The Mitchells Vs. The Machines (The Katie Mitchell Edition) [Blu-Ray]

Directors: Mike Rianda, Jeff Rowe

Cast: Danny McBride, Abbi Jacobson, Maya Rudolph (VOICES)

Release Date: December 14, 2021

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 9.5/10
Disc Rating: 8.5/10

Synopsis:

An old school father and his plugged-in, filmmaker daughter struggle to relate as their family embarks on a road trip to her new college. Their drive is interrupted by a machine apocalypse that threatens to tear these unlikely heroes apart unless they can find a way to join forces and save humanity.

Please Note: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.

The animated family adventure ‘The Mitchells vs. The Machines’ follows the out of this world misadventures of a Katie Mitchell, a young filmmaker ready for college who along with her old-school father and the rest of her family head out to take her to school and experience one last family road trip along the way. But once a machine apocalypse takes over everything and starts kidnapping all humans in sight things become complicated. Now the Mitchells will have to put their bickering and family issues aside and find a way for their ordinary family to do something extreme in the hopes of evading their robot invaders and maybe even trying to save the world while they’re at it.

‘The Mitchells vs. The Machines’ is an absolute blast from start to finish. A splendid family adventure that never drags or becomes the slightest bit dull and manages to serve up heaps of action, laughs and fun while repeatedly finding clever ways to take things to wonderfully ridiculous and amusing directions throughout. If the great story, constant laughs and nonstop fun weren’t enough alone, it also benefits tremendously from some gorgeous animation with fun and unique twists added to it throughout, in many ways borrowing from the other marvelous Sony Animation title ‘Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse’ (you can also read my Blu-ray review of that one Right Here) with its clever style, approach and fitting add-ons to the more traditional animation and it also fits the film perfectly here just as it did there. Director Mike Rianda and co-director Jeff Rowe do a great job of guiding along this magnificent ride from their own script and a spectacular voice cast that includes Danny McBride, Abbi Jacobson, Maya Rudolph, Mike Rianda, Eric Andre, Olivia Colman and more only helps to really make this one something unforgettable and downright phenomenal in pretty much every way. I can’t encourage everyone strongly enough to go out of your way and check out ‘The Mitchells vs. The Machines’ at your earliest convenience if you haven’t already had the pleasure of this animated gem. If you enjoy well-crafted animated features then you definitely won’t want to miss out on this one.

Overall, ‘The Mitchells vs. The Machines’ is a real treat of an animated family feature that’s as hilarious and exciting as it touching and visually gorgeous thanks to the great animation on display bringing everything to life. Certainly one of the more enjoyable viewing experiences I’ve had in a minute, ‘The Mitchells vs. The Machines’ impressively nails everything it attempts and delivers an insanely enjoyable ride from start to finish. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that ‘The Mitchells vs. The Machines’ earns my highest possible recommendation and those who loved the film and would like to physically own it shouldn’t be the slightest bit disappointed with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s Blu-ray release either which delivers outstanding high definition video and audio presentations of the film and hours of notable extras on top of it! The film itself and the ‘Katie Mitchell Edition’ Blu-ray release are definitely both highly recommended!

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘The Mitchells vs. The Machines’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the film’s original 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks fantastic as a whole and offers a clean, smooth and richly colored presentation from start to finish with no unexpected problems arising along the way. It holds up wonderfully even during the numerous fast moving and heavily populated moments throughout, never causing anything that’s occurring onscreen to become negatively affected or problematic. Overall, this is a great high definition video presentation that should more than please fans of the film as well as first time viewers.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This multichannel soundtrack makes a splendid compliment to the onscreen fun and insanity and provides a crisp, clean and fairly aggressive audio presentation throughout. It repeatedly utilizes all five available channels in order to send music, action and vehicle effects, along with bits of crowd chatter and plenty more whipping throughout the various speakers at every logical opportunity and always making certain that any dialogue or other audio elements that might be occurring simultaneously remain clean and fully audible. Overall, this is a solid 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack that delivers nicely throughout and contributes quite a bit of extra fun to the viewing experience.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘The Mitchells vs. The Machines’ (also dubbed ‘The Katie Mitchell Edition’) includes an impressive collection of bonus material that fans of the film should thoroughly appreciate. Included on the release is a ‘Filmmaker Commentary’, along with the option to view the Original version of the film or to watch the ‘Katie’s Extended Cinematic Bonanza Cut!’ (including an Introduction by Director Mike Rianda) which runs approximately three minutes longer and features tons of alternate and additional scenes, although many are presented with unfinished animation and different voices. The release also includes a handful of ‘Bonus Scenes!’ from the movie (running approximately 25 minutes in length altogether) the new Mini-Movie ‘Dog Cop 7: The Final Chapter’ (running approximately 8 minutes) and the Making of Featurette ‘The Mitchells Vs. The Machines: Or How a Group of Passionate Weirdos Made a Big Animated Movie’ (running approximately 13 minutes). We are also treated to ‘Katie’s Cabinet of Forgotten Wonders’ which features some fun videos and brief behind the scenes Featurettes including ‘Katie-Vision!’ (running approximately 3 minutes), ‘Dumb Robots Trailer’ (approximately 2 minutes), ‘The Original “Mitchells” Story Pitch’ (4 minutes), ‘The Furby Scene – How? Why?’ (1 minute) and ‘Pal’s World’ (1 minute). 2 ‘How To’ Videos are also included: ‘How to Make Sock Puppets’ (approximately 2 minutes) and ‘How to Make Katie Face Cupcakes’ (2 minutes).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Film Rating: 9.5/10
Disc Rating: 8.5/10

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‘The Mitchells Vs. The Machines’ is Now Available to Own on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital from Columbia Pictures, Netflix & Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

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