‘The Mitchells vs. The Machines’ Review & Director Interview
The Mitchells vs The Machines (formerly titled Connected) is the highly energetic, somewhat manic brainchild of Mike Rianda alongside co-writer/director Jeff Rowe. Having honed their craft on the critically acclaimed and fan favourite animated series Gravity Falls, The Mitchells vs. The Machines represents the duo’s feature film debut and they certainly haven’t held back.
When misunderstood creative Katie Mitchell gears up to leave home to study film at her dream school, an ongoing conflict with her father leads to a misguided family trip that is brought to a halt when a robotic uprising throws the family – and indeed the world – into a potential apocalypse. Highlighting our ultimate dependency on technology, the human race is quickly captured and imprisoned, owing to our perceived faults as a species and, ultimately, our lack of gratitude toward the devices that literally run our lives for us. Through a fluke of happenstance, the idiosyncratic Mitchell family find themselves becoming the last hope for the future of humankind and must learn to work together to rescue the human race.
The film boasts an impressive cast, including Oscar winning actress Olivia Colman as the downtrodden AI interface Pal that, after being cast aside for her inventor’s latest update, takes it upon herself to rally everyone’s devices and begin a robotic Armageddon. It hammers home that we really should read those T&Cs, shouldn’t we?
The film shows how taking someone for granted and a simple misunderstanding can cause a potentially catastrophic rift between friends and family, while at its heart is about a father-daughter relationship under strain as the duo struggle to meet eye-to-eye on the small things because they are too focused on the differences that separate them, rather than the similarities that ultimately bond them and the rest of their family together.
Full of self-deprecating dialogue, knowing nods to the creative process and pitch-perfect humour, the comedy and warmth of the well-developed characters in the film keeps going throughout, with the family’s lovable boss-eyed bread/pig/dog Mochi offering maximum laughs. The story manages to simultaneously mock, condemn and promote the propagation of technology in our lives; as one of the most prominent components of modern living, technology continues to divide the generations, and The Mitchells vs. The Machines succeeds in exploring all the contradictory issues with the continued development of tech in our lives, while reaching a solid conclusion that is neither preachy or overly predictable.
Visually the film combines the high-energy movement of Tartakovsky’s Hotel Transylvania and the painterly, concept-art-come-to-life look of Spider Man: Into the Spider-Verse albeit pushed further, largely owing to the incredible artistry of production design and character designer Lindsey Olivares that inspired the team to take incredible care in highlighting every wobbly line and imperfectly-perfect quirks in her designs, mirroring the beautifully flawed characters they portray.
Warmth of heart, great gags and a truly enjoyable story combined with a high-impact design style that is able to bring together CGI, illustrative texture, 2D graphics, app-like filters, stickers and even live-action meme culture (mimicking the fast paced nature of the online generation), The Mitchells vs. The Machines is a reflective film that sits right in the center of the current day reflective nature of the post-digital era, in which all aspects of our digital lives are called into question. Although the isolated memes and references could potentially become dated quickly, its core message will remain poignant through the ages.
The Mitchells vs The Machines is available on Netflix now. You can watch our interview with director Mike Rianda below (podcast version can be downloaded here):