Bowler Hat Guy

"Everyone would tell you to let it go and move on, but don't. Instead, let it fester and boil inside you. Take these feelings and lock them away. Let them fuel your actions. Let hate be your ally and you will be king of the wonderfully horrid things. Heed my words, Goob; Don't let it go."

- Michael Yagoobian to his younger self.

Michael "Goob" Yagoobian (also known as the Bowler Hat Guy) is the secondary antagonist of Disney's 47th full-length animated feature film Meet the Robinsons.

He was voiced by Stephen J. Anderson as an adult, and Matthew Josten as a young boy.

Appearance
Michael is a tall, slender man with brown hair and a thin mustache. He is often seen wearing a bowler hat and suit. He is commonly dressed in black as an adult.

Personality
As a young boy, Michael is more interested in baseball than his roommate's inventing hobby, though he still tolerated and went along with Lewis' wacky and whimsical schemes. However, after he missed the winning catch, his fury became completely uncontrollable and powerful, as he was constantly in a very bad mood. Once the orphanage shut down, as time progressed (and as he grew up), his resentment of Lewis grew. As an adult, Michael never really matured, acting insane, and stupid, suggesting he never went onto higher education after school. His old-fashioned and tatty clothing and stubborn willingness to remain bitter, spiteful, and aggressive make him the opposite to Lewis in every way, since Lewis represented moving forward and progressing.

Meet the Robinsons
Michael Yagoobian is Lewis' roommate at the orphanage. It is completely unknown why his parents left him in the orphanage or if they died when he was too young. He is kept up all night helping Lewis on his memory scanner. As a member of the local Little League team, the Dinos, Goob never really takes an interest in his roommate's inventing.

The last game of the season occurs on the same day as the Science Fair. During the 9th inning, he falls asleep and misses the winning catch. The other players on his beat him up for it and he never lets it go. No one wants to adopt him since he is so angry. He also believes that everyone hates him, despite a few that are willing to become a friend, he is too angry to notice. Eventually, the orphanage is closed down and he is left behind.

He spends the next 30 years in the orphanage, never changing out of his baseball uniform and listening over the radio tormenting himself listening to Lewis' successes as Cornelius Robinson. He finally decides that his current situation is Lewis' fault, reasoning that if Lewis hadn't kept him up all night working on his project, he would've caught the ball and could've been adopted. He threw eggs and toilet-papers Robinson Industries as a pathetic attempt at revenge. Then, he meets Doris, who tells her story about being a helping hat, a slave to humans. She says that she is capable of more things, but Cornelius did not see her as anything else she was capable of doing. Cornelius thought she was shut down, but she escaped the lab and swore revenge, plotting to steal the Robinsons' time machine. Realizing his simple plan was inferior to what Doris had in mind, Goob added in the sabotage of the Science Fair to the hat's scheme. The two joined forces, and Goob took on the identity of Bowler Hat Guy.

He steals the time machine from the Robinsons rather easily when Wilbur fails to listen to his mother and forgets to lock the garage door. He ruins the science fair where Lewis is presenting his memory scanner, then steals the device and takes it to Inventco. Since he doesn't know anything about the scanner, he is thrown out, and at Doris' suggestion, they start to track Lewis for help. Checking at the orphanage, Goob runs into his past self, who had just returned after being beaten up by his baseball team. After being reminded that Lewis likes to hang out on the roof, future Goob decides to go up there, but not before telling his past self to nurture his hatred and resentment for Lewis. Upon discovering that Wilbur had followed them to the past, and was now gone, they return to the future and land invisible in the Robinsons' lawn.

When Doris leaves to get Lewis out of the Robinson house, she gives him control of a mini-Doris so that he can accompany her without leaving the time machine. After spying Lewis, Doris flies off on her own, while Goob ponders how to get him out of the house. After finding a bar of frogs, he has an idea of taking control of Frankie and using him to intercept Lewis and bring him to Goob. This fails as Frankie is too small to grab Lewis. After dismissing Frankie, a garden structure gives him the idea to go back in time and steal a T-Rex named "Tiny". He then sends him controlled by Mini-Doris after Lewis. With the help of the Robinsons, Lewis and Wilbur defeat Tiny and Mini-Doris is taken away by the frogs to her presumed destruction, while Doris chastises Goob for his plan.

