The Mitchells vs. the Machines Review!

 Alright! Today I'm reviewing the latest movie from Sony Pictures Animation, The Mitchells vs. the Machines. The Mitchells vs. the Machines was intended to be released back in September 2020, and ended up being delayed, bought by Netflix, and released last April.

And can I just applaud Sony Pictures Animation? They went from making Smurfs: The Lost Village and The Emoji Movie in 2017 to making Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and this. That's, like, the worst animated and best animated movies of the decade right there, produced within a year. And The Mitchells vs. the Machines keeps up the winning streak! 

For a brief recap, The Mitchells vs. the Machines is an hour and forty-five minute animated comedy (Excluding credits) about the Mitchells, a quirky family who has to deal with the uprising machine apocalypse. This problem mirrors the family's conflict, where the teenage daughter Katie, about to leave for film school, is coming into conflict with her outdoorsman father, who doesn't see the value of technology. 

One of the most immediately noticeable things about the movie is its striking animation. It's basically the Spider-Verse animation but less comic and more 2D. It's like a combination of watercolor, Spider-Verse, and traditional animation. It's hard to describe. 

It definitely keeps the little animated frames from Spider-Verse, though. I honestly kind of disliked it here. Unlike Spider-Verse, where the hand-drawn animations never disrupted the story, The Mitchells vs. the Machines makes the quick frames and references into freeze frames that last a beat too long. They would keep interrupting the flow of the story, especially towards the finale. That's honestly my biggest complaint, though.

Now for the stuff I loved! It's basically everything else! Something I absolutely loved about the movie was how balanced the themes were. In a movie where machines start to catch people through their technology, it would've been really easy to have a cringey boomer-type "Go outside instead of playing on your phones!" message. Instead, it's able to expertly balance "Technology controls too many aspects of our lives" and "Technology helps us make amazing things" messages. I appreciated that. It was balanced. 

I loved everything about these two robots. 

The only time it wasn't balanced was when they shut off the wifi and it cuts to people burning trashcans and talking about making sacrifices to the router. I don't think that would happen. But it followed up that lame joke with an excellent "Robots capture the humans by offering free wifi" joke, so it's kind of a grey area. 

And speaking of jokes... oh my goodness... this movie is absolutely hilarious. The first half was an incredible road trip movie, on par with the greats like National Lampoon. The second half was an action-packed comedy where a misfit family defeats an evil overlord (A lot like The LEGO Movie). It can not be understated how many jokes are in here. There's... so many... and so many of them land! Like, 98% of them! 

I was laughing the entire time. It was a good experience. 

The dog was amazing and the movie knew it.

One of my favorite things about the movie is how it wasn't laden with the typical "family road trip" tropes that plague the genre. No one ever has an emotional Anakin Skywalker "I HATE YOU!" moment, the dad never regrets having children, and the mom is never quiet and submissive. It's well-rounded. Every character has importance to the plot, and it's never in that cheeky way that you've seen a million times. 

Even though the concept is familiar, The Mitchells vs. the Machines puts enough character and charm into it that feels new and fresh, much like The LEGO Movie and Spider-Verse. I bring those up because the people who produced this film, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, also produced those two. It's a perfect trilogy of "Wow, that was a lot better than it had any right to be! Actually incredible! One of the best movies of the year!"

Someone needs a raise for thinking of this scene.

Something I absolutely laud the movie for is the representation. The main character is gay, but it's not like that's a major point of conflict. It's not like her entire arc revolves around her sexual orientation, it's just a matter of fact. It's not really confirmed until the very end of the movie, which I appreciated. I love it when a character is gay, but that's not their entire character. Treating it like it's a regular thing, nothing special. It's normal. It's not forced, and it fits the character. I appreciated that. 

Short detour! I was on an 8-hour drive from VA to GA when I first saw this movie. I had heard some good things about it and had nothing else better to do, so my brother and I shared the headphones and watched it. I was not expecting a random Netflix pick to be amazing. 

I guess the mom's rampage was fine. That was probably the most generic thing in the movie, though.

Nor was I expecting to be so relatable! I mean, I'm also stuffed chock full with fears over college, I love movies, I... I was not expecting to relate this hard. And some of the road trip plot elements! The sad dinosaur park could've been plucked straight from my life! This is easily the most relatable movie I've ever seen. 

That being said, I was absolutely not expecting the movie to be as emotional as it was. There's a beating heart underneath the beautiful animation! There were certain moments in the movie where I honestly wanted to cry (I didn't, though). It was just... so touching... and then the transition to the credits was beautiful. I loved it. Absolutely loved it. 

Overall, I give The Mitchells vs. the Machines a 9/10. "Beautiful animation, absolutely hilarious comedy, and a surprisingly heartfelt emotional core make The Mitchells vs. the Machines an absolutely incredible movie."