Collegebound Katie Mitchell is preparing a video for a film school in California. She shows it to her family during dinner. But her father asks everyone to put their electronics away. Katie tries to have him see it. But he resists. Then he changes his mind–only for him to accidentally let it fly across the kitchen and for it to break.

Poor Katie is heartbroken. She and her dad haven’t had a very good relationship in recent years.

The next day, she has her bags packed up for flying to California. However, her dad decides to drive her, her mom, her brother, Aaron, and even their dog, Monchi, there. He offers this as a way to make it up to her after unintentionally breaking her computer.

Meanwhile, tech entrepreneur Mark Bowman announces an upgraded line of robots since he considers his AI virtual assistant, PAL, who is a talking face on a phone, obsolete. That angers her; thus, she demands that the robots capture all humans on the planet.

Aaron, who is obsessed with dinosaurs, asks to stop at a dinosaur souvenir shop. While there, the Mitchells run into their neighbors, the Poseys. Aaron develops a crush on their daughter, Abbey.

However, danger begins to lurk. All the people are being sucked into individual pods, where they will be stuck forever. But they will have Wi-Fi.

Katie’s dad demands that everyone remains inside for their own safety. But Katie disagrees and demands that they work on saving everyone. She even points out times in the past when they’ve done similar things. Her father is successfully convinced, and the family starts their mission.

On the way, they stop at a mall in Colorado where they can upload the kill code and disable all the robots. However, PAL has programmed all the technology inside to go after them. But Katie succeeds in setting it up.

When they get to Silicon Valley, the Mitchells disguise themselves as robots to proceed with their goal. But they are captured and separated from each other.

I must admit how funny this movie was. I especially admire Katie’s creativity when it came to producing her videos. Many involved Monchi “acting.”

One of my favorite clips is one that Katie made when she was little. It starts with her about to eat a burger–only for it to come alive and dance–until Monchi eats it.

Other funny moments include when Katie compared her dad to a screaming monkey from YouTube with a deep voice, and even when PAL got so upset that she tossed her device around and around.

As with any movie, there are lots of twists and turns. One of them is the idea of Furbies being evil and creepy. They even had a song that awakened a giant Furby, which was a deep-voiced monstrous being that tried to attack the Mitchells. I have to admit that I think Furbies do look a little creepy.

Another twist is when two robots turned out to be good guys and wanted to help the Mitchells. They drew faces on them, gave themselves names, and even considered the stereotypical, “I am a robot” move offensive. This adds not only creativity, but also complexity.

All the characters have some form of complexity. Katie’s relationship with her father wasn’t perfect. But it did improve throughout the movie. One of the motivations involved videos that her family recorded when she was little. She and her dad were close to each other.

What I particularly loved is how Katie was close to Aaron. It is not typical for a teenage girl character to have a sweet bond with her little brother. Usually, they find them annoying. So, I adored this twist.

The movie also emphasizes how much people have changed since smartphones were invented. At the beginning, when the family was eating dinner together, Katie’s dad not only made everyone put his or her devices down, but also made eye contact with each other. And it was quite awkward and even painful. I consider that accurate to some degree for the 2020s.

An exaggerated moment was when Katie got so unhappy with her family driving her to college instead of her taking the plane that she “grew dramatically and screamed.” This even caused her to miss orientation, and she didn’t like that.

Overall, The Mitchells vs. The Machines is a fantastic watch from its memorable characters to its humor. I think people of all ages can enjoy it, including kids. I, personally, don’t think the levels of violence are that scary. It can be a little intense at times. But I think children 7 and up would likely be able to handle it. It is rated PG.

I give this movie 5 out of 5 stars.