The Mitchells vs. the Machines Producer Reveals Story Behind Furby Cameo

Though a film filled with notable and hilarious gags, one of the best moments in Netflix and Sony Picture Animation’s The Mitchells vs. the Machines is when a giant Furby comes to life. As you might imagine, given the title’s implication, the movie deals with a family that is fighting electronics and robots across our great nation but the sequence with the Furbys (and other household appliances) is one of its best. Taking part in a behind-the-scenes tweet-along for the film, producer Christopher Miller revealed the lengths they went to to get the Furby in the movie, spoiler: a lot of letters.

“Another perseverance example: Michael Rianda (director/co-writer) wrote SEVEN letters to Hasbro and the makers of Furby to convince them to let us use the rights,” Miller tweeted. “Most directors would’ve quit after 4 rejections. So thankful he didn’t.” Rianda opened up about the inclusion of the Furby in the film in multiple interviews when the film first premiered, revealing his own back story with the classic toy. He also corroborated the story of having trouble getting in touch with the rights holders. 

“We couldn’t get a hold of Hasbro, so then we had to change it,” Rianda told Joe.IE. “We called it Tickle-Me Melmo, and it was basically a Tickle-Me Elmo with an eye-patch and a metal arm and it was like Mad Max and it was like ‘Come, brothers!’ But then when we showed it to the artists and the studio, they rioted. They were like ‘Where are the Furbys? What is happening??’ So we doubled-down, and I talked to some people I knew. And then the Hasbro people were really nice! They were like ‘Yeah, cool!’. I was saying that we love Furbys and that it would be free advertising. And they eventually were down, and I was so happy about it, because it is the craziest thing. It was like that moment when we’re a film student and you think ‘Oh, we can’t do this! We’re just messing around!’, but then the studio says ‘No, you can do it!’, and we were all like ‘Yeah!’”

Since premiering in April of 2021, The Mitchells vs. the Machines has become one of the highest rated animated movies of the past year. The film won Best Animated feature award at countless critics groups including New York Film Critics Circle, Austin Film Critics Association, and Atlanta Film Critics Circle, as well as Best Animated Feature at the Annie Awards. As one might expect it is also nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 94th Academy Awards, which producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller previously won for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.