krunklehorn and her husband. The trope gets more cemented when after the couple surprises Lewis with his new room, he runs to hug them. A family group hug follows.
- Heartwarming Orphan: He doesn't stop hoping that he will get adopted. Which he does.
- Improbable Hairstyle: For some reason, Lewis' hair is spiky enough to stand on its own. It turns out to be a give away that he's actually Cornelius Robinson.
- Improvised Weapon: Believe it or not, Retcon. By telling Doris he's never going to invent her, Lewis retroactively erases her existence from the space-time continuum, defeating her.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: To match his friendly and bright personality.
- Kid Hero: The protagonist and he's 12, almost 13.
- Meaningful Rename: He eventually changes his name to Cornelius.
- My Greatest Failure: After Goob explains why he "turned evil", Lewis starts seeing his semi-abusive behavior of young Goob as this and fixes it by waking Goob up in time for him to win at an important baseball game.
- Nerd Glasses: He wears the stereotypic round glasses that most scientists or nerds wear.
- Nerds Are Sexy: More like "Nerds Are Cute". Bowtie? Check. Determinator tendencies? Check. His expressions and ideas of being adopted? Check.
- Nice Guy: Lewis has his moments of pre-teen angst, but he's overall a nice and sweet young man.
- Opposites Attract: With Franny. He's a quiet scientist/inventor while she's an excitable musician.
- Primary-Color Champion: The main protagonist and his outfits consists of the following — a blue vest, white t-shirt, red pants, and white socks. And he's a blond.
- Rags to Riches: Downplayed. While Lewis didn't grow up in poverty and was raised in a reasonably well-off orphanage, in the future, he becomes an extremely wealthy inventor.
- Ridiculously Successful Future Self: As Cornelius Robinson. He owns a company that has really made the world progress.
- Science Hero: The hero who has been making his own inventions since probably before he was 12.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Lewis wears circular glasses and is quite the brainiac.
- Took a Level in Badass: Lewis goes from a pre-teen wannabe inventor whose inventions almost never work to the man who builds all the things to help mankind.
- Took a Level in Idealism: Lewis' failures nearly lead him to give up on his dreams and aspirations. His adventures with Wilbur and the Robinsons help him eventually adopt the "keep moving forward" philosophy.
- Walking Spoiler: An In-Universe example, in that Wilbur exposing him reveals to the Robinsons that he is a young Cornelius.
- Youthful Freckles: Lewis has some faint freckles on his cheeks. His older self, Cornelius does too, but even in close shots of his face they're hard to notice.
Mildred Duffy
Voiced by: Angela Bassett; Sophie Deschaumes (European French Dub), Simone Brook (Latin Spanish dub)
The person who runs the orphanage that Lewis grew up in.
- Friend to All Children: There's her first scene with baby Lewis and the fact that she runs an orphanage.
- Good Parents: Or rather "Good Substitute Parent", but there's no doubt that the way Lewis turned out is because of her.
- Hartman Hips: Mildred has rather curvy hips.
- Meaningful Name: "Mildred" is Old English for "gentle strength", alluding to her help towards Lewis in letting go of the past.
- Nice Girl: A kind, motherly woman and one of the very first to not discourage Lewis's inventions.
- Parental Substitute: Before being officially adopted, Mildred is a positive mother figure for Lewis and the rest of the kids at the orphanage.
Mike "Goob" Yagoobian
Voiced by: Matthew Jonsen; Paul-Antoine Nahon (European French Dub), Andoni Sánchez (Latin Spanish dub)
Lewis' roommate and friend at the orphanage.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Inverted. Bowler Hat Guy claims that his classmates "all hated [him]", but the footage shows that said classmates actually tried to befriend him. He shut them out.
- Chekhov's Gunman: He is introduced as a minor character who exists primarily to establish how obsessed Lewis is with his inventions. Then it turns out the Bowler Hat Guy is his grown-up self.
- Creepy Child: His anger over losing a baseball game is so scary, it causes the adults coming to adopt him to not do so.
- Deadpan Snarker: Has a dry sense of humor. He loses the trait after he takes the advice of his future self.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Lewis decides to give Goob a better future by waking him up just in time to catch the winning ball and get praised by his teammates. The last time we see Goob, he's prepared to be adopted with a much cheerful attitude.
- Exhausted Eye Bags: As a result of Lewis using him as a test subject for his inventions.
- Happily Adopted: His last scene has him prepared to be adopted.
- In-Series Nickname: Often called "Goob".
- Limited Wardrobe: He's only ever shown wearing his baseball uniform. Exaggerated when it turns out the Bowler Hat Guy is his future self, and is still wearing that uniform under his cloak well into middle age.
- Older Than They Look: At first glance, he looks around elementary school age. He's twelve, the same age as Lewis.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: After he meets with Doris, she persuades him to ruin Lewis' life, all for a baseball game. Thankfully, this gets averted after Lewis wakes up Goob to catch the winning ball.
- Walking Spoiler: It's hard to talk about him without revealing he is Bowler Hat Guy's past self.
Lewis' mother
Voiced by: N/A
Lewis' mother who gave up him up for adoption.
- Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Gender-swapped and discussed. When former Doorstop Baby Lewis is rejected by the 100+ adoptive parents, he bitterly complains that even his birth mother didn't want him. Mildred is quick to point out that that might not be true; she probably did want him but couldn't raise him for some reason. Unfortunately, this just makes Lewis obsessed with tracking the birth mother down, since he's now convinced that she's the only one who ever wanted him. At the end of the movie, though, we can see she was having second thoughts before leaving Lewis. Make of that what you will.
