Netflix’s latest computer animated original The Mitchells vs the Machines follows an oddball family on a road trip across a country apocalyptically overrun by evil robots. Loosely a commentary on the threat posed by information technology to the integrity of the traditional family, the film is mostly a light-hearted adventure romp crossbred with uneven comic zaniness.
The story begins with the Mitchells at the brink of nuclear familial crisis. Generational misunderstandings manifest between a luddite father, Rick, whose deepest wish is to retreat to a cabin in the woods, and his teenage daughter, Katie, who devotes her entire existence to creating bizarre YouTube-style videos.
The tension between them is heightened by the fact that Katie is just about to leave for film school, which motivates Rick to make the most of their remaining time together.
Over the dinner table, for instance, Rick insists everyone abandon their devices for an extended period of uninterrupted family eye contact. Their twitching eyes contrast with Rick’s strained, “See, this is good right here. This is natural,” and sets half of the nervous-laughter tone of what follows.
Katie’s attempt at that same dinner to induct the family into her strange artistic sensibility anticipates the other half. Rick clearly does not get her latest video, overcompensates, and accidentally wrecks Katie’s computer, in response to which Katie sulks out of the kitchen with a superficially angsty but somehow also apathetic “arg!”
If this sounds equal parts clever and mildly cringey, you are getting the picture.
The road trip begins after Rick spontaneously cancels Katie’s flight to university, presuming she would prefer to miss orientation week and spend all that time in the car with her family. Obviously, they just don’t get each other, and as they set out on their journey both have a lot of learning to do.
And then there are the world-conquering robots.
You can see the best bits of what follows in the trailer (never a good sign), and you might find some other bits to enjoy along the way if you are particularly attuned to the dangers of technology or teenagery.
To my eye, though, the film’s most obvious recommendation is the animation itself. An intriguing composite of 2D and 3D, The Mitchells introduces a fresh pleasantly ramshackle visual style that keeps the action interesting as art even as it tends to underwhelm as story.
The humour hits and misses. Over-the-top weird can be consistently funny – as when (spoiler) in the face of an overwhelming onslaught of robots, Linda, the erstwhile deferential Mitchell family mom, instinctively flips into an ultracompetent rampaging warrior.
Weird for weirdness’ sake, though, has a much more niche appeal, and it is The Mitchells’ overreliance upon this fringe kind of funny that will leave many viewers vaguely perplexed rather than thoroughly entertained.
One last thing to note for any potential family viewings undeterred by the preceding: parents might like to be aware of a fleeting normalization of homosexual relationships slipped in almost unnoticeably in the film’s final seconds. This will be found (spoiler) in the pronoun Linda uses when inviting Katie’s romantic interest home for the holidays.
In narrative art, a story’s weightiest revelation is often saved until the conclusion. To me, though, it is not immediately obvious how much this final reveal is meant to inform our understanding of the entire film.
Is it really, or at least in part, Katie’s sexual identity that her family (and particularly her backwoods father) has been learning to come to terms with via her art? Or is this lesson really quietly meant for us, the audience (and particularly for our children who will presumably make up the majority of this animation’s viewership)?
I am honestly not sure what to make of this tiny but not insignificant detail. Which is one more reason why The Mitchells vs the Machines, despite all the good it has going for it, never quite comes together into an integrated whole.