Six Months After its Netflix Debut, The Mitchells vs. The Machines Is Coming to Theaters

It’s been more than six months at this point since The Mitchells vs. The Machines scored rave critical and audience reviews during its debut on Netflix, en route to becoming one of the streamer’s most successful animated features ever. At the time, the film from director and Gravity Falls writer Mike Rianda received only a limited release in a handful of theaters, likely to qualify it for end of year awards show consideration, but now The Mitchells vs. The Machines is getting the big-screen treatment nationwide, albeit briefly. Thanks to a partnership between Netflix and Iconic Events Releasing, the film will screen in theaters around the country on Nov. 20-21.

This is an interesting case, and not something one sees very often with a film that is not only freely available on Netflix, but has been for half a year. Still, it’s a well-deserved accolade for The Mitchells vs. The Machines, which we reviewed very warmly as a genuinely warm and relevant story about modern family relationships and technological dependency. Certainly, it handles these themes far better than recent, similar releases like the woeful Ron’s Gone Wrong. So too would it be nice to see The Mitchells vs. The Machines on the big screen for the sake of its bombastic visuals alone, as the film is arguably one of the most eye-catching and richly detailed animated features in recent memory, on par with the likes of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, also from Sony Pictures Animation.

The Mitchells vs. The Machines stars Abbi Jacobson, Maya Rudolph, Danny McBride, Beck Bennett, Fred Armisen, Eric Andre and Olivia Colman, among others, and was written and directed by Mike Rianda. Showtimes and locations will be available in the near future at www.mitchellsmovieintheaters.com, so you may want to keep an eye out if you want to rewatch this particular feature in all its big screen glory.