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posted ago by acp_k2win ago by acp_k2win +30 / -1

tl;dr Watch it (with kids)

A daugher has grown distant from her family and just wants to get away from them. The father plans one final-cross country roadtrip to try and salvage their relationship. On the way, a robot apocalypse happens and the quirky but resourceful family becomes humanity's last hope.

The whole family dynamic is presented as believable in that each member has their own set of issues and problems with the focus on the daughter and father. The daughter is obsessed with making videos and doesn't think the rest of the family supports her. The father is a technophobe who wishes he didn't have to compete with screens for "family time". Both points of views are presented as reasonable without any preaching or finger wagging.

The animation style felt similar to "Into the Spiderverse" which looked weird at first but I quickly acclimated. There were a lot of quick cuts, apeing the "internet" video style, which isn't my personal preference but nothing that I felt too off-putting.

The general positive message of the movie was a pleasant surprise, coming from netflix. The father wasn't automatically to blame for everything. He was well-rounded in that he had both competencies and made his share of mistakes. Through the movie the daughter grew to respect him and the sacrifices he made. Overall the theme of "your family has problems but you are still family so you need to stick together" is a great one. A couple of scenes with the little brother shows the boy being awkward around a girl as cute and endearing and not "creepy". Then there is overt messaging of "don't trust big tech" but it is presented as jokes.

Overall I liked the movie but it isn't something I would watch if it wasn't with children.


Details with spoilers - rankings for negative categories are 0-5 with 3 starting to be cringy and 5 being totally immersion breaking

Diversity: 3 - The CEO of the apple expy corporation is black. The movie says he invented the technology and designed the robots etc. Subverted a bit by him being the target of comedic violence from the rogue AI he made. The "perfect" couple that the mother is jealous of is mixed with a black husband. Half of the students at the prospective college the daughter wants to go to are black and are presented as fun loving and easygoing instead of the much more realistic angry "activists".

Feminism: 2 - There is an extended scene of the mother going "mama bear" when she sees her son has been taken by the robots, gaining effectively superpowers by getting mad and anime tier fighting abilities. A throwaway line from the father near the end about his wife being right "as always".

Faggotry: 1.5 - A single epilogue line where the mother is video chatting to the daughter about her college and asks if she and her (black) roommate are a couple yet.

Subversion: 0 - The main characters are all white which is pretty rare. The overall theme is family cohesion and the father isn't put down by the mother. A general message of "turn off the screens and talk to each other" is great. Also the distrust of big tech, even played for laughs, is a nice change of pace.