One of today’s best comedy actors, Maya Rudolph is equally in demand in front of the mic as she is in front of the camera. While we wait for more news on a third season of her Apple TV Plus hit, Loot, she’s on top form as one of the main voices in Netflix’s madcap animation, The Mitchells Vs The Machines.
A regular in Netflix animations, she’s in one of their best — and whackiest — The Mitchells (2021), a high-octane mix of sci-fi and family comedy. She’s the mother in this madcap piece of family fun from the imaginations of Lord and Miller about a gloriously dysfunctional family who discover they’re the only people who can save the world from marauding robots — and go about it in their own offbeat way. Full of frantic action and laughs, it’s impossible not to love the family and the film as a whole and it deservedly received an Oscar nomination.
As for Loot, many of us wouldn’t see this as a problem. Divorced from your tech billionaire husband, you have to decide what to do with your settlement — an eye-watering $87 billion. It makes Molly Wells, at the centre of Apple TV Plus’s workplace comedy Loot, the third wealthiest woman in America and the series, with its topical slant, was an immediate hit for the streamer when it launched a couple of years ago. Without question, the number one reason for its success was the actor who brought Molly to vibrant life — SNL alum, Maya Rudolph.
Most recently seen on the show with her impersonation of out-going US Vice President Kamala Harris, Rudolph’s brought laughs by the dozen to such films as Maggie’s Plan (2015, alongside SNL‘s Bill Hader) and The Happytime Murders (2018) but her big breakthrough came in raucous comedy Bridesmaids (2011), and one unforgettable scene in particular, in the middle of the road. In front of the microphone, she’s loaned her voice to Disney’s Big Hero 6 (2014) and Luca (2021).
The Mitchells Vs The Machines isn’t her only animation on Netflix. In The Willoughbys (2020), Rudolph is the voice of the long-suffering nanny to a group of children who decide they’re better off raising themselves and send their selfish parents on a long vacation. The youngsters’ own adventures turn out to be high-flying, to say the least. With its slightly darker tone, it makes a great family animation double bill alongside The Mitchells.
Fans of Loot, however, will have to wait a little longer to find out what’s next for Molly and her trusted but ever-so-slightly unstable assistant Nicholas (Kim Booster), who we saw board her private jet at the end of season two. Where will they land and what’s going to happen to everybody else at the Wells Foundation? Filming has yet to start, even though the third season was announced just a couple of months after that cliffhanging finale to season two. But, remember — this is a show from the team that brought us Parks and Rec, so more laugh-out-loud quirky comedy is a given. The only question is when ……
The Mitchells Vs The Machines and The Willoughbys are on Netflix in both the US and UK.
Seasons one and two of Loot are on Apple TV Plus in the US and UK.