Netflix Acquires Worldwide Rights to Sony Animation’s “The Mitchells vs. The Machines”

Netflix Acquires Worldwide Rights to Sony Animation’s “The Mitchells vs. The Machines”

January 21st, 2021

Jerry Beck

Netflix has acquired worldwide rights (excluding China) to The Mitchells vs. The Machines (formerly Connected) from Sony Pictures Animation. The original animated comedy is produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller whose film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, won the 2019 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The film stars Danny McBride, Abbi Jacobson, Maya Rudolph, Mike Rianda, Eric Andre, Olivia Colman, Blake Griffin and Doug The Pug.

The Mitchells vs. The Machines is directed by Mike Rianda and co-directed by Jeff Rowe. The screenplay is written by Rianda and Rowe. Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Kurt Albrecht produced the film and Will Allegra, Louis Koo Tin Lok executive produced.

Producer’s Phil Lord and Christopher Miller said, “We are overwhelmed by the enthusiasm Netflix has expressed for this movie with this acquisition and grateful to everyone at Sony for making a great picture with us and finding a big way to bring it to audiences” said Lord and Miller. “We’re really proud of the film we all made together, plus we understand our subscription fees are waived in perpetuity as part of the deal? We’re not lawyers but it does sound right to us.”

About the move to Netflix the film’s director Mike Rianda says, “This is a very personal movie about my very weird family. I’m so grateful to all the incredible artists that poured their love and passion into this project to make it a reality, and to everyone at Sony who believed in us and were on board to make a different kind of animated movie. “I’m so thrilled that everyone at Netflix has been totally in sync with us creatively and are just as excited about the movie as we are! Not only because it’s an original story with a creative visual style that we’re extremely proud of, but also so I can prove to my friends that this five-year journey wasn’t an elaborate delusion on my part.”

And finally a quote from Melissa Cobb, Vice President of Original Animation, Netflix: “We want Netflix to be the place where families can come and enjoy stories together. And while we know no two families are the same, we think The Mitchells will immediately endear themselves to yours. It’s an honor to work with Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Mike Rianda to bring this incredibly special film to members around the world.”

Synopsis: The Mitchells vs. The Machines is an original animated comedy about an everyday family’s struggle to relate while technology rises up around the world! When Katie Mitchell (voiced by Abbi Jacobson), a creative outsider, is accepted into the film school of her dreams, her plans to meet “her people” at college are upended when her nature-loving dad Rick (voiced by Danny McBride) determines the whole family should drive Katie to school together and bond as a family one last time.

The Mitchells vs. The Machines will be released worldwide on Netflix later this year and joins acquisitions like the recently released Spongebob: Sponge on the Run (ex North America), as well as this year’s Wish Dragon. They complement Netflix’s fast growing original slate of animated features which includes Academy Award Nominated Klaus, Kris Pearn’s The Willoughbys, Glen Keane’s Over the Moon; as well as the upcoming comedy Back to the Outback directed by Clare Knight and Harry Cripps, Richard Linklater’s Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Adventure, Chris Williams’ The Sea Beast, Henry Selick’s Wendell & Wild, Nora Twomey’s My Father’s Dragon, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Wendy Rogers’ The Magician’s Elephant, and an Aardman sequel to Chicken Run.

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Jerry Beck

Writer, cartoon producer and author of more than 15 books on animation history. A former studio exec with Nickelodeon and Disney; currently on the faculty at both CalArts in Valencia and Woodbury University in Burbank, California.