The Mitchells vs. The Machines is an animated science fiction comedy produced by Sony Pictures Animation. It was directed by Mike Rianda, co-directed by Jeff Rowe, and written by Rianda and Rowe. It stars the voices of Abbi Jacobson, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Mike Rianda, Eric Andre, Olivia Colman, Fred Armisen, Beck Bennett, John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, Blake Griffin, and Conan O'Brien.
The film was originally scheduled to be released theatrically, under the title Connected, on September 18, 2020, but was pushed to October 23, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[1] Sony eventually sold the main distribution rights to Netflix, and the film was released on the platform on April 30, 2021.[2]
Plot[]
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Katie Mitchell is a quirky and aspiring filmmaker in Kentwood, Michigan who often clashes with her nature-obsessed and technophobic father Rick, and has recently been accepted into film school in California. The evening before Katie leaves, Rick accidentally breaks her laptop after a fight between them over one of Katie's previous short films, leading the family to fear their relationship will forever be strained. To try to prevent this, Rick decides to cancel Katie's flight and instead take her, her mother Linda, younger brother Aaron, and family dog Monchi on a cross-country road trip to her college as one last bonding experience.
Meanwhile, technology entrepreneur Mark Bowman declares his highly intelligent AI PAL obsolete as he unveils a new line of home robots in her place. In revenge, PAL takes over Mark's company and orders all the robots to capture humans worldwide and launch them into space. The Mitchells manage to avoid capture at a roadstop cafe in Kansas. Rick decides that his family should stay put in the cafe for their own safety, but Katie coerces him to help save the world instead. They bond with two defective robots that tried to capture them, Eric and Deborahbot 5000, who tell the family they can use a kill code to shut down PAL and all the robots.
The Mitchells make it to a nearby mall to upload the kill code, but PAL orders all the PAL chip-enabled appliances to stop them. Katie tries to upload the kill code, but is stopped when a giant Furby pursues the family. They ultimately trap and defeat the Furby, but it destroys a PAL router, which disables the horde of devices in the process. This also stops the kill code from uploading. On the way to Silicon Valley afterwards, Linda reveals to Katie that she and Rick had originally lived in a cabin in the mountains years ago as it was his lifelong dream before he gave up on it.
Upon arriving in Silicon Valley, the Mitchells disguise themselves as robots and head to PAL Labs HQ to shut it down, but PAL manipulates them by revealing surveillance footage from the cafe of Katie telling Aaron in secret that she was pretending to have faith in Rick so that he would take them to upload the kill code. The Mitchells fail to reach PAL's lair and Rick and Linda are captured by PAL's stronger and smarter robots, dubbed Pal MAX Prime. PAL then reprograms Eric and Deborahbot into obeying her.
Katie, Aaron and Monchi escape the headquarters and hide from the robots. Katie discovers Rick's recordings of her childhood on her camera, realizing that Rick gave up on his lifelong dream to care for his daughter. Reinvigorated, she and Aaron infiltrate PAL Labs HQ again, using Monchi to cause the robots to malfunction, as his appearance causes an error in their programming. With help from Mark, Rick and Linda free themselves and plan to upload a home movie of Katie's with Monchi in it to short-circuit the robots. However, Rick is outnumbered by the robots when he is about to upload the video.
Katie and Aaron are eventually captured. Facing PAL to justify saving humanity, Katie explains that no matter how hard her family struggles, they will always stay connected despite how different they are. PAL ignores this reasoning and drops Katie from her lair. Eric and Deborahbot, having been inspired by Rick's "reprogramming" himself that allowed him to use a computer, revert to their malfunctioning states and upload Katie's home movie, saving her and helping the rest of the Mitchells. The family bands together to fight the rest of the improved robots, with Linda leading the charge and destroying dozens. Katie eventually finds and destroys PAL by dropping her into a glass of water, freeing all the humans and disabling all the robots except for Eric and Deborahbot.
A few months after the uprising, Katie and her family arrive at her college as she and Rick share one last heartfelt goodbye before she begins her school life. She later joins them on another road trip with Eric and Deborahbot to Washington, D.C. to accept the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Cast[]
- Abbi Jacobson as Katie Mitchell an aspiring filmmaker and oldest child in the Mitchell family. Katie has made film history as the first open LGBTQ+ protagonist in a big budget studio family film, specifically being a lesbian.
- Danny McBride as Rick Mitchell
- Maya Rudolph as Linda Mitchell
- Mike Rianda as Aaron Mitchell, Talking dog, the Furbies, and a Wi-Fi enthusiast
- Doug the Pug as Monchi
- Olivia Colman as P.A.L.
- Eric Andre as Mark Bowman
- Fred Armisen as Deborahbot 5000
- Beck Bennett as Eric, and the other Pal MAX robots
- John Legend as Jim Posey
- Chrissy Teigen as Hailey Posey
- Charlyne Yi as Abbey Posey
- Blake Griffin as Pal MAX Prime
- Conan O'Brien as Glaxxon 5000
- Sasheer Zamata as Jade
- Elle Mills as Hanna
- Alex Hirsch as Dirk
- Jay Pharoah as Noah
- Jeff Rowe as a man who loves fun
- Zeno Robinson as Sean
- Grey Griffin as a stagehand
- Alison Rich as Jill
Release[]
The film was released in select theaters on April 23, 2021, before streaming on Netflix on April 30.
In July 2024, it was decided that the Sony Pictures Animation movies The Mitchells vs. the Machines, Vivo, and Wish Dragon would be scheduled to release in theaters in the United States throughout 2024, with The Mitchells vs. the Machines will be released in theaters on August 16, 2024, accompanied by the Angry Birds short film Live Stream, Vivo will be released in theaters on September 27, 2024, accompanied by a Hotel Transylvania short film Monster Pets, and Wish Dragon will be released in theaters on October 18, 2024, accompanied by the short film The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story.