The Mitchells vs The Machines

Showing on Netflix.

Written and directed by Michael Rianda and Jeff Rowe is the animated adventure The Mitchells vs the Machines. It taps into that rich source for animated stories of the strained family relationship in need of repair. Katie (Abbi Jacobson) is the young girl heading off to film college. She has a good relationship with Mum, Linda (Maya Rudolph) and brother Aaron (Michael Rianda) but is frustrated that she feels Dad (Danny McBride) doesn’t believe in her. College is the chance to spread her wings until Dad decides the best way to see her off and repair the relationship is a college road trip. If that’s not bad enough her world is turned upside down by the robopocalypse, instigated by smart phone personal assistant PAL(Olivia Coleman). Who when discarded by her inventor and replaced by a robot, hijacks the robots and turns them against their creator and all of humanity turning the Mitchells Road trip into a battle to save humanity.

What Rianda, Rowe and the talented voice cast deliver is an enjoyable lighthearted adventure. It has a fun script full of gags for all of the audience and also has a good time channeling films like Independence Day, Tron and hilariously Kill Bill.

It looks great with an animation that shows the same originality Sony showed with the fantastic Into the Spiderverse with a mix of computer animation intrepsersed with “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” style images to share Katie’s inner thoughts and plans.

Alonsgide the clever script there are some excellent visual gags especially the dark menacing Furbies. The adventure bowls along maintaining its humour throughout before ultimately delivering the charming repairing of the family relationships.

Well done animations makes as good a film as any live action movie and this is a really well done animation. It’s warm, humorous, beautifully drawn and well worth a watch, whether you have kids with you or not.