SCREEN | 'The Mitchells vs. the Machines' Saves the World

"It took a while to figure myself out."

Sony Pictures Animation / Lord Miller Productions

The Mitchells vs. the Machines (aka Connected), written and directed by animators Mike Rianda and Jeff Rowe (co-director), is a refreshing dysfunctional family comedy about the robot apocalypse. Framed through a cross-country road trip, the animated feature mixes comedic stylings for an entirely entertaining effort about our current sense of disconnection as a result of modern technology.

Produced by power duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller behind Spider-Verse and The Lego Movie franchise, Mitchells lives up to their high animated pedigree of inventive visual and comedic storytelling. How it self-awarely combines different animated techniques and comedy through editing makes it particularly appealing.

Starring the voices of comedians Abbi Jacobson, Danny McBride, and Maya Rudolph as the eponymous family with Olivia Colman as the deliciously evil robotic OS villain, it's a fun tale of a family trying to get along as they are brought together through a technological war as it mines various other cinematic touchstones.

Full of heart, The Mitchells vs. the Machines approaches its goofy but sweet universal themes of a typical American family heightened through a superhero-like narrative and plotting to make it such an endearing adventure.

The Mitchells vs. the Machines is available to stream on Netflix.


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