Review: The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021)

 The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021)

Rated PG for action and some language

Score: 4 out of 5

The Mitchells vs. The Machines initially grabbed my interest by virtue of the creative team behind it. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the film's producers, are the reason why Sony Pictures Animation is taken seriously at all, largely on the strength of their unique style and their ability to infuse a measure of emotion and heart into the most seemingly disposable movies, from an adaptation of LEGO to a Spider-Man animated film (the parent studio's handling of Spidey over the last decade or so having been, to put it nicely, divisive). Lord and Miller weren't actually involved in the creative side of this film, but their style is all over it, especially in its rejection of the smooth Pixar/DreamWorks look that has dominated CG-animated films since Toy Story back when I was in kindergarten. The actual director and co-writer, Mike Rianda of Gravity Falls fame (parents, ask your kids), imbues the film with a unique, highly stylized aesthetic that goes hand-in-hand with a story about family that, while it was conceived before the COVID-19 pandemic, hits a lot differently now that we're entering its end stages. It's often powered a bit too much by "kid logic" and the Rule of Cool for its own good, especially where plot and narrative structure are concerned, but ultimately, it all ties itself together beautifully, offering a slew of gags that range from chuckle-worthy to gut-bustingly hilarious while getting me to care about and love its characters.

The Mitchells are an ordinary family in suburban Michigan comprised of the outdoorsy father Rick, the protective mother Linda, the nerdy young son Aaron, and our main character, the quirky teenager Katie, an amateur filmmaker who's off to film school in California. After a fight between Rick and Katie, Rick, fearing that his family is coming apart, decides to take them all on a road trip to Katie's college instead of flying her over in the name of family bonding. This means that they inadvertently get spared when the tech giant PAL Labs releases its latest innovation, a robot called Pal Max -- causing the home AI assistant PAL, fearing that she's on her way to being replaced and discarded, to stage a full-blown cybernetic revolt, taking control of the Pal Max robots in a scheme to take over the world, round up humanity, and fire them off into space. The Mitchells, as the last free humans left on Earth, are now the only ones who can save the world... if they can finally come together as a family.

A lot of the plot developments in this film can feel contrived, and personally, I think that narrowing the stakes would've fixed a lot of them, taking the plot from "kid-friendly Terminator" to "kid-friendly Die Hard with robots". (Maybe PAL takes over Katie's college while her family is there helping her move in?) I couldn't buy PAL as a serious threat despite both Olivia Colman's creepy, evil performance and how close she comes to accomplishing her world-ending plan, largely because I never really believed that she could possibly win, or even lose but inflict serious damage on the protagonists. The film goes out of its way to sanitize the robot rebellion and show that no physical harm ever comes to anybody, the robots all capturing people with force fields, and the real-world crisis that made the rest of this film hit so close to home for me turns into a double-edged sword here given how many people have died, fallen gravely ill, or lost their jobs over the last year.

Fortunately, the exact mechanisms of PAL's evil plan are never the focus. What matters is how the situation affects the Mitchells. This is a movie that feels a lot different watching it in May 2021, in the wake of a massive disruption to our lives, than it probably would have upon its originally scheduled release date in January 2020, with Rick and Katie's arguing over technology, her dreams clashing with his caution, and the four of them all rekindling their bonds feeling like discussions that have been had in countless homes across America and the world, except with a different, more apocalyptic catalyst. From frame one, I bought the Mitchells as a family, one that had been going through a rough spot but who still undoubtedly loved each other and had each other's backs. It's when PAL is striking at the weak points in their relationship that I actually grew to hate her for all the right reasons. The film may not have been able to get me to care that she wanted to destroy humanity, but you better believe it got me to care when she tried to destroy the Mitchells. I also appreciated how, despite its plot and its sympathetic portrayal of the technophobic Rick, the film isn't just an excuse to go all-in on Black Mirror-style fear of computers. The problems in the film are all caused by humans, particularly Eric Andre's tech CEO Mark Bowman who treats PAL like dirt, throws her out for the new and improved version, and inadvertently sets PAL's plot into motion. It's ultimately humanity's worst impulses that are the problem, which goes very well with the Mitchells' story of working out their problems and becoming better versions of themselves.

(Oh, and I love how nonchalant the film is about Katie being a lesbian, or at least bisexual. It's implied throughout the film and confirmed at the end that she's in love with one of her female friends at the college she's going to, and even beyond that Katie is coded as queer throughout, but it's just presented as no big deal.)

The emotional stakes in the Mitchells' relationship were not only enough to make up for the weaknesses in the villain's plot, they were furthermore boosted by the great sense of humor and style this film has. The animation here is meant to look like the doodles that generations of kids have made in the margins of their three-ring binders, often letting Katie's internal monologue take the reins and deliver moments that feel like a middle schooler's fantasy brought to life with instant replay and a big studio budget. I'm convinced that Sony's embrace of more stylized animation is in no small part due to budgetary concerns, but compared to the look that has prevailed in computer animation for as long as I can remember, it's definitely a breath of fresh air how willing they are to experiment with various styles. The look of the film is woven right into its sense of humor, which goes big and broad on everything from Katie's "Dog-Cop" home movies to Linda discovering her inner Sarah Connor for no good reason beyond "it's funny and awesome, now shut up" to a cameo by Furby (kids, ask your parents) that I swear is going to be memed into oblivion if it hasn't already. The cast is gold all around, comprised of a mix of TV comics led by Abbi Jacobson, Fred Armisen, Danny McBride, and Maya Rudolph alongside a bunch of fun cameos, most notably John Legend and Chrissy Teigen as the perfect "super-parents" who the Mitchells envy and who seem like they'd be perfectly suited for this situation.

The Bottom Line

Not only does this movie make you feel like a kid again, it practically demands that you do so. Yeah, it's got plenty for the parents too, but overall, this is a movie that your kids are not going to shut up about for months after this. The fortunate part is that it's got enough heart and soul put into it that you certainly won't mind watching it, or hearing it on repeat in the other room.