The 2021 Oscar season finally ended on Sunday, but the first pretty much guaranteed Oscar nominee of 2022 arrives on Netflix on Friday. No, it’s not the highly anticipated endeavors from Adam McKay or Jane Campion. It’s an animated film from the mind of Mike Rianda, “The Mitchells Vs. The Machines.”
The directorial and screenwriting debut of the “Gravity Falls” creative director was originally set to be a Sony Pictures release. But, in a surprise move considering optimism of pandemic restrictions easing this year, Sony sold the film to Netflix this past January. To say their loss is the streaming giant’s gain is a massive understatement.
Highly entertaining with a gorgeous and gutsy aesthetic, “Mitchells” centers on Katie Mitchell (Abbie Jacobson), a high school senior who dreams of going to film school halfway across the country. Her father Rick (Danny McBride) thinks her dream is a fool’s errand and wants her to attend college closer to home. Her Mom, Linda (Maya Rudolph), is somewhere in the middle while younger brother Aaron (voiced by Rianda himself) watches the family drama from the sidelines. The Mitchells soon have other things to worry about when a popular AI software, Pal (Olivia Colman), decides to use an army of sentient robots to enslave humanity over a tiff with its creator, Mark (Eric Andre).
Earlier this week Rianda jumped on Zoom to discuss the long, long road from a Sony Pictures Animation pitch to the screen, locking in this dream cast, what a sequel might envision (including where to find the easter egg in the movie), and much more.
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The Playlist: Most obvious question first. I know you had worked on “Gravity Falls,” animation is your life, but how did this film come into your world and directing it?
Mike Rianda: It was a strange opportunity that came. I was making the short and I wasn’t really expecting anything. And someone from Sony said, “Hey, do you have any movie ideas?” And I’d always wanted to make an animated movie. So I was like, “Of course. I have thousands. I can’t even start to tell you about them right now. I need to really hone them.” And I just had nothing. So, I drove to my hometown, which is like a five-hour drive. And I turned on a tape recorder and I was like, “O.K.! Animated movie. Go, baby. Let’s hope something comes out.” And then there were a lot of bad ideas. It was like a kid. He learns Santa is not real, but he tries to be Santa for the other kids. Secret Santa. Terrible. But I was like, “O.K. I should try to combine the thing I love the most, which is my crazy family, and the thing I loved the most as a nine-year-old, which was killer robots, and combine them into a movie somehow” That concept got me excited because I’m super interested in the idea that, “Oh, if robots and AI can do what we can do, what is important about humanity and what’s worth saving about humanity?” So, that was sort of the like thematic meat that made it more interesting than just sort of like a genre mashup. Basically for six years, I sort of just tried to glue those ideas together, painfully, but we did it.
It was six years from the time someone at Sony Pictures Animation said, “Hey, do you want to make this movie?”
Recently on LinkedIn – this is the only way I know – but it was like, “Congrats on your six-year anniversary.” And I was like, oh my God, it was longer than I thought it was. And I think the reason it took such a long time was even though the people at Sony Animation were wonderful and they always supported the idea, you really have a burden of proof on your shoulders when you’re making an original movie. “The Emoji Movie” just flew by. Like I was there, they started it, they finished it, because it was like, “Oh, that maybe will have legs” or whatever. But since it was sort of a more original idea, we had to make it and prove it to people. The nice thing about that process is as hard as it was, is it really strengthened the movie. Chris Miller and Phil Lord were at the studio and I guess they had gotten a copy of our movie. And I was so thrilled that they watched it. I was like, what more do I need? And then they were like, “Hey, dude, would it be okay if we executive produced it?” I was like, “Yeah, Chris Miller. That would be fine.” You know? [Laughs.] So it was wonderful. And I think that even though it was hard to prove ourselves, I think it made the movie strong.
You mentioned that this was inspired by your own crazy family. Who in the movie is most like you?
