When “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” first premiered, many animation fans believed that
Sony couldn’t possibly follow it up with another feature as great and as creative as that one. But,
they somehow managed to do so with “The Mitchells VS the Machines” - a movie filled
with fun animation quirks, hilarious jokes, a ton of heart and plenty of lovable characters.
Speaking of which, let’s talk about those characters, shall we?
I’m Caleb with WickedBinge, and this is Mitchells VS the Machines characters: Good to Evil.
As always, we’re going to be starting with our most pure
hearted and heroic characters. These characters are The Good.
Earning our Gold Medal of Good is the head of the Mitchell family, Rick Mitchell. Though a
bit eccentric and bumbling, there’s a lot to like about Rick. Instead of making him
to be a sort of anti-tech villain, Rick shows throughout the film that while he may like being
in his tech-free comfort zone, he’s willing to be flexible and compromise for the sake of his
family - especially his daughter. This is best demonstrated when we learn that he sold his dream
cabin in order to allow his daughter to grow up in a more social environment, showing just how much
he’s willing to sacrifice for his family. He does break Katie’s laptop at the start of the film,
but this is an accident that he immediately feels guilty about. Rick is almost always the first to
reach out when it comes to fixing his and Katie’s relationship, and once he fully realizes how
important her film-making is to her and how much she wants her father’s support and understanding,
Rick not only embraces Katie’s filmmaking passions but he also faces his own tech-related fears in
order to save her and the rest of his family. He’s not perfect, as he can sometimes be a bit pushy,
stubborn and even a bit insensitive, like when he told Aaron that they would maybe
have to eat Monchi in order to survive, but his heart is always in the right place.
For our Silver Medal of Good, we’re giving it to Aaron Mitchell. Being a far cry from the typical
bratty little brother that you’d normally see in movies about dysfunctional families,
Aaron is a cheerful, painfully honest and eager kid who loves dinosaurs. Much like his mother,
Aaron can be incredibly empathetic and is often the one trying to help Rick and Katie
rebuild their father/daughter connection, working right alongside Linda in her efforts to make the
family bonds between them just a bit stronger. Additionally, while he is the youngest and can
easily get freaked out by all the danger he and his family have to face in the brief robot
uprising, Aaron still manages to be incredibly brave when facing off against the robots,
all for the sake of helping out his sister make it through the action-packed climax. Though he
is a bit awkward and probably the weirdest in the family, this doesn’t take away from
just how wholesome and sweet this kid is, to the point where him calling up strangers and
asking if they’d like to talk about dinosaurs is seen more as a cute quirk than as an annoyance.
Moving onto our Bronze Medal of Good, it’s going to Linda Mitchell. Being the most
empathetic member of the Mitchell family, Linda is the one trying to keep everyone
together and encourage good communication whenever misunderstandings or fights happen
between the rest of her family. She’s incredibly kind, caring and endlessly supportive. She’s
even willing to give Deborahbot and Eric a chance and help them out when they’re in danger,
not caring that they were former enemies. However, sometimes this aspect of her personality has its
flaws. Because she wants to have the same ‘happy and perfect family’ as her neighbors,
she can sometimes come off as the type who’d rather sweep things under the rug instead of
dwelling on them, though thankfully this is only a vibe that occasionally pops up with her,
as most of the time she does try to genuinely help her husband and daughter work out their
communication issues. Additionally, depending on how much you sympathize with robots,
you may be somewhat turned off by just how violent Linda becomes towards them in the
film’s climax - though, you still have to admire a woman who’s willing to fight for her family.
Finishing up the main Mitchell family, we’re ranking Katie Mitchell next. A filmmaker at heart,
Katie is eager, easily excitable and determined to make it to her dream school - even if it
means having to save the world from evil robots first. Throughout the entire film,
she’s often the one pushing her family forward, feeling that it’s better to fight than to hide
and risk getting captured. Unfortunately, one of the things Katie is willing to do in order
to push her dad into the fight is lying to his face, telling him that she has confidence
in his abilities when really she doesn’t. Now, Katie wasn’t being malicious when she did this,
she just wanted to help encourage him, and she still feels incredibly guilty when she sees how
much this lie hurt her father. Additionally, for as much as she may argue with her father,
she still loves him and tries to make things right, especially once she understands his
perspective a bit more. Outside of the occasional conflicts with her dad, Katie is brave,
fun-loving and a great big sister to Aaron. So, while she may technically be the ‘least good’ of
her family, she still has a ton of admirable traits that easily earn her a high ranking.
But of course you can’t forget about the family pet, and Monchi is definitely what
we’d consider to be a good dog. He may not be very bright, but the family loves him anyway,
with Katie often using him as the star in many of her home movies. Because he’s fairly
brainless and happy-go-lucky, however, Monchi doesn’t really do a whole lot other than sit
there and look cute. He does passively help, since his appearance confuses the other robots,
who can’t tell if he’s a dog, pig or a loaf of bread. Sometimes he’s a hassle to take care of,
as it’s usually the other family members who have to rescue him whenever he gets captured.
But Monchi still gives plenty of love and affection to his family,
and he does get one actively heroic moment at the very end of the film when he manages to
bounce PAL off his face and into a nearby glass of water - a very “good boy” victory indeed.
Following him, we’d like to briefly mention Katie’s girlfriend, Jade.
