I’ve been sitting on a press preview of The Mitchells vs. The Machines for weeks, not in a big hurry to watch a story about machines taking over the world – even if it’s an animated story. Big mistake.
Yeah, that’s a plot point, which I’ll get to presently, but the main thing to know is that this film is hilarious and it has a great big heart. And it’s about something we can all relate to: an imperfect family trying to address their respective shortcomings and come together for something greater than themselves. Call me corny, but love does win.
The Mitchells are: teenager headed for college Katie (voiced by Abbi Jacobson), dad Rick (Danny McBride) who barely knows how to check his email – not tech-savvy, gentle mom Linda (Maya Rudolph) with purple eyeglasses and the role of peacemaker and younger kid brother Aaron (voiced by the film’s director Michael Rianda ). Oh, and their scene-stealing dog, Monchi.
The dysfunctional tribe set off on a cross-country road trip to take Katie to college (definitely a Griswold Family vibe) Chaos, revelations and, yeah, hijinks ensue. But that’s all before an obvious Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg/Silicon Valley type (Eric André) angers an obvious version of Alexa or Siri (Olivia Colman is the voice of “Pal”) by tossing her aside at the launch of a new technology.
“Pal” puts into motion armies of robots who take over the world–but not just them – all machines, from toasters to soda machines are turned into malevolent entities, and it’s up to our titular family to save the world.
But I didn’t care about all of that – I was in it for the laughs and the family’s internal dynamics.
Although it’s a Sony Pictures Animation production, the film touches on all the usual Disney/Pixar elements: irreverence, self-referential, pop culture tags that adults will get, but will sail over the heads of most kids. You know the rules.
What is fresh and different is the degree of irreverence, the striking artwork, the snappy dialogue. All of these elements, plus the fact that the movie is not trying to be photo-realistic, make it almost subversive in a fun way.
AppleMark 
You’ll see a lot more visual references to SnapChat, Tik Tok and other social media touchstones than you will anything from Uncle Walt’s vault. In fact, YouTube actually becomes an important plot point.
I am intentionally leaving out so much, but I just want you to know that even if you think bad robots are not your thing, I’m betting you will find this more relatable than you’d have imagined. That was certainly the case for me.
‘The Mitchells vs. the Machines’ is streaming on Netflix Starting April 30th | 3 ½ out of 4 Stars | I do think it’s more for older kids and adults, only because I wonder if the tiniest of tots can stay tuned in.
