'Connected' Trailer: It's Kind Of Like 'Maximum Overdrive' For The Whole Family!

Remember Maximum Overdrive? The Stephen King-directed film where trucks and other machines come to life to attack us foolish humans? Well, now imagine that same plot – but applied to an animated film produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller. That film exists, friends, and it's called Connected. This comedy follows a family who suddenly discovers cell phones, appliances, and other electronic devices are suddenly sentient – and out to take over the world. Watch the Connected trailer below.

Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the team who had a hand in The LEGO Movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and more, are together again to produce Connected, an animated comedy directed by Mike Rianda and written by Rianda and Jeff Rowe (who co-directs).

In the film, "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!" 

Like I said: It's like Maximum Overdrive. "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," Rianda told EW. "We wanted to show those imperfections, and we wanted to show them lovingly."

"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," Chris Miller said, and 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."

In addition to the cast above, Connected also features the voices of Eric Andre and Olivia Colman. Look for Connected in theaters September 18, 2020.