The Mitchells vs. the MachinesThe Mitchells vs. the Machines
Year: 2021
Rating: PG
Length: 113 minutes / 1.88 hours

After Sony Pictures Animation released the visually stunning, Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), I awaited their next project with great interest. Eventually, they put out a trailer for a movie titled Connected, which seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. Then the pandemic hit. Netflix grabbed the rights, renamed the film, and released The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021). Ultimately, it was a fun movie, even if it followed many tropes of the family road trip.

Visually, I’m finding the new style of 3-D animated movies that look closer to the traditional 2-D animated films to be an intriguing middle ground. There are benefits from both styles, and this movie takes advantage of them. Ultimately, though, I think this kind of movie knows its demographic is millennials and does its best to pander to some of our absurd humor (like a fantastic scene with Furbies) as we find ourselves coming into our life as parents faster than we want to admit. Sure, there’s still some humor that appeals to the younger generations (it is an animated film, after all), but it kind of hit that sweet spot for the millennial in me.

I definitely found the frenetic action of this film on par with The LEGO Movie (2014)—which itself had a unique visual style and humor that parallels this movie. All this being said, The Mitchells vs. the Machines felt unfocused. It tries to cram two full plots into a single movie, which made it feel a little bloated (at almost 2-hours long) and some of the emotional moments tacked on for the sake of completeness. For my money, I’d much rather watch Lady Bird (2017) for the “daughter leaving home to pursue her dreams in college” plot—especially since jobs in the film industry are quite lucrative.

Another visually unique animated film from Sony Pictures Animation, I give The Mitchells vs. the Machines 4.0 stars out of 5.

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