The Willoughbys (2020)

The Willoughbys is a 2020 Canadian-American computer-animated comedy film directed by Kris Pearn and co-directed by Cory Evans and Rob Lodermeier. Based on the book of the same name by Lois Lowry, the film's screenplay was written by Pearn and Mark Stanleigh, and stars the voices of Will Forte, Maya Rudolph, Alessia Cara, Terry Crews, Martin Short, Jane Krakowski, Seán Cullen, and Ricky Gervais, who also narrates the film.

The Willoughbys was released on April 22, 2020, with 37 million people viewing the movie. It received positive reviews for its animation, acting, story, and soundtrack by Mark Mothersbaugh, as well as Cara's song, "I Choose". It has received six Annie Award nominations, including Best Animated Feature.

Skywalker Sound provided post production sound services[1]: Tom Myers is the sound designer; Steve Slanec is the supervising sound editor; Ronni Brown and Jana Vance are the foley artists.

Storyline

A cat narrates a story about the Willoughby family siblings: Tim, Jane and twins both named Barnaby. The Willoughby legacy has an accomplished history, but the children's own parents only care about each other. They despise all of the kids and deprive the siblings of love, food and music. Tim longs for his family's past glory and happiness.

Jane discovers an infant on the doorstep of the family house. She brings her inside despite Tim's warnings, and she wreaks havoc. The Willoughby adults throw their kids out of the house, forbidding them to return until they get rid of the new child. The children follow a rainbow to the doorstep of Mr. Melanoff's candy factory, and believing it to be a suitable home, name the baby as Ruth and leave her there. On their way home, the siblings hatch a plan to improve their lives by getting rid of their parents. The siblings put together a vacation brochure full of deadly places that could kill their parents and turn them into orphans.

Their parents are excited by the brochure and leave immediately. Tim tries to take care of his siblings alone, but flounders until the nanny named Linda, hired by their mom and dad, arrives. Linda proves to be much warmer, happy and more caring than the Willoughby parents, and Jane and the Barnabys warm up to her almost immediately; Tim, however, remains distrustful. When Linda learns about Ruth, she rushes to the candy factory with the children in tow. Melanoff explains that he originally intended to hand the baby over to the Department of Orphan Services, but grew attached to her; Linda is assured that Ruth will be well cared for in the factory.

Meanwhile, the parents have survived seven deadly destinations, but soon discover that they're out of money. Unwilling to return home, they decide to sell their house in order to further finance their vacation. They tell Linda by voice message, and Linda assures them she will take care of the children. Tim gets Linda's cell phone and finds the voice messages. He mistakenly assumes Linda means to dispose of the children, and secretly calls Orphan Services to report her.

The Willoughby adults hire a realtor to sell the house to potential buyers, but the children scare off all but one family. Linda scares the last family off for them. Tim finally realizes how much Linda cares. However, Orphan Services arrive in response to Tim's call. Heartbroken by Tim's betrayal, Linda leaves in tears, and the Willoughby siblings are forcibly taken away and placed in separate foster homes until their parents return. Tim repeatedly runs away from his well-meaning foster families and runs to the Willoughby home just in time to watch its demolition. Orphan Services decides to detain him in a cell at their Headquarters. The narrator cat finally intervenes by giving Tim's helmet to Linda. She decides to reunite the children. Disguised as a janitor, Linda sneaks into Tim's cell, reconciles with him, and breaks him out with the helpers in pursuit. Linda then retrieves and reunites the other Willoughby children.

The children decide to go back to their parents so that Orphan Services will leave them alone. With the help of Linda, Ruth, and Melanoff, the Willoughbys build a dirigible to rescue them from the "Unclimbable Alps" in Switzerland (shown and pronounced as Sveetzerlünd), which is the final and deadliest destination on their parents' trip. The siblings decide to take the dirigible and leave the adults and Ruth behind. As they reach their destination, they follow a trail of their mother's yarn to the top of the mountain, where they find their parents nearly frozen to death. The siblings and the cat save them. The children confess that they sent them away but hope to reunite as a family. However, their parents are mean as always, stealing the dirigible and abandoning the children. However, not knowing how to steer the dirigible, Mr. and Mrs. Willoughby crash into a large oceanic bay.

The siblings begin to freeze to death themselves and with no way down back, Jane sings for her siblings which momentarily warms them all up. Thankfully, Ruth, Melanoff, and Linda followed the dirigible and heard Jane's song, finding the siblings just in time. Now officially orphans, the Willoughbys are adopted by Linda and Melanoff, living much happier lives together with Ruth and the Cat at Melanoff's candy factory. Meanwhile, Mr. and Mrs. Willoughby survive the crash and become stranded at the bay, where they are eaten by a huge sevengill shark.

The Willoughbys (2020)

Contents

Storyline

Movie Trailer

Sound Effects Used

Image Gallery

Audio Samples

External Links