A quirky look at whether we own our devices or they own us.
THE MITCHELLS VS THE MACHINES, the latest animated extravaganza from producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller is yet another triumph of execution, taking a relatively straightforward story and infusing it with the same heart and creative wit that saw them build a hero’s journey from Lego bricks and take Spider-Man to dizzying new heights.
When Katie Mitchell is accepted to film school, she sees it as the perfect chance to finally escape from her family and find “her people”. The only problem is her Dad who’s decided to make one last-ditch attempt to reconnect with his daughter and cancels her plane tickets in favour of a cross-country family road trip. As if that wasn’t bad enough, The Mitchells set off just as tech giant Pal unveil their latest creations only to discover that it turns out their planned obsolescent devices have some plans of their own.
While the foundations of THE MITCHELLS VS THE MACHINES is a fairly routine family bonding story, its in the details and design work that the film really delights. The robot apocalypse which befalls the world in the background is an arch – and occasionally heavy-handed – commentary on our absorption and obsession with our screen time but the film is happy to take swipes at the many foibles of cross-country road trips, family strife and the triumphs and follies of intergenerational understanding too. While the plot offers little in the way of unexpected twists, though, the characters themselves are genuinely charming and often hilariously relatable.
The Mitchells aren’t your run-of-the-mill dysfunctional cartoon family and patriarch Rick Mitchell (Danny McBride) owes more to a combination of Clark Griswold and Robert Parr than to the Homer Simpsons or Peter Griffins of the character firmament. His struggle is one of rebuilding a lost rapport with his once little girl who’s grown up into a young woman he doesn’t quite understand anymore, supported by his wife Linda (Maya Rudolph) and son Aaron (Mike Rianda). Similarly, creative and bright Katie (Abbi Jacobson) isn’t a Lisa or, thankfully, a Meg but her own special creature, an idiosyncratic and passionate artist, utterly enraptured with the art and artistry of filmmaking.
Katie, then, would no doubt adore THE MITCHELLS VS THE MACHINES thanks to its embracing of everything she stands for too. The visuals carry the same hybrid-technique that made SPIDER-MAN INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE so eye-poppingly original but take them in a different direction, bringing an appealing grain and texture to a film which runs the gamut from dusty rundown roadside attractions to gleaming TRON-inspired technoscapes with the only possible complaint being that a tendency towards gimmicky Instagram-style stickers to punctuate particular moments is used a little too often.
THE MITCHELLS VS THE MACHINES offers colourful fun for the whole family, brimming with energy and just the right balance of silliness and sagacity, with the presence of pugnacious Pug Monchi a particular highlight. It may lose some of its focus and momentum when it pivots away from the family dynamic to push the big tech plotline forward but, in the end, this is one movie where your FOMO is well justified.
