Young Katie Mitchell embarks on a road trip
with her proud parents, younger brother and beloved dog to start her first year
at film school. But their plans to bond as a family soon get interrupted when
the world's electronic devices come to life to stage an uprising. With help
from two friendly robots, the Mitchells must now come together to save one
another -- and the planet -- from the new technological revolution.
Director: Michael Rianda
Cast: Danny McBride, Abbi Jacobson, Maya
Rudolph, Rianda, Eric Andre, Olivia Colman, Fred Armisen, Beck Bennett, John
Legend, Chrissy Teigen, Blake Griffin, Conan O'Brien
Release Date:
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Rated PG for action and some language
Runtime: 1 h 53 min
Review:
The Mitchells vs. The Machines is a light
breezy animated family film that has heart to spare. Michael Rianda’s film has a bright and
appealing visual style that’s distinctive enough to separate it from other
animated films. The story is a nice
hybrid of a standard family film and a fun sci-fi story. Neither is particularly groundbreaking but it
hits the sweet spot where it finds a meaningful story to tell with engaging
characters. The primary family play off
standard tropes but the script is smart enough to give them enough depth to
make them engaging and interesting. The
entire thing wouldn’t work if the voice cast didn’t deliver strong
performances, thankfully they do in spades.
Danny McBride delivers one of the more restrained performances of his
career and it works well for this role.
McBride’s performance is sincere and heartfelt throughout which is a
great change of pace for him. McBride
and Abbi Jacobson have believable chemistry as the father daughter duo who are
at the heart of the story, as such they are the driving force of the film. The supporting cast is rounded out with Maya
Rudolph, Michael Rianda, Eric Andre and Olivia Colman with each getting their
time to shine. Colman in particular
seems to be having a ball as diabolical AI who can’t deal with rejection. The Mitchells vs. The Machines also delivers
a hefty amount of laugh out loud moments that are sure to keep young and old
entertained for the better part of its runtime.
There are portions of the film that feel like they could have been
trimmed because there really no reason for the film to be nearly 2 hours long,
regardless it’s strong family film that works on multiple levels.
B+
