The Willoughbys: Child neglect and parent-killing schemes provides oddly fun fodder for bored, quarantined kids
By Liam Lacey
Rating : B-plus
No disrespect to Mary Poppins, but sometimes a spoonful of vinegar also helps the medicine go down.
Fans of cynically funny children's entertainment in the vein of Roald Dahl or Lemony Snicket’s Daniel Handler should glean some fun out of the new Netflix animated movie, The Willoughbys, an energetic and semi-imaginative comedy about an appalling family.
The kids hatch a lethal scheme against their parents in The Willoughbys
Adapted from a novel by Newberry-winner, Lois Lowry (The Giver), the movie offers a topical theme of children who are prisoners in their own home. Parents with school-aged children should expect to enjoy/endure repeat viewings over the next few weeks, an opportunity for both generations to catalogue several hundred in-jokes and references to other movies.
Produced by Vancouver's BRON animation, the film is an adaptation of a Lowry short novel, which was expressly designed as a parody of old-fashioned, moderately gruesome, children's fictions, featuring including orphans, nannies, cruel guardians, a candy magnate, balloon rides and singing nannies.
Through the narration of a campy-sounding plump blue alley cat (voiced by Ricky Gervais), we are introduced to the Willoughbys’ illustrious family heritage, memorialized in a series of family paintings: A once noble line of brilliant people in bushy red moustaches (women included) has withered down to one selfish Father (Martin Short) and heartless Mother (Jane Krakowski) who occupy a vast Victorian pile.
The parents are besotted with each other but they neglect and despise their three children, Tim, Jane and two boys both named Barnaby - all of whom have their parents' brick-red Raggedy Ann hair.
Forced to eat their parents' leftover meals and subject to regular incarceration in the coal cellar, the children decide to strike back. They'll make themselves orphans by convincing their parents to take a long, dangerous, getaway vacation from which they are unlikely to return.
Director Kris Pearn (co-director of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2) has avoided Tim Burton-like gothic cliches, offsetting the mock hand-drawn animation with a bright palette and lumpy-looking, homely-cute characters. While the stream of quips and wordplay are more miss than hit, the excellent voice cast sell the characters well.
The anti-parent rebellion is organized by 14-year-old Tim (Will Forte), a young man determined to redeem the family's honour, and his musically-inclined younger sister, Jane (Alessia Cara), who keeps threatening to burst into a Disney song (Singer Cara performed "How Far I’ll Go” for the Moana soundtrack). The "creepy" twin younger siblings, both named Barnaby (Seán Cullen), are sub-articulate background chorus, who function more like the Minions in the Despicable Me series, or perhaps the Trump brothers.
Where the children's dastardly plan goes wrong is that they fail to anticipate that their parents, in the name of superficial proprieties, has hired a nanny (Maya Rudolph). Although she's the cheapest available, she unexpectedly turns out to be an ally and a big bundle of singing fun.
For those who are concerned that child neglect and parenticide aren’t suitable subjects for children's amusement, you have obviously forgotten how much children enjoy what isn’t appropriate. In any case, thanks to the blue cat, the singing nanny and the reclusive candy maker, the abandoned baby and a balloon ride, things work out just fine, or at least in that vicinity.
The Willoughbys. Directed by Kris Pearn. Co-directed by Rob Lodermeier. Written by Kris Pearn and Mark Stanleigh, based on the book by Lois Lowry. Starring: Will Forte, Maya Rudolph, Alessia Cara, Terry Crews, Martin Short, Jane Krakowski, Seán Cullen and Ricky Gervais.