Cue the excitement! The hit film The Mitchells Vs. the Machines will be available to watch at home starting December 14! We have tons of details on its upcoming home release, as well as an exclusive chat with the film’s producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller, also known as the Academy Award-winning producers of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. They probably have other nicknames, too, but that’s a pretty good one. 
 
The Mitchells Vs. the Machines is a family road movie full of adventure, love, personal discovery and killer robots bent on destroying humanity. Also, endless laughs. We previously documented the film’s unique journey to your couch in an interview with director Michael Rianda, so read that for his personal thoughts on the film (his own family was the inspiration for the Mitchells), not to mention his passion for all of the amazing bonus material included in the home release. 
 
Watch the first 10 minutes of the film below...
 

 
 
Fandango: Do you relate to the Mitchell family?
 
Chris Miller: What’s really interesting for me, I’m a parent of a 12-year-old and a 9-year old, and I grew up as a Katie Mitchell, a budding want-to-be artist and filmmaker, with a family that didn't quite know what to do with me. And then now, being on the other side of it, and having like kids on the verge of teenagerdom . . . I relate to it from from the Rick side. And so that movie really gets me in the gut, from both sides. So I am still kind of a wreck when I watch it, even though I've seen it 400 million times.
 
Phil Lord: I think we all understand what it feels like to be part of a close-knit group. Hopefully, if you're lucky, it's your family. And then also have individual things and goals and desires that you want to do, the push-pull of that. What I love about the movie is Rick starts off looking backwards in the picture and trying to hold on to something . . . what they were like in the past. And he finishes the movie looking to the future and trying to embrace what their family is going to become. I find that really moving, you know, that an old fart like Rick can do that, and that the family can accommodate him and his daughter Katie.
 
 
Fandango: On the topic of Rick Mitchell, it’s important to note that unlike the typical “dad” stereotype, he's not an idiot. Sure, he can't use a computer, but he's not a doofus, and even though he's having a lot of trouble comprehending the journey his daughter is on, he’s not against it. He just doesn't understand it. The two of you have an amazing track record with characters like that. Whether it’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The Lego Movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse or the Mitchells. You're connecting with kids on their level, but you're also connected with adults, whether it's via nostalgia or pulling on the parenting heartstrings. They all have flaws, but they’re not a bunch of clueless tropes. Director Mike Rianda attributes this to respecting a character’s human dignity. What do you base it on?
 
Phil Lord: I think it all comes down to basing characters on observation and real people — real things that we observe. That’s when you find something that I think is more interesting and rings more true, because it comes from observation.
 
Chris Miller: It makes me think of two things. One is, Rick’s dream is to be useful to these kids. And so it — it felt punitive not to find ways in story for him to be really valuable to solving this big problem. So that's why we came up with the thing with the screwdriver, and the Rick Mitchell special, and just stuff that like. I think we all know that even if we’ve had fraught relationships with people, you get something from everyone, you know, you learn something from every relationship. And so that seemed really natural. The other thing that we tried to do really intentionally is represent goodness — what it looks like when people are at their best. You know, there's a lot of stuff where we're showing what they're like at their worst. That's really funny. But I think we work really hard to remind people what is good and what is beautiful — what is nice and friendly, because we get plenty of the opposite, right in the real world.
 
 
 
Fandango: When it comes to the bonus materials created for the home entertainment release, what really stands out to you?
 
Phil Lord: Luckily, everybody on this crew is so passionate about the movie, and there are all kinds of creative maniacs who have so much to share with the world, it wasn't a problem of finding things that were cool and special to share.
 
Chris Miller: Every filmmaker wants to stuff their home video release with this kind of stuff. And what happens is, because of the unique release situation, it put the studio in alignment with the filmmakers. And so, there was literally zero resistance to like, 'can we do this?' I mean, the new dog cop short is is pretty fun, and it's so charming and so homemade with real puppets. It's it's a weird mixed-media piece that feels like Katie made it. And it's a nice allegory for the next chapter in Katie's life. It's sweet, and it's funny.
 
