Mitchelles vs the Machine
Today I am going to analyze an animated film, Mitchelle’s vs the Machine made by Sony Pictures Animation.
This movie broke our thread tracking system with its comedic and emotional call backs, but the way the film breaks down into sequences is refreshingly clear and precise. The plot revolves around a quirky, dysfunctional family’s road trip. It shows how their trip is upended when they find themselves in the middle of the robot apocalypse and suddenly become humanity’s last hope.
Story Arc
The following analysis is based on 8 Point Story Arc
1. Stasis:
We see the intro of the dysfunctional Mitchelle’s Family, their background, and interests and on the other side we see Mark and Pal.
2. Trigger:
Katie gets admission in a film school and her dad is not in favor which results in a huge family fight. On the other hand, Mark throws Pal away and releases his latest invention, a line of artificially intelligent robots who immediately turn evil and wish to subjugate humankind. Pal is revealed to turn the robots into evil.
3. The Quest:
The family takes off on a cross-country road trip to Katie’s college where the robots attack humans including the Mitchells at Dino stop.
4. Surprise:
The Mitchells work together to defend themselves against the next Robot attack. Along with Eric and DeborahBot 5000, travel to the Mall of the Globe to turn the tide by entering the kill code at a Pal Labs center there.
5. Critical Choice:
The Mitchells disguise themselves as Robots in order to infiltrate enemy headquarters.
6. Climax:
Katie infiltrates PAL Labs HQ with the help of Aaron, using Monchi to cause the robots to malfunction, as his appearance causes an error in their programming. With help from Mark, Rick, and Linda free themselves. The family bands together to fight the rest of the improved robots, with Linda leading the charge and destroying dozens. Katie eventually finds and destroys PAL by dropping her into a glass of water, freeing all the humans and disabling all the robots.
7. Reversal:
The Mitchells prevail against the Robots. Humans are free!
8. Resolution:
After saving humankind, the director ties up the loose ends with the Mitchells being a whole family.
Characters and Archetypes
- Protagonist
Rick Mitchell (Dad). Although the story is framed through Katie’s perspective (exemplified by her voice-over narration in The Opening) and we can certainly look at the story through her perspective as a Protagonist figure. I am inclined to think of Rick as the Primary Protagonist only because he goes through the most significant character arc. Whereas Katie’s psychological journey is reconnecting with feelings she already has about her father, Rick has to develop a new perspective about Katie, who she is and what she is capable of and reimagining himself and his role as a father given Katie’s transition into adulthood.
- Antagonist
PAL. The leader of the Robots with a goal of destroying or subjugating all of humanity. This puts the Mitchells in life-or-death jeopardy.
- Mentor
While there are several moments in the script where a character don a mentor “mask” in providing insights to Rick, including some of the videos Katie has created which allows Rick to see things in a new light, I am going to lobby for none other than “Monchi” as a key Mentor figure. Yes, the lazy-eyed dog. Monchi provides the key for Katie to plow through the sea of Robots with Monchi strapped to the front of the car. Indeed, Monchi provides the key moment in the Final Struggle which saves the day
- Tricksters
The Posey’s feel like Tricksters who for much of the story function as “enemies” in their perfect family lifestyle, but by the end embrace Rick and his family.
- Allies
The members of Mitchelle’s family are also the allies in the film. They worked together with the help of Eric and Deborah to save humankind.
- Shapeshifters
Eric and Deborah Bot 5000 initially the bad infected robots turned to provided key assistance to the Mitchells vs. Pal and the Robot army.
Timeline of the Character
Rick is a nature-loving man who finds himself exasperated by his family’s phone usage. When Katie, her daughter, prepares to leave for college, he decides to take her and the family on a road trip to spend the time together before she leaves home.
In the beginning he is shown to be emotionally immature. He breaks Katie’s laptop, and his idea of making it up to her is to cancel her plane tickets without consulting her, making her miss orientation week at college, and dragging the family along on a week-long road trip. His wife tries to bridge the communication gap between him and Katie, but notably it is usually Rick’s feelings that she most needs to soothe. The misunderstanding between him and Katie was the one causing the family trouble in this movie.
As the story progresses, we see the whole family coming together to fight against the robot apocalypse. We see that Rick tries to bridge the gap between him and her daughter. As the story unfolds her daughter Katie gets to know how her father has made a lot of sacrifices for her and the family. What makes Katie finally understand him is when she learns he sold his personally made home in the woods just so she could grow up in a better environment.
In the end, Rick accepts Katie’s dream. He verbalizes his fear of his daughter’s future but soon corrects himself by saying, “no matter what happens, her family will always be there for support.” The father and daughter accept each other finally. They might not understand each other’s ideology, but they promise to at least try. Katie joins her California film school college, meanwhile, Rick spends his time trying to understand computers. A horror, but that is the least he can do to watch her daughter’s crazy videos on Youtube.