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Movie -- 2021 -- Netflix
The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Katie is about to leave for film school. Rick, her dad, cancels the plane and puts the family in the car. Linda is mum. Aaron is the little brother who loves dinosaurs. Monchi is the pug. Then PAL, a dumped phone AI, sends robots to box people and fire them at the sky. The Mitchells are left to stop it.
Notes are based on public reviews and published descriptions. Timestamps are approximate. Not yet checked against Netflix AU.
Age
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
- Not suitable
- Parental guidance
- Ok
GentleGuide scale for sensitive kids. Not an ACCM or Classification Board rating.
About this title
- Classification
- PG
- Length
- 110 minutes
- Consumer advice
- Mild crude humour, mild themes, mild violence, scary scenes
Not affiliated with Netflix, Disney+, Stan, or ABC iView.
Before you press play
Dad cancels Katie's plane ticket and puts the whole family in the car. Katie wants film school. Rick wants a road trip. Then robots drop from the sky and scoop people into glowing pods. The Mitchells hide, fight toasters in a mall, and run from a giant Furby that talks about a dark harvest. Two broken helper-bots tag along. The pug, Monchi, is the thing the machines cannot compute.
- A parent-child row
- A cancelled plane
- Robots taking people
- A mall full of appliances
- A giant toy on the hunt
- Dad seeing a secret video
What may feel big
Katie and Rick shout. He scraps her flight. At a rest stop, robots come down and load people into pods; a neighbour family gets away, Monchi is nearly taken, the Mitchells hide in an icebox. Later a mall of chip-enabled gadgets chases them. A swarm of Furbys, then the world's largest Furby at about 1:17, glass breaking, a beam that drops a pillar. PAL plays footage of Katie saying she was only pretending to trust Rick. Rick and Linda get captured. Katie's old home movie and Monchi knocking PAL into a cup of water shut it down.
4-6. Not a fit. The pods, the mall, and the giant toy are a lot, and the family shouting starts before any robots.
7-9. Seven is below this scale. Eight and nine need you, a skip list for the rest-stop capture and the Furby, and a talk after the dad-and-daughter row.
10-12. Ten and eleven still need you nearby. They can enjoy the jokes and still want the Furby skipped. Twelve is more often ok. The video of Katie bagging her dad can sting more than the robots.
Triggers in this guide
Counts are how often that theme shows up in the notes -- not when it happens.
- Scary Imagery 3
- Peril 2
- Relational Conflict 2
If you have not watched it yet
Should I sit with them?
We would not put this on for a child under 8 and leave the room. Plan to sit with them at least until 11. After that, many families can watch with a grown-up nearby rather than on the couch. The notes above say what happens. You know your child. This is not medical advice.