The next movie from Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the Oscar-winning duo behind Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, is Netflix‘s upcoming The Mitchells vs. The Machines. You may already have heard about the animated action-comedy. Only, it wasn’t called that when the first trailer debuted. Last year it was called Connected. But the new moniker isn’t actually all that new. It was the original name when we first reported on the movie in 2018. Weird, right? Definitely. But the film’s newest trailer shows why that’s more than fitting. The Mitchell family is mankind’s only hope to save the world from a robotic uprising. And their only super power is that they are all really strange.
Once again, the singularity comes calling for its creators. As we all fear it one day might. At least in this case, though, things look more like National Lampoon’s Vacation and less like I, Robot.
And yet, for an animated family film, The Mitchells vs. The Machines paints one terrifying possibility. No, not the part where machines enslave humanity. And not even the part where parents force their kids to put down their screens. It’s the idea that one day all those creepy Furbys might unify for a modern day take on Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.
Despite that, the movie looks like it will be a lot of fun. It will combine a lot of action sequences with a lot of comedy. But like with the best Phil Lord and Chris Miller movies, it will be grounded in the relationships of its main cast. From Netflix:
“It all starts when creative outsider Katie Mitchell is accepted into the film school of her dreams and is eager to leave home and find “her people,” when her nature-loving dad insists on having the whole family drive her to school and bond during one last totally-not-awkward-or-forced road trip. But just when the trip can’t get any worse, the family suddenly finds itself in the middle of the robot uprising! Everything from smart phones, to roombas, to evil Furbys are employed to capture every human on the planet. Now it’s up to the Mitchells, including upbeat mom Linda, quirky little brother Aaron, their squishy pug, Monchi, and two friendly, but simple-minded robots to save humanity.
The Mitchell clan features Maya Rudolph as mom, Linda; Abbi Jacobson as Katie Mitchell; Mike Rianda as Aaron Mitchell; Doug the Pug as Monchi; and Danny McBride as dad, Rick. Directed by Michael Rianda (Gravity Falls), the film also stars Beck Bennett, Fred Armisen, Eric Andre, and Olivia Colman.
If the world is going to end, at least it’s going out with an amazing cast. And that’s true no matter what title the movie has. The Mitchells vs. The Machines drives to Netflix on April 30.
