In “The Mitchells vs. the Machines,” the family’s pet dog is named Monchi.
Monchi is the Mitchell family’s lovable pug and travels with them when Rick turns Katie’s cancelled flight into a cross-country road trip. The journey is intended to repair the strained relationship between Rick and Katie before she leaves Michigan for film school in California.
Although Monchi is not a speaking human character, he becomes crucial to the plot. His unusual appearance causes the robots’ facial-recognition systems to malfunction, making him unexpectedly useful in the family’s fight against PAL and the machine uprising. The family also uses a video of Monchi as part of its effort to disrupt the robots.
Viewers commonly confuse Monchi with PAL, the artificial-intelligence assistant who launches the robot takeover, or with Rick and Katie, members of the Mitchell family. Monchi’s name and personality were inspired in part by director Mike Rianda’s childhood dog, Monchichi. Doug the Pug, a real-life internet-famous dog, supplied Monchi’s barks and other sounds for the film.