The hilarious and critically-acclaimed Mitchells vs The Machines is so positively bursting
with easter eggs, in-jokes, and film references that you might wear out your pause button
trying to spot them all.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, I'm Jan and in this video I'm revealing over one hundred
crazy details and secrets hidden in The Mitchells vs The Machines.
Some spoilers ahead, so take care.
The movie kicks off with a cell phone being crushed beneath the foot of a PAL robot, referencing
the famous scene from the 90s robot apocalypse movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day of a skull
being crushed underfoot by a killer bot.
PAL, the name of the operating system and digital personal assistant who orchestrates
the robo-pocalypse after being tossed aside by her human creator, is a reference to HAL
9000, the AI antagonist from Stanley Kubrick's epic sci-fi 2001: A Space Odyssey,
who also turned against his human operators when he discovered they planned to disconnect
him.
The red dot on each of the PAL robots' heads is also a nod to HAL's depiction as a camera
lens with a red dot in the middle.
And at the Dino Stop, when Katie orders the two PAL robots not to take them, the dot on
their head changes from red to blue to subtly signal their change in character from antagonists
to the more helpful bots they turn out to be.
PAL also has the feel of the mega tech company Apple, and the shiny PAL retail store the
Mitchells visit in the mall has Apple Store vibes.
And coincidentally, or not, if you rearrange the letters in PAL to A-P-L, it very much
sounds like Apple!
When PAL is revealed to her creator Mark as the villain at the heart of the robot conspiracy,
the evil cell phone swivels round on her chair, like a Bond villain, and you can see she's
sitting on a small pile of books.
The top one is "The Master Algorithm" which examines machine learning and predicts the
rise of a "master algorithm" that will come to a perfect understanding of the world and
humanity.
In the middle is "The Art of War", the ancient treatise that has influenced both military
and business strategy and tactics across the world.
And the book at the base of the pile is titled "The Singularity Is Near",
another real-life book whose author predicts that machine intelligence will eventually
surpass human intelligence and bring about a technological singularity, an event which
comes to pass in The Mitchells movie.
The look of the movie's sleek white robots draws on Honda's humanoid robot ASIMO, which
was created in the year 2000 and named after sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov,
which is especially fitting because the scenes of marching robot armies remind me of both
the movie I, Robot, starring Will Smith, and the Stormtroopers from Star Wars.
By the way, the filmmakers have said the robots use a "fully developed robot language" which
contains secret jokes for anyone who can crack it.
You can see the robots using it as they type.
To figure out the code, look closely at the scenes of the robots taking over different
cities around the world and you can see how each city's name is translated into the robot
language.
One of the best moments in the movie comes when the Mitchells are attacked by a mass
of PAL-chipped machines and take cover in a toy store,
only then to be confronted by a horrifying army of Furbies who begin to talk in their
own language.
This Furby form of communication is referencing the original Furby toys who when newly purchased
spoke a language called Furbish and were programmed to only begin to speak English gradually each
time they were turned on.
In The Mitchells, the Furbies' vocalizations are suitably horrifying, hilarious and creepy
at the same time.
The Mitchells' dog Monchi, with his ability to make the robots error and explode, turns
out to be one of the MVPs of the movie.
"Dog shield, activate!"
"Dog?
Dog?
Loaf of bread.
System error.
[spluttering] Dog-- Pig-- Bread-- Loaf--" Celebrity dog Doug the Pug, who has millions
of followers online, provided Monchi's barks, grunts, sneezes, snores, licks, and other
assorted canine noises.
While Monchi's character, look, and name were inspired by Monchichi, the equally excitable,
wall-eyed dog of writer-director Mike Rianda's sister.
The zany style of The Mitchells is truly phenomenal thanks to the animators being encouraged to
embrace their wildest impulses during production.
Because most of the movie is told from the perspective of Katie, who's a filmmaker herself,
the animators created something they called "Katie Vision" which is where her creativity
and emotions spill out onto the screen.
The idea was that it should feel as if Katie edited the movie herself,
so you have 2D doodles and drawings, as well as internet mashups, memes, and filters popping
up on top of the 3D animation, revealing more details about Katie's character and feelings
within a scene.
Interestingly, some of the freedom to experiment on this film came from the success of Spider-Man:
Into The Spider-Verse, as both movies were produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller.
Because Katie's a filmmaker, almost everything associated with her is a movie reference or
easter egg.
For example, look really carefully at Katie's socks and you'll see they have the same hexagonal
orange, brown, and red pattern as the iconic carpet from the Overlook Hotel in The Shining!
And, in some real attention to detail, those Shining socks even appear when Katie transforms
the Columbia Lady logo into her own likeness at the very start of the film.
And while characters from her various home movies rain down from the sky, the fact that
some of them are food really brings to mind Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, directed
by Lord and Miller, the producers of this movie.
