As Katie Mitchell is accepted film school in California and about to leave her family behind, her father Rick Mitchell realizes just how distant they have grown. Trying to reconnect with his daughter Rick decides that instead of Katie flying to her new life, the family will go together on a road trip, meaning she will miss out on the first week. Meanwhile in Silicon Valley is tech genius Mark Bowman revealing his newest release, personal assistant robots, that will make the old AI smartphone Pal obsolete. But it turns out his own Pal smartphone who is far smarter and sentient than Mark realized and she has hatched a plan to use the robots and take over the world.
It is an enjoyable movie for the whole family with many heartfelt and
entertaining moments. It also got just the right amount of silliness
that makes it enjoyable without it being one long fart joke. It is beautifully animated, especially the robots got something special over them. The plot is well known and seen many times before and the ending easy and beautiful rather than well thought out. The big themes in this movie is; one, the technological rift that is part of the generational gap that exist between kids and their parents. Two, the problem of distant fathers that is un-engaged in their kids interest and has no emotional understanding of what their kids is going through. And three, the fear of how social media and technology, such as AI, will enslave and destroy us. Three themes that where big for fifteen to twenty years ago when millennials where young and struggling with their parents accept and understanding. Not to say that these themes have become irrelevant. There will always be a generational gap and distant parents and new technology to strike fear between our elder generations. And the take on these themes are fitting and inspired by this era but it feels like this movie would have been more relevant a decade ago.
For its beauty and enjoyability I will give The Mitchells vs. The Machines four out of five stars. Though I think it got the right amount of silliness to be enjoyable and fun, I also think that if it had taken itself more serious, it could easily have been outstanding. At this point I can not say if this movie will be considered a master piece in the future or just be one of the many.
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