- Missing Mom: She left Lewis at the front door of the orphanage, walking away into the distance.
- No Name Given: Her name is never revealed.
- Small Role, Big Impact: She has such an influence on Lewis that it was her that inspired him to invent his Memory Scanner.
- Reused Character Design: She shares the same model as Franny Robinson, probably to make her real identity more of a mystery.
- Riddle for the Ages: Her reasons for giving up Lewis, as well as her current status, are ultimately never revealed.
Mr. Willerstein and Coach
- Cool Teacher: Mr. Willerstein helps encourage Lewis to enter the contest in the first place and is happy for him when he succeeds.
- Everybody Calls Him "Barkeep": Coach is a gym coach whose real name is never revealed.
- Eye-Obscuring Hat: Coach's baseball cap covers his eyes.
- Gym Class Hell: Coach orders one boy whose project doesn't work to run twenty laps around the gym.
- Misplaced Kindergarten Teacher: Coach isn't very qualified to be judging a science fair instead of teaching gym, something Willerstein lampshades. He's only there because the science fair is being held in his gym.
- Nice Guy: Willerstein. He's one of the only people in Lewis's life to not discourage Lewis's inventions.
- Pet the Dog: See Reasonable Authority Figure below.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: They give Lewis a second chance to show of his memory scanner after it initially malfunctions and plunges the fair into chaos.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Coach is stern, muscular, and irritable while Willerstein is polite, scrawny, and timid.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Willerstein is a bespectacled science teacher.
- Smarter Than They Look: Coach looks and acts like a stern Dumb Jock, but does make a couple of intelligent observations and questions. He himself lampshades this after asking why Lewis wants to access his memories from a specific date.Coach: You didn't think I was paying attention, did you?
- So Proud of You: They praise Lewis and his memory scanner after it works on his second attempt, and Coach even calls Lewis the MVP of the Science Fair.
The Robinsons
In General
- Wilbur: Pop quiz. Who have you met, and what have you learn?Lewis: Okay, Bud, Fritz, and Joe are brothers. Fritz is married to Petunia, and is she…Wilbur: Cranky? Yes.Lewis: Tallulah and Laszlo are their children. Joe is married to Billie. Lefty is the butler. Spike and Demitri are twins, and I don’t know who they’re related to.Wilbur: Neither do we, go on.Lewis: Lucille is married to Bud, and your dad, Cornelius, is their son. What does Cornelius look like?Wilbur:… Tom Selleck.Lewis: …Okay, Cornelius is married to Franny, and her brothers are Gaston and Art.Wilbur: You’re forgetting something.Lewis: Forgetting? Oh, right. Wilbur is the son of Franny and Cornelius.
The titular, wacky family.
- As You Know: Lewis recaps to Wilbur who is who in the large wacky Robinson family. The description of who is related to whom is recapped again when you play the bonus feature "family tree" game.
- Badass Family: They attack dinosaurs. One builds huge model trains. One teaches frogs to sing.
- Beware the Nice Ones: The whole family are quite a kind bunch... and you would like them to stay that way.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Each and every one of them is eccentric, but when things get deadly, they get serious.
- Cloudcuckoolander: All of them to some extent. See Keet and Genki Girl.
- Cool Aunt: Petunia and Billie to Wilbur.
- Cool Uncle: Wilbur has Art, who's an intergalactic pizza man, and Gaston, who built a meatball cannon. Then, Fritz and Joe become this to Lewis and Wilbur; for the latter, they're his great uncles. They all come to help Lewis and Wilbur when the T-Rex appears.
- Genki Girl: All of the female Robinsons have this eccentricity.
- It Runs in the Family: The Robinson eccentricity, it would seem.
- Also the "family cowlick" hairstyle.
- Keet: All the male Robinsons have this eccentricity.
- Mama Bear: The female members. When the T-Rex attacks Lewis, the Cloudcuckoolander Robinsons decide to get dangerous.
- Multigenerational Household: Wilbur lives in the Robinson House with his parents, grandparents, great uncles, great aunts, and older cousins.
- No Sense of Personal Space: As pointed out in the director's commentary, the Robinson family frequently get in the face of the more reserved Lewis. It's most noticable with Uncle Gaston
◊. - Papa Wolf: The male members. When the T-Rex attacks Lewis, the Cloudcuckoolander Robinsons decide to get dangerous.
- Practically Different Generations: Bud, Fritz and Joe are brothers but Bud has aged enough to be a grandparent while his younger brothers are roughly young to middle-aged men.
Wilbur Robinson
Voiced by: Wesley Singerman; Thomas Sagols, Abraham Vega (Latin Spanish dub)
The deuteragonist and a Robinson member who wants Lewis to fix his memory scanner to restore the timeline.
- Badass Adorable: His facial expressions and being able to take down a T. rex.
- Character Catchphrase: One of his favorites is "That is an excellent question" (said directly before not answering said question).
- Fearless Fool: He acts confident and level headed despite how hectic his time travel shenanigans get.
- I Gave My Word: Lewis makes him promise to bring him to his biological mother after everything has blown over. After everything has been sorted out, Wilbur keeps his promise and brings Lewis to his real mother's house. Thanks to Character Development, Lewis decides to leave it a mystery so he can focus on his other — and in his eyes, true — family.
- Innocently Insensitive: Wilbur should probably be glad Lewis didn't overhear him telling Franny that "he (Lewis)" is an orphan; his tone is almost too casual and treats something deeply painful for Lewis as a footnote.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Wilbur has his moments of insensitivity, but he does mean well.
