The Mitchells Vs. The Machines

A quirky, dysfunctional family's road trip is upended when they find themselves in the middle of the robot apocalypse and suddenly become humanity's unlikeliest last hope.

Writer/Director: Mike Rianda, Jeff Rowe

Producer: Kurt Albrecht

Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Family

The film starts off like a proper teen/coming of age story following Katie (voiced by Abbi Jacobson) about to embark on her journey to university and then the technological apocalypse hits and her and her dysfunction family are the last resort to try and save the day.

“Failure hurts kid, I just want you to have a back-up plan”

This line hit hard. It hit Katies character hard and hit me hard as a viewer as it’s a line that I and I’m sure many people that try to chase their dreams hear far too often. Its such a poisonous phrase and one that really begins to show the tensions in the father daughter relationship between Katie and Rick (Danny McBride). As a family film I’m sure there are many dads out there that will identify with Rick in feeling lost in this new technological world and isn’t a message that I don’t think I have seen in film before let alone a kid’s film.

On the topic of Ricks character there is a lovely sequence where he finds the old home footage of Katie growing up and we see glimpses of her throughout all stages of childhood, A baby toddler and her first day at school and how much Katie looked up to her dad and the memories they made wrapped off brilliantly by the touching moment of a wooden mouse that will be relevant later on in the story creates a lovely call-back. This film is full of moments that serve as call-backs but stays retained and only to the family. These moments work because they enhance the character.

“Who would’ve thought that a tech company wouldn’t have our best interests at heart?”

This line was used for a laugh and it was funny but its funny because how true it is. The comments this movie makes on the current technological age is so in your face it really doesn’t care. The big building that is the hub of the villain, PAL (Olivia Coleman), looks almost identical to the cryptocurrency Ethereum logo. Maybe it was the intentions of the directors to warn us about cryptocurrency and new technology. Whilst we are on the topic of talking about technology PAL is definitely supposed to be Apple with the massive reveal show and everybody seeming to be tuning in to see what the latest release is.

There is so many digs to technology is this movie one specific shot that has stuck in my brain was when they are all around the dinner table and everyone is looking at a screen and the dad is there just chatting to himself. This scene really shows how technology gets in the way of situations. But the movie is also an argument because it shows how good technology can be. Katies ability to connect with people and make friends before she has even gone to university and the fact that the films conclusion involves a computer to complete the story shows that it can be important, allowing the film to provide a balance of the debate.

This film was actually funny as f*** the moment that pans across to family photos and it shows just a random family and the two robots. It makes it hilarious movie. I’m also extremely glad that I am not the only one that finds Furbies terrifying and the scene with the Furbies is scary and hilarious at the same time.

Now I want to take a moment to talk about how this film makes Katies character the perfect advert for LGBTQ+ in mainstream Hollywood. It was so subtle that she fancied a girl that she was chatting too before joining university and at the end the mum talking to Katie about how university is going and asking about if she’s spoke to that girl yet. It is played so well as if it is just common place and is a perfect example of how to introduce the topic to mainstream audiences and is 1000x better than the pathetic attempt that Loki tried.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie with its amazing animation style its humour and comments on technology. This is what I want to see from animation a film that contains context for adults to understand and a story that kids will enjoy whilst also breaking boundaries on what animation is today.

I rate it: 4.5/5

Where to watch: NETFLIX