"The Mitchells vs. The Machines" - Film Review (Currently streaming on Netflix)

 

"Who pays any attention to the Oscars anyway?" is what I usually find myself screaming when yet again some Soulless (see what I did there? Hah) piece of unimaginative Pixar / Disney pap gets nommed or wins "Best Animated Feature" and movies like "The Mitchells vs. the Machines" get passed over. 

Lord and Miller, our lord and masters when it comes to producing some of the most entertaining visual feasts to chow down on, seemingly remember why folk sit down in front of their TV (or, if lucky, sit down in a mostly empty movie theatre in these COVID ravaged times) to watch a movie. You are not there to be preached at, nor are you there to learn some valuable life lesson that is so brain-dunkingly obvious that a cuttlefish probably knows and understands the point that the movie is whomping home with all the subtlety and grace of a Rhinoceros trying to forcibly insert a traffic cone in you. Oh my god, run on sentence much? 

Anyway, we're here to talk about "The Mitchells vs. the Machines" which, even from the trailer, should immediately feel like familiar ground if you loved the very bones of "Into the Spider-verse" like we did. That same crazy chaotic jump-cutting comic-panel laced action, fused with the odd quiet moment of contemplation before again you're whizzed through each set piece like someone just stuck you in a blender and hit the 'turbo' button. But stop for a moment, this isn't merely bubblegum for the eyes and in fact I think the main reason I love this movie so much is because of the underlying theme. 

Dads and daughters. Something I feel I can speak with some authority on, as a dad with a daughter. Sometimes our relationship sails along smoothly like a cruise liner powering through a flat sea. Sometimes it's a full-on screamathon as opposing points of view and arguments explode into verbal thunderstorms. Ironically the movie taps straight into a core theme that I've blogged my arse off about over at ReadItDaddy many times - the subject of screen time and the teen obsession with phones and laptops. 

Here though is where the two main characters, daughter Katie Mitchell and dad Rick Mitchell, begin to unpick what happened when Katie grew up - and grew apart - from her doting dad. Rick is completely oblivious to the lure of technology and despite his mealtime pleas for everyone (including little brother Aaron and mum Linda) to put down their devices and make eye contact, it's a temporary thing. The whole family (bar Rick) are just too addicted to their phones and tablets and laptops. 

Yeah, feeling that. Feeling that big time. 

After Rick clumsily destroys Katie's laptop containing her film school application showreel, things come to a head, not aided by Rick's idea of shuttling her to college in the family clunker on a long road trip (with the world's most boss-eyed family pug along for the ride, providing a lot of the cutest and dumbest moments in the movie to great effect). 

Where the movie wins out for me is that it introduces a totally ridiculous situation to give the Mitchells their moment in the limelight - the invasion of the planet by sentient robots controlled by a plummy English-accented mobile phone (thanks Olivia Coleman for dialling this performance in, ho ho). They have one goal in mind, to box up humans and fire them off into space and it's up to the dysfunctional Mitchells to somehow save the day. 

You can skip over most of the plot points like a dainty little sylph, but if you're like me, you won't be able to detach yourself from that core underlying theme of what it feels like when you become a dad for the first time, you will literally give up everything - lofty goals, ridiculously frivolous purchases, maybe even your dream log cabin in the woods, to ensure your kids have a comfortable upbringing. 

It's like the complete flip-side of Disney's "Inside Out", this time with the dad realising that his disengagement with his daughter's interests as she grew up has led to the gap, and also the daughter's realisation that all dad really wanted to do was to recapture what it was like when she was knee high to a grasshopper and found ridiculous car singalongs and carved wooden mooses to be the most fascinating thing on the planet. Again, hearing that loud and clear. 

For all that, and again I return to my original point that 'moral' movies succeed only when the moral is a real and actual beautifully woven-in part of the plot, not delivered with a wagging finger and a simple "Don't do this shit, or you're gonna suffer" vibe. Even despite the movie's slightly twee ending, it definitely is something that a lot of folk (OK, a lot of dads) will definitely think about long after the closing credits. 

It looks bloody fantastic too (again more "Into the Spider-Verse" influences show that Sony Animation Studios are pissing all over Pixar in terms of innovation and tech), the characters feel believable even when they're unbelievable, the soundtrack kicks ass (Sigur Ros at the end? Oh hell yes) and for me it's a great injustice that this never got its moment in cinemas, and that it was largely overlooked for awards because of Soul (which is a movie I could comfortably live the rest of my life without ever seeing again). 

Look, it's simple. Just give Lord and Miller all the money, let them make everything. We'll all be way happier for it.