However, they seize their chance when Lewis is walking away from the Robinson family after being seemingly betrayed, Goob promising to use the time machine to take him back to see his mother if he will repair the memory scanner. Wilbur's arrival makes Lewis angry enough to agree, and Goob flies them in the time machine to his old orphanage home. After Lewis fixes the memory scanner, Doris ties him up and takes him prisoner, and then Goob tells his story. Carl and Wilbur save Lewis, but before they can reach the house, Doris impales Carl and steals back the memory scanner, and Goob pauses just long enough to taunt them before going back to the past.

Goob successfully passes off the memory scanner as his own, and then presents the idea of helping hats to Inventco. Sometime shortly afterwards, the helping hats begin terrorizing and enslaving the people, and Goob is horrified about it, as he only wanted to ruin Lewis' future, not condemn the humanity. But Doris, having no more use for Goob, sics several hats on him and presumably kills or enslaves him. This future is ultimately edited, however, after Lewis uses the time machine to go back to before it was set in motion.

At the point in time immediately after Goob signs the contract and makes the invention his own, Lewis appears and tells him that Doris is using him and will kill him after getting what she wants. Goob sees Doris being destroyed after Lewis promises he will never invent her. Lewis then shows Goob the industrial, smog-filled future that Doris would have created, which fades after a few seconds thanks to Lewis' intervention in the past, restoring the original, peaceful future. As Wilbur is restored into existence, he attacks Goob on sight, until Lewis pulls him and tells his future son of his association with Goob. Then Goob leaves, wondering what to do next despite Lewis getting Wilbur to offer to have the Robinsons adopt him. He leaves his binder behind with his checklist and one unchecked box that has a question mark next to it, feeling extremely remorseful for his past actions against Lewis.

Upon returning to the past, instead of going straight to the Science Fair, Lewis heads to the ball field where young Goob is sleeping. Lewis yells at him, waking him up and Goob catches the ball he missed before, winning the game and negating the events that led to his transformation into the Bowler Hat Guy. Goob is shown as a much happier person afterwards, no longer having a reason to be so furious. He is seen carrying around his trophy and getting adopted by the Hendersons, a couple that had previously interviewed Lewis and having an amicable goodbye with Lewis when he leaves the orphanage. It's completely unknown what will happen with Goob in the future, but given thanks to Lewis that he won the baseball game and was saved from became evil, he never transformed into the Bowler Hat Guy and surely became a more nicer and succesful person.

Disney Parks
Upon the release of the film, the Bowler Hat Guy made meet-and-greet appearances throughout some of the Disney theme parks. He usually appeared alongside Lewis and Wilbur.

Despite his reformation at the end of Meet the Robinsons, Bowler Hat Guy also made an appearance with classic Disney Villains for the "Unleash the Villains" stage event at Disney's Hollywood Studios in 2013.

Quotes
"(Lewis: Why are you doing this to me? I never did anything to you!) You still haven't figured it out!(Lewis: Figured out what?) Let's see if this rings a bell - Father of the future, inventor extraordinaire, "Keep moving forward"? (Lewis: That's not me, that's Wilbur's dad!) (Bowler Hat Guy stares at him expectantly.) (Lewis' eyes go wide in realization: Are you saying that... I'm Wilbur's... Dad?) Oh, Give the boy a prize! You grow up to be the founder of this wrenched time... So I planned to destroy your destiny! Easy-peasy, rice and cheesy!"

- Bowler Hat Guy explaining to Lewis that he is Wilbur's father.

