Directed by Michael Rianda, Jeff Rowe
Written by Michael Rianda, Jeff Rowe
Starring Charlyne Yi, Olivia Colman, Eric André, Maya Rudolph, Danny McBride, Abbi Jacobson
Runtime: 1 hour 53 minutes
In select theaters April 23 and on Netflix April 30

by Emily Maesar, Staff Writer

My introduction to The Mitchells vs. The Machines was less typical than I, personally, would have expected, just given how I come about things. I really love animation, but I tend to latch onto specific creators and simply follow their careers even more than with live-action films and shows. So, it was ultimately unsurprising in retrospect that it was Alex Hirsch, the man behind Gravity Falls (one of my favorite shows… probably ever), who put this flick on my radar.

And, for good reason. It was written and co-directed by Michael Rianda and Jeff Rowe, with Rianda also voicing Aaron Mitchell. They were both writers on Gravity Falls, writing some of my personal favorite episodes of the show, individually. Together, however, they’ve written and directed one of the best animated family comedies in the last few years.

The Mitchells vs. The Machines is about a family (the Mitchells) who end up taking a road trip to bring their daughter Katie (Abbi Jacobson) to film school in California. Originally meant to fly, Rick (Danny McBride) decides that a long drive is just what he and his daughter need to reconnect before she goes away for four years. While they’re driving, however, there’s a machine uprising led by PAL (Olivia Coleman), a digital personal assistant who is completely over humanity. As the last humans on Earth, the Mitchells must become a family again, if they want to save the world.

All of which is a pretty classic plot for a family film, I’d say. So, of course, it also means that the film must elevate itself (as most try to do) in the way it chooses to tell that story. Yes, that means the animation style(s), but it also means the age range. I’m gonna go ahead and say it: The Mitchells vs. The Machines is an animated teen film. No one has actually said that teen films need to be rated PG-13 or R to count within the age bracket, so I don’t think it’s off base to say. I mean, Better Off Dead is often rated PG and that came out after Indiana Jones forced the issue.

And, I would argue, both things that work in The Mitchells, were proven to work in the most critically successful film from Sony Pictures Animation: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Also from Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (with both producing and Lord on as part of the writing team), Spider-Verse merged fully different animation styles to create a world that looked and felt like a comic book, come to life. It also happened to be a teen film in the way many coming-of-age superhero flicks actually are, even if we don’t recognize them as such.

The differences between Spider-Verse and The Mitchells, though, is important to why they each work. The former is much more of a coming-of-age tale told through a superhero origin story, putting to film one of Marvel’s most beloved young characters. And the latter is about the teenage-parent relationship and how toxic it can become without anyone realizing it. Which is backdropped by the ultimate toxic parent-child relationship: tech bro and his tech. A story choice that is just so… brilliant.

While Lord and Miller don’t have writing or directing credit on The Mitchells vs. The Machines, they did produce the film, which I think puts it in their general animation pantheon. They’re over at Sony Pictures Animation just absolutely cultivating some of the most interesting writers and directors in feature animation. They’re making kids animation, sure, but they’re also spearheading the production of teen animation in a big, and super important, way. These films are still “family films,” but they have teenage protagonists who are dealing with uniquely teenage problems. Katie’s literally going to college, after all.

I think The Mitchells vs The Machines is a remarkable piece of animation. It’s funny, emotional, and truly made for weird kids and their vaguely normal parents. Honestly, though, Rianda and Rowe have lovingly given us their teenage hearts and souls. And, I think in doing so, they’re giving a new generation of online, indoor kids the emotional capacity, and visual language, to understand where their parents are coming from… and vice-versa.

Plus, the robot apocalypse by way of a digital personal assistant losing it? Doesn’t seem that unlikely.