- Kid from the Future: He turns out to be Lewis' future son. Wilbur came back from the future to protect his dad from the Bowler Hat Guy. Things got complicated. By the end of the movie, we learn that he also ran into a young Franny but didn't even realize it.
- Non-Answer: When asked something, he usually replies with his catchphrase "That is an excellent question" before proceeding not to elaborate any further.
- Ret-Gone: Near the end of the film. He turns out to be Lewis' son, and since Lewis gave the Bowler Hat Guy the directions he needed to work the time machine, reality was altered. Lewis never met Franny and so Wilbur was never born. Don't worry, he gets better.
- Strong Family Resemblance: He bears a strong resemblance to his mother with their brown eyes and black hair slicked upward.
Franny Robinson
Voiced by: Nicole Sullivan, Jessie Flower (younger); Ninou Fratellini, Claire Bouanich (younger) (European French Dub); Claudia Garzón (Latin Spanish dub), Pau García Castillas (Latin Spanish dub, younger)
The matriarch of the Robinsons, Wilbur's mother, and Cornelius' wife. She teaches frogs music.
- Action Mom: Franny does martial arts during food fights and attacks a Tyrannosaurus rex to protect Lewis.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Implied. When Lewis meets Franny as kids, she makes a comment that people would call her crazy for thinking she can teach frogs to sing.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: The probable reason why Franny took such a liking to Lewis aka Cornelius in the first place is because he believed in her dream to teach frogs to sing, when others didn't.
- Brainy Brunette: She was able to teach frogs to sing for God's sake!
- Childhood Friend Romance: She and Lewis met each other when they were still kids, at the science fair.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Wilbur walks into young!Franny near the beginning of the film, and apparently never figures out who she is.
- Friend to All Living Things: Judging by her ambition to teach amphibians to not only speak, but sing as well.
- Happily Married: To Cornelius. Who turns out to be the older Lewis.
- Impossible Hourglass Figure: Has a very broad and robust upper-body, and a waist you could wrap your whole hand around.
- Like Parent, Like Spouse: For her future husband, Lewis.
Word of God stated that Franny's body model was used for Lewis' mother as well. - Little Miss Badass: As a child, Franny is able to push around Wilbur, who is much taller and older than she is.
- Mama Bear: As previously mentioned, she attacks a T-Rex when it tries to grab Lewis.
- Nice Girl: Franny is feisty, sweet, and was willing to adopt Lewis the first day she met him. She doesn't because he turns out to be the younger self of her future husband.
- Opposites Attract: With Cornelius/future Lewis. While she's an excitable musician, he's a quiet person by comparison who is a worldwide known inventor.
- Red Is Heroic: Wears a red bowtie in her head and red heels, and she's also one of the good guys.
- Sibling Rivalry: Implied to have this with Gaston.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Heavily implied. When Lewis and Franny first meet at the science fair, Franny gets lovestruck gaze after her future husband tells her he believes in her dream of teaching frogs to sing.
- Tomboy: An expert in karate and would rather teach frogs to sing than play with dolls.
Cornelius Robinson (Unmarked Spoilers)
Voiced by: Tom Selleck; Lionel Tua (European French Dub), José Luis "El Puma" Rodríguez (Latin Spanish dub)
The patriarch of the Robinsons, Wilbur's father, and Franny's husband. He is in charge of Robinson Industries.
- Ambiguous Situation: Lewis asks his future self if he's ever met their biological mother. Cornelius appears to hesitate, as if unsure if that ever happened or if he is considering telling him about her. In the end, though, he tells his past self that it's all up to him as the future is not set in stone.
- Adoptive Name Change: He was once Lewis, but his family changed his name after they adopted him.
- Amazon Chaser: He is Happily Married to Franny, who is a karate master.
- Big Good: A brilliant scientist who's responsible for the inventions that led to the good future.
- Borrowed Catch Phrase: "Keep Moving Forward" was an old saying by Disney, and it's plastered everywhere in 2037.
- Brick Joke: When Lewis and Wilbur are running through the Robinson family tree, Lewis asks what Cornelius looks like. Wilbur ponders a bit, and then replies, "...Tom Selleck". When Cornelius finally shows up in person at the end of the movie, guess who his voice actor turns out to be?
- Celebrity Paradox: Played for Laughs. Tom Selleck is apparently a celebrity both Lewis and Wilbur are familiar enough with to use as a reference for what Cornelius looks like. The joke was actually written first, and only after that did the production crew decide to actually get Tom Selleck for Cornelius's voice.
- Childhood Friend Romance: He met his future wife, Franny, when they were both kids at the science fair.
- Composite Character: Seems to be a composite of three different characters from the book. The most obvious two being Mr. Robinson and Lewis. He also has traits from Uncle Judlow, being an inventor and the smartest member of the family.
- Determinator: As Wilbur lets Lewis know, he keeps inventing until something works, even if he fails spectacularly hundreds of times in the process. His motto isn't "Keep Moving Forward" for nothing.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: You can see Cornelius' face as he shuts down Doris during her backstory within Bowler Hat Guy's monologue.
- Hairstyle Inertia: A major plot point, in fact. He kept the same spiky hairstyle he had in his youth when he went by Lewis. This is the reason Wilbur keeps present Lewis' hair covered with a hat.
- Henpecked Husband: He has shades of this with his wife. After all, she is always right.
- Honest Corporate Executive: He's the head of Robinson Industries and genuinely wants to improve people's lives with his inventions.
- Ink-Suit Actor: Spoofed. When Lewis asked what Cornelius looks like, Wilbur replies, "Like Tom Selleck", his voice actor. In reality, Cornelius bears no resemblance to his voice actor.
