‘The Mitchells vs. the Machines’ Review: Fun, Funny, and Filled with Tons of Heart

It’s no surprise that Sony Pictures Animation would use The LEGO Movie and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in the marketing for their upcoming The Mitchells vs. the Machines as they share a similar animation style, not to mention Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are also serving as producers. But when you immediately start making comparisons to some of the best animated films in recent years, you need to be able to back it up. Pack with hilarious humor and explosive action surrounded by a heartfelt story about family, The Mitchells vs. the Machines doesn’t just back it up, it slams the gear shift in reverse and floors the gas. I’m confident to say that The Mitchells vs. the Machines is already one of the best animated films of the year.

The entire Mitchell family is a collection of oddballs who all don’t exactly get along. There’s Katie Mitchell (Abbi Jacobson) who is wildly creative and spends her time creating her own short films from scratch. And while he has good intentions, her father Rick (Danny McBride) doesn’t always see the value in her film and would rather she learn something more practical and hands-on. There’s also dinosaur enthusiast Aaron (Mike Rianda) who is a little bit quirky. Trying to keep the family together is the always positive mom Linda (Maya Rudolph). They won’t be together for much longer though because Katie got accepted to film school out in California, and after her and Rick get in an argument the night before she flies out to college, dad decides to cancel her flight and drive her across the country with the entire family for some quality bonding. Meanwhile, tech company Pal unveils their new robot helpers who suddenly go haywire and try to take over the planet and shoot all humans off on rockets into deep space. Somehow the Mitchell family evades capture, and it’s now up to them to come together for once and save the planet from their new robot overlords.

I was initially a bit weary of The Mitchells vs. the Machines and that it would be this bare bones story about the dangers of too much technology. It was even called Connected at one point before reverting back to its old and much better title. And at the center of the film is the Mitchell family, who immediately capture your heart with their wholesome identities. Katie is a creator while her younger brother Aaron’s obsession with dinosaurs makes him a little bit weird. It’s their passions, however, that make them so charming a likeable. Rick, on the other hand, tends to be more grounded and errs on the side of caution. He clearly loves his daughter, but that love doesn’t extend to her identity with film, which he just sees as a fun little hobby. This causes a lot of tension between them at the start of the film, and it takes the robot apocalypse to bring them all together.

The Mitchells vs. the Machines is pure wholesome fun. It moves from one joke to another a rapid pace, tossing in scenes of action and drama. Of course the Mitchell family dog Monchi is going to steal every scene he’s in as well, and there are a lot of them. The film embraces meme culture as well, delivering plenty of hilarious content that feels right at home in our social media driven lives. The whole family is fun, whether they’re working together as a unit or struggling individually. Everyone has value, and that makes The Mitchells vs. the Machines deliver a near constant dosage of humor. You’ll no doubt be laughing so hard you’ll have to pause the film to not miss the next joke. Prepare to fall in love with the Mitchell family.

Netflix delivers one of the best animated films of the year with The Mitchells vs. the Machines. It’s fun, funny, and filled with tons of heart. What more could you want from a film?