Ahead of the March 27 ceremony, the nominations for the 94th Academy Awards have been announced. Netflix’s Benedict Cumberbatch-starring western The Power of the Dog has been nominated for a whopping 12 awards, with Dune, Belfast, and West Side Story close behind. There are many great nominees for Best Animated Feature Film at this year’s Oscars. Flee is a poignant docudrama about a man forced to flee his country, Encanto and Raya and the Last Dragon are a pair of enrapturing Disney fairy tales with dazzling visuals, and Luca is a riveting fantasy adventure about sea creatures framed by Pixar as a sun-drenched Éric Rohmer-style European hangout movie.
But arguably the best of the nominees – and the one most deserving of taking home the gold – is The Mitchells vs. the Machines. Another Netflix original, The Mitchells vs. the Machines has a near-perfect 97% score on Rotten Tomatoes, indicating universal praise from critics. It was co-helmed by Mike Rianda, best known for his work on Gravity Falls, in his feature directorial debut. Rianda wrote the movie with co-director Jeff Rowe and it was produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Lord and Miller might not be household names in the mainstream, but their work on The Lego Movie, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has made them highly regarded animation filmmakers.
The Mitchells vs. the Machines could best be described as “National Lampoon’s Vacation meets the Terminator franchise.” While a contentious family embarks on a road trip to drop off their eldest child Katie at film school, a tech mogul releases a line of robot butlers that quickly become sentient and execute a plan to bundle the entire human race onto a giant spaceship and send them deep into the cosmos to die. Pretty soon, the vacationing Mitchell family becomes the only force standing between the sentient cyborg army and the completion of their world-ending plot. The star-studded voice cast includes Abbi Jacobson as Katie, Danny McBride as her dad, Maya Rudolph as her mom, Rianda himself as her dinosaur-obsessed younger brother, Eric André as the unscrupulous tech mogul responsible for the robot uprising, and Olivia Colman as the renegade virtual assistant who leads the machines into battle.
The Execution Overcomes The Premise’s “Boomer” Vibes
The premise of a middle-aged dad trying to get his wife and kids to look up from their phones initially has ominous “boomer” vibes, but the pointed and heartfelt execution of these themes works surprisingly well. Despite its high-concept sci-fi storyline, The Mitchells vs. the Machines is primarily a deep dive into painfully identifiable love-hate family dynamics. It has plenty of relatable laughs, but also tugs at the audience’s heartstrings. With vibrant visuals, this movie is a feast for the eyes. It has a unique animation style that combines the liveliness of computer animation with the expressiveness of traditional 2D animation. Rianda and Rowe take a meta approach that blends Katie’s in-universe filmmaking with the film itself.
But it’s not just pretty to look at; it’s a deeply engaging narrative. Rianda and Rowe’s sharp script tells its story at a rapid pace while still taking plenty of time to round out the characters and their interpersonal conflicts. The protagonists always have clearly defined goals and the villains are always one step ahead of them. It’s framed as a sprawling sci-fi epic about a robot army taking over the world, but it’s told through the intimate story of a family trying to get along – specifically exploring the relationship of a father and daughter who struggle to connect. The Mitchells vs. the Machines offers the perfect balance of laugh-out-loud comedy and tear-jerking drama that recalls the beautiful tonal balancing act of Pixar’s timeless early classics.
A Heartfelt Family Drama Wrapped In A Dystopian Sci-Fi Epic
All the nominees for this year’s Best Animated Feature award are great movies, but The Mitchells vs. the Machines deserves to take home the gold more than any of the others. It’s a heartfelt family drama wrapped in a dystopian sci-fi epic, exploring the infinite possibilities of the animated medium with unbridled energy and infectious sincerity. There are a ton of big laughs in this movie, but it would also take a pretty cold-hearted viewer not to be moved to tears by some of the story’s emotional developments.
The movie has plenty to say about the joys and frustrations of family life – summed up perfectly in Katie’s climactic monologue (“Sometimes, you have to eat disgusting cupcakes shaped like your own face, but it’s worth it to see your mom smile”) – but its pulpy, action-packed, robot-killing antics prevent it from ever getting bogged down in melodrama. Like all the best animated movies, The Mitchells vs. the Machines is wildly entertaining, surprisingly profound, and fun for the whole family.
The Mitchells vs. the Machines is streaming now on Netflix.