Wild and frantic family fare
The Mitchells vs. the Machines Cast: Abbi Jacobson, Danny Mcbride Directors: Michael Rianda, Jeff Rowe Duration: 1 h 53 m Available: Netflix
Can a movie be just too much fun? The Mitchells vs. the Machines is a rambunctious, frantically paced adventure-comedy that makes Saturday morning cartoons of old feel like a documentary about walrus sleep patterns. You may want a hit of caffeine and sugar before you push play, just so you can keep up with its wild energy level.
The computer-animated tale was written and directed by Michael Rianda and Jeff Rowe, whose credits include work on TV’S Gravity Falls. But you may be more familiar with producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who directed The Lego Movie and 21 (and 22) Jump Street. You can feel something of their scattershot exuberance in this one. Not every joke lands, but the ones that crash at least do so spectacularly, like a piñata dropped from a roller-coaster.
Abbi Jacobson provides the voice of Katie Mitchell, about to leave the nest and travel cross-country to attend film school. She’s leaving behind her adorkable little brother (voiced by Rianda), no-nonsense Mom (Maya Rudolph) and meanswell Dad (Danny Mcbride), so low-tech he isn’t sure how to pronounce “Youtube,” but is never without a Robertson screwdriver. In fact, he’s given them out to the whole family on various occasions including (Rudolphian sigh) wedding anniversaries.
Katie’s plans go awry early after a young tech boffin (Eric André) creates an update to his iphone-like personal assistant that renders them a little less, um, personal. The subsequent robot uprising — led by a cellphone named PAL with the amusingly cranky tones of Olivia Colman — threatens to wipe out the human race. The Mitchells, who hide in a freezer and thus escape the first round of culling, are well placed to lead the counter-revolt. The film’s feverish pace can get a little much at times. By the 10th or 12th use of slow-motion, strobe-cuts and/or meme jokes, I found myself wishing I had a filter I could use to tone down the whole thing by about 14 per cent. And while one expects a certain amount of self-referentiality in modern humour, the Mitchells lays it on a little thick. Honestly, the best jokes are the ones that seem to come out of nowhere, like the family member who spies a flaming IHOP amid the devastation and remarks: “It’s sad but it smells incredible.”
But there’s more to love than to hate in The Mitchells vs. the Machines, including Saturday Night Live alumni Fred Armisen and Beck Bennett as the voices of two robots whose peculiar malfunction makes them prone to helping the humans. I also enjoyed the revival of an old toy brand — Tamagotchi? Teddy Ruxpin? I’m not saying — equipped with evil intentions.
And it’s hard to get too upset at a movie that features a vital role for a beloved Canadian invention, created by industrialist-philanthropist Peter Lymburner Robertson of Haldimand County, Ont. In fact, that piece of dishwater-dull tool box paraphernalia may be the very thing that stops the movie from imploding under the weight of its own high spirits. This is a film that screws up in the best way. ★★★