Animation Defenestration: The one with a PG robot apocalypse

 

Title: The Mitchells Vs. The Machine

What Year?: 2020 (completed)/ 2021 (release)

Classification: Mashup

Rating: It’s Okay! (3/4)

 

As I write this, it’s been a while since I did an animation review, and I definitely felt like doing something new. As it happened, I had just taken another look at a movie that would really shake things up simply by being from the last year. It is also one of the more willfully strange films to come to my attention from any time recently, which isn’t too surprising given that it’s from the crew behind The Lego Movie. Without further ado, I present The Mitchells Vs. The Machines, a teenage non-lethal version of Terminator.

Our story begins with a quick introduction to a family running from hostile robots in a station wagon, provided by the high school graduate Katie. We then flash back to the start of a road trip, instigated when a plane ticket to her new college is cancelled under suspicious circumstances. Her father Rick is conveniently prepared to cross the country with her mother and Aspie-analog brother Aaron in tow. While they are stopped at a dino-themed tourist trap even Aaron is critical of, a product launch party becomes a full AI uprising, led by a tech genius’s discarded and disgruntled cell phone. The vaguely humanoid robots begin herding humans into modular cages with tractor beams and offers of free wifi, but the Mitchells escape them with help from a pair of defective/ renegade machines and a pet whose appearance overloads the bots’ target-recognition programs. The family takes the fight to the machines at a mall overrun by murderous Furbys, but when their plan to upload a kill code fails, they must go to the heart of the tech company. Can the family prevail, and make peace with who they are? Do we need to put this as a question???

The Mitchells Vs The Machines was a 2021 Sony animated film directed and cowritten by Mike Rianda and produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, known for Gravity Falls and The Lego Movie respectively. The voice cast was led by Abbi Jacobson as Katie Mitchell and Danny McBride as Rick, with Maya Rudolph as Mrs. Mitchell and Rianda as Aaron. The soundtrack was composed by Mark Mothersbaugh, with an original song “On My Way” by Alex Lahey. After a planned 2020 release was postponed, the rights to the film were purchased by Netflix, which made the film available for streaming immediately after a limited theatrical release. Rianda confirmed that the main character was written as LGBT. The film received an Oscar nomination and numerous additional awards. The film remains available for free streaming on Netflix, as well as on disc.

For my experiences, I first heard of this one through the usual animation-fan channels, without taking immediate interest. Once I added Netflix streaming to my Neolithic disc rental plan (see Neverending Story), I gave it a look, and then watched it again along with some other material. What settled me on reviewing it was simply that I reminded myself that I not only hadn’t done an animation review since Chicken Little, but still haven’t hit 10 reviews for this feature. On top of that, the total of 9 reviews I had done for this feature was no greater than the count I had done for my other features. So, I set aside another very worthy movie to review this one. I even factored in that this one is actually good.

Moving forward, most of the pros and cons for this one come down to the fact that it runs on pure random. The result is a high-energy presentation with a steady stream of gags, slapstick/ action sequences and general wackiness. It’s worth further note that this feels increasingly like Katie’s comically bad in-universe movies, which in turn leaves a strong impression that what we see are her perceptions as much as reality. Predictably, there’s some further hit-or-miss elements that don’t quite fit, like a Dawn of the Dead reference that should be over the younger characters’ heads. (I have already recounted my quest to get it on Blu Ray…) The one real downside to this approach, common to such things, is that the “off-beat” notes start to feel predictable in their own right. The deeper problem, again a common issue, is an uneven tone. The weirdness alternates with serious moments with the family, which is fine, but the latter moments work well enough to wish for much more of them. It opens up in my mind the possibility of a movie that’s just about the road trip, with no science fiction/ fantasy elements at all. That, in turn, brings up more strongly the question of bow much, if anything, should be taken as reality, an intriguing subtext that never quite gets developed.

The flip side is the rebellious robots, and these are intriguing. The fact that they don’t simply start Skynet-style genocide is clearly dictated by the “family friendly” tone, yet the conceit evolves into a plausible scenario. The drone-like mechs that form the main force seem unable to kill or harm a human, at least by direct action. The elite battle mechs that arrive for the finale show no such restraint, though bey then, the fights are even more slapstick than they were before. The wider plan is in some lights never quite resolved.  At first, they seem to offer what they might consider benevolent rule over humanity, in line with their polite ultimatum to “remain calm” at the outset. Even when the hilariously evil cell phone giving eventually reveals her plan to launch humans into space, there’s still traces of ambiguity what the actual or expected outcome will be. (Someone else I discussed the movie with noted to be the same as “The Marching Morons”, otherwise covered when I reviewed Idiocracy.) The big plot hole is that this has all clearly been planned long before the supposed slight that drives the villainess (???) to implement it. What happens really appears to be one of a number of contingency plans. Fortunately, this is certainly a case where it’s more fun to imagine the alternatives than have them explained.

That leaves the “one scene”, and I’m going with the one that’s close to my own heart and experience. As the movie passes the 20-minute mark, the father teases the kids with the sign for the dino tourist trap. Aaron immediately becomes excited, while Katie tries to muffle  him long enough to announce that her brother now hates dinosaurs. It’s clear at this point at least as much as elsewhere that the voice is an adult actor, but it works for the character. Naturally, the arrival at the tourist trap underwhelms even the boy; I was especially amused by the sauropod that has its neck propped up yet still droops pathetically. The boy says repeatedly, “What’s wrong with the dinosaurs?” He gets more agitated as he sees what’s inside, broken up by gags that will probably age as well as the Facebook jokes of ca. 2010, but as I keep saying, bad paleo art will last for a geologic epoch. It all flows so naturally that the first streaks of light falling from the sky look like one of the exhibits, until Aaron looks through the window and it becomes clear that it's a reflection from outside. Trust me, kid, I know how you feel. I collect patchisaurs, and I’ve been to Holbrook, Arizona. (And while I’m at it, here’s my Terminator fan novel; it will make sense at chapter 28.)

In closing, all I really have to say is that this is one movie that’s been as fun to review as it is to watch. In fact, I gave it one more viewing I hadn’t even mentioned while I was getting this done, albeit as background noise during my actual job. It might seem like I’m critical, and this really is the way I look at movies. I may be analytical to a fault. But that doesn’t stop me from appreciating a really good movie, and this is very good. With that, I’m done for a while. Dog, pig, loaf of bread...