I have shades of all of the characters. I sort of like clearly most identify with Katie because that was sort of my story growing up. I was always like, “I want to be an artist.” My dad’s like, “Let’s go hunting,” and I’m like, “No!” But the crew always sort of compared me to Linda, because I was always like, “Come on guys, let’s do it!” I was like the cheerleader. So I guess all of the characters. But I think Katie is the one that’s the most one-to-one because she makes absurd films and I have made an absurd film and [we both] have pretensions for higher things and are both really passionate and relentless. And, like Katie, I sort of had a tough time with my parents growing up. Tough time is an overstatement. My parents are wonderful. But it just seemed like a meaty thing, which is like leaving for school is this really dramatic thing to a family. It can feel like the end of the world. It’s sort of like, oh, our family unit is breaking up. And basically, there’s a lot of truth to be mined there. And there’s also a lot of comedy to be mined there. So that’s sort of why we ended up going with that.
You also remarked that this was a six-year process. What was the hump you think that you guys had to get over in terms of story or look or whatever that made it finally get greenlit?
I mean, in a very real way, it was sort of that these super producers were like, “Yeah, make it.” And then we’re like, “O.K!” But I mean, the biggest hump was basically transitioning this from a movie about people that just didn’t get along and were fighting, which is an easy trick to fall into, especially being a younger writer. And then trying to do the more truthful and more difficult thing, which is, oh, people want to connect with each other, but it’s hard. And no one in their head thinks of themselves as a villain or a problem or an obstacle. They’re just sort of trying their best. And transitioning the characters to being a little bit more fleshed out and giving them all intentions that the audience could understand and root for was really difficult.
This movie has such a cool cast. And I didn’t even realize until I saw an Oscar pre-show bit that Olivia Colman has actually done tons of voiceover work before. Did that make it easier to get her on board?
We didn’t think we were going to get her at all. I wish I had some cool thing like I saw “Tyrannosaur“ and I’ve always considered her as a comedic lead because I love “Tyrannosaur” but I didn’t even connect the dots that she was the same person in “The Favourite.” It’s like, “Wow, we should get her. She’s great.” And of course, it was like at this moment where she was really shining and stuff. It was like, let’s ask and then we’ll figure out who to go with for real. But let’s go shoot for the moon here. And she was so wonderful because she was nominated for an Oscar. And when I saw her win the Oscar, I was like, “Well, I’m happy for her, but she’s never going to do this movie now.” And she did. And it was wonderful. And she was so game. She was like, “Oh, I get to be a baddie!” And she’s as lovely and wonderful as you want her to be. She’s like the most charming woman in the world.
Where did the decision come out to have Abbi Jacobson play Katie? Other films might have gone in the direction of casting a teenager instead.
For real, like my Mount Rushmore of television shows is I would say is “Breaking Bad,” “The Simpsons,” “Mad Men,” and “Broad City.” Like I love “Broad City.” And I was just looking for an opportunity to sort of work with them, kind of, and it was like this seemed so perfect. And the more we met with Abbi, the more perfect it seemed. She was like, “Oh, I went to art school. I went to MICA [Maryland Institute College of Art]. I made videos there. I was struggling, but I was trying harder than anybody else.” And there were all these parallels between her and the character. And also we’re like, “Hey, do you want to just try it out?” And she’s like, “Yeah, yeah, sure. I’ll try some stuff.” And she did like 25 of the funniest improvs on her audition that were so much better than anything that we wrote. She was the first person that we hired and we sort of built the cast around her.
And how hard was it to get Maya Rudolph?
It was not as hard as I thought. I mean, because she has a relationship with Chris and Phil. She’s on a show that they work on [“Bless the Harts”]. So we were able to sort of grab her after a table read and pitch the movie to her and she really liked it. She was into the movie and it was really wonderful. I mean, she’s like this being of pure talent. When she walks in the room she’s funnier than anyone, she’s smarter than everyone, she can sing. So it was crazy to have her in there. One of the only things that makes me sad about the movie is I wish there was just more Maya in it. But…
…it’s not her story.
