THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES review - Why is this good?

(Reviewed by Melody Werner)

The Mitchells vs. the Machines is co-directed by Mike Rianda (Gravity Falls) and Jeff Rowe (also worked on Gravity Falls), produced by the "it guys" of Sony (Phil Lord & Christopher Miller), and sacrificed to Netflix after the pandemic forced them to scuttle theatrical release plans. For whatever reason, Sony thought "Connected" was a better title until Netflix flipped it back to this, much better name. Much like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The Mitchells brings a fresh, vibrant aesthetic and a story that shows how you can still find a fantastic narrative in family films nowadays. It helps that this thing is aggressively fun.

This art style is outstanding. Rather than copying from the Disney playbook (*cough, cough*), The Mitchells is daring in its animation, and its animation bangs. So damn energetic, and just fun. Character designs rock, simply put. The original musical score is pretty nice, and the pop culture songs are given good reason for being there. Every voice performance is chock full of personality, and the comedic deliveries are exceptional. I also have to say that the casting of Chrissy Teigen and John Legend as godly neighbors who everyone wishes they were is particularly funny, because you couldn't pay me to hope that I was either of those contemptuous tools. (especially not the mean girl loser that is Chrissy Teigen.)

While the narrative at hand is not the newest on the block, its execution is very strong, with an airtight structure and some solid emotional payoff. The best thing I can stay about the story, though, is that it really helps the jokes get their footing. And this film's got a cavalcade of jokes that run the gamut between charming and truly hilarious. This leads to The Mitchells feeling like a movie where a bunch of creative people were allowed to come together and make something imaginative and unique, instead of something to make the line at Sony go up or to fill Netflix's insatiable hunger for disposable cOnTeNt.

In its totality, The Mitchells vs. the Machines is a shockingly good film considering 1) that it got horked up on Netflix, 2) that it's a Netflix Original family film (and the batting average of those is not high), and 3) that it's a blockbuster animated film that isn't from Laika or Cartoon Saloon. This is a movie that I wanna grab on DVD so that I don't have to worry about if it gets pulled from Netflix because then I'd still be able to rewatch it when I want to. And that's something I absolutely intend on doing, cuz this just owns. The Mitchells vs. the Machines gets a 10/10.

Masterpiece

 

Summary:

At long last, my quest to find a genuinely great Netflix Original animated film has drawn to a successful close--even if they had to cheat a little.