An unexpected delight to watch, The Mitchells vs The Machines popped up on my recommendations on Netflix, and it did not disappoint! Monchi the dog steals the show though, hands down.
I love animated movies! I'm finding that newer films targeted at families have a lot of relatable topics that haven't necessarily been addressed previously or may be covering topics that could have previously been a bit of a taboo. The Mitchells Vs The Machines explores the journey of a teenage girl who feels somewhat isolated in her existence. Her parents don't seem to fully back her career goals and there doesn't appear to be a real perception of belonging. Often teenagers will go through phases, seeing every 'no' from their parents as a display of stubbornness, each change of the season as a new opportunity to try their luck on something, and a deep rooted foreboding feeling. Katie Mitchell is that teenager, with a dream of becoming a filmmaker, having already released many videos onto her platforms - most of which include the absolute legend Monchi the pug. Katie lives with her younger brother Aaron, dad Rick and mam Linda, along with the family's pet dog. The parents decide they're going on a family road trip instead of letting Katie catch a flight solo, which means that Katie will be missing out on what I think is the equivalent of freshers week, and she's devastated that she won't be spending this time with her friends and getting to know her fellow students whilst partying. Boooooooo!
Whilst popping into a store to grab a few bits on the road the family learns of a cyber attack on the planet, with robots descending from the skies with orders to detain and transport all beings to their mothership after an AI gains control of all of the smart devices in the world! Mark Bowman, founder and creator of PAL, had created a virtual assistant to help him with day to day work, who then decided to take over all of his newly made machines and wreak havoc once rendered useless due to the creation of the home use robots. The family manages to avoid capture and sets about stopping this cyber attack, with the help of a few defective robots.
I thought that the base level plot for this was a fresh idea and a great concept. Yes we've seen AI turn on their creators before, but digital assistants managing a fleet of robots is a great new spin on a classic story. The interwoven human plot wasn't too complicated, and had a few points that you'd pick up on along the way, without too much attention on the characters outside of the Mitchell family. Yes, they're a little bit dysfunctional, but what family isn't?!
I think the creators tried to go for something that's very relevant right now by using popular mobile based social media platforms and websites, like TikTok, WhatsApp and Snapchat, to garner interest from the type of viewers who're stuck to their devices 24/7. Younger audiences seem to love this type of reference and direction in movies, I mean look at the Emoji movie - who'd have thought 10 years ago that people would be paying to watch a movie about emojis? It definitely works in this instance though.
Whilst not deeply delved into, it was also a pleasant surprise to see a lesbian character included in an animated movie - I could name on 1 hand the amount of gay characters in kids movies I've seen, so it's great that the industry is becoming more inclusive overall. I know that some movies are edited for countries that aren't accepting of gay relationships when it comes to the dubbing over in their native language, having discovered recently that Disney's Onward was banned in four Arab countries and had lines changed in the Arabic version released in Bahrain, Lebanon, Egypt and the UAE, with changes in Russia and Poland as well; over a character called Specter who mentions her girlfriend having a daughter. Come on people! Wake up and smell the coffee, and join us in a peaceful and harmonious society where people can be who they want to be, and love who they want to love.
I have to mentioned the voice artists, and surprisingly the animal 'voice' artist, because internet sensation Doug the Pug had snippets of him barking and doing dog-like things used in this movie! Danny McBride, despite not being one of my go to choices for acting, did a particularly great job at conveying the emotional struggles between a father and daughter who find it difficult to relate to one another. I think Abbi Jacobson adds depth to the character of Katie, with some great emotive range and she makes the character pretty witty too - to be fair, the writing's great so that does help. Maya Rudolph is Linda Mitchell and I can't help but love her in every role I've seen so no surprises there. I was surprised to learn that the director also voiced Katie's little brother Aaron. A man of many talents!
My few niggles - I wanted to learn a little bit more about Rick and Linda - their characters didn't seem to be developed as much as Katie, and I thought they had so much personality, and it was fun when they had flashbacks to past experiences, I figured it would have been nice to see more of them. I could easily have watched the whole movie and given it 10 mics if it was all about Monchi because my love for pugs runs deep. Men In Black was the start of my obsession. Should Monchi have spoken too? Often in animated movies animals can talk and I don't know if I would have liked it more if that were the case. There could have been a bit more story with the robots themselves, and the AI who was controlling them, but the scenes they did have were solid. If you haven't watched this, lookout for the scene in the mall, because I can guarantee you've probably had a similar nightmare like I did as a kid - Furbies. That's all I'm saying.
Aside from this it was hard to find any faults to be honest, perhaps a few scenes that could have been shorter. So I went with an 8 and that's where I think this movie belongs. Sony sold the distribution rights to Netflix so make sure you hop on there to check it out.
Review by CB
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