Netflix's quirky sci-fi masterpiece: An oral history of The Mitchells vs. the Machines

Co-directors/writers Mike Rianda and Jeff Rowe look back at one of the only good things to come out of the pandemic After 13 months spent navigating the COVID-19 pandemic with breadmaking and sitcom binge-watching, people were ready — starved, even — for some new entertainment that wasn't Tiger King. On April 30, 2021, Netflix delivered with an animated movie that seems shockingly prophetic just five years later. The Mitchells vs. the Machines was directed by Mike Rianda (Gravity Falls) and co-directed by Jeff Rowe (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem). The pair also co-wrote the film, which focuses on a family in Michigan consisting of Katie Mitchell (Abbi Jacobson), a quirky, tech-obsessed aspiring filmmaker who has just been accepted to a California film school; her old-school, outdoorsman father Rick (Danny McBride), who just doesn’t get her; her relentlessly positive mom Linda (Maya Rudolph); her dinosaur-obsessed little brother Aaron (Mike Rianda); and their lovable wall-eyed pug, Monchi. As Katie is about to leave for film school, her flight is abruptly cancelled by her father, who insists on an impromptu cross-country family road trip as the perfect family bonding e