DIRECTOR EXCLUSIVE
The Tech Revolution
Michael Rianda welcomes our robot overlords in The Mitchells vs. The Machines
DON’T BREATHE A WORD TO SIRI or Alexa but new animated comedy The Mitchells vs. The Machines may just be a stealth warning to humanity.
“It’s like, ‘Hey, kids, here’s a funny cartoon,’” laughs helmer Michael Rianda, before switching to a dread whisper. “Also: ‘Look out!’”
The latest from Sony Pictures Animation finds our screen-addicted, perma-swiping world facing an AI uprising. Led by a malevolent personal assistant – voiced by Olivia Colman – it’s a revolution enforced by an army of robots, out to rid the Earth of “fleshlings”. Our only hope? An everyday family named the Mitchells, an admittedly dysfunctional “bunch of weird humans” inspired by Rianda’s own relatives.