Kris Pearn disappoints again. After the very mediocre Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, he releases his second major film The Willoughbys. Like Cloudy 2, I thought this looked interesting from the trailer. It had a quirky art style, premise and characters. The only problem I had with the art was why are some of the characters purple? While this one was a lot more imaginative than Cloudy 2, thankfully... it's still not devoid of much familiarity that drags the film down and can be so weird that it comes off as contrived at times.
The animation, while fine, especially in its unique art style, is excessively over-the-top, reminiscent of a mediocre Sony film (not surprising considering this is the director of Cloudy 2). I think this film should've been a hand-drawn Nickelodeon show since surprisingly, this kind of animation works for shows such as Spongebob Squarepants. The wacky animation was fine back in the 20th century when we had Looney Tunes and Animaniacs cartoons but it's a product of its time now and doesn't work for a CGI animated feature film as technology has gotten better and we now have more realistic and grounded animation.
The story, well... the story is mostly guided by the characters so I'll let them do the explaining. But I'll say this: one thing I don't like about the story was that cop-out ending that you've seen in many other kids films where you think the heroes are about to die but they end up getting rescued for some weird reason. Like, how would you be able to hear soft singing from however far away you are?
Tim as the main protagonist was obnoxious to the point of causing the melodrama in the film. He and Kris's other character Sequel!Flint Lockwood (and no, I refuse to see that trash of a movie as canon or with the same incarnations of characters) are the worst anti-heroes that I have seen. And it's weird because antiheroes are usually some of the best characters like the other kids for example were better. I can see that Kris tried to complexify him. He has a reason for not trusting the nanny but he was so mean to the nanny, like when she tried to feed him, he was just being mean for no reason. He's a kid so you'd probably expect for him to warm up to his nanny after a little while like the other kids but what does he do? HE CALLS THE ORPHAN SERVICES! They get rid of the nanny but this ends up causing he and his siblings to go to foster care. I don't know how old this character is but considering Jane is probably like 10-12 years old, I'm pretty sure he's like at least 13 and consider his age and the fact that he's a big brother, he should know that he and his siblings need caretakers because they're too young to take care of themselves. That was a moronic and cynical decision of him and it led me to hate the character. The theme of "You Don't Know What You Got Til it's Gone" is an interesting message to send to kids and is different from most other kids films but I've seen it done better in stories such as Conker's Bad Fur Day.
The parents were darkly humorous but they're defining trait is their love for each other. When they're in the room alone, they love, when they freeze in the cold, they love, over the top of a volcano they love, jumping over an acidic lake, they love, taking a shower they love, they love, tying their shoes they love, they love, they love, they love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!!! How could you not POSSIBLY take off those lovey-dovey eyes, and worry that you're being taken to all these dangerous locations? Baby Ruth also had an overly zany nature to her that was really annoying and unfunny. I applaud Kris for trying to give a baby personality (that's hard to do without making them talk) but she was just so contrived. Sunny Baudelaire was a better non-talking baby character for still having personality while also feeling like a real human being. Like how is a baby able to survive fire, crawl so fast, jump, and be this all over the place? She should've been a huge, fat, diabetic pig from eating all that candy.
The only characters I liked out of this were Jane, the nanny, and the Lemony Snicket cat. Jane carries the movie and its themes with her catchy, touching song sung beautifully by Alessia Cara. The Barnabys had a lot of quirks but their overly zany animation ruined them. The cat reminded me of Lemony Snicket, having some sardonic but also provided some good commentary on the movie while also being part of the cast, which was a nice touch. Characters like the Nanny and Willy Wonka provided some heart-warming moments for the film but they were kind of a let-down because we really don't see them that much. Especially Willy Wonka. He could've been an interesting character but the kids don't get much of a chance to bond with him throughout the film because we've seen him like once and then they throw him out the window until the end.
What I realize is that this is the same director who made Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 and unfortunately, it doesn't seem like he learned much from the problems of that movie. The over-the-top zany nature, his handling of the tragic hero trope, having few jokes that are actually funny, and contrived storyline are all problems that exist in both of his movies.