- Primary-Color Champion: He wears the same primary-themed attire he was dressed in when he went by Lewis, except now he wears a white labcoat.
- Self-Made Man: Thanks to the memory scanner, he was able to show what he could do, and by now he even owns his own company and builds the inventions by it. Though having a scientist for an adopted mom probably helped matters.
- Walking Spoiler: It's impossible to talk about him without revealing that he's actually Lewis from the future and spoiling the plot.
Carl
Voiced by: Harland Williams; Donald Reignoux (European French Dub), Óscar Flores (Latin Spanish dub)
The robot butler and honorary member of the Robinson family.
- Artificial Family Member: Played With. He wasn't created to be Lewis/Cornelius's child, but he is clearly treated as part of the family.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: Towards the end of the movie, Doris kills Carl by impaling him with her arm weapon. Don't worry, he gets better.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: By Doris, when he and Wilbur go to rescue Lewis.
- Light Is Good: Carl is a shiny, golden robot.
- Muscle Angst: Implied. Before Lewis goes back to the past, he gives some "suggestions" for his design (namely building him muscular instead of skinny).
- Nice Guy: Carl is shown to be consistently polite and helpful.
- Only Sane Man: He is the least strange member of the household... and he's a robot.
- Pick Your Human Half: Carl is completely robot in appearance and has the character traits of a human.
- Robot Buddy: To the Robinsons, but especially Wilbur. He is considered part of the family, even if he's not blood related, and is treated like a Robinson.
- Servile Snarker: He works for the Robinsons and doesn't hide his snarky side.
Grampa Bud / Bud Robinson
Bud Robinson
Voiced by: Stephen Anderson; Patrice Dozier (European French Dub); Esteban Siller (Latin Spanish dub)
Wilbur's grandfather, Cornelius' father and grandpatriarch of the Robinson family.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: It seems to be a family trait.
- Cool Old Guy: He may be a little wacky, but he is shown to be a funny, happy-go-lucky person and a wonderful father and grandfather figure.
- False Teeth Tomfoolery: When Lewis first meets Grandpa Bud, he is hunting for his false teeth, in quintessential Robinson style.
- Good Parents: He and his wife adopted Lewis/Cornelius and he is shown to be a very loving and supportive father towards him.
- Grandparental Obliviousness: He means well, but he tends to be rather forgetful as he didn't remember where the garage was and took Lewis all over the house looking for it.
- Nice Guy: As wacky as he can be, Bud is shown to be a very nice, friendly man who cares deeply about his family. He also adopted Lewis not long after meeting him, seeing him as "a real special kid" and it's implied that it was thanks to him and his wife's good parenting and support that Lewis/Cornelius turned into the man he is in the future.
- Scatterbrained Senior: He means well, but he can be pretty wacky and forgetful at times.
Grandma Lucille (Unmarked Spoilers)
Voiced by: Laurie Metcalf;Virginie Mery (European French Dub); Evita "Chachita" Muñoz (Latin Spanish dub)
Wilbur's grandmother, Cornelius' mother, and grandmatriarch to the Robinson family. In the present, she goes by Dr. Krunklehorn, and is one of the science fair judges.
- Academic Athlete: We know she's a brilliant (if eccentric) scientist, but if her words are to be believed, she's swam the English Channel and won a gold medal luging (and implies it was only her first).
- Cloud Cuckoolander: It seems to run in the family.
- Cool Old Lady: She is shown "baking cookies" by dancing.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Dr. Krunklehorn says "One of your students may invent the next integrated circuit, or microprocessor, or integrated circuit... Oh wait, I said that already!" in her introductory scene. Justified since she is sleep deprived and only awake due to her caffeine patches.
- Genki Girl: Dr. Krunklehorn. Yes, really. The fact that she invented a caffeine patch doesn't help matters.
- Good Parents: She and her husband adopted Lewis/Cornelius and she is shown to be a very loving, understanding and supportive mother towards him.
- Large Ham: Her younger self really hams it up when she's caffeinated. Being voiced by Laurie Metcalf helps.
- Must Have Caffeine: Her invention of the caffeine patch qualifies as this. While talking in the present day, she ends up screaming that she hasn't slept in eight days. Mr. Willerstein awkwardly asks if she would like a cot, but Lucille says no, explaining she has the caffeine patch. Slapping one on Mr. Willerstein's head, she lifts up her sleeve to reveal a set of patches on her arm. She then goes on to explain that her invention is the equivalent to 12 cups of coffee with no side effects, before screaming out of nowhere and quickly apologizing.
- Nice Girl: As hyper and eccentric as she is, she is shown to be a very kind, friendly and encouraging person. She was more than happy to judge the science fair and volunteered to be Lewis's test subject during his second attempt with the memory scanner. She also adopted Lewis not long after meeting him, and it's implied that it was thanks to her and her husband's good parenting and support that Lewis/Cornelius turned into the man he is in the future.
- Professional Maiden Name: She is refered to as Dr. Krunklehorn when she is judging the science fair. She is also revealed to be Bud Robinson's wife and Lewis's adoptive mother. It's unknown if she kept her maiden name when she married Bud or only uses it for her work life.
- Rose-Haired Sweetie: Or pink in this case. In the future, the elderly Lucille wears her hair up in a puffy pink bun.
- Shaking the Rump: In the future, she is seen "baking cookies" when Bud opens the door to show her dancing to Swing music.
Uncle Art / Art Framagucci
Art Framagucci
Wilbur's uncle, Cornelius' brother-in-law and uncle of the Robinson family.- Bait-and-Switch: Comes off as some sort of space adventurer before you find out that he's actually a pizza delivery man (but still, IN SPACE!)
