The Netflix feature The Mitchells vs. the Machines (Mike Rianda, 2021) gets the Fantasy/Animation treatment, as Chris and Alex offer up a discussion in this episode of the film’s dysfunctional family dynamics, road movie structure, and its spectacular sentient robots techno-narrative. Topics include the contribution of Sony Pictures Animation to the Hollywood computer-animated film industry and stylistic links to both Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, 2009) and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey & Rodney Rothman, 2018); The Mitchells vs. the Machines’ critique of technology that seemingly sits at odds with its own visual enjoyment of the pleasures of screen culture; timeless vs. timely storytelling via the contemporaneity of the film’s intertextual referencing and depiction of digital natives; the historical whiteness of AI and the racialising of voice-activated virtual digital assistants; the realisation of Katie’s queerness and the fraught logic of equating screen visibility with progress; the potential to read the family through neurodivergent frameworks; and how Mike Rianda’s film provides an ultimately uneven and highly performative portrayal of ‘madcap’ antics, female creativity, and outsiderdom.
**Fantasy/Animation theme tune composed by Francisca Araujo**
Fantasy/Animation supports the #UCUstrike
Fantasy/Animation supports the #UCUstrike
Lady and the Tramp (1955)
Footnote #2 - Animation
Rio (2011) (with Michael Tanzillo)
Footnote #1 - Introduction
See You Yesterday (2019) (with Ebony Elizabeth Thomas)
Mickey‘s Christmas Carol (1983) (with Amy M. Davis)
Gremlins (1984) (with Catherine Lester)
Chinese Animation and the Shanghai Animation Film Studio (1956-1988) (with Yuanyuan Chen)
The Secret of NIMH (1982)
Lovecraft Country (2020) (with Bambi Haggins)
Shrek 2 (2004) (with Sam Summers)
By the Time It Gets Dark (2016) (with Felicity Gee)
The Land Before Time (1988) (with Mark Witton)
Sub-Saharan African Animation (1966-2013) (with Paula Callus)
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973)
Bagpuss (1974) (with Chris Pallant)
Treasure Planet (2002) (with Ron Clements and John Musker)
The Hunger Games (2012) (with Tarja Laine)
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