Yeah, it’s not her story on her story. So she was basically playing a support role. But it’s like if there is a sequel or something, I just want it to be all Maya Rudolph all the time.
Le’s talk about the style, the visual style of the film. Was there any specific inspiration? I saw in an interview where it was referred to as similar to the “Into the Spider-Verse” aesthetic, but I actually don’t think it is. I feel like it’s its own sort of beast. How did that come about?
It was just inspired by one of our artists, Lindsey Olivares, who ended up being the production designer. She was the first person we hired. And the reason I hired her was she did these animated gifts of her and her grandma. She was living with her grandma at the time and she did these animated gifs to like memorialize it. And they were so charming and they were so specific and well observed. It was like, how can the movie just look like those? And even though nobody knew who she was, everyone really liked them and responded to them and they could see themselves in them because they’re really lovingly done, but they were also full of flaws and all these specifics and stuff. It fit into the philosophy since this is a movie about imperfect humans and we wanted that humanity and those imperfections reflected in every frame. It’s like a love letter to these like flaws. So we were trying to sort of reflect that in the movie. And then it led to all the decisions we made, where it’s like, “O.K. if it’s supposed to look handmade, we should have lines. We should have water-colored, water brush textures. Nothing should be a straight line. Everything should be wobbly and organic.” And that gave us this cool counterpoint for the robot side of things, which was just like, “Oh, just do the opposite of all that.”
The movie at one point was retitled as “Connected.” And then it got announced a Netflix acquisition and the original title was back. Was that part of Netflix saying, “Oh, you, you want this to be the original title? It can be” or was that always the plan?
No, I mean, they had a meeting with us. And I was the biggest backer of the original title. They dragged me kicking and screaming away from like designing the new logo on a poster. I was like, “No!” Even though I think “Connected” is a good name, but I also…
I think this is much better. I think “Connected” is generic.
Yes, I agree. So when Netflix met with us, they’re like, “Hey, we like the old name.” And I was like, “I like the old name! Let’s do the old name! Great. High five!” And it felt like it put us on sort of a good foot to sort of work together because we like all the same things about the movie. They were trying to sort of highlight what’s strange and unique about it.
The other great thing is, I don’t know if you’re paying attention, but you’ve gotten fantastic reviews.
Oh yeah, I might have … I might’ve seen them. [Laughs]
You’re at 79 on Metacritic right now, which is pretty impressive.
Wonderful.
What’s your reaction to that? And then also the fact that you said this has been six years of your life. Is there any melancholy that it’s almost over or are you just glad that it’s out there?
I am so happy it’s over. I mean, I love everyone that worked on it but six years, but it’s been so fun to get those reviews and stuff because the whole team put their hearts and souls into the thing. And like I did, and they did, and I was sort of always cheerleading them and they were like, “Hey Mike, it’s going to be all right.” And I’m like, “O.K., O.K. let’s get through it.” And we had a really great relationship and I love all those guys and girls. Like the whole time I was like, “I want to make a movie that is worth these people’s time because they’re so great.” And I’m hoping that they are feeling that and I’m hoping that they’re proud of it because they all did such great work.
You threw out the idea that there could be a sequel. If there is a sequel, could you tease what direction it might go in?
There’s a certain part of the movie where Katie has written 25 pitches for movies. So at some point, if you pause it, you could see all of the pitches we had. We just put them all in. That’s sort of the attitude of the whole movie, just throw them all in there. But I think the real answer is, whether it’s them fighting aliens, or time travel, or themselves, or an army of clones or whatever it is, the thing I would try to do is sort of dig deeper into the relationships and especially Linda and especially Aaron who sort of are playing a sort of more of a supportive role in this movie and basically telling their story in a more full-throated way and trying to deepen all the stories of the characters. I think for a sequel you want the scale to be bigger and the relationships to be deeper. And really I would try to make it Linda’s movie because Maya Rudolph is so wonderful and we only got to use a little bit of her in the movie and I would love to have the second.
“The Mitchells vs. The Machines” is available worldwide on Netflix April 30.