Directed By: Michael Rianda
Directing – 9
Rianda’s direction was incredible. I thought he did an excellent job directing this film. The pacing is done pretty well, the way the film is structured is done nicely. A great film overall. I do think that some things could have been different. I appreciated how this film is totally cool with being different. It doesn’t feel like your typical animated film. That’s something I really appreciated with the film as a whole.
Cinematography – 10
The cinematography is great. I think the film visually looks incredible.
Score – 10
The score is pretty good. It works for the film as a whole.
Story – 8
The story follows Katie Mitchell as she goes on one final road trip with her very disconnected and dysfunctional family. During the road trip, Robots soon begin attempting to take over the world and try to rid Earth of humanity forever. The premise is a bit odd, but it really works with the story they are trying to tell. The film is about family and along the journey it brings them closer together. They may be different and incredibly flawed, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t special or capable of doing great things. For being a fun animated adventure film it has great themes of family, love, dysfunction, our weaknesses are sometimes our greatest strengths, being weird and different is something to accept and appreciate, humanity is destroying itself, and how humanity can’t survive without technology, etc. I loved almost everything about this movie. I will say as for flaws, there are a few plot conveniences and some creative choices could have been different. A choice that I did love and appreciate was the character of Katie Mitchell. She was incredibly relatable, as an aspiring filmmaker myself, it was incredibly refreshing to be able to understand her character, her goals, her creative ambitions, etc. The story is satisfying as a whole.
Acting – 10
The voice acting was great, everyone did a great job at playing their characters.
Post-Production – 10
The animation was great and the editing was done well. I very much admired the eccentric comical choices that were placed throughout the film. The filmmakers took chances and weren’t afraid of being unlike other animated films.
Entertainment – 10
I loved almost everything about this film. This film was awesome, the characters were great, the plot and story were nice. The direction was excellent. The voice acting was outstanding. The choices the filmmakers made were superb. This film was just phenomenal overall. I had a few issues with it, of course; regardless, this is arguably one of the best-animated films in recent years.
Final Rating
9.4/10 – Arguably one of the best animated films in recent years.
