 We're truly living in strange times right now, where a theatrical release can make its way to Netflix without me even knowing it existed until a day before it hits. The Mitchells vs. the Machines is a new Sony animated film. It's done by a lot of the same people, I shouldn't say a lot, I don't know. I don't know, it's one of those things where they're like, from some of the people that worked on Into the Spider-Verse. That could have been the custodian for all I know. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a good chunk of the team working on this one. It looks gorgeous. The animation's top notch, it's got a lot of that fun playfulness that Into the Spider-Verse did where they cut between even some live action shots and overlays of text and just ways to kind of think outside the box from your traditional animated film. Went into this with absolutely zero expectation. The Netflix hit ratio for me is like one out of every 20. I haven't really seen many good Netflix movies. Granted, I miss a lot of them. And that's what I was saying with this opener. It's just strange times when studios can put in $100 million pictures to Amazon, to HBO Max, and I just will not hear much about them. It's crazy. So much work goes into this stuff for it to just kind of get skirted under the carpet. I'm gonna keep this quick because I think it's really good and you should watch it. You have some decently big stars attached to this, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Eric Andre, Conan O'Brien. Those are just some of them that came to me really quickly that I know are in this. They all do a good job. Whoever voices the boy though, is he like, it's like a 45 year old voice, seeing a like a 12 year old. It just doesn't work at all. I hated that voice. Not as bad as the dragon and Ryan, the last dragon. It's not Aquafina levels of bad, but it's not good. That's like one of the few things I really did not like about this. So the movie follows the Mitchells. It's the sister, the brother, the father, the mother, and the ugly dog. It's so ugly that it's really adorable. It's cute. It's fun. Is it a dog? Is it a pig? Is it a loaf of bread? That's a joke that gets played out a lot. And I think it works pretty much every time. This film felt very different. It felt like a throwback to 80s and 90s comedy and just kind of like the family value stuff. It does get a little too overdramatic towards the end. It really focuses on the father and daughter relationship. You know how it's going to play out. It's all very, you know, pained by numbers, but it's done in a coherent, like structured manner where I mean, I just got done watching Mortal Kombat. I just got done watching Kong vs. Godzilla. So it's nice to have something that makes a lick of sense and has a like a three act structure behind it, you know, a beginning, middle and end, not just a beginning and then nonsense. The plot in a nutshell is the dad doesn't really like technology. He'd rather live on a ranch. He'd rather live in a cabin with his family and just communicate, have awkward eye contact. The daughter is the complete opposite. She loves making movies on YouTube. She loves being a creator. So technology is really giving her that, you know, that chance to meet people like her. The plot is very much a doomsday scenario where machines have taken over. It's got that eye robot matrix terminators sort of feel. They joke about it, of course, and it's up to the Mitchells to save the day. And these are not special people. They have a bunch of quirks. They have a bunch of issues. There's just really nothing great about them. But as the story progresses, because they are finally able to lean on one another, they help each other realize their full potential. It's nothing groundbreaking by any means, but it's also, you know, it's heart warming. It's that good old fashioned 90s style flair we don't get anymore. And they're definitely trying for that flair because they make they make pop culture references. I mean, there's a giant Furby sequence that's very akin to the State Puff Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters. And that's also intentional. They referenced Ghostbusters earlier in the film. So yeah, they know what they're doing here. And I think they're doing it well. The music's awesome. It's got that synth sound that's really made to come back. It's got that neon look that's made to come back. Like I said, across the board, this is just a huge throwback. It's a huge love letter to kind of those Goonies movies of the past. It kind of mirrors that formulaic style with modern humor. It's got that into the spider-verse feel to it. It also has I'm gonna throw something out here. I don't know if many people know gumball. It's a show my son loves. I recently started really appreciating it. I mean, one of the robots, which the robots are the highlight of the film all around. They're total idiots, yet technologically advanced. So there's some good stuff with that. But they draw on the face on the robot and it looks straight out of gumball. So watch the Mitchells versus the Machines. Easily one of the better animated films I've seen in a while. It is certainly better than the last few I've watched by Disney and Pixar. So you don't need to have that pedigree to your name, I guess, to craft a good story and something that's fun, lighthearted. And just a good time. Just a good time. My whole family enjoyed it, which is pretty rare nowadays. We all sat straight through it. Nobody left. Nobody had to go to the bathroom. It was just two hours and done. We had a good time and I hope you do too. If you saw it, leave a comment below. Like the video, share it if you want and subscribe for more of whatever this was. All right, take care.