The keyword is, I've seen this type of film done a lot better. It's fine for a time-waster especially with this quarantine but I recommend watching something else like Klaus.
The animation, while fine, especially in its unique art style, is excessively over-the-top, reminiscent of a mediocre Sony film (not surprising considering this is the director of Cloudy 2). I think this film should've been a hand-drawn Nickelodeon show since surprisingly, this kind of animation works for shows such as Spongebob Squarepants. The wacky animation was fine back in the 20th century when we had Looney Tunes and Animaniacs cartoons but it's a product of its time now and doesn't work for a CGI animated feature film as technology has gotten better and we now have more realistic and grounded animation.
The story, well... the story is mostly guided by the characters so I'll let them do the explaining. But I'll say this: one thing I don't like about the story was that cop-out ending that you've seen in many other kids films where you think the heroes are about to die but they end up getting rescued for some weird reason. Like, how would you be able to hear soft singing from however far away you are?
Tim as the main protagonist was obnoxious to the point of causing the melodrama in the film. He and Kris's other character Sequel!Flint Lockwood (and no, I refuse to see that trash of a movie as canon or with the same incarnations of characters) are the worst anti-heroes that I have seen. And it's weird because antiheroes are usually some of the best characters like the other kids for example were better. I can see that Kris tried to complexify him. He has a reason for not trusting the nanny but he was so mean to the nanny, like when she tried to feed him, he was just being mean for no reason. He's a kid so you'd probably expect for him to warm up to his nanny after a little while like the other kids but what does he do? HE CALLS THE ORPHAN SERVICES! They get rid of the nanny but this ends up causing he and his siblings to go to foster care. I don't know how old this character is but considering Jane is probably like 10-12 years old, I'm pretty sure he's like at least 13 and consider his age and the fact that he's a big brother, he should know that he and his siblings need caretakers because they're too young to take care of themselves. That was a moronic and cynical decision of him and it led me to hate the character. The theme of "You Don't Know What You Got Til it's Gone" is an interesting message to send to kids and is different from most other kids films but I've seen it done better in stories such as Conker's Bad Fur Day.
The parents were darkly humorous but they're defining trait is their love for each other. When they're in the room alone, they love, when they freeze in the cold, they love, over the top of a volcano they love, jumping over an acidic lake, they love, taking a shower they love, they love, tying their shoes they love, they love, they love, they love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!!! How could you not POSSIBLY take off those lovey-dovey eyes, and worry that you're being taken to all these dangerous locations? Baby Ruth also had an overly zany nature to her that was really annoying and unfunny. I applaud Kris for trying to give a baby personality (that's hard to do without making them talk) but she was just so contrived. Sunny Baudelaire was a better non-talking baby character for still having personality while also feeling like a real human being. Like how is a baby able to survive fire, crawl so fast, jump, and be this all over the place? She should've been a huge, fat, diabetic pig from eating all that candy.
The only characters I liked out of this were Jane, the nanny, and the Lemony Snicket cat. Jane carries the movie and its themes with her catchy, touching song sung beautifully by Alessia Cara. The Barnabys had a lot of quirks but their overly zany animation ruined them. The cat reminded me of Lemony Snicket, having some sardonic but also provided some good commentary on the movie while also being part of the cast, which was a nice touch. Characters like the Nanny and Willy Wonka provided some heart-warming moments for the film but they were kind of a let-down because we really don't see them that much. Especially Willy Wonka. He could've been an interesting character but the kids don't get much of a chance to bond with him throughout the film because we've seen him like once and then they throw him out the window until the end.
What I realize is that this is the same director who made Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 and unfortunately, it doesn't seem like he learned much from the problems of that movie. The over-the-top zany nature, his handling of the tragic hero trope, having few jokes that are actually funny, and contrived storyline are all problems that exist in both of his movies.
The keyword is, I've seen this type of film done a lot better. It's fine for a time-waster especially with this quarantine but I recommend watching something else like Klaus.