The Mitchells vs. the Machines - Fun, Entertaining and Enjoyable Computer Animated Movie with Lots of Funny and Emotional Moments

During the past few days, there were quite a lot of new movies premiering on various platforms. This was one that I chose to watch on Friday night as it seemed fun and I was looking for light funny entertainment. So let's find out more.

Brief Story Line

Katie Mitchell (Abbi Jacobson - The Lego Ninjago Movie etc) was very excited when she got accepted to college for movie making which has been her long life dream and also to escape from her father Rick Mitchell (Danny McBride - The Angry Birds Movie 2, Pineapple Express etc) who did not seem to get her. This strained relationship always made Katie's mother Linda (Maya Rudolph - Hubie Halloween, The Willoughbys etc) and younger brother Aaron (Mike Rianda) in difficult situation. After their latest disagreement, Rick decided to do a road trip as a family to bring Katie to college while amending their relationship. 

Little did they know that they would be caught up in a robot uprising which could end the world. Being the only remaining people on earth, the Mitchells had no choice but to save the world. And how would the story conclude? Find them all in this funny and enjoyable family movie.

End of Brief Story Line

I really had a wonderful time watching this movie. Almost from start to finish there would always be moments that I could laugh out loud. At first I got to get myself accustomed to the really colorful pictures of this film, but as soon as I got acquainted with the characters, I instantly like the Mitchell family. Katie's unique character was fun to watch and I loved her relationship with the younger brother Aaron. Meanwhile Rick was truly wonderful as the loving father and husband plus Linda was soo amazing as the ideal mother. All of the cast performed amazingly as the Mitchells.

The story was actually pretty simple. Just a road trip that was supposed to bring the Mitchell family close but they somehow were caught in the middle of robot apocalypse and had to save the world. Can you imagine what would happen when this kind of family became the only hope for humans? Obviously lots of things could fall apart. But that was the best part for me, seeing how they would fight against robots using whatever means necessary.

This movie was co-written by Jeff Rohey and Mike Rianda (who was also the director) and co-produced by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller (directors of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatball, 21 Jump Street movie and few others) together with Kurt Albrecht. It probably explained the colorful themes I felt throughout the movie. There were also other supporting voice cast in this movie such as Olivia Colman (The Favourite, The Crown TV series etc) as virtual assistant PAL, Eric Andre as Mark Bowman, John Legend, Chrissy Teigen & Charlyne Yi (as Posey family), and some actors/comedians as the voices of the robots. 

Btw, the movie duration was actually pretty long for computer animated film. It has 110 minutes including closing credits which showed some fun animation. There were also some photos of the cast & crew which brought strong sense this is a real family movie. Oh I also noticed the name Louis Koo (a well known Hong Kong actor with more than 100 movies to his credits) as one of the Executive producer. There were plenty of nice songs in this film which were fun to hear. I think the last song playing during the closing credit titled On My Way sung by Alex Lahey was quite catchy. Before I forgot, there was no mid or post end credit scene, but there were few dialogues heard in the background by the characters. 

What I also loved about the movie was it managed to combine the adventure and also lovely family values. Not only the Mitchells were the ones that made me laugh, but also the robots (in particular Eric and Deborahbot) plus the family dog Monchi. There were several emotional moments which were quite touching and I am absolutely sure would bring tears to some (my wife has not seen this movie yet, but I am definitely going to recommend to her as she would have loved this kind of film). 

Overall this was an absolutely awesome, fun, entertaining, enjoyable and quite complete animated movie with many emotional and funny moments plus great family values and even moral message which did not felt too obvious or patronizing. It is one of those animated movies which at first seem a bit weird with not the beautiful type of animation but having strong characters that would leave us a great impression. It was rated PG, so parents still need to accompany their young children. I would definitely recommend this movie to people who want to enjoy themselves with some fun. 

Happy watching!

Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars