GamesRadar+ Verdict
The Mitchells Vs. The Machines is as irrev♌erentlওy funny as 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie. And, like Spider-Verse, it has a unique visual style that rewards close inspection.
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Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are credited as producers here, but as with 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, their finge🅠rprints are all over this extremely enjoyable Netflix animation. As well as sharing a visual DNA with their madcap CG toon Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, The M👍itchells Vs. The Machines is as irreverently funny as 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie. And, like Spider-Verse, it has a unique visual style that rewards close inspection.
With Lord/Miller behind the scenes, Mike Rianda directs, sharing writing duties with co-director Jeff Rowe. Originally known as Connected – its 2020 release date was postponed several times before it was snapped up by Netflix – the new Ro🦩nseal title is much truer to the film’s anarchic spirit.
It follows the titular family of four (plus pug), as teenage daughter Katie (Broad City’s Abbi Jacobson) prepares to leave home for film school. She’s content to fly, but dad Rick (Danny McBride) spies a chance to mend th💯eir ailing relationship by driving her, cross-country, to her dormꦕ room, along with mum Linda (Maya Rudolph) and brother Aaron (voiced by Rianda).
Where the machines come into it is from Apple-like tech company Pal: during the launch of a new line of humanoid robots, long-suffering digi-ssistant PAL (Olivia Colman) takes matters into her own OS, commanding the fleet of sleek helpers (aꦰnd any other tech she can hook up to) to enslave humanity. Imagine Gerard Butler’s Greenland adapted by The Simpsons, and you get the gist of this family-in-peril-on-the-road adventure.
Joyfully, TMVTM eschews CGI photorealism for a look that’s altogether more cartoony and textured. Katie makes her own hand-hꦕewn, sweded movies, and her scrapbook-y imagination frequently bleeds out into the world. Alongside the frantic action set-pieces and consistent laughs (many of which come from Monchi the pug and two dim-witted Pal robots who join the Mitchells on their journey), there is a🐲lso heart here: the central father-daughter clashes are grounded with generous empathy, and build to a quite moving conclusion.
Many gags will whoosh over the heads of younger audience members, and it’s perhꦐaps a tad too long for four-quadrant viewing. But amid the apocalyptic chaos, there’s plenty that families will relate to, from dysfunctional disagreements to screen-time addiction to irritatingly perfect neighbors. Plus, there’s a genius use of a licensed product to rival anything in The Lego Movie. When it comes to The Mitchells Vs. The Mach𝐆ines, everyone’s a winner.
The Mitchells vs the Machines is available on Netflix from April 30. In US theatres from Friday, April 23. For more, check out the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Netflix movies currently streaming.
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I'm♔ the Editor at Total Film magazine, overseeing the running of the mag, and generally obsessing over all things Nolan, Kubrick and Pixar. Over the past decade I've worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+, and you can often hear me nattering on the Inside Total Film podcast. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.