So, earlier this morning, I attended the Mitchells Family Road Trip, where they premiere the new movie, The Mitchells vs. The Machines, and I'm not gonna lie, I do not like it, I LOVE IT!!!!! But, before I get into some thoughts of this movie, I have to tell you how I got into this movie first.

It was probably in 2018, or 2019, I can't remember. Anyway, I was scrolling through Sony Pictures Animation's website until I found this upcoming movie on the "Upcoming Films" section of the "Films" page. What's included was the film called, "The Mitchells vs. The Machines". The synopsis for the movie explains a dysfunctional family called the Mitchells on a road trip when the trip was interrupted by a machine apocalypse. The synopsis doesn't go too far into specific details, like the names of the Mitchells family, and they don't show a lot of first-look images, they only show the logo. The logo happens to be in 2D, which might be a good sign to me, as I thought that the movie will probably be animated in 2D, but I waited for months to even a year for any updates.

Then, around February and March of 2020, I saw a trailer for Sony Pictures Animation's newest film, Connected. Judging by the wacky cartoon image on the thumbnail that caught my attention, I then considered watching, and I couldn't believe my luck! The animation is basically CGI, with 2D elements, as the backgrounds are like watercolor paintings, little 2D animations appear on top of the CGI, and the characters even have outlines, which is kinda neat, but I feel like something is familiar with the trailer. The main protagonist, Katie Mitchell, is making a home movie called, "Tricking Rick Mitchell into Kissing the Dog", with Rick referring to Katie's dad, meaning that the main characters are the Mitchells. Then, the trailer kicks in with a twist, the Mitchells are dealing with a robot apocalypse. Then, I realized that Connected is basically The Mitchells vs. The Machines. To make sure that what I was thinking is correct, I looked up Connected (2020 film) on Wikipedia, and I got surprised by what the article said, Connected WAS The Mitchells vs. The Machines, just under a different title.

I got updates on Connected throughout the rest of 2020, including missing out on the movie's clip from the Annecy Festival 2020, holiday greetings from the official Connected movie Twitter account, release date updates such as being delayed from September to October and getting removed from the schedule entirely, as well as pictures of the movie being worked on from producer Phil Lord's Twitter account. There even was a website for Pal Labs, the movie's fictional technology company, where I can look up information on the new Pal Labs conference, Pal Max, encoding mysterious text, and even hacking the company and sneaking up on their files, which got me Gravity Falls vibes, judging by how director Mike Rianda used to work on Gravity Falls.

Then, sometime on January 2021, I read a new article on Connected. It said that Netflix purchased rights to distribute the film on its platform this year, but something shocked me. Connected was renamed back to "The Mitchells vs. The Machines"! At first, I thought that it was a bad idea because of the original title they brought back being basic, but I managed to get over it. After I saw the second trailer, which said it will be on Netflix on April 30, it got me more hype. The hype increased even more as producer Christopher Miller explained the animation style of this movie, the official Mitchells movie Twitter account released activity pages and an automated hotline about dinosaurs, as well as a new poster tweeted by producer Phil Lord.

The hype then reached its maximum level as Netflix announced the Mitchells Family Road Trip, where they are doing a world premiere of The Mitchells vs. The Machines. I decided to sign up for the premiere. I even set an alarm so I'll never be late, and I'm sharing my parent's Netflix account just in case. After the premiere, I felt very happy that I am able to watch the movie!

Now, here's my review. I will not go into the story at all, as this will probably spoil everything. The movie is so brilliant! From a visual perspective, the studio went far beyond to mimic the watercolor painted backgrounds in CGI, give the characters 2D elements, such as the squiggles and outlines, as well as add in small 2D animations as the cherry on top. They even managed to experiment with the color palletes. In Katie's side of the world, the pallete and art is so natural and loose at the same time, but in PAL's world, the pallete and art is much cleaner and is comparable to a Journey album cover, which makes sense since I took a look at those albums' cover art.

From a story perspective, it is well written with neat jokes, and it feels like I, as well as a lot of people, can get a lot of laughs from this movie! There are even heartwarming events that make me almost to really feeling emotional. I really like the concept of the movie about a dysfunctional family on a road trip and dealing with a robot apocalypse.

Out of five stars, I would give this a four and a half. I am only knocking out half of the total score because of the film's title. It felt basic, unlike "Connected", which relates to the connections of the Mitchells family, where they are trying to stay together as a family, as well as referencing it to technology, but like I said, I still managed to get over it. Title aside, the movie is still amazing, especially the story and the innovative visuals!

FINAL SCORE: 4.5/5 STARS