One of Katie's roommates from film school, she’s one of the people we see Katie texting
and video chatting with before arriving at school. With how much they have in common,
Jade is - as Katie says - one of the few people who have helped her feel seen,
and the two are immediately able to form a connection and interest in each other
before even meeting in real life. By the film’s epilogue Jade and Katie are actually dating,
further implying just how strong their connection with each other is. While there isn’t a lot to say
about Jade herself given how little screentime she has, the positive impact she has on Katie - being
a close friend and later girlfriend who she’s able to truly connect with - can’t be understated.
Finishing up the good, we have the youngest member of the seemingly ‘perfect’ Posey family,
Abbey Posey. Being the member of the Posey family who we get to see most,
we learn that she is an incredibly sweet and friendly girl who, much to Aaron’s delight,
loves dinosaurs and dinosaur facts just as much as he does. Never coming off as a know-it-all, Abbey
is shown to always be interested in spending time with Aaron, never looking down on him or teasing
him for his quirks or moments of awkwardness and embarrasment. It’s really cute to see,
and her relationship with Aaron really does add a lot to this otherwise admittedly minor character.
Moving on, it’s now time to talk about the characters
that lie somewhere in between good and evil. Welcome to the Grey Area.
First up are Abbey’s parents, Hailey and Jim Posey. Combined with their daughter,
they're presented as a ‘perfect family’, meant as a parallel to the quirky and dysfunctional
Mitchells. From what we’re shown, they’re the type of family who always get along,
are extremely photogenic, and who work together perfectly - as seen when they’re able to make
it to their car during the first scene of the robot uprising. Although they may be ‘perfect’,
it’s implied that there is a bit of shallowness to it. Additionally, in spite of their expert
coordination, they still end up getting captured by PALs army. Once they’re free,
Hailey admits to Linda that she's actually a bit jealous of how well the Mitchells managed to work
together and save the world and, in admiration of their efforts, promises to finally follow
Linda on social media. Like we said, they come off as just a bit shallow and fake-y,
though we can’t exactly say that they’re bad people either. They’re just a family
who should maybe spend a bit less time taking photos of themselves for Instagram.
Next, we have the two malfunctioning robots that accompany the Mitchells on their adventure,
Deborahbot 5000 and Eric. Originally part of PAL’s army, these two are a pair of malfunctioning
robots who end up becoming part of the family. While you could argue whether or not their actions
rely simply on programming and malfunctions or on actual morality, you can’t deny just how much
they end up helping the Mitchell family. Even in spite of how dumb and goofy they tend to be,
they’re still able to provide the Mitchells with additional information or fire power when
they need it. Although they briefly become evil again in the film’s third act once PAL regains
control over them, the two robots are inspired by Rick’s ability to “change his programming”
and decide to do the same in order to help the family that they’ve grown so attached to.
Wrapping up our Grey Area is the founder of PAL labs, Dr. Mark Bowman. Being the
billionaire genius who designed both PAL and the robots she uses to try and take over the world,
some may see Bowman as just as much a villain as his creations. We however would argue that
Bowman was more careless and naive than outright malicious. While he made some pretty obvious and
questionable mistakes, like disregarding the emotions of AI and not caring much
about things like online privacy, it’s pretty obvious that he still wanted to help humanity
and was never trying to do anything bad with his creations. He also tries to convince PAL
that humans are worth saving, although this doesn’t work out. Funnily enough,
he’s also the one to show Rick just how much of a positive impact things like Katie’s films are
able to have on people. Unfortunately, the fact that Bowman never tries to actively do anything
to rectify his mistakes - like join in the final fight with the Mitchells - means that we
really can’t put him any higher. He’s not a true villain, but he certainly isn’t a hero either.
We’ve finally arrived at the most wicked characters of them all. These are the Bad to Evil.
Getting our Silver Medal of Evil are the Furbys. Probably one of the funniest secondary villains
in an animated movie, the Furbys are your standard creepy kids toy turned
up to eleven. Speaking dialogue that makes them sound like evil cultists, the Furbys not only try
to capture and kill the Mitchell family, but they also seem to revel in doing so,
making it seem like they’re acting on their true instincts and not just PAL’s
influence. While there isn’t a whole lot to say about these guys, they manage to make
for the most memorable and one of the most intimidating threats in the whole movie.
Finally, our Gold Medal of Evil is, unsurprisingly, going to PAL. Although
you could argue that PAL is a fairly sympathetic villain at the start, being thrown away by her
creator and only friend without a second thought, she quickly loses all that sympathy by the end of
the film. Being someone who’d rather write off humanity than try to work with them, PAL is more
than willing to capture and kill anyone she needs to in order to take over the world. Had it not
been for the Mitchells, she would have sent the entire human race out into space to either starve
or suffocate, all because she felt that she and her fellow phones and AIs were unfairly treated.
What makes it worse is just how hypocritical she is. For as much as she may critique humans for how
we may sometimes use technology in order to avoid human connections, when both Dr. Bowman and Katie
try to convince her otherwise by using examples of how humans do truly care for each other, PAL just
outright ignores them. She has no regard for human life, going so far as to drop Katie off a building
when she tries to get in her way, and PAL is even shown to be manipulative, both in how she forces
a reprogramming on Deborahbot and Eric and on how she uses footage she took from the gas station the
Mitchells at to drive a wedge between Rick and Katie. All in all, while you may still feel a
bit bad for her, there really is no denying just how evil and literally heartless this AI truly is.
But let us know in the comment section if you agree with our ranking, and
tell us what we should cover next! Remember to hit that notification bell and binge our Good
to Evil playlist, where we break down the morality of the characters in your
favorite cartoons, shows and movies. But most importantly, stay wicked!