The production duo behind Into the Spider-Verse and The Lego Movie’s new animated movie is all about tech gone wild — and in this uncertain world of pandemic movie distribution, it’s now getting a suitably wild release shakeup of its own.
This morning Netflix announced that The Mitchells vs. the Machines (previously known as Connected), directed by Mike Rianda and Jeff Rowe, will now be distributed worldwide — except in China — by the streamer following an acquisition from Sony Pictures Animation. The movie follows the titular Mitchell family — and the strained relationship between nature-loving dad Rick and his creative, tech-loving daughter Katie — as they deal with a tech revolution where modern gadgets go haywire while on a roadtrip, forcing the family to overcome its differences to try and survive a techno-apocalypse.
Sony was meant to release Connected last September, but, well…y’know, state of the world and all that, so it didn’t happen. Although not included in the studio’s initial rounds of delays into 2021, the movie was eventually pulled from release schedules — allowing Netflix to sweep in. As theatrical releases find themselves turning more and more to streaming distribution in a world where movie theatres re-opening in a regular capacity remains a twinkle in the mind’s eye, it’s not necessarily a surprising move to see, and no doubt won’t be the last movie Netflix has its eyes on for 2021.
The Mitchells vs. The Machines is set to hit Netflix sometime later this year.