100 Movie Project - The Mitchells vs. the Machines

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The following post contains spoilers for The Mitchells vs. the Machines, Ms. Marvel, and Scott Pilgrim vs the World.

This movie was excellent. I can’t sing it’s praises enough. It’s an animated film by Sony, who also did Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse.

The story follows Katie, an eccentric high school senior whose parents struggle to understand her. She makes home movies in her spare time with her brother, her dog, and whatever she has around the house. She’s kind of eccentric and very excited after getting into film school because it means she can get away from her family, but on the way to school for her first semester the world is attacked by sentient robots created by a big tech company as personal assistants. Definitely not undertones about anything there.

The animation is excellent with the characters popping off the screen. I think this is in part because of the overlays they put over the video. This is something that I remember seeing for the first time in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. In that film little video game style things, like 1-up or something, would pop up on the screen in response to what Scott was doing or what was happening to him. I feel like I’ve seen it a couple of times since, like in the recent Ms. Marvel if I remember correctly, and it’s used excellently here. The pop-ups make the movie feel like one of the home movies and short films that Katie is so proud of. It’s also used to great comedic effect, pausing at the perfect moment to overlay something over the characters. There are a couple of times where the overlays are even real world things.

And then there’s Monchi, the Mitchell’s pet dog who is voiced by an actual dog. He steals absolutely every scene he’s in. He’s the perfect derpy pet, which seems to be a trope now (the chicken from Moana?), but is loved despite his…imperfections. And he’s hilarious.

I felt like Katie’s struggle with being an “outsider” was very relatable. I didn’t have the friction with my parents that she had with hers or the overwhelming desire to get away but I can understand her fight against fitting in. Her fight to create things instead. I’m hardly an artist but I do like making short films like she does. And that runs up against spending 40 hours a week sitting at a desk, which is what is expected of me. I struggle a lot with that. What I’m supposed to do and what I want to do. How to balance them and try to be happy. I think a lot of people are like that, even if they don’t admit it. And in that way it’s hard not to sympathize with Katie who’s very much doing what she wants to do. Something that we wish we could do but often struggle with.

Watch this movie. Seriously.

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