THE MITCHELLS VS THE MACHINES (PG)
HAIRY, lop-mouthed, social media sensation Doug The Pug is credited as a voice actor in this barking family animation.
While the unfortunate-looking beast won’t win any awards for his occasional grunt as animated pooch Monchi, it’s not just shameless stunt casting, since this breezy adventure explores the upsides and downsides of social media.
Pitching a Simpsons-esque dysfunctional family against an army of marauding robots, the film features stressed-out father Rick Mitchell (Danny McBride) at the end of his tether with his nerdysmartphone-and-movie-obsessed teenage daughter Katie. A rogue Alexa-style app (Olivia Colman) then takes control of tech company PAL’s new line of AI assistants.
Katie’s home movies, shot on her smartphone and distributed on social media, have earned her a spot at film school and she’s about to fly the nest when she has a huge row with her dad.
So Rick decides to enforce some old-fashioned family time, cancelling her plane ticket and arranging a road trip with his wife Linda (Maya Rudolph), dinosaur-obsessed son Aaron (Mike Rianda) and wonkygobbed dog Monchi.
When the robots start hoovering up people and imprisoning them in floating pods, a series of bizarre coincidences turns the bickering Mitchells into humanity’s last hope of survival.
Directors Michael Rianda and
Jeff Rowe mine this fairly standard sci-fi set-up for visually stunning set pieces and anarchic gags that should strike chords with both tech-savvy tweens and techphobic parents.
Beneath the mayhem, they never lose sight of the film’s emotional centre – the bond between father and daughter.
■ On Netflix now