Last month, Netflix dropped a trailer for its CG animated film, The Mitchells vs. the Machines, produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller of The Lego Movie and Into the Spider-Verse fame. I said, “It isn’t nearly as bewilderingly awesome as either of Lord and Miller’s previous two animated outings from what we can see, but it still looks like a good time.” I would like to retract that statement because the movie now looks outstanding to me.
Netflix released an enormous 4:30-minute clip, where the Mitchells are trapped in a mall, Dawn of the Dead-style, and attacked by every single item with a microchip in it. It made me laugh out loud multiple times:
I still don’t know if Mitchells is going to end up in the same echelon as The Lego Movie and Spider-Verse, but if not, it’s going to be damn close. The movie has the same wild, kinetic energy as the other Lord and Miller movies, and is so packed with jokes that some of them hit hard by sheer quantity. And yes, as I previously mentioned, the gag that there are Furbies in the mall is an easy joke, but dammit, you can’t have Furbies say things like the screencaps above and below and not make me laugh:
The Mitchells vs. the Machines is out today on Netflix. I’ll be watching it the minute I’m done writing nerd news.