Development

In 2015, after completing his tenure on the Disney Channel/Disney XD animated series Gravity Falls, writer and director Mike Rianda was approached by Sony Pictures Animation, which asked him if he was willing to pitch any feature film ideas to them, to which he agreed.^[10] When brainstorming, Rianda drove down to his hometown of Salinas, California and recorded a list of potential ideas for a feature. He then settled on developing a story that combined his own personal experiences with his family, as well as his childhood fascination with robots.^[11] He made his own manifesto of the film titled "Control, Alt, ESCAPE!", which was the original title of the film before the reveal; inspired by Dogme 95 films, Studio Ghibli's designs, 1960s-esque photography, and teenagers' drawings.^[12]

On May 22, 2018, Sony announced that Phil Lord and Christopher Miller joined the project as producers.^[13] The film is the duo's fourth collaboration with SPA following the two Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs films and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, as well as the studio's first original feature film since The Star. Jeff Rowe, who worked on Gravity Falls alongside Rianda, joined in as co-director and writer.^[14]

Further details were revealed a year later at the 2019 Annecy International Animated Film Festival in June, when Sony Animation president Kristine Belson revealed that the film would be using an animation style similar to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and that the worlds the Mitchell family and the robots live in are initially separate universes before colliding,^[15] a concept that was not included in the completed film.

On February 20, 2020, first images were revealed through Entertainment Weekly, and it was announced the title was changed to Connected.^[5] The film was renamed back to The Mitchells vs. the Machines after Sony sold the distribution rights to Netflix on January 12, 2021.^[1] According to Rianda, the title was reverted because neither he nor Netflix's executives were impressed with the second title.^[16]

Casting

On February 19, 2020, Abbi Jacobson was cast as Katie Mitchell.^[17] This was followed by casting announcements for Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Rianda, Eric André, and Olivia Colman the next day.^[5] During a watch party for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse that was held on Twitter on May 6, 2020, Lord confirmed that Blake Griffin had joined the cast as one of the robots.^[7]

On March 23, 2021, ahead of the film's Netflix release, more cast members were confirmed to be starring in the film, including Fred Armisen, Chrissy Teigen, John Legend, Charlyne Yi, Conan O'Brien, Alex Hirsch, and Jay Pharoah, among others.^[18] Hirsch later announced that he was also serving as a creative consultant on the film.^[19] In what is believed to be a first for an animated film, Doug the Pug, a real-life dog that was popular on social media, provided the "voice" for Monchi, who is based on Rianda's own childhood dog Monchichi. While they had originally considered using human voice actors for Monchi as typically done, they wanted to make the movie as authentic as possible and sought out Doug's owners to use his barks and other sounds for the film.^[20]

Music

Following the release of the first trailer, Lord confirmed on Twitter that his and Miller's frequent collaborator, Mark Mothersbaugh, composed the score for the film, making it his sixth collaboration with Sony Pictures Animation, following his previous work in the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Hotel Transylvania film series.^[21] In January 2021, director Rianda revealed on Twitter that the movie's soundtrack will incorporate songs from various artists, including Los Campesinos!, Sigur Rós, Talking Heads, Grimes, Le Tigre, PRTY H3RO, The Mae Shi and Madeon, as well as a brand new original song by Alex Lahey.^[22] A soundtrack album containing Mothersbaugh's score and Lahey's song "On My Way" (which was played during the end credits) was released by Sony Classical Records on April 30, 2021, the same day as its Netflix release.^[23]

Animation and design

The film's animation was handled by Sony Pictures Imageworks, who had animated the majority of Sony Pictures Animation's films beforehand. According to Christopher Miller, Rianda wanted “hand-painted watercolor style” look for the film, and much of the technology used for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was reused for The Mitchells vs. the Machines to achieve this while new tools were created. Unlike Into the Spider-Verse's comic-book style visuals and techniques, Mitchells predominately used 2D-style effects to mimic the look of traditionally-animated films, including the use of squiggles for fur and watercolor brush strokes for elements such as trees and bushes.^[24] To emphasize Katie Mitchell's emotions during certain scenes, the team additionally implemented a technique called "Katie-Vision", which implements stock 2D and live-action footage alongside the CG animation.^[25]

