With 2018’s Into the Spider-Verse Sony Animation Studios showcased a willingness to take risks that further animation as a genre, pioneering new technologies that gave the umpteenth film adaptation of Spider-Man a fresh perspective; blurring the lines between traditional hand-drawn and computer-generated animation styles. Having successfully reinvented the superhero genre with their first effort, the studio (with superstar producers Christopher Miller and Phil Lord returning) set its sights on a more traditional animated comedy: a cross-country family road-trip… derailed by the robot apocalypse. With a gleefully anarchic energy and endless amounts of creativity on display, writer/director duo Mike Rianda and Jeff Rowe deliver the first truly great animated film of 2021; a heart-warming and hilarious skewering of humanity’s dependence on devices in the digital age that rivals Pixar in the “grab the tissues” department and which never fails to bring a smile to your face.
The Mitchell family are different. None more so than daughter Katie (Abbi Jacobson), whose love of making weird and whacky short films has long been misunderstood by her quirky mother Linda (Maya Rudolph) and practical, nature-loving father Rick (Danny McBride). When frustrations boil over the night before Katie’s departure for film school, Rick takes it upon himself to organise a cross-country trip to deliver his daughter to her dorm, in a last ditch effort to reconnect. Joined by dinosaur-obsessed little brother Aaron (Mike Rianda) and the family dog Monchi (Doug the Pug), the group’s trip is quickly interrupted by the arrival of robots hell-bent on capturing the human race; a product of Apple-like tech giant PAL and its phone-bound AI leader (Olivia Colman). As the last free humans and the only people that can defeat PAL, the Mitchells must put their differences aside and band together, relying on each of their unique strengths to save the world and their family.
What strikes you almost immediately is the vibrant and relentlessly unique style of The Mitchells. It isn’t overstating things to say that this is animation unlike anything you’ve seen before; an unorthodox combination of Family Guy style cutaway gags combined with a kind of digital scrapbook, with doodles and scribblings constantly appearing on-screen to heighten the energy of any given scene – all touches designed to represent one of Katie’s frenetic DIY short films that are often referenced. Combined with Abbi Jacobson’s bubbly, energetic voiceover and a litany of blink and you’ll miss them sight gags, the film never gives you a second to be bored, in the best possible way. It also creates excellent pacing that ensures that the substantial runtime (for an animated feature) of almost two hours flies by without ever dragging.
Like Spider-Verse before it, The Mitchells owes a large part of its uniqueness to the gorgeous visuals on display, with new techniques being created specifically for the realisation of this film. The characters are rendered in 3D, with delightfully whacky proportions and designs reflecting each individual person’s (or robot’s) traits, but the true beauty comes in the background. Beautiful watercolour art populates the background of every scene, making those 3D models and their movements pop against its stillness. Katie’s 2D doodles and scribblings add yet another layer, all working in tandem to create lush, vibrant environments that make the eye water. The visuals are often also used to aid the story’s focus on deconstructing the role modern technology plays in people’s lives, quickly cutting between a character and a popular viral video to terrific effect, in a way that doesn’t feel like a gimmick but a timely and hilarious sight gag
Underneath the technical wizardry and mile-a-minute comedy is a heartwarming and deeply emotional story of one family’s journey to get along, particularly a father and daughter separated by the warring desires of Rick to protect and Katie to break free and discover herself. Rianda and Rowe’s story always feels deeply personal and inspired by their own families, albeit taken to the extreme in the form of the unorthodox Mitchells. The central relationship may be between Rick and his daughter but each family member gets a chance to shine as Linda struggles to prevent Rick and Katie’s conflict from becoming unreconcilable and Aaron must come to terms to life without his best friend and big sister, coming out of his shell and bonding with neighbour Abby (Charlyne Yi).
The voice work is stellar all around, with a few notable standouts including McBride whose typical gruff and crude schtick is pushed aside in favour of a more zany yet loving father, who dotes on his children endlessly and pushes for them to fend for themselves in the big bad world. Rianda pulls triple time here as the voice of Aaron, a shy nerd with difficulty relating to anyone but his sister. He has easily some of the best lines in the whole film and the tender relationship between brother and sister is evident in the way Aaron looks up Katie, with her leaving a heavy weight on Aaron’s shoulders. In the robotic department, Saturday Night Live alumni Beck Bennett and Fred Armisen are gut-bustingly funny as a pair of damaged PAL-bots who have devoted themselves to protecting the Mitchell family, subverting typical robot clichés to hysterical effect.
It’s hard to describe in words just how wholly and extraordinarily special The Mitchells vs. the Machine is. Sony Animation have followed up their first huge gamble with an even bigger leap and it has absolutely paid off, with a film that surpasses Spider-Verse in terms of technical prowess and sheer scale. With humour and charm in spades, extremely likeable characters with real emotional depth and some of the best looking animation I have ever seen, this is an easy recommendation that you can stream right now on Netflix. If you make it through without cracking a smile, you might be a robot, but I loved my time with the Mitchell family, and I’m willing to bet you will too.
The Mitchells vs. the Machines stars Abbi Jacobson, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Mike Rianda, Eric André, Olivia Colman, Fred Armisen, Beck Bennett, Chrissy Teigen, John Legend, Charlyne Yi, Blake Griffin, Conan O’Brien & Doug the Pug – Streaming on Netflix now.