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**
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) (with Meredith Braun)
Mary Poppins Returns (2018) (with Christian Kaestner and Frederikke Glick)
Ex Machina (2014) (with Andrew Whitehurst)
The Valley of Gwangi (1969) (with Astrid Goldsmith)
Corpse Bride (2005) (with Emily Mantell)
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (2012) (with Richard Haynes)
Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986) (with Robert Maslen)
Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) (with Stuart Messinger)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) (with Simran Hans)
King Kong (2005) (with Barry J.C. Purves)
The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) (with Shaun Gunner)
Waltz with Bashir (2008) (with Bella Honess Roe)
Gulliver’s Travels (1939)
Pogles’ Wood (1965-1967) (with Simon Costin)
Aladdin (1992) (with Steve Henderson)
Peppa Pig (2004-) (with Richard Dyer)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Society for Cinema and Media Studies 2019 (Part 2)
Society for Cinema and Media Studies 2019 (Part 1)
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