The new family movie on the scene is the Mitchells vs. the Machines (directed by Michael Rianda), which was released on April 30 on Netflix. It tells the story of creatively minded Katie Mitchell, the oldest daughter, and her journey to want to become independent from her family especially from her father who doesn’t seem to get Katie’s attachment to technology and movie-making. While going on a road trip to Katie’s college, the machines revolt against the humans. It gets to the point where the Mitchells are the last family on Earth and the last hope of humanity. This is a heartwarming story with spectacular animation and is potentially one of the best animated films released this year. 

A stand out for me is the animation. Sony Animation has consistently been redeeming themselves since the Emoji Movie(2017) with movies like Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse(2018) and with the Mitchells vs. the Machines. Though CGI animation has become more of a studio standard and predictable in most movies, this one pushes the envelope. With the art style of the characters and the cinematography, it creates a grand experience of a film. 

One of the great quirks about this movie is ‘Katie Vision’, where we get to see how Katie sees the weird with little doodles filling the screen while the story happens. 

The voice acting in this is overall great, and the comedic timing of the show is a showstopper. I don’t know how many times my family and I were laughing out loud from the movie. 

One of the ways that this show really surpassed my expectations was how they handled the relationship of the modern Katie and her more traditional father, Rick Mitchell. Instead of the usual one side is right and the other is wrong, we get an understanding of both of the characters. We understand that technology is a way that Katie expresses herself creatively and for her father he believes in personal connection by talking but still has room for artistic expression. Both characters are right and wrong, and both work to better themselves. 

Another great thing about this movie is how they accurately portray Katie as someone in the current generation. Instead of pandering to the audience, Katie feels like a person you would see walking to in from class. 

The overall theme of this movie is simple but sweet. You don’t have to be the perfect family, and it is alright to have quirks. As long as you are willing to grow and understand each other then you could be a family capable of saving the entire world from evil robots. 

The film is rated PG, you can watch it on Netflix. I would recommend this film to families looking for a great comedy, creatives who would appreciate the animation and relate to Katie, or someone who was a fan of Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse. I would not recommend this to someone who doesn’t like quick-comedy or internet references. I would rate the Mitchells vs. the Machines a 4.5 out of 5 stars.

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