"I think you mean OUR old room. (Lewis confused: What?) (Bowler hat guy removing his cloak revealing his tiny, filthy Little League Baseball uniform) Yes! Yes, it is I, Mike Yagoobian! (Lewis gasps) I know, I'm disgusting. But one learns to love it. (Lewis: How did you end up like this?) Well it's a long pitiful story, about a young boy with a dream. a dream of winning a Little League championship...(flashback to a Little League baseball game, Yagoobian is asleep in the outfield; a sleepy Yagoobian fails to catch a ball headed his way) A dream that was ruined in the last inning. We lost by one run because of me.(Goob wakes up and finds himself surrounded by his teammates as they began to beat him up)(Baseball kid: Get him!)(Goob angrily telling his day at the orphanage to many parents: If I hadn't fallen asleep, I would have caught the ball! And we would have won!! Do you understand?!) For some reason, no one wanted to adopt me.(Reporter over radio as Goob listens: Whiz kid Cornelius Robinson graduates from college at age 14 - This year's Nobel Prize goes to a young Cornelius Robinson) (Goob walks through the hallway as student greet him but was too angry to notice) (Student 1:Hey Goob. what's up? Cool binder)(Hey Goob, want to come over to my house today?) They all hated me. Eventually, they closed down the orphanage and everyone left... except me. (Years go by as Goob listens on the radio of Lewis' successes and comes to a realization.) It was then that I realized it wasn't my fault. It was yours! If you hadn't kept me up all night working on your stupid project, then I wouldn't have missed the catch, So I devised a brilliant plan to get my revenge. (Mike Yagoobian throwing eggs outside Robinson Industries) Robinson, You stink!! Then, just as I was on the brink of destroying Robinson Industries, I met 'her'. We retreated to our villainous lair, where Doris spun a tale of deception and woe. Apparently, you invented her to be a helping hat, a slave to humankind... But Doris knew she was capable of so much more!... (Doris' eye turns red and pulls herself over the lab assistant's eyes and controlling him) However, you didn't see her true potential...(Cornelius: Got it!) So you shut her down... or so you thought. (Doris reactivates herself, breaks free from the glass incasing and secretly escapes from Robinson industries) We both had a score to settle with you, and while my plan for revenge was brilliant, Doris' was... well, we went with Doris' (showing him a holographic projection of the time machine), but I made a very, very important contribution. (Showing her the Science fair flyer) Together we made the perfect team. (On a stormy night, Goob and Doris arrive at Lewis' home with Doris putting her night vision goggles, spying on Wilbur) (Franny: Wilbur, make sure you shut that door tight, or else the alarm won't engage.)(Wilbur: Yeah, Mom.) (Wilbur leaves without closing the door all the way) I went to your house, snuck in the garage, and stole the time machine. All thanks to that pointy-haired little kid who forgot to lock the garage door. (Mike Yagoobian laughs maniacally as the flashback ends) And now, all that's left is to return to Inventco, where I'll pass off your little gizmo as my own. (Lewis: But you have no idea what that could do to this future!) I don't care! I just want to ruin your life!"

- Bowler Hat Guy reveals himself as Lewis' old roommate, Mike "Goob" Yagoobian, and tells his origin story of how he came to be, how he met Doris and plan their revenge on Lewis by stealing his memory scanner and destroying his future.

Trivia

 * Stephen J. Anderson, director of the film as well as providing the voice of Bowler Hat Guy, also did the voices of Bud and Tallulah Robinson. As a result, Bowler Hat Guy interrupts the commentary for the Meet the Robinsons DVD three times trying to explain how he got in on the project.
 * He was originally supposed to be voiced by Jim Carrey, who rejected it because he was going to star in the film The Number 23.
 * In the film, there is no confirmed explanation of what became of Goob in the altered timeline created by Doris, though it is likely that Doris either enslaved him or killed him. The former, however, is extremely unlikely, as the only use that Goob had for Doris was that he was the only one who could present the memory scanner to Inventco because Doris was not going to be able to do so as it was a robotic hat.
 * Having had possession of one of the two time machines, Goob could have went back in time and prevent his younger self from falling asleep during the baseball game as long as Doris was not watching him (since this would cause Goob and Doris' alliance to lose purpose and Doris needed Goob to accomplish her plans). It could be that Goob didn't have enough common sense or he found more satisfaction in following Doris.
 * This was explored in an alternate ending of the film, when after Lewis emerged into the meeting room with the time machine, he brought the Bowler Hat Guy back in time to the day of the game. As the winning catch was thrown, Bowler Hat Guy yelled to his younger self to awaken, resulting in him making the winning catch. Bowler Hat Guy celebrates this, and realizes that all along, he didn't have to destroy Lewis' future, but only had to wake himself up. He shudders as he realizes how very little he thought everything through, but then sincerely thanks Lewis, who replies that it was his pleasure. Bowler Hat Guy then fades from existence, and Doris follows a moment later as Lewis says that he's never going to invent her. Why this alternate ending was deleted and replaced after John Lasseter entered into the project remains unknown.