Sony have a pretty good reason to put their faith in Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who had their first huge hit with the animated blockbuster Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. The Jump Street flicks would follow, along with a little something called Into the Spider-Verse. And now they’re back with Connected, an animated film that may seem easy to dismiss on the surface, but has a lot more going on than meets the eye.
Produced by Lord and Miller with Mike Rianda (Gravity Falls) directing, Connected centers on a Dad who hopes to connect with his tech-obsessed kids during one’s trip to college. Their journey is turned upside down when artificial intelligence goes rogue and tries to conquer the world, as technology is wont to do.
The voice cast is strong, too, with Abbi Jacobson, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Eric Andre, Rianda, and Oscar-winner Olivia Colman.
SYNOPSIS: Sony Pictures Animation’s Connected is an original animated comedy from director Mike Rianda (Gravity Falls) and producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The Lego Movie), about an everyday family’s struggle to relate while technology rises up around the world! When Katie Mitchell (voiced by Abbi Jacobson), a creative outsider, is accepted into the film school of her dreams, her plans to meet “her people” at college are upended when her nature-loving dad Rick (voiced by Danny McBride) determines the whole family should drive Katie to school together and bond as a family one last time. Katie and Rick are joined by the rest of the family, including Katie’s wildly positive mom Linda (voiced by Maya Rudolph), her quirky little brother Aaron (voiced by Mike Rianda), and the family’s delightfully chubby pug Monchi for the ultimate family road trip. Suddenly, the Mitchells’ plans are interrupted by a tech uprising: all around the world, the electronic devices people love – from phones, to appliances, to an innovative new line of personal robots – decide it’s time to take over. With the help of two friendly malfunctioning robots, the Mitchells will have to get past their problems and work together to save each other and the world!
Connected gets plugged in on September 18th.
