Apocalyptic fun for all the family.

While their reputation is far from faultless, something broke inside Sony Animation the day The Emoji Movie was unleashed. Although by no means a financial disaster, it’s since been roundly regarded as an absolute turd emoji of a film and the very nadir of animation – and Sony clearly recognise this.

As a byword for animation barrel-scraping, The Emoji Movie – and, as a consequence, Sony Animation – became a laughing stock, and while we’ll never truly know what went on behind the scenes, it’s fair to assume that the embarrassment caused some degree of self-reflection. Fast forward four years and the soul searching appears to be paying dividends, as the overwhelming critical and financial success of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse signalling a sharp U-turn in Sony’s approach to the medium.

Marked by a bold, colourful, risk-embracing approach, Into the Spider-Verse felt like a breath of fresh air and the very antithesis of whatever The Emoji Movie was and has clearly opened the eyes of its studio to the potential rewards available if they aim high. And with The Mitchells vs the Machines, it’s heartening to see that aiming high is precisely what Sony are doing.

When creative outsider Katie Mitchell (Abbi Jacobson) is accepted into the film school of her dreams, she’s eager to leave home and find “her people” as soon as humanly possible. Unfortunately, her nature-loving, technophobe dad Rick (Danny McBride) has other ideas, insisting that the whole family drive her to school for a totally-not-forced bonding road trip. However, just when things look like they couldn’t get any worse, the Mitchells find themselves in the middle of a robot apocalypse. With everything from smartphones to Furbys out for blood, it’s left to the Mitchell family to save humanity.

While their success with 21 Jump Street (and its sequel) shows that they’re clearly comfortable with live-action, there’s something about animation that just clicks with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Since the moment they burst onto the scene with Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, the directing/writing/producing duo have traded on a brand of anarchic, hyperactive energy that only animation can truly bring to life.

However, it was with the arrival of eventual Academy Award-winner Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse that their kinship with animation truly solidified, and although the pair stepped away from directing duties for the film, their fingerprints remain all over it as producers. Bringing Spidey to life like we’d never seen before, Into the Spider-Verse combined Lord and Miller’s patented chaotic energy while adding in a huge dose of heart and some truly innovative animation to take us on one hell of a ride.

Swinging forward to the present and The Mitchells vs the Machines picks up pretty much where Into the Spider-Verse left off. With boundless energy, infectious enthusiasm, and an untethered creativity that puts most animations to shame, The Mitchells vs the Machines takes what appears, on the surface at least, to be a rather run-of-the-mill setup and turns it into something unexpectedly spectacular.

With a style and a swagger that comes part and parcel with the Lord and Miller experience, The Mitchells vs the Machines crackles with a lively, breathless humour that rarely aims for the easy gag and lands every time. Coming at you at a million miles an hour, the film’s writing, like its hero Katie, positively embraces creativity, throwing a dazzling array of comedy at you as it switches from visual gags to absurdist slapstick to witty wordplay in the blink of an eye.

Clocking in at a relatively beefy 109 minutes, it’s certainly on the longer end of the animation duration scale, however, The Mitchells vs the Machines never once feels like it. Flying by at the speed of light, we’re barely given a moments rest as the film’s infectious verve and eye-popping imagination keep you hooked from the first minute to the last.

Inventive, playful, and eye-catching, the film’s visual style channels the energy and creativity that made Into the Spider-Verse such a success, before going off on its own path altogether, taking its predecessor’s footloose and carefree attitude and making it entirely its own. While it doesn’t possess the finesse of the likes of Pixar (but then, what does?), that’s clearly not the road Lord, Miller, and director Mike Rianda are taking, as The Mitchells vs the Machines showcases something altogether more intriguing and outright fun.

Utilising an array of animation styles, The Mitchells vs the Machines is a heady mix of contrasting and complementing visuals that use the usual computer-generated approach as a backdrop to throw all manner of bonkers ideas at. From the organic shapes and watercolour textures of the hand-drawn style to the “Katie-vision” 2D doodles that regularly splatter the screen, we’re treated to a wonderfully frenzied visual mashup the likes of which you’ll never have seen before.

Central to this success is the film’s take on its human (and pug) characters. While it would’ve been so easy for The Mitchells vs the Machines to take the cookie cutter approach to its character designs, what the animators have done is something far more engaging, charming, and heartfelt.

The quirky, off-kilter look and the warm details of the Mitchells are the true beating heart of the film and allow for the perfect emotional anchoring even as the oddball absurdity of the plot explodes around them. The earnest, natural feel of our heroes plays as a beautiful contrast to the mechanical insanity of the robot-apocalypse they’re battling against, a visual juxtaposition that works well to hammer home the film’s satirical jab at our relationship with technology.

Bolstered by a wonderfully complimentary voice cast, The Mitchells vs the Machines revels in its warmth and humanity. Like most of Lord and Miller’s previous work – and like Mike Rianda’s excellent show Gravity Falls – the film’s zany, off-the-wall humour is shot through with warmth and the kind of heart that can so often be found wanting in mainstream animation.

Never letting its vibrancy and quirks overshadow its emotional punch, The Mitchells vs the Machines marks a watershed moment for Sony Animation that picks up the baton from Into the Spider-Verse and runs with it, pushing the studio further from the creative bankruptcy of The Emoji Movie. And while there will always be the temptation to travel that dark road once again, the sheer joy and inspirational spark of The Mitchells vs the Machines promises a bright future for the studio.

Razor-sharp, hilarious, and crammed full of heart, The Mitchells vs the Machines marks another win for Lord and Millar, who – along with writer-director Mike Rianda – have crafted a wild, eye-catching ride that delivers laughs and tears in equal measure. Balancing a whip-smart satirical edge with wonderfully idiosyncratic humour, beautifully creative animation, and an undeniable warmth, The Mitchells vs the Machines offers apocalyptic fun for the whole family.

The Mitchells vs the Machines is available to stream on Netflix now.