The bomb-shaped pin on Katie's hoodie is another Stanley Kubrick reference, this time to his
1960s Cold War satire Dr Strangelove.
And like the bomb in that film, Katie's pin has the words 'Hi there' written on it.
Also on her hoodie are pins of Monchi, the logo for the California College of Film where
she's been accepted to study, and a rainbow pin in a bit of foreshadowing to the reveal
of Katie's girlfriend at the end of the movie.
And the "Lawn Wranglers" pin on her backpack is a reference to Wes Anderson's first feature
film, the crime comedy Bottle Rocket.
Some cool genre movie posters in Katie's room include horror legend Boris Karloff's Snake
People, the zombie sci-fi "Creature with the Atom Brain", the monster movie "It Came from
Beneath the Sea", and Robo Slayers 4.
And the title seems to be a clever reference to the Mitchells' own story about a family
of 4 who defeat a robot uprising.
The movie's subtitle "Rise of the Brain Exploders" is also a wink to how the Mitchells use Monchi
to cause the robots to malfunction and self-combust.
And another funny detail on the DVD is where it says it's brought to you by the "visionary
director of Zombie Flesh Picnic & Werewolf War Criminal".
For her application to film school, Katie creates her own personal Mount Rushmore of
Director Heroes which includes Lady Bird director Greta Gerwig,
French filmmaker Céline Sciamma, Lynne Ramsay whose most recent feature was You Were Never
Really Here, and Harold and Maude director Hal Ashby.
And there are some neat tributes in Katie's own assortment of short films to some of those
directors.
So her Portrait Of An Idiot On Fire is a nod to Sciamma's historical romantic drama Portrait
Of A Lady On Fire; while Going There references Hal Ashby's Being
There starring Peter Sellers.
There's Dial B for Burger, her homage to Alfred Hitchcock's crime thriller Dial M for Murder,
and two hilarious-looking sequels, Dial B for Burger 2: Diagnosis which, as we can see
from the injured burger in the thumbnail, follows up on the events of the first film
where Monchi chomped down on the talking bun: "Razzle dazzle I'm a talking..
[screaming] Oh gosh!
Why?
Oh, my innards!"
And the final film in the trilogy is Dial B for Burger 3: Forgiveness where it seems
the burger on his deathbed forgives Monchi.
The Perks of Having Only One Friend is a play on the coming-of-age drama The Perks of Being
A Wallflower plus Katie's feelings of being an outsider.
"I've always felt a little different than everyone else."
While Katie & Aaron is the Mitchell family spin on the Oscar-winning road movie, Thelma
& Louise.
As for Monchi: Fear Eats The Soul, that's a riff on the mid-70s film that brought German
filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder his first international success.
They Live(D) In The Jurassic Period is a dinosaur-inspired parody of John Carpenter's 80s movie They
Live where aliens disguised as humans rule the world.
"I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass.
And I'm all out of bubble gum."
And there's even an amusing riff on that famous line in one of Katie's Good Cop, Dog Cop films:
"I'm here to bust criminals and lick my own butt.
And I'm all out of criminals.
And there's also Katie's Director on Director Q&A which sees her brother kitted out in the
inimitable style of New Wave director Agnès Varda.
Some other interesting film titles on the screen are "Oops!
A Wizard Transformed Us Into Chickens", which seems like it's riffing on "Honey I Shrunk
The Kids".
"Chloe, Will You Go To Prom?" might be a video promposal, another hint to Katie being LGBTQ+.
And there's lots more interesting details in Katie's Good Cop, Dog Cop movies.
Her brother who stars as a hardened criminal drives a car with a perfectly fitting license
plate CR1MEZ.
Some cool canine touches in the Dog Cop movie that Mark watches are a MISSING poster for
a ball, a WANTED poster for a squirrel, a STOLEN poster for a pair of slippers, and
the motto on the precinct's wall is 'to protect and serve kibble'.
Pictures of other dog favourite objects also adorn the walls including a fire hydrant and
a bone.
During their time barricaded in the Dino-Stop, the post-apocalyptic world of the Mad Max
franchise gets a shout-out in Katie's Dope Plan to defeat the robots.
"Make a necklace out of robot fingers Mad Max style, and become world-saving, apocalyptic
road warriors."
When the Mitchells rock up to the Mall of the Globe, Katie name-checks the second movie
in writer-director George Romero's iconic zombie film series:
"This is like Dawn of the Dead."
"Yeah, and how did that movie end?"
After the Mitchells lay out their plan to take down PAL on her home turf then celebrate,
there's a fun scene transition in the style of the 1960s Batman TV show.
"Mitchell's engage!"
And as PAL tries to figure out how to stop the Mitchells, there's a funny freeze-frame
moment when she orders the robots to pull up all the family's flaws.
