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The Willoughbys Movie Review

The Willoughbys is a 2020 animated comedy film directed by Kris Pearn and starring Will Forte and Maya Rudolph. It’s a familiar, but solid little flick.

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“I know what you’re thinking,

’cause I’m thinking exactly the same thing:

What’s in the box?

And can we empty it so I can sit in it?“

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Neglected by their parents, four old-fashioned siblings venture out into the modern world with their new nanny. There is one property that this movie instantly reminded me of, and that is The Series of Unfortunate Events. Yes, Lemony Snicket’s storytelling sensibilities were literally copied here, though the movie has its fair share of new additions.

One such addition is its wry, self-mocking style of humor. The film’s a comedy above all else and it manages pretty well to make fun of these self-proclaimed dark children’s stories, though admittedly it falls prey to the standard happy ending formula later on, even if it had a darker edge in the beginning.

I liked the characters, though most are underwhelming. There is one thing that’s instantly memorable about this crew of characters and that is their striking pink hair and crazy hairstyles. That way, the movie became its own thing, and couple that with strong world building, and you’ve got one pretty solid little story.

The voice cast did a great job with Maya Rudolph stealing the show in the best role. Yes, I liked the kids, but The Nanny is by far the movie’s biggest selling point character-wise. She’s just so much fun while also being genuinely well developed and having a moving backstory.

The Willoughbys also features tremendous animation with such a great style to it. It’s so memorable, in fact, that it becomes its own very recognizable thing. The pink hair, the strong choice of angular character designs and the movie’s very modern, polished feel coupled with a distinctly comic-booky classic style of yesteryear made it very pleasing to the eye for sure.

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However, the pacing is a mess, the direction is not great and the dialogue is only sporadically strong along with the humor. The movie can be way too goofy for its own sake and that made it a bit childish. Its action-oriented approach also hurt it in terms of entertainment values.

The Willoughbys is hurt by an over-reliance on action and goofiness. It is also too reminiscent to Lemony Snicket’s works. But its polished, very interesting animation is excellent as is the voice acting. The movie’s very sweet and at times funny due to its very intriguing wry humor. It just needed a slower pace and better characterization.