- Large Ham: Uncle Art most of the time.
- Shout-Out: Apparently, he's delivered pizza to the planet Qward, the homeworld of the Sinestro Corps in the Green Lantern mythos.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Art Framagucci is tall, muscular, has dark hair, and is quite handsome.
Uncle Gaston / Gaston Framagucci
Gaston Framagucci
Voiced by: Don Hall; Pascal Massix (European French Dub); Raúl Anaya (Latin Spanish dub)
Wilbur's uncle, Cornelius' brother-in-law and uncle of the Robinson family.- Large Ham: Uncle Gaston when food-fighting with Franny.
- Sibling Rivalry: Implied between Gaston and Franny. They engage in a food fight and, based off Franny’s line before the fight, it sounds like this wasn’t the first time they fought during a meal.
- The Un-Smile: When he's happy, he makes weird facial expressions.
Cousin Tallulah / Tallulah Robinson
Cousin Tallulah
Voiced by: Stephen Anderson; Lena Kowski (European French Dub); Yadira Aedo (Latin Spanish dub)
Wilbur's first cousin, Cornelius' cousin and relative of the Robinson family.- Composite Character: Has the name of one character from the book but the gimmick of another.
- Crossdressing Voices: Voiced by director Stephen Anderson, and you can kind of tell.
- Fiery Redhead: Tallulah has red hair and starts bickering with her brother after he accidentally spilled paint on her hat.
- Related Differently in the Adaptation: She's Wilbur's cousin in the movie, but based on his two sisters from the book.
- Sibling Rivalry: She and her brother Lazlo seem to bicker and get into squabbles a lot.
Uncle Spike and Uncle Demitri / Spike and Demitri Robinson
Spike and Demitri
Voiced by: Ethan Sandler; Serge Bavian (European French Dub); Jamie Kurt (Latin Spanish dub)
Wilbur's uncles and uncles to the Robinson family. Lewis comments that he doesn't know who they're related to, to which Wilbur comments that nether anyone in the Robinson family know who Spike and Demitri are related to.- Ambiguously Related: Lewis describes Spike and Demitri as twins but does not know who they are related to, which Wilbur admits not even he or any of the Robinson‘s truly know.
- Sibling Rivalry: Played straight with Dmitri and Spike in a doorbell ringing contest.
Cousin Laszlo / Laszlo Robinson
Cousin Laszlo
Voiced by: Ethan Sandler; Damien Witecka (European French Dub); Milton Wolch (Latin Spanish dub)
Wilbur's first cousin, Cornelius' cousin and relative of the Robinson family.- Fiery Redhead: Laszlo sports red hair and starts an argument with his sister when he accidentally spills paint on her hat.
- Sibling Rivalry: He and his sister Tallulah seem to bicker and get into squabbles a lot.
Uncle Joe / Joe Robinson
Joe Robinson
Voiced by: Unknown
Wilbur's great-uncle, Cornelius' uncle and one of the many relatives in the Robinson family.- Canon Foreigner: Makes no appearance in the book.
- Happily Married: To Billie.
- Manchild: Without his PB&J sandwich, Uncle Joe can become one of these:Uncle Art: You don't understand what's at stake here; Uncle Joe's seen the toast!
[Uncle Joe starts whimpering and turns red in the face]
Grandpa Bud: We're past the point of no return!
Aunt Billie: If he doesn't get PB&J—
Aunt Petunia: We all pay!- He is briefly shown sucking his thumb a bit later.
- Serious Business: He has to have PB&J on his toast or else.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Morbidly obese Joe and sleek Billie.
- Weight Woe: He is morbidly obese.
Aunt Billie / Billie Robinson
Billie Robinson
Voiced by: Kelly Hoover; Marie-Eugénie Maréchal (European French Dub); Jessica Ortiz (Latin Spanish dub)
- Crazy-Prepared: Aunt Billie has her "toy" train collection ready either to race competitively with other members of the family or for stopping any possible intruders threatening her family (i.e, Bowler Hat Guy and a giant T.Rex).
- Spicy Latina: Aunt Billie, who is Latina and has a fiery temper and personality. She always has her toy trains ready for either racing or stopping potential threats to her family.
Uncle Fritz and Aunt Petunia / Fritz and Petunia Robinson
Fritz and Petunia Robinson
Voiced by: Ethan Sandler; Pierre Tessier (European French Dub); Salvador Nájar (Latin Spanish dub)
Wilbur's great-uncle and great-aunt, Cornelius' uncle and aunt and two of the many relatives in the Robinson family.- Canon Foreigner: They make no appearance in the book.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Aunt Petunia and Uncle Fritz. Of course, she's also a puppet that he controls, so... Technically self-abuse? He's also clearly nuts.
- Fiery Redhead: Petunia, her "daughter" Tallulah, and her "son" Laszlo. They show their fiery nature when Petunia's children argue while painting the house. A few minutes later, Petunia slaps her husband.
- Henpecked Husband: Uncle Fritz. Aunt Petunia berates and smacks him around... which is strange since she looks like just a hand puppet.
- Ventriloquism: Uncle Fritz, who seems to be the "voice" for his "wife" and puppet, Aunt Petunia.
Antagonists (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
"Bowler Hat Guy"
"It was then that I realized it wasn't my fault! It was yours!"
Voiced by: Stephen Anderson; Boris Rehlinger (European French Dub); Mario Filio (Latin Spanish dub)
A dastardly man who has a mysterious vendetta against Lewis.
