The Mitchells vs. The Machines Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out The Mitchells vs. The Machines premieres Friday, April 30 on Netflix. [poilib element="accentDivider"] It's both fortune and folly that the new animated adventure The Mitchells vs. The Machines is a Netflix Original. The blessing is that this delightful, energetic, and clever film is easily accessible, and affordable, for most everyone and the curse is that it's a gorgeous work that would benefit from a big-screen experience now that it's becoming more normalized to go to theaters. (The film, previously titled Connected, was originally produced as a theatrical release from Sony.) From director and co-writer Mike Rianda (Gravity Falls), and executive producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The LEGO Movie, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse), The Mitchells vs. The Machines takes after the best of Lord and Miller's previous hits, providing a dazzling, inventive, and heartfelt adventure through a robot apocalypse. Yes, nothing can quite deliver mirth in the face of absolute global ruin like a Lord and Miller project. A vibrant mix of different animation techniques, including some of the innovative stylings from Into the Spider-Verse, this raucous family romp smoothly switches between 3D, 2D, and real-life imagery in a manner that helps tell the story, distinguish between worlds, and show the inner workings of characters' minds. It's overflowing with action and noise but it never feels disjointed or messy. It's a spot-on blend of character, plot, and silliness. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/28/the-mitchells-vs-the-machines-official-trailer"] The over-arching messaging about how "screen time" is causing rifts in families, and a decline in overall society, is a touch, well, out of touch. Where The Mitchells vs. The Machines is more effective, though, is in portraying the broader generational divide between parents and kids. People may focus on the Boomer vs. Millennial aspect of the film -- though that's not accurate since it's actually older Gen X vs. Gen Z -- but at the heart of everything is just the all-too-common split that happens in families and the lack of clear paths toward understanding and reconciliation. Obviously, it's blown absurdly out of proportion and turned into a giant maelstrom of metaphoric mayhem as the online realm rebels against the entire world and dooms everyone, but the gap between patriarch Rick (Danny McBride) and daughter Katie (Abbi Jacobson) is still a grounding force that always tethers the outrageous goings-on to a relatable, familiar situation. Outdoorsy, computer-illiterate Rick has grown apart from Katie, who's always been into quirky online filmmaking and is now on the precipice of heading off to a faraway film school. Nature vs. Cyber, or pragmatic vs. creative, is an easy go-to for this awesomely animated road trip, though it can certainly speak toward bigger themes of sexual orientation, gender identity, and overall self-realization that have sadly proven to rip at the seams of families. When Rick can't "understand" Katie, there's a little more going on than "she just wants to post videos to YouTube and I want her to learn to drive stick." It still works as an unsaid throughline, though the film would have been even better with small amounts of deeper exploration. There's also a side subject involving Instagram envy, even mom-shaming if you're wondering how many relevant online ills can be unfurled in the course of a few hours. Katie's mom, Linda (voiced by Maya Rudolph), is practically paralyzed by the idea that her family's offbeat and imperfect and doesn't live up to the yogalicious clan next door (funnily enough, voiced by John Legend and Chrissy Teigen) and it actually prevents her from being able to actively address her own family's larger issues. It breaks her down to where she can usually only play peacemaker. And yes, all of this is tucked deftly inside a whirring, buzzing buffet featuring rampaging robots -- and Oscar-winner Olivia Colman hilariously voicing a rogue A.I. called PAL. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-mitchells-vs-the-machines-gallery&captions=true"]

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