The Mitchells Vs the Machines
Nothing brings a family together quite like the robot apocalypse or at least that is one of the life lessons taught in The Mitchells vs the Machines, the latest straight-to Netflix animated release from producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The Lego Movie). And when it comes to the robot apocalypse, the Mitchells are not exactly the family you would want to save the world. They are not great at the family thing, I mean they love each other, but they don’t get along or communicate well. They are also super average, in almost everything. On the surface this story may seem formulaic, parents and kids don’t understand each other; they go on a road trip and learn to appreciate each other there is so much more to The Mitchells vs the Machines than meets the eye.
What immediately struck me was how well-rounded the Mitchells are as characters. We see a lot of the story through the eyes of Katie (Abbi Jacobson), the Mitchell’s eighteen-year-old daughter who is about to go to film school. Katie is a weirdo, she is artistic, a movie nerd and makes YouTube videos about her Pug dog Monchi (Played by real-life internet sensation Dug the Pug) but she isn’t your classic movies artistic kid because of being artistic isn't all there is to her personality. So often in children's movies, what a character does or their hobbies define their whole personality and they fall into stereotypes: the loner, the artistic kid, the nerd, the jock, the girly girl, etc, While these characters are easy to identify, it was refreshing to see a character who loves film but can talk about other things. Loving movies is one part of who Katie is, it isn't the only thing there is to her. The same applies to all of the Mitchells. Rick is a woodsman, a tough guy, who values the great outdoors and hates technology. At first, he feels like a stereotype of the “dad” but the more we get to know him the more we learn that just like with Katie, that is only part of who he is.
They also are really relatable, things often don’t go their way, they miscommunicate, they get confused, and they can’t take a good family photo to save their life. They are not special, they have no powers or knowledge that would make them the prime candidates for world-saving, and that is what we love about them. Everyone knows people like them, or more actually most of us are them. Most of us don’t have a perfect family. Like the Mitchell’s, we get on each other's nerves, we miscommunicate, and sometimes hurt each other's feelings. However, the Mitchell's learn, (and that the audience hopefully learns through them) is that family is worth fighting for, and showing up and trying your best is the most anyone can ask for. Interestingly, the Mitchells don't like the same things, they don’t have the same hobbies or enjoy the same activities, but as Katie says, family means memorizing dinosaur facts because they make your brother happy. Family means parents learning YouTube because it is important to their daughter, and maybe always being confused about pop culture but trying to understand because it is important to their kids. And this effort should not be mocked, the Mitchell kids never laugh at their parents when they are trying to learn something and vice versa. The effort is appreciated and seen as love.
Now The Mitchells vs the Machines is a goofy movie, the sense of humor is very similar to The Lego Movie, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and the Disney show Gravity Falls. This comedy style isn’t for everyone and that is totally ok, but as for me, I laughed really hard a few times. As a parent, a movie nerd, and a big sister there were many moments that had me laughing out loud and some sweet father-daughter moments that made me get a bit misty-eyed. For what this movie is, the balance of humor and heart is impressive.
The animation is very stylized and there is a graphic novel feel to the primary animation. However, Katie’s artistic style is used as a second layer or animation, to accent emotions and jokes. Like Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse, at first, the animation is a bit off-putting but after about 5 minutes you get used to it and appreciate it almost as a character in and of itself.
There is a short moment I do want to address. In the epilog of the story, Katie is at college talking to her parents and is asked if she is bringing her girlfriend Jade home for Thanksgiving. Katie says something about it only having been a few weeks and they keep talking, this is the only mention of Katie’s sexuality throughout the movie, although she does have a small rainbow pin on her jacket for the duration of the film. This is the beginning of what I predict will be the trend in media and entertainment, character’s sexuality not being a big talking point rather a small part that comes up from time to time. This is an attempt at normalizing, when everyone in the movie world accepts something as standard, in an effort to encourage the audience to accept it as standard. This has always been prevalent in children's media in an effort to use kids to influence adults and is a tactic that has also been used by the media for a long time ( ie:, seat belts and smoking). When children’s media normalized wearing seatbelts and the characters were shocked when someone didn’t wear a seatbelt the rate of seatbelt wearing in adults and kids increased. For better or worse, this phenomenon or normalizing is what many studios and writers are trying to use when it comes to sexuality and gender, and the Mitchells vs the Machines is no exception. If you want to watch the movie but don’t want your kids to see that moment skip from 1:39.30- 1:40:00. Like I said it was a really short, but really clear moment.
Overall the Mitchells vs the Machines is a fun teen/tween/family comedy that explores what it means to be a family and what it takes to overcome family dysfunction. I would not recommend it for young kids. It has some intense moments (I mean the robot apocalypse). There are some interesting comments made on technology and society included. If you have Netflix and are looking for something fun to watch with your older kids I would recommend (excluding the moment of normalizing) The Mitchells vs the Machines.
Content Overview
Language: Oh my God, Darn, What the... , and so on, but it is rated PG so there isn’t anything explicit.
Sexual Content: Katie’s Sexuality is discussed briefly (See Above)
Violence: there are a lot of robots that explode. When Mrs. Mitchell sees her son in danger, she goes into a rage and destroys a lot of robots in a more violent manner and we see oil splatter on her and everything else.
Objectionable content: There is some crude toilet humor that we could have done without. The family is attacked by an army of Furbies… Which is really kind of terrifying and then they summon their leader which is a 20ft tall furby who is, for lack of a better term ...the Dark Lord and says some rather dark and creepy things in the chattering way only a furby can.