An absolute barrage of details pop up on screen, including:
"Once brought up his favourite rib during a eulogy"
"Looks at ex-boyfriend Carlo Meloni on Facebook more than is comfortable", which given the
SVU references elsewhere in Katie's films, makes me wonder if this is a wink to former
Law & Order: SVU star Christopher Meloni.
And those family flaws continue with: "Only pretends to like Fellini"
"Kicked out of an Olive Garden for stashing breads in purse"
"Showers with shocking rarity" "Doctor-diagnosed chocoholic"
And "Eats own weight in cheese puffs each month"
And PAL also brings up much more of the Mitchells' online activity including Aaron's dinosaur-obsessed
search history with him asking questions such as whether dinosaurs kiss and "how to get
palaeontologists to reply to your emails".
Then there's his crush on the girl-next-door with searches such as "does Abbey Posey have
a boyfriend" and "what is love".
Mum Linda's inbox has revealing email titles such as "Parent Teacher Night Apology", "'Incident'
with your son", and a "Lifetime Ban" from what looks like a Best Buy.
"It's almost like stealing people's data and giving it to a hyper-intelligent AI as a part
of an unregulated tech monopoly was a bad thing."
Of course, despite being what Katie describes as "the worst family of all time", the Mitchells
do manage to save the world, though it's amusing how incredulous the general
reaction is with the cover of People magazine saying "A nation asks, 'these people, really?'"
just below their "Family That Saved The World" headline.
On the other hand, the aptly named Poseys get a much more complimentary write-up on
the same cover.
By the way, given the Poseys' perfect online family vibe, the filmmakers had some fun casting
model turned TV personality and author Chrissy Teigen and real-life husband, singer-songwriter
John Legend, who are also known for their social media presence.
While their dino-loving daughter, Abbey, is voiced by actress, comedian, and writer Charlyne
Yi.
Among the stack of films in Katie's home movie collection is Y tu papá también, a gender-swapped
version of Alfonso Cuarón's hit coming-of-age film 'Y tu mamá también' which, like The
Mitchells vs The Machines, is also a road movie.
Crowbar Jones is a hat-tip to the in-universe film series of the same name that appears
in the Cartoon Network animated show We Bare Bears.
Raptor High is probably a nod to the animated series Clone High featuring adolescent clones
of famous historical figures attending high school.
The show was co-created by The Mitchells producers, Lord and Miller.
Fists of Furry is an animal-related makeover of Fists of Fury starring Bruce Lee.
And Pugs in Space is a canine take on the recurring Muppet Show sketch, Pigs In Space.
Fear And Loathing in Central Michigan is a reference to Terry Gilliam's Fear And Loathing
in Las Vegas with a nod to Katie's home state.
Oh, and notice how Katie's DVDs are marked as the "K Collection", obviously pointing
to her first name's initial, but also a hat-tip to the Criterion Collection and Kino home
entertainment labels.
Given the Mitchells are inspired by co-writer-director Mike Rianda's own real-life family, it seems
fitting he voices Katie's younger brother, Aaron,
"Hi.
Would you like to talk to me about dinosaurs?
No.
Okay, thank you."
who's loosely based on both Rianda and his fellow writer-director Jeff Rowe when they
were kids.
And Rowe also cameos in the movie as the man at the Dino Stop who really loves fun.
"Who here likes fun?"
"Hey, I like fun!"
"Trust me, bud, you do not like fun."
"No, I really do like it.
Everyone says that about me."
"You lucky human."
Also at the Dino-Stop, Rowe and Rianda's first names pop up among the name plate signs in
the gift shop.
Another cameo in The Mitchells is by YouTuber Elle Mills who voices Hanna, one of Katie's
film school friends.
"So good."
And speaking of Katie's college mates, her fellow cinephile Dirk Foley is voiced by Alex
Hirsch who created Gravity Falls, the animated mystery comedy series which both Mitchells'
writers and directors Mike Rianda and Jeff Rowe worked on as well.
"Mindblowing."
By the way, Dirk's surname is a filmmaking in-joke as "foley" is the process of reproducing
"everyday sound effects" such as footsteps, opening doors, or breaking glass which are
added into movies during post-production.
Oh, and Katie's film books also contain a hat-tip to Dan Hansen, who worked on Disney
animations including Aladdin and Hercules, and also taught at CalArts, where this film's
directors both studied and became friends.
And one of the Mitchells' CG supervisors, Ben Aguillon, also gets a name-check as writer
of "Lights, Camera, Angst", suitably enough as he also supervised the lighting team on
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.
So, I was completely blown away by the animation and incredible details in The Mitchells vs
The Machines, but what did you notice that I missed?
Let me know in the comments below and if you enjoy discovering easter eggs and other hidden
details in animated movies, then tap left for my full playlist or you can tap right
to check out something else you're sure to like.
Thanks for watching and see ya next time!
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!