Ive got to let you in on an ugly secret: I dont really much like Disney movies.
And with a 6-year-old at home, Ive seen more than my share.

While the plots are often good, I seldom find much there to take away to make the film stick in my head. "Aladdin," "Finding Nemo," "Cars" - theyre all the same. Other than a big celebrity voice playing a big blue genie, a fish, and a race car, I cant say any of them made much of an impression.

So when my family saw "Meet The Robinsons," I was expecting more of the same. I was very pleasantly surprised.

This was a real story - with a real message everyone can feel good about.

Its also the first time-paradox story I can recall with a happy ending.

Since at least the classic "Star Trek" episode "City on the Edge of Forever" and Jim Kirk preventing Bones McCoy from saving Kirks beloved Edith Keeler, time paradoxes have been decidedly tragic affairs. People die, lives are left unhappy, all for the sake of "maintaining history" or "keeping the timeline the way it should be." They all get a little depressing, as if people are really incapable of making a difference.

Not "Meet The Robinsons." It leaves you feeling good that life can work out in a way that will leave people happy.

Its a story of a 12-year-old orphan named Lewis (Daniel Hansen). Hes a whiz-kid inventor whos whisked off to the future by a boy named Wilbur (Wesley Singerman) to defeat the evil Bowler Hat Guy (Stephen J. Anderson).

At the risk of giving too much away, Lewis winds up with a chance to travel back to meet the mother who gave him up to the orphanage, but, instead moves forward. Lewis finds not so much that he can change his future, but that because hes a good, smart kid, he makes all the right decisions and winds up not alone -- which is his fear -- but that he develops as the center of a big, loving family.

It turns out to be a heart-warming tale about the value of family, with an optimistic message not to fear your future, but to embrace it because it really turns out pretty well after all.

The Poor Mans Lost

Flaws and all, the CBS post-nuclear drama "Jericho" deserves a second season. The series has tried -- sometimes a little too hard -- to follow in the footsteps of ABCs hit "Lost," but "Jericho" has proven to be a solid showing.

In its first season, "Jericho" has set up complex mysteries -- just like "Lost." And Hawkins' (Lennie James) flashback scene in the episode "A.K.A" came off nearly like a ripoff of the flashbacks that are so integral to "Lost."

Unfortunately, "Jericho's" producers don't have the same ear for dialogue their colleagues over on "Lost" enjoy. The words coming out of the characters of "Jericho" often seem a little too stilted or contrived.

That said, though, "Jericho" has heart. For all its faults, you can see the series' producers and cast put the effort in to make a quality show.

My advice for a second season? Focus a little more on the scientific repercussions of the massive nuclear holocaust that has gone on all around them -- and don't try too hard to be another "Lost."

A former entertainment journalist, Scott Nance is a member of the USS Chesapeake, an independent science-fiction and Star Trek club in the Washington, DC, area. He is a columnist for Airlock Alpha, and can be reached at scottnance@airlockalpha.com.