Animation is a great way of allowing you to experience the world through the eyes of another, complete with the colour, energy, imagination and chaos that this can bring. It’s true whether you’re looking at the world from the perspective of a frustrated and talented teenage girl, or from that of a megalomaniacal rogue AI who dreams of blasting every human on Earth into space in tiny hexagonal pods (with free wifi!). Such is the chaotic and sensational combination of styles that fuels animated road-trip riot The Mitchells vs the Machines, a film that crams a father-daughter conflict, a techno-apocalypse, Olivia Colman, and every colour of the rainbow into a burnt-orange 1993 station wagon.
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller produce with the same kind of free-spirited approach that characterised the likes of The Lego Movie and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It’s then balanced out by Gravity Falls’ Mike Rianda and Jeff Rowe, who complement the zaniness with a nuanced, gentle and heartfelt story, making it more than just a superficial display of artistry. The Mitchells vs the Machines is not just a story of the relationships people have with one another, but those we have with technology and our past selves.
The film doesn’t bluntly take the stance of “the kids are right, and the adults are out of touch,” something that can feel as outdated as a dial-up internet connection. There’s more balance here; the film encourages you to see things from the perspective of both Katie and her father Rick (voiced by Abbi Jacobson and Danny McBride, respectively), never unconditionally favouring one over the other and allowing both of them to see how they aren’t acknowledging the full picture. Rick cannot compute her daughter’s passions and interests, while Katie doesn’t understand what her father has sacrificed to ensure his family has the life that they deserve.
This is the reality of family, or at least the reality of how family can be: a messy, endearing, and often stubborn odyssey of care and compromise. Family is at the heart of The Mitchells vs the Machines – as the end credits make movingly apparent – and it’s given real emotive detail, including subtle inclusions of both queerness and neurodiversity, helping the film feel like a creation born from the realities of our own lives rather than something more sanitised and narrow-minded. Given the subject matter, it’s a fitting way of showing how movies can have a soul in a way that technology simply cannot.
This depth, however, is only half of the story. First and foremost, The Mitchells vs the Machines is apocalyptically funny; a high-octane adventure that combines 3D animation with splashes of hand-drawn and even live-action elements to create a striking onscreen collage. This energetic nightmare is complete with violent humanoid robots, sentient kitchen appliances, and Furbies gleefully attempting mass murder (shocking to everyone except those who have ever owned one of those soft spherical demons). And Colman is on fire, relishing one of the most entertaining roles of her career as Pal the evil AI. Pal and her robot minions get some of the biggest laughs of the whole movie, the jokes coming from visual gags to unexpected one-liners.
It is also rare to see a film treat technology and the internet with an equal mix of awe and suspicion, carrying a clear warning while also not hesitating to celebrate what it can also offer. Concerns about rampant AI and technology have only grown since 2021, which perhaps makes it unsurprising that there is now a sequel on the way. Because if AI really is here to stay, then films like The Mitchells vs the Machines remind us of technology’s awesome potential while staying focused on what really matters.
The Mitchells vs the Machines is available on Netflix
