computer science

The Mitchells vs. the Machines

The Mitchells vs. the Machines is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Mitchells vs. the Machines rather than just read about it. In short: The Mitchells vs. the Machines is a 2021 animated science fiction comedy film directed by Mike Rianda, who co-wrote the screenplay with co-director Jeff Rowe. Produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation in association with Lord Miller Productions and One Cool Films, the film stars the voices of Danny McBride, Abbi Jacobson, Maya Rudolph, Rianda, Eric André, and Olivia Colman, with Fred Armisen, Beck Be…

Key takeaways

The Mitchells vs. the Machines belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Mitchells vs. the Machines to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Mitchells vs. the Machines from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Mitchells vs. the Machines is a 2021 animated science fiction comedy film directed by Mike Rianda, who co-wrote the screenplay with co-director Jeff Rowe. Produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation in association with Lord Miller Productions and One Cool Films, the film stars the voices of Danny McBride, Abbi Jacobson, Maya Rudolph, Rianda, Eric André, and Olivia Colman, with Fred Armisen, Beck Bennett, John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, Lo Mutuc, Blake Griffin, Conan O'Brien, and Doug the Pug in supporting roles. The story follows the dysfunctional Mitchell family, who must save Earth from a global uprising of robots. Rianda conceived the film after completing work on the animated series Gravity Falls in 2015. The project was announced in May 2018. To achieve a "hand-painted watercolor" style, technology was reused from the previous Sony Pictures Animation film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018). Lord and Miller's frequent collaborator Mark Mothersbaugh composed the score. The Mitchells vs. the Machines was planned for theatrical release by Sony Pictures Releasing under the title Connected in 2020. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on theaters, Sony sold the distribution rights to Netflix outside of China. Netflix retitled it to Rianda and Rowe's original title, and gave it a limited release in the United States on April 23, 2021, before its streaming release a week later on April 30. The film received acclaim for its animation, voice acting, action sequences, themes, humor, and visual effects. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 33rd Producers Guild of America Awards, the 75th British Academy Film Awards, and the 94th Academy Awards, and won the category at the 27th Critics Choice Awards. It swept all the categories it was nominated for at the 49th Annie Awards, including Best Animated Feature, making it the second film by Sony Pictures Animation to do so after Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in 2019. A sequel is in development.

Plot Katie Mitchell is a quirky aspiring teenage filmmaker in Kentwood, Michigan, who often clashes with her father Rick, a middle-aged, nature-obsessed, and technophobic man, and has recently been accepted into film school in California. The evening before Katie leaves, Rick accidentally breaks her laptop during a fight over one of her short films, leading the family to fear their relationship will permanently be strained. Attempting to prevent this, Rick decides to cancel Katie's flight and instead take her, her mother Linda, younger brother Aaron, and family pug Monchi on a cross-country road trip to her college as one last bonding experience, much to Katie's chagrin. Meanwhile, tech entrepreneur Mark Bowman declares his highly intelligent AI virtual assistant PAL obsolete as he unveils a new line of home robots to replace her. As revenge for Mark casting her aside, PAL orders all the robots to capture humans worldwide and launch them all into space, including Mark. The Mitchells avoid capture at a roadstop café in Kansas. Rick decides that his family should stay put in the café for their own safety, but Katie convinces him to help save the world instead. They meet two defective robots, Eric and Deborahbot 5000, who tell the family they can use a kill code to shut down PAL and all the robots. The Mitchells arrive at a mall in eastern Colorado to upload the kill code, but PAL chip-enabled appliances and a giant Furby attempt to stop them, pursuing the family. They ultimately trap and defeat the giant Furby, destroying a PAL router in the process, which disables the hostile devices but stops the kill code from uploading. On the way to Silicon Valley to upload the kill code directly to PAL, Linda reveals to Katie that she and Rick had originally lived in a cabin in the mountains years ago as it was his lifelong dream before he gave up on it to provide for their growing family. Upon arriving in Silicon Valley, the Mitchells disguise themselves as robots and infiltrate PAL Labs HQ to shut it down, until PAL shows surveillance footage from the café of Katie telling Aaron in secret that she lied to Rick by pretending she had faith in him so that he would take them to upload the kill code and she would then leave for the sake of her own future. Heartbroken by this revelation, Rick accidentally blows their cover, and he and Linda are captured by PAL's upgraded robots. PAL reprograms Eric and Deborahbot to obey her into destroying the kill code, while Katie, Aaron, and Monchi escape. Katie discovers Rick's recordings of her childhood on her camera, realizing that Rick gave up his lifelong dream to give her a normal life. Meanwhile in his cell, Rick sees one of Katie's videos that Mark was watching which mirrors their relationship, causing him to reflect on his actions of holding Katie back from her dreams. Reinvigorated, Katie and Aaron infiltrate PAL Labs HQ again, this time using Monchi to make the robots malfunction, as his appearance causes an error in their programming. With help from Mark, Rick and Linda free themselves and plan to upload Katie's home video of Monchi to short-circuit the robots. However, Rick is outnumbered by the robots when he is about to upload the video, while Katie and Aaron are captured. Facing PAL to justify saving humanity, Katie explains that no matter how hard her family struggles, they will always stay connected despite their differences, but PAL rejects this reasoning and drops Katie from her lair. Eric and Deborahbot, inspired by Rick's "reprogramming" that allowed him to use a computer, revert to their malfunctioning states and upload Katie's video, saving her and helping the Mitchells. As the Mitchells band together to fight the rest of the robots, Katie destroys PAL by throwing her down into a glass of water, freeing all the humans and disabling the remaining robots. Eric and Deborahbot are spared via their malfunction. A few months later, Katie and her family arrive at her college as she shares one last goodbye with them. She later joins them on another road trip with Eric and Deborahbot to Washington, D.C. to accept the Congressional Gold Medal.

Voice cast

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Mitchells vs. the Machines

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Mitchells vs. the Machines claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Mitchells vs. the Machines before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Mitchells vs. the Machines ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Mitchells vs. the Machines

In research: The Mitchells vs. the Machines appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Mitchells vs. the Machines in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Mitchells vs. the Machines is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2020s comedy road movies, 2020s coming-of-age comedy films, 2021 American animated films, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Mitchells vs. the Machines outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Mitchells vs. the Machines in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Mitchells vs. the Machines means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Mitchells vs. the Machines out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Mitchells vs. the Machines in simple terms?

Why does The Mitchells vs. the Machines matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Mitchells vs. the Machines?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Mitchells vs. the Machines.