- Adults Dressed as Children: In the future, he's still wearing his old Little League uniform under his cloak... and from the looks of it, he never took it off in the intervening decades.
- And Then What?: After he is reformed, Goob has only one thing left on his checklist: "?" He just doesn't know what to do with himself anymore.
- Anti-Role Model: His philosophy is a direct contrast to the film's moral to "Keep Moving Forward", as he instead holds on to a single bad thing that happened to him during his childhood for his entire life, and tries to get revenge on Lewis because of it.Bowler Hat Guy: Everyone will tell you to let it go and move on, but don't. Instead, let it fester and boil inside of you! Take these feelings and lock them away. Let them fuel your actions. Let hate be your ally, and you will be capable of wonderfully horrid things!
- Anti-Villain: Unlike Doris, He never had any malicious intent towards enslaving humanity, only getting back on Lewis for petty revenge.Bowler Hat Guy: I just wanted to ruin his future, NOT this!
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Subverted. This seems to be the case between the Bowler Hat Guy and Doris until it is revealed that the former is an Unwitting Pawn to the latter.
- Big Bad Wannabe: He's more pathetic than villainous. Doris, on the other hand...
- Card-Carrying Villain: He tries to be this.
- The Corrupter: He tries to serve as this to Goob, telling him to hold onto his resentment. Goob is just confused.
- Dastardly Dapper Derby: He wears one of these, of course. It's even in the name. The twist is that the derby in question is actually a robot named Doris. And she turns out to be much dastardlier than him.
- Dastardly Whiplash: Seems to be the inspiration for his design. Thematically it's an appropriate design, as an old and antiquated archetype contrasts well with the "keep moving forward" message.Bowler Hat Guy: I know! I'll turn him into a duck! Yes, yes, it's so evil! ...Oh... I don't know how to do that... I don't really need a duck.
- Decoy Antagonist: It's revealed that his bowler hat, Doris, is the movie's true main villain.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- Bowler Hat Guy's main downfall is that he doesn't think any of his plans through, which people love to point out. The first time it's a CEO. The second time it's a talking frog. Not enough? The third time it's Tiny the Tyrannosaur innocently lampshading it, finally causing Bowler Hat Guy to have a minor Villainous Breakdown.Bowler Hat Guy: Why aren't you seizing the boy?!
Tiny: I have a big head and little arms! I'm just not sure how well this plan was thought through, Master. [Beat] Master?
[cut to Bowler Hat Guy repeatedly face-planting himself on the monitor] - He also never considers that sabotaging one Child Prodigy's future and stealing his Memory Scanner as his own would have major consequences for the entire future itself as Lewis points out, especially if said prodigy is one of the reasons the future turns out so bright, and that his so-called Only Friend, Doris, happened to be using him the whole time to enslave all of the city.
- Bowler Hat Guy's main downfall is that he doesn't think any of his plans through, which people love to point out. The first time it's a CEO. The second time it's a talking frog. Not enough? The third time it's Tiny the Tyrannosaur innocently lampshading it, finally causing Bowler Hat Guy to have a minor Villainous Breakdown.
- Disproportionate Retribution: His motivation for trying to ruin Lewis' life? Lewis' inventions caused him to miss a catch and blow a baseball game. What makes this truly disproportionate is that he continued to stew in his humiliation over this incident well into middle age, treating it as a life-ruining event when the reality of his narration shows that he had plenty of time and opportunity to cut Lewis out of his life and move on.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Outside of the big reveal, he doesn't react well to being referred to by his original name Goob.
- The Dragon: To Doris. Without her assistance, he's virtually a Harmless Villain.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Bowler Hat Guy only wanted to ruin one kid's future, and never wanted to enslave humanity, as Doris ends up doing in the Bad Future.Bowler Hat Guy: [genuinely horrified by the hats attacking everyone] Doris, what's happening? I-I don't understand! I just wanted to ruin [Lewis's] future, not this!
- He also doesn't want to kill Lewis, because Lewis is his former friend.
- Bowler Hat Guy only wanted to ruin one kid's future, and never wanted to enslave humanity, as Doris ends up doing in the Bad Future.
- Evil Former Friend: His true identity is the grown-up Goob, who never got over his resentment of Lewis for costing him the ball game.
- Evil Is Petty: How does he try to get back at Robinson Industries? By throwing eggs and toilet paper at their headquarters, which clearly won’t get him anywhere.
- Evil Laugh: He's constantly cackling, but instead of making him menacing it highlights how ineffective and pathetic he is.
- Evil Makes You Ugly: We get to see bits and pieces of him growing up from Goob to become Bowler Hat Guy - he starts out reasonably attractive, but then he starts getting lankier and spindlier from stewing incessantly in a cramped, dark room in the abandoned orphanage until he's his Dastardly Whiplash present self.
- Evil Sounds Deep: While it pitches with his emotions and theatrics, his voice is typically very deep.
- Face Death with Dignity: The alternate ending of the film has him going back in time and preventing himself from turning evil. He then quietly leaves Lewis at the Robinson family house, knowing this version of himself will be Ret-Gone from existence.
- Foil: The basic difference between Bowler Hat Guy and Lewis (especially Lewis' future as Cornelius) is the essence of the movie's moral: While Lewis suffers failure after failure yet learns to Keep Moving Forward and not give up on his dreams, Bowler Hat Guy never moved past one nasty setback, keeping himself from ever finding happiness or success. Lewis points this out after Bowler Hat Guy's Motive Rant, but he chooses to keep blaming other people for his problems.
