Meet The Robinsons Analysis

For those who grew up in the 2000s, Disney’s 2007 animated film, Meet the Robinsons, introduced one of the most iconic reconstructions of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, Tiny. Throughout the course of the film, the antagonist, Bowler Hat Guy, attempts to capture the protagonist, Lewis, using Lewis’ own wacky and brilliant inventions. One of these instances occurs when Bowler Hat Guy brings Tiny back from the past and uses a mind control device to convince Tiny to chase and capture Lewis. The Tyrannosaurus Rex aggressively chases his prey, demolishing everything in his path, until he reaches a problem. The boy that he is chasing has run into the corner of a building, an area that the dinosaur can’t quite reach with his tiny arms. In frustration, Tiny
When one looks at Tiny, his most distinctive quality by far is his “tiny arms.” This feature is borrowed from the scienitific understanding of the dinosaur’s forelimbs, but it is important to note that while their forelimbs are noticeably small that is only relative to the rest of their body; a Tyrannosaurus Rex’s arms would’ve been about 3 feet long, which is less than 8% of their total body length (Pickrell 2017). Comparing the length of Tiny’s arm to the height of Lewis suggests that Tiny’s arms are smaller than an actual Tyrannosaurus Rex would’ve had, but this furthers establishes the exaggerated, cartoon style that the filmmakers chose to use. Throughout the course of the movie, Tiny’s little arms serve as little more than a sight gag; Tiny primarily uses his powerful jaw to attack, with his arms doing little more than wag and reach out in the direction he is moving. The choice to illustrate his arms in this way is in line with one theory about the Tyrannosaurus Rex’s small arms: that they were simply a vestigial organ and served no useful purpose. While this idea floats through popular culture, paleontologists remain skeptical; it seems unlikely that this feature of theropod dinosaurs would persist into the late Cretaceous period if they served no purpose, especially with the muscle and capabilities these arms had (Strauss 2017). The writers of Meet the Robinsons most likely chose to represent the function of Tiny’s arm in this way because it fits comfortably in the public’s expectations about the dinosaurs and allows them to explore the humor of the situation; seeing a gigantic, fierce beast become powerless because his cute, small arms is a naturally humorous