When it came to designing the robot elements, the animators went for a sleeker, polished design to contrast with the watercolor style for the humans. For the PAL MAX Prime robots, animation supervisor Alan Hawkins invented a method that allows the robots to break apart mid-movement via negative space, inspired by the morphing effects used for the T-1000 as seen in the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day. According to Hawkins, he invented tools that would allow animators to "slice through the character [like a knife]", and allowed each one to have their different approach as well.^[26] Mike Lasker served as visual effects supervisor after having previously worked on Into the Spider-Verse, while Lindsey Olivares served as the film's lead character and overall production designer.^[24][25] Former Gravity Falls alumni Dana Terrace (creator of The Owl House) and Matt Braly (creator of Amphibia) worked as storyboard artists on the film, but ultimately both went uncredited.^[27] Animation work begun in May 2019, as confirmed by animator Nick Kondo on Twitter.^[28] The film was officially completed on September 16, 2020.^[29]

Home media

The Mitchells vs. the Machines was released on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD on December 14, 2021 by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.^[34][35] Among the special features included are the Blu-ray exclusive short film Dog Cop 7: The Final Chapter directed by story artist Caitlin VanArsdale and written by Mike Rianda with puppets made by Homestar Runner creators the Brothers Chaps, an extended version similar to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse's Alternate Universe Mode titled Katie's Extended Cinematic Bonanza Cut, an audio commentary, deleted scenes, and making of featurettes.^[36]

Streaming viewership

Netflix reported in July 2021 from their quarterly earnings report that The Mitchells vs. the Machines had become the service's most-viewed animated work, with 53 million households having watched the film in the first 28 days of availability.^[37]

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 97% based on 213 reviews with an average rating of 8.2/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Eye-catching and energetic, The Mitchells vs. the Machines delivers a funny, feel-good story that the whole family can enjoy."^[38] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 81 out of 100 based on 33 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[39]

Benjamin Lee of The Guardian gave the film a 4 out of 5 star rating, stating that, "The frantic, anything-goes nature of their films, both in tone and visuals, belies a tight focus on storytelling and dialogue with sight gags and set pieces used to supplement rather than distract" and "It’s also genuinely funny, a credit not only to the hit-a-minute script but also to a finely picked cast of comic actors, of unusually high calibre," while also praising the animation, calling it "part of the energetic oeuvre of Phil Lord and Chris Miller."^[40] Matt Fowler of IGN gave the film an 8 out of 10, stating that "The Mitchells vs. The Machines is a ridiculous, riotous, and relevant adventure fill with great humor and winning sentiment. It's fast-moving and gorgeous to behold, filled with quirks, quips, and a lovably goblin-like pug ("voiced" by IG-famous Doug the Pug). It's a good time for both younglings and elders, delivering an intelligently goofy rush of new animation and old emotion."^[41] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, stating that "Ultimately, this is an original adventure that feels stitched together out of a hundred familiar film plots, often freely acknowledging its pop-cultural plundering, as in the family’s obligatory slo-mo power strut away from a building exploding in flames. But for audiences content with rapid-fire juvenilia, the busy patchwork of prefab elements will be entertaining enough" although he said that "I wish the film’s laughs were as consistent as its energy, giving its able voice cast better material, and that there had been more distinctive story beats."^[42] Richard Trenholm of CNET also gave the film a positive review, stating that "one of the best new family movies on Netflix" and that it is a "family film that has a message for all the family, not just the youngsters. Yes, like most films of this ilk it encourages kids to be themselves. But it also nudges parents not to stress about social media, and to value their kids' creativity -- even if what the kids create doesn't make a lick of sense."^[43] Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, calling the film "Like a mash-up of an ‘80s family road comedy like Vacation and the visions of a tech apocalypse foretold in films like The Terminator,” Netflix’s “The Mitchells vs. the Machines” is a lot of nostalgic fun but told in a modern style" and stating that it is "threaded with clever commentary on our reliance on tech and featuring some incredibly strong design work, this is a pleasant surprise for families looking for something new this season, and one of the more purely enjoyable Netflix animated films in a while."^[44]

The film was praised by critics for putting an LGBT character, Katie, as the central figure of a family-oriented animated movie.^[45][46] Rianda and Rowe wrote Katie to be unambiguously LGBT in consultation with LGBT members of their production team, but did not seek to make it part of the central conflict with her father, considering her sexuality "normal in real life".^[47] Michelle Yang of NBC News gave the film a positive review and lauded the film for its LGBTQ+ representation (particularly the character of Katie, whom she called a relatable and inspirational protagonist), stating that the film "treats its protagonist's identity matter-of-factly but with care — which is exactly how it ought to be."^[48] Parasite director Bong Joon-ho listed The Mitchells as one of his favorite films of 2021.^[49]

Accolades

Metacritic reported that The Mitchells vs The Machines appeared on over 31 film critics' top-ten lists for 2021, only the first two animated films appeared on the list this year along with Flee. The film ranked first and second on 4 and 3 lists, respectively.^[50]