 
 
Fandango: We were talking about nostalgia earlier, in terms of parenting, but also there's a lot of nostalgia for pop culture in your films, from the Furby scene in The Mitchells Vs. the Machines (and the aptly named “The Furby Scene - How? Why?” in the digital bonus material) to Star Wars, Marvel, DC and Lego. Is nostalgia — namely your own respective childhoods — a driving factor for the film choices you make?
 
Phil Lord: It's very tricky, because nostalgia can lead you in the wrong direction. It's why every time we set out to make something, we're trying to do something new with it. We're trying to use those beloved things as a green light to go and push the envelope and take risks, because you sort of have the cover of something that people already enjoy, and they're just hoping that you do something unexpected with it.
 
That's the big secret in animation — we have this medium that has a tendency to look backwards a lot, especially even in the way that characters move. They do stuff that somebody drew, you know, like a Disney movie 50 years ago, and we're still doing it. And I think it's important that animation really look ahead. That's what's really exciting about Mitchells for us — that there's so much innovation. I think it's really important not to mistake love for something that you grew up with, with trying to protect something or look backwards. It's really about — how do we take these things into the future? How do we look at what's important? Or what's still relevant about these things? And why? Why does it last? Right? What is it about it that still resonates? In the case of Spider-Man, it's like, anyone can be that that character for Halloween. Anyone could be given those abilities — it's an unbelievably democratic idea, right?
 
 
 
Fandango: Speaking of Spider-Man, what do you think about the explosion of "Multiverse" storylines in comic book movies following the huge success of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse?
 
Chris Miller: From talking to people who have been part of these other multiverse explosions that have happened, those concepts existed in the comics for a long time. But everyone was afraid of them because they thought it was too complicated or confusing for our audience, even the studio when we were making Spider-Verse. They were nervous that it was going to be confusing for our audience. But then, when everybody was like, yeah, of course, this is pretty straightforward. When no one was confused, and everybody embraced it, then I think everybody across media was like, 'oh, well, then we can do that, too.' But it's not like we invented it.
 
 
Fandango: Have you given any thought to a live-action Spider-Man film with Miles Morales? Is that something that's tossed around?
 
Phil Lord: I mean, we're just focusing on making this Spider-Verse sequel as good as it possibly can be. That's taking up a lot of our brain space these days. You know, we're not especially imagining the future beyond that.
 
 
One thing we know the future holds for sure is that The Mitchells Vs. the Machines will be released on Vudu on December 14, and the bonus features are pretty special. 
 
 
 
DIGITAL BONUS MATERIALS 
 
Katie's Cabinet of Forgotten Wonders: Take a rare look inside Katie Mitchell’s filmmaking process as she gives you an exclusive look into how the movie was made.
Katie-Vision! 
Dumb Robots Trailer
The Original “Mitchells” Story Pitch
The Furby Scene - How? Why?
PAL's World
The Mitchells Vs. The Machines: Or How a Group of Passionate Weirdos Made a Big Animated Movie: Go inside the story of The Mitchells vs the Machines and meet a group of first-time filmmakers & talented cast who banded together to take a collective risk on making a unique, original, and totally off-the-wall film about an everyday, epic, world-saving family! 
How To Make Sock Puppets: Katie Mitchell opens the door to her film school. Learn how to make sock puppets who could be extras in your next short film!
How To Make Katie Face Cupcakes: Enjoy making cupcakes only a mother could love.
 
EXCLUSIVE BLU-RAY BONUS MATERIALS
 
Dog Cop 7: The Final Chapter: Katie Mitchell is back and creating the most hilarious film of her young career – check out an all-new mini-movie, Dog Cop 7: The Final Chapter. In a world where the holidays are being haunted by the Candy Cane Kidnapper, there is only one Dog with the skills to solve the case.
Katie’s Extended Cinematic Bonanza Cut! Prepare to witness Katie's director’s cut, an extended version of the original film with over 40 minutes of deleted scenes.
8 Bonus Scenes: Get more Mitchells with over 20 minutes of Deleted & Extended Scenes.
Filmmakers’ commentary