‘The Mitchells vs. the Machines’ movie review: A sweet, futuristic film with visual verve

Netflix animated feature ‘The Mitchells vs. the Machines’ offers a comical take on scary tech apocalypses while keeping family at the heart of the storytelling

The advent of autonomous technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and robotics has taken over the OTTs with titles such as Black Mirror, Upload, The Social Dilemma. The most recent release within this burgeoning genre is animated film The Mitchells vs The Machines, co-directed by Jeff Rowe and Michael Rianda, which may not be as dark. . The film follows high school graduate Katie Mitchell (Abbi Jacobson, Disenchantment) who feels like the black sheep in her family due to her unconventional filmmaking ambitions. Eager to get away from her small Michigan hometown, Katie is urged by her father Rick (Danny McBride, The Angry Birds Movie) to go on a family-bonding road trip along with mother Linda (Maya Rudolph, Luca), younger brother Aaron (Rianda) and their dopey pug Monchi, all the way to Los Angeles to drop her off at college. Katie is stricken by this as she misses out on orientation week and is seen swiping through social media and experiencing FOMO watching her classmates throw dorm parties.