- Freudian Excuse: Goob blamed Lewis for making him miss the winning ball for his team, which got him beaten up. The loss took such a toll on him that he never got adopted and stayed in the orphanage until he hit his thirties. Lewis points out that Goob chose to only think about the bad stuff that happened in his life and blame someone else for his choices while he could've easily let go of his pathetic grudges and learn from his setbacks. Goob eventually realizes Lewis was right when he sees what Doris does to the future because of his petty vendetta.
- Given Name Reveal: His true identity is revealed along with his name. It's Michael "Goob" Yagoobian.
- Green-Eyed Monster: The director's commentary states that jealousy of Cornelius Robinson is Bowler Hat Guy's entire motivation for his villainy.
- Harmless Villain: Until he meets Doris, and even then he is hopelessly incompetent at being evil.
- Heel–Face Turn: When Lewis shows him the Bad Future, and of course, when his Start of Darkness is erased from history.
- In-Series Nickname: Everyone, or at least Wilbur and Lewis, refers to him as "Bowler Hat Guy", or "Goob" when he was a child.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: He tries so hard.
- Killed Offscreen: Implied via Ret-Gone. Implied even more in the bad future, where a bunch of bowler hats tackle him to the ground...and that's the last we see of him in this timeline.
- Laughably Evil: He has a fair number of humorous moments, like how his revenge scheme before meeting Doris was simply to T.P. Robinson Industries, and when he contemplates turning someone into a duck, only to realize that he doesn't know how he can accomplish that and can't think of any reason a duck would be useful for him.
- Large Ham: He's completely over-the-top and comedic.
- Lean and Mean: He’s tall and lanky and serves as one of the film’s antagonists.
- Lying Finger Cross: When he manages to finally catch Lewis, he offers to take Lewis back to the past to see his mother if Lewis fixes the memory scanner. The camera shows him crossing his fingers as he waits for Lewis’s response.
- Make Wrong What Once Went Right: His and Doris' main goal is to destroy Lewis' future, which turned out utopian the first time.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When Lewis sees what happened after the Bowler Hat Guy sold the memory scanner, the Bowler Hat Guy is horrified to see the destruction of Doris and the Helping Hats.
- Never My Fault: Rather than let go of what happened and move on with his life, he blamed Lewis. It really didn't help that he listened to the radio, which talked about Lewis' accomplishments.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Ultimately, Doris' manipulation of Bowler Hat Guy sets off a chain of events through time travel which result in her getting erased from existence, along with what caused Bowler Hat Guy's descent in the first place.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: He is modeled after Jim Carrey, whom was originally going to voice the character until he dropped at the last mintue.
- No-Respect Guy: Even beings he mind controls are not above backsassing his horrible plans.
- Obsessed Are the Listmakers: Bowler Hat Guy loves checklists and is often seen ticking off items on his, such as "Steal time machine", "Ruin science fair", and "Get that [comic book swearing symbols] boy". After he is reformed, he has only one thing on his list: "?" The poor man doesn't know what to do with himself.
- Obviously Evil: He has the looks and (exaggerated) mannerisms of a classic melodrama villain.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Bowler Hat Guy doesn't get a name until about 2/3 of the way through the movie, for spoilerific reasons.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Bowler Hat Guy never let one childhood trauma go and thus kept a child-like mentality.
- Real Men Wear Pink: He's shown to be a fan of ponies (unicorns in particular) as evidenced by his binder and "evil lair".
- Ret-Gone: Given that Lewis was able to go back in time and give him an opportunity to win his game, it's safe to say this version of Goob no longer exists.
- Revenge: His goal is to get revenge on Lewis for accidentally causing him to blow a game-winning catch during a childhood baseball game.
- Signature Headgear: They don't call him the Bowler Hat Guy for nothing.
- Stable Time Loop: When Bowler Hat Guy makes a second trip to Lewis' time, he attempts to attack Lewis before he could get into the time machine, but he instead finds Goob. Realizing that he has met his past self, Bowler Hat Guy proceeded to tell the boy to not let go of his perceived trauma over failing to win the baseball game so that Bowler Hat Guy is all but assured to be Goob's future.
- Straw Loser: Bowler Hat Guy doesn't shower, doesn't even bother to think his evil plans through, and initially couldn't think of any way of revenge more effective than throwing eggs and toilet paper at the Robinson Industries sign.
- Unwitting Pawn: Turns out Doris was only using Bowler Hat Guy's hatred for Lewis to trick him into getting the time machine, so he could use it to steal one of Lewis' inventions and make a lot of money. Then, Bowler Guy would use the money to build more Dorises. Then, the real Doris would have her clones enslave the humans.
- Unreliable Narrator: When explaining his Start of Darkness to Lewis. While his fellow baseball players apparently beat him up for not catching the winning ball, some parts are still inaccurate to what we see onscreen.Kid: Hey Goob, what's up? Nice binder.
Another Kid: Hey Goob, you wanna come over to my house today?
Bowler Hat Guy: [voiceover] They all hated me. - Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: He's the lackey, Doris is the villain.
- Villain Has a Point: Even if his refusal to let it go is beyond the pale, he is right about Lewis being very inconsiderate of his roommate’s health and well-being, to the point being unreasonably selfish. Therefore, Lewis goes to fix Goob’s future before correcting his own.
- We Used to Be Friends: He was once Mike "Goob" Yagoobian, Lewis' friend and roommate at the orphanage.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: When his motivation is revealed. Goob, who finally snaps when his life goes downhill due to Lewis unintentionally causing him to miss the ball. Even if he's not intending for the city to hit the Bad Future that The Man Behind the Man is trying for, the fact is, he is still looking to deliberately ruin the man responsible for much of the awesome tech that the future runs on, thereby making a future that's much less advanced (if not quite a Crapsack World).
