Technology fights back in trailer for Sony Animation’s Connected

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

This generation spends too much time on their phones! Rabble Rabble Rabble! From director Mike Rianda (Gravity Falls) and producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE) comes CONNECTED, a new film from Sony Pictures Animation which explores an everyday family and one father's struggle against the rise of technology, which is the source of some amusement until technology literally does rise up. It's the robo-pocalypse, folks!

While speaking with Entertainment Weekly, producer Christopher Miller said, "The big whiz-bang of the tech uprising [and] robot apocalypse makes for a lot of exciting action and comedy, but at the end of the day, the heart of this thing is this family." Phil Lord added, "It’s one thing to fight the robot apocalypse, and that’s kind of a fun premise, but it’s much more interesting to have your dad trying to teach you to drive stick during the robot apocalypse." Some of the animation technology which was developed for SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE was used for CONNECTED, particularly when it comes to the character models, with the humans and their world rendered in more of a hand-drawn style and the robots a little smoother and sleeker. "It’s sort of a love letter to our imperfect human world, where it’s lovingly done but everything is kind of rumbly and a little bit wobbly," director Mike Rianda said. "We wanted to show those imperfections, and we wanted to show them lovingly."

The official synopsis for CONNECTED:

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 will hit theaters on September 18, 2020.