Sad but true, videogames based on movies are rarely more than merchandising cash grabs. Sadder still when it's a kiddie-movie-based game, because parents who buy the things rarely care about or understand what the heck goes on in a game; just knowing it keeps the kids sated is enough. And saddest when it's a Disney kiddie movie, because the Walt Corp seems all about the colorful extravagance of cotton candy and ludicrous profit margins on such stuff, not about substance or sustenance.

So it follows that Meet the Robinson is, indeed, a big fat bag of cotton-candy, emphatically branded by the movie of the same name, merrily incorporating the film's characters, voices, set dressings, etc.

That said, the game does look and sound authentically Robinsons-ish, looking a little rough on PlayStation2, occasionally chunky on Wii, and pretty spiffy on Xbox 360. So, even though it plays like bland, cookie-cutter, 3rd-person, puzzle solving, box-shoving, lever yanking, bauble collecting, platform hopping action/adventure, it does so with exclusive Disney trappings.

You play as Wilbur Robinson -- an audacious sidekick in the film -- in a series of quests that parallel the movie somewhat, but really acts as a stand-alone "Have Time Machine, Will Travel" game with lots of neato, mix-n-match gadgets, drab corridors littered with cutesy eye-candy, little plot but thematically appropriate hall wandering and baddie-"disassembling" action... maybe a little brainlessly-intense action, actually; only vaguely appropriate for the target kiddie audience but who cares? Keeps the kid's sated, right?

The Wii version of Meet the Robinsons features use of the unconventional Wii-mote controller to typically unconventional effect. In fact, it copies the Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess" control scheme of wand-pointing and nunchuk guidance, stripped down to be little more kiddie-friendly in its unwieldiness, but ultimately failing at that if you've anything but a rock-steady hand; more like dumbed-down and still dumb.

So, a cool but cruel copycat control scheme. The other console versions with their conventional controller schemes -- dual analog thumbsticks, triggers and buttons -- work better, but even those might prove a handful for the younger set.

Ultimately, for what it's worth, Meet the Robinsons is good like whipped sugar on a stick. Question is: where does one shove the stick when done?