- Would Hurt a Child: He doesn't want Lewis hurt when trying to capture him. However, when he tries to use a T. Rex to capture Lewis, he's fine with letting the dino eat Wilbur.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: It’s implied that Doris kills him after he helps her take over the city with her army of Helping Hats.
DOR-15/Doris
Voiced by: Ethan Sandler
Bowler Hat Guy's partner.
- Adorable Evil Minions: As quote Bowler Hat Guy: "It's so cute!" For a spider-like robotic hat that can take control of people's minds, that is.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: She was invented to be as helpful as Carl, but she teams up with Goob, and is ultimately revealed to be the true Big Bad.
- The Bad Guy Wins: After tricking Goob into ruining Lewis's future, she manages to (briefly) replace the first timeline with a total dystopian one where everyone is enslaved to her Helping Hat minions. It takes Doris being Retgone to undo her victory.
- Badass Adorable: Considered cute by Bowler Hat Guy.
- Big Bad: Is eventually revealed to be this at the climax of the movie when Lewis watches an old video of Doris having her troops attack Bowler Hat Guy after betraying him and she enslaves everyone, including his family.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Subverted. Doris and Goob may appear to be a team at first, but it's soon revealed that Goob is taking orders from Doris, who has far worse plans for the future, and she outright betrays him to begin her plot to Take Over the World.
- Cyber Cyclops: She is a robotic bowler hat with one eye.
- Dark Is Evil: She's a black, robotic bowler hat.
- Death Cry Echo: She screams the moment she is vaporized from existence (which fades out) after Wilbur tells her off by promising to never invent her.
- Didn't Think This Through: For how much more competent she seems than Bowler Hat Guy, making an enemy of her creator's past self and trying to outright kill him before he'd invented her is a monumental oversight on her part. It only takes a promise not to invent her in the future after seeing what she'd done to erase her from existence.
- Do-Anything Robot: She has a massive array of attachments, including spider legs, a display screen, miniature versions of herself, night vision goggles, a toothbrush, and screwdrivers. This was the original intent behind her creation to be a helper bot, but then she quickly decided to be the one running things.
- Dragon with an Agenda: Despite appearing to be Bowler Hat Guy's henchman at first glance, it turns out that Doris was using him for her own agenda.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Doris only teamed up with Goob so that she could rule over the civilians.
- Hover Bot: A robotic bowler hat with a single eye who normally travels by hovering. However, she also has retractable limbs and weapons, including Spider Limbs that she can walk with.
- Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Doris appears to be this to Bowler Hat Guy for most of the movie. She's actually the one who's manipulating him in her own plan for world domination.
- Intelligible Unintelligible: We can only understand her by her beeps... which isn't saying a lot.
- Knight of Cerebus: The plot gets much darker once she takes over as the direct Big Bad.
- Make Wrong What Once Went Right: Her and Bowler Hat Guy's main goal is to destroy Lewis' future, which turned out utopian the first time.
- The Man in Front of the Man: Or rather, the hat atop the man.
- Obviously Evil: Since she combines Dark Is Evil and Red Eyes, Take Warning, she's obviously not one to be trusted.
- Puff of Logic: Her "death" — Lewis resolves to simply never invent her, making her present existence paradoxical, and she promptly vanishes.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: When she's angry, her optical unit glows red. The same happens the first time she controls a human.
- Red and Black Totalitarianism: Doris is a black hat with a red eye who seeks to create a Bad Future where everyone is mind-controlled by her.
- Ret-Gone: After learning that his future self will be the one to create her, Lewis promises to her that he'll never make her and, in so doing, retroactively erases her from existence.
- Retraux: She is an advanced helping robot made in the image of a 19th Centaury Bowler Hat. Would have been a great respect to that era's fashion if she wasn't so malevolent.
- Robotic Psychopath: She is a robot and a sociopathic one on top of that.
- The Starscream: After helping Bowler Hat Guy steal the memory scanner to pitch as his own, she uses him to get Helping Hats like herself mass produced, at which point she betrays him in order to Take Over the World.
- Take Over the World: Her endgame goal. Her version of the world is a polluted wasteland where everyone is enslaved by her Helping Hats into doing whatever she wants.
- Turned Against Their Masters: Literally the first thing she does upon activation is take over the test subject and attack the scientists overseeing her.
- Unnecessarily Creepy Robot: Doris looks like a spider and moves like one too.
- Unreliable Narrator: Much like Bowler Hat Guy. Her backstory suggests that she was an invention of Lewis' that wanted to do more than her created purpose and was callously deemed a failure and locked away for it. While this is somewhat true, the onscreen flashback makes clear she was locked up more primarily for attacking her test subject, showing she was vicious and dangerous from conception.
- Villainous Breakdown: Has one when Lewis vows to never invent her, causing her to freeze and scream as she's erased from existence.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Unlike the laughably incompetent Bowler Hat Guy, her villainy isn't Played for Laughs. She tries to murder Lewis by dropping a chandelier on him, and the movie takes a dark turn when she betrays Bowler Hat Guy (probably killing him) and creates a Bad Future in her image in which all citizens of the world are slaves to bowler hats like herself.
- Would Hurt a Child: Has no qualms about attempting to murder Lewis after he exposes her master plan to Bowler Hat Guy/Goob. She would have even erased herself from existence by doing so since it was the younger Lewis who had not yet created her. In fact, she gets erased from existence immediately when Lewis vows to never invent her.
