La famiglia Willoughby

A mix of 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' and 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' and 'Mary Poppins'? Darker and pretty disturbing than most family fare but still has its moments especially with its beautiful animation style and great voice acting.

Why bother watching a new movie on a streaming service instead of going into theaters and besides, the outbreak of the virus is still ongoing. Ouch, hope it goes away soon. Anyway, I watched The Willoughbys today and I've got to say, I am pretty impressed with it. The animation, the characters, the visuals, the humor, the story and the morals are all good. I really like the idea when the Willoughby children hatched a plan to get rid of their awful parents who were always being terrible to their own children and it worked but a fun nanny came around. This is one of the things I like about this movie and also the visuals are really cartoony and yet very colorful to look at and it was very great. I really consider this to be one of the best animated movies (especially best movies in general) out there and Netflix did it again since other previous great animated films like The Little Prince, Next Gen, Klaus, and A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon. I really recommend anyone to watch this wonderful animated comedy film, it's great. I give The Willoughbys a 9.8/10

Based on the book of the same name by Lois Lowry, The Willoughbys appear to be a perfectly normal family from the outside. Two parents who greatly love each other and their four children. The problem: Mr. and Mrs. Willoughby never wanted children and have no extra love or tolerance for them. When these four kids grow up, they determine they would be better off living on their own. This is overall a fairly heavy kid's movie. It deals with child neglect and abuse, abandonment, and death. It is all shown in cartoonish manner, but if you or your kids have any history with any of the previously mention topics, this is not something I would consider a safe or fun watch. There's also some slightly creepy imagery, mostly coming from the young twins. For our full parent review with lessons, discussion questions and age suggestion check out the post on our blog- Down the Hobbit Hole Blog dot com. There are a lot of great lessons that can be discussed from this great adaption!

The film isn't bad. The voice-acting, the unique characters, the dark humor, the animation, all make it quite an intriguing story right of the bat. Unfortunately, what starts out as a truly unique tale gives way to a horribly predictable and cliched ending. I truly thought this movie had promise, but once you realize where it's heading it's charm dwindles fast. What starts out as a daring piece of film ultimately loses out by playing it safe.

I personally do not get the ratings. The animation looks amazing and unique. The story and characters are a bit weird but they have their charm. The only thing I do not get is the choice of voices for certain characters.

Melanoff doesn't sound like the old man he looks like. The Barnabys sounds like adults when they are the youngest kids. They are surely weird like they are described, that's a fact.

It's kinda a modern "A series of unfortunate events". Considering the story, Mr Gervais is perfect as the narrator! However, in my opinion, his voice and pitch doesn't really fit the cat. In all, it is a great story, with some mistakes, but fantastic animation to back it up.

I loved the differences in animation between the story itself and what the children imagine!