As Sony pictures animations next (who cares about angry birds 2?) big film after Spider verse, it's fair to say the Mitchells vs the machines had some very big shoes to fill. And yes, they may still be a few sizes too big, the Mitchells is an incredibly worthy successor to Spider verse and one of the greatest animated movies of all time.
I first want to mention the artstile. Coming off of the heels of Spider verse is not a very easy task, especially in the art department but the Mitchells passes in "flying colours!" (I'm so hilarious) there are even some areas of improvement. Such as, a complaint I've heard thrown at Spider verse is that its art style can be damaging to people with weaker eyesight. And, you know what, that's a valid criticism. But, the Mitchells vs the Machines is an incredible solution for people like that. It's colour pallets and character designs evoke cartoons and are very pleasing, especially for young children. The suburbs and Mitchell family have more intentional smudges and imperfect angles whilst the robot society has cooler colour schemes and more straight lines.
Okay, now, let's talk about the comedy, because it's good. It's a very different style to Spider verse and your preferences will probably come down to personal taste, but this movie will have better comedy for families. It's comedy is very character-based and focuses on exploring these quirky characters. My favourite character for comedy is the brother, Aron and his dinosaur obsession, but the dog, Monchi is a close second with his adorable obliviousness.
Speaking of the characters, they are absolutely amazing and subvert the tropes of their genres in unique ways. It's nice to see an actually functional sibling relationship and Aron's fears and struggles to keep his friendship with Katie amidst the robot apocalypse is a very clever way to work his character into the robot apocalypse aspect. And the relationship between Katie and her dad is incredibly well handled. This movie is so good at avoiding contrivances that make the road trip and robot apocalypse genres, like the outdoors man father is so much better when you get to see all that he sacrificed for his children and how much he cares, but just can't communicate with his daughter.
And the two robots are disguised as hilarious comic relief... which they are, but they also function as really sweet and compelling innocent children for the family to grow attached to.
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