The visual style of this new animation is a zany triumph, writes Robbie Collin
Credit: Netflix
Dir: Michael Rianda. Starring: Abbi Jacobson, Danny McBride, Olivia Colman, Maya Rudolph, Michael Rianda (voices). PG cert, 114 mins
What would it take these days for a family on holiday to sheath their smartphones, shut off the Wi-Fi, and enjoy some old-fashioned, gadget-free quality time? The Mitchells vs the Machines offers the following plausible-sounding answer: a full-blown apocalyptic robot uprising, in which technology turns on humankind and a careless network connection could spell your doom.
The premise is put to relentlessly funny and ingenious use in this wonderful new film from Sony Pictures Animation, directed by Mike Rianda and covered in the fingerprints of the duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie; Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs), who serve as producers. It has been animated in a way that feels completely unique: a hybrid of gleamingly sophisticated c
Bob Strauss April 28, 2021Updated: April 30, 2021, 11:24 am
A scene from “The Mitchells vs. The Machines.” Photo: Associated Press
In “The Mitchells vs. The Machines,” a college-bound teenager must decide which is worse: a robot apocalypse or a road trip with her parents.
In the Sony Pictures Animation spectacular, premiering Friday, April 30, on Netflix, the answer to Katie Mitchell’s quandary is never in doubt. It’s an action-packed, more or less witty and eye-popping journey to a foregone conclusion, with maybe a few too many feels along the way.
Director Mike Rianda (Disney Channel’s “Gravity Falls”) has clearly put some of his own creative misfit feelings into Katie, who’s voiced by “Broad City’s” Abbi Jacobson. The amateur digital filmmaker’s dad, Rick (Danny McBride), was inspired by Rianda’s father too, also an outdoorsman and mechanical whiz who’s baffled by smartphones and computers. Daughter and father don’t get each other
Review: Family fights robot revolution in The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Fate of humankind is in the hands of a Michigan family in spirited Netflix comedy
Adam Graham
It s not just superheroes who can save the world.
An everyday, ordinary family one hailing from Kentwood, Michigan, in fact steps up to rescue humanity from enslavement by evil robots in The Mitchells vs. the Machines, a fun, clever, spirited animated comedy that celebrates the heroism of a mom, dad, daughter and son who are just trying to hold it together the best they can. The Mitchells don t have a single superpower between the four of them; consider them the anti- Incredibles.