The Mitchells Vs. The Machines is the best movie of the year so far, and in this interview with the hilarious cast we talk all about it!
The Mitchells Vs. The Machines is visually stunning, hilarious, heartwarming, and just an all around FUN movie! How can you not be into an animated film about a robot apocalypse and the most gentlemanly pug ever — Monchi. To celebrate this incredible movie, I recently attended a couple of roundtable interviews with the hilarious cast, and I loved getting to know more about the behind the scenes and how it came about.
Participating Talent:
- Mike Rianda (Writer, Director, voice of Aaron Mitchell)
- Beck Bennett (voice of robots)
- Maya Rudolph (voice of Linda Mitchell)
- Abbi Jacobson (voice of Katie)
The Mitchells Vs. The Machines Fun Facts
There was so much great tidbits and fun facts that we learned about this amazing family film during the interviews. Here are just a few of my favorites!
- The movie is based off of Mike Rianda‘s family — and YES! There was a real Monchi!
- Beck Bennett did a ton of improv when recording for the robots.
- Maya Rudolph can relate to her character of Linda as a mom, but also to the character of Katie because she is very artistic, and always was as a kid.
- Mike Rianda was not planning on voicing Aaron all along, it just kind of happened that way. The team did try several different actors, but it never worked out right.
- Abbi Jacobson and Maya Rudolph love how beautifully the script is written to include that Katie is Queer, but not make a big deal about it at all. It is subtle and just there.
- Maya Rudolph says her character, Linda, is the glue of the family. She just wants everyone to be happy and get along.
- Mike Rianda says the producers are like the prison guards to keep the artists in check — and he wasn’t sure the 2D “Katie Vision” would make it into the final cut, but it really worked and he is happy it did.
- Beck Bennett says the joke of the robots is that they are so intelligent in one way, and so unintelligent in another — and that it was so fun to improvise that.
- Mike Rianda would call up gaming stores to try to give his opinion on the latest games when he was younger — which is where the idea of Aaron using the phonebook to call people to talk about dinosaurs came from.
Full The Mitchells Vs. The Machines Roundtable Interview
This interview was conducted by several members of the press, myself included. If you want to watch it all, and get the full inside scoop, check out this video!
Be sure to The Mitchells Vs. The Machines review.
About The Mitchells Vs. The Machines
From the humans who brought you the Academy Award-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and The LEGO Movie comes The Mitchells vs. The Machines, an animated action-comedy about an ordinary family who find themselves in the middle of their biggest family challenge yet…saving the world from the robot apocalypse. No big deal, right?
It all starts when creative outsider Katie Mitchell is accepted into the film school of her dreams and is eager to leave home and find “her people,” when her nature-loving dad insists on having the whole family drive her to school and bond during one last totally-not-awkward-or-forced road trip. But just when the trip can’t get any worse, the family suddenly finds itself in the middle of the robot uprising!
Everything from smart phones, to roombas, to evil Furbys are employed to capture every human on the planet. Now it’s up to the Mitchells, including upbeat mom Linda, quirky little brother Aaron, their squishy pug, Monchi, and two friendly, but simple-minded robots to save humanity.
The Mitchells Vs. The Machines hits Netflix on April 30th.
Tessa Smith is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-approved Film and TV Critic. On Camera personality and TV / Film Critic with 10+ years of experience in video editing, writing, editing, moderating, and hosting.