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? 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!
