The Mitchells vs. the Machines

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🎙️ EPISODE 351: 05.12.2021 I watch so much children's content in stops and starts: a minute of Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse here, a chunk of The Secret Life of Pets 2 there, and on and on and on for what feels like the rest of my life (and, welp, that's probably the case at this rate! 😬) Even bonafide quality kid's content normally doesn't connect with me, a normal human adult man. Dead horse? Time for your beating. So, look, I gotta give it up when REALLY connects, and – as you might have heard by now – The Mitchells vs the Machines truly brings the heat. How much heat? Well, I'll be honest here... I went back to watch the final 30 minutes of this alone, at night, with the kids in bed! An almost unheard of act, in my 2+ decades of grownup movie-watching.

I had seen the first hour or so multiple times at that point, but as these things go, hadn't been able to complete it with my child yet. So I put it on by myself. And it felt weird. But also right.

Mike Rianda (director/co-writer/voice actor) previously worked on a Disney Channel show called Gravity Falls, his most notable credit before this. That show has gotten tons of accolades and I will be certainly pushing this on my older child the next time Disney+ is fired up. He's crafted a modern kid's movie masterpiece here. It has heart, genuine and creative laughs, a completely original animation style, and a bonkers plot that manages to never take itself that seriously despite the premise being artificial intelligence has taken over the world. The voice talent is predictably great as well: Broad City's Abbi Jacobson as the lead teenage hero, Maya Rudolph who is quickly becoming THE go-to cartoon mom voice, the great Danny McBride, Eric Andre playing it mostly straight but it works, and Olivia Colman as the Siri/Alexa surrogate leading the robot revolt.

I've since seen it ~6.2 times since I completed it that night, and I could go awhile without seeing it again. But then my kid turns on YouTube Kids and I want to die and would gladly watch this another 700 times in a row. It is what it is, and this is good.

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 350 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 352 ⫸

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