This is the first time that discussing Disney’s Big Bad Evil Guys has required me to do actual research. By that I mean I had to actually sit down, watch the movie and see its villain for the first time. I had a notepad nearby, so it counts as research.
I had zero memory of this movie. I do not remember its release, I did not recognize any of the characters. I only noted its existence because it’s next on the list in my copy of Disney Who’s Who, and no proverbial bells were rung.
Before viewing, I googled “Does Meet the Robinsons have a villain?” just to make sure it was worth my time. Google’s A.I. confidently interjected to state that yes, there is a villain. However, as if often the case, the A.I. got the details wrong. It insisted that ‘Bowler Hat Guy’ was the main antagonist, which (itty bitty spoilers going forward) is very very wrong.
Presence – 2 out of 5
I have opinions on Meet the Robinsons, but this is not the time nor the place. Short and sweet review – I did not have a good time. When ‘Bowler Hat Guy’ appeared, I continued to be underwhelmed. Not only was there nothing unique about his appearance, it was clear we were going for a goofball villain in a very unfunny way. If your Games Master revealed this Bad Guy to you in act 1, you would be woefully let down.
The reveal that he is, in fact, DUN DUN DUUUN, Michael “Goob” Yagoobian, ‘friend’ of protagonist, is transparent. I was increasingly depressed by the constant ineptitude. I then watched his Bowler Hat spread it’s metal appendages and move with purpose, which I noted would win points on the Henchmen category.
But then ‘Goob’ made a curious remark: he’s so lucky to have met the hat.
He didn’t invent it? His one cool feature didn’t even come from him?
At the movie wanders on, it becomes more an more apparent that DOR-15 is the villain. The movie (in my opinion) does a poor job of building her up and paying off this reveal, but the hat-bot is the BBEG in this story, and Goob is a henchmen.
So DOR-15 scores slightly higher on presence because she’s not a wet blanket. But her need to seem like an inanimate object in the modern world means she suffers from a reoccurring issue – she’s a hidden villain. As a BBEG of a D&D or other Role Playing Game, a loud-and-proud villain gives your players incentive.
At one point, I did write down “Doris might be a great villain?!” at the point where her copies have taken over the Robinsons, in a dark future that she has also dominated, and a villain that speaks in creepy monotone through the Non-Player Characters will always be a fun time for players. However, it is very short lived.
In the end, the BBEG is a hat-sized robot with sharp claws and a squeaky, buzzy voice.
Atmosphere – 2 out of 5
As above, there is a woefully short segment of this movie that got my hopes up. The dark, dystopian, headwear-controlled world that DOR-15 is striving for has some potential for a desperate, harrowing third act. The brief view we get of the world in the past/present being overrun by her copies is also intriguing.
Sadly, DOR-15’s potential is diminished by the story. Whilst she is a capable and cunning little bot, she is undone by the fact that all of that work can be undone so fast – by the hero(es) of the story simply declaring that she will not be invented. This is going to greatly impact other scores as well. It’s not her fault, per se, but she’s a conceivably fun and unstoppable threat with an incredibly obvious off switch.
Omniscience – 1 out of 5
On the surface, DOR-15 seems quite switched on. She’s got a plan. Use Goob as her mobile hat stand so that she can steal her creators invention, make Goob seem like a genius so he gets money and success and makes her lots of duplicate minions in her past/the present and rule the world.
If this movie cared about following its own time-travel rules, this plan would have one massive hole in it… if she ruins her creator before he gets fame and success, she would not be made in her present/the future.
She also doesn’t imagine a scenario where her creator sees what she has wrought and just decides not to make her.
She doesn’t realise that giving her imbecilic henchmen a time machine and fostering the idea that he’s in charge would lead to him bringing a dinosaur into the future.
Or the very important fact that if she wants to prevent time travel shenanigans, she should probably take charge of the only remaining time machine in existence.
Henchmen – 3 out of 5
At the risk of being blunt, Goob almost scores 0. He is the face of her plan, and more detrimental than helpful. He does actually score 1 for summoning the T-Rex though. It’s not a good idea, but for the Player Characters any chance to fight/flee/parlay with a dinosaur is added fun.
In her prime, DOR-15 has multiple forms of herself. She has an abundance of replicants, which can apparently be constructed in the same time it takes to cook toast. She has her mega-sized copy of herself to ride around in. She has that mini scout version of herself.
All of which could make for really fun encounters, escape sequences, etc. They are not incredibly effective however. The clones turn people into zombies, but the issue with that is the fact that they move like zombies. Good for glomping civilians but not heroes. The scout gets taken out very easily and is hardly covert. I like Mega DOR-15 though, no notes there…
Apart from the fact that, once more, this entire thing is undone by the protagonist making a conscious decision to never make DOR-15.
Threat Level – 2 out of 5
Aside from the massive weakness, DOR-15 does have many arms, which grab and (attempt to) slice. Her ability to infiltrate and manipulate are also apparent. At the end of the day though, she’s a lil’ robot hat.
Finale – 0 out of 5
You get nothing. You lose. Good day sir.
Why? Because she’s not there in the finale. She’s revealed as the BBEG at the 70 minute mark, taken out just over five minutes later, and the rest of the movie is about the Robinson family, Goob’s heel turn/salvation and the hero getting everything. DOR-15 makes no lasting impression in the present or the future, or the last 15 minutes of the movie.
Final Score = 2.00
The stats I made reemphasise that the concept is fun. A nimble little bot that can slash and dodge whilst commanding its copies to do her bidding.
I was originally going to conclude more defensibly, in support of DOR-15, who ‘is a victim of a poor story’. But in the end, she is a core element of this story, and is part of its limitations.
One could argue this would be a fun scenario to run for younger gamers, with moral lessons and wacky hijinks. I would not argue that. The morals are half-baked, the story is thinly spread between twenty-ish nonsensical side characters. In a story partly set in the future, the only real part of the future-scape we see is a big house.
There’s something in DOR-15 that could be pulled out, rewired and reworked into a suprise-reveal-BBEG. But she shouldn’t be run as the villain in this world… and she definitely shouldn’t be taken out by a change in mindset.
| Disney Villain | Score |
| Ursula | 4.16 👑 |
| Hades | 4.00 |
| Jafar | 3.83 |
| Professor Ratican | 3.66 |
| Lyle Tiberius Rourke | 3.66 |
| Billy Pine, a.k.a Syndrome | 3.33 |
| Elsa of Arendelle | 3.16 |
| Hopper | 3.16 |
| Robert Callaghan | 3.00 |
| The Horned King | 3.00 |
Thank You For Reading
The other Disney BBEG contenders are right here.
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