A quirky and fun animated movie for Netflix.
While this movie is definitely faulted it has a simple but effective charm, I found irresistible. Despite this film's acknowledging itself as weird and quirky the basic story is not all that new. However as all movie fans know, what makes a film work or not work is how its story is told and this story is told very well. It is no secret that most family orientated stories have their share of darkness along with the light. The difference with this is that it plays the darker parts of its story for absurd comedy, helping the movie keep a light and quirky tone throughout while still embracing the darker points. This gives the film a bit of a unique feel that definitely elevates it. Still while much of The Willoughbys is absurd, it never goes too far to make the characters feel unreal. The Willoughby children are delightful with personalities that embrace the strangeness of the story, while still remaining completely relatable. These are the perfect characters for this type of story as they make the story have an emotional impact while not taking away from the film's quirkiness. This film is also helped by some fine animation and a lovely original song (I Choose (also enhanced by Alessia Cara's lovely singing voice)).
As stated before this is definitely a faulted movie. The humor itself is certainly hit and miss with more than a few jokes completely falling flat (though there are also some very funny moments here as well). The worst of this is the narration. This movie is narrated by cat (seemingly only for the reason of being strange) who is not only voiced by Ricky Gervais but adopts the personality of the comedian. Problem is that for being such a comedy driven character, he is simply not funny. In fact he takes away from the film more than anything else. Unlike much of the rest of this movie, this character feels like the filmmakers trying too hard to make a quirky movie. This narration also too often calls attention to the film's own quirkiness instead of letting the movie speak for itself. There are also failed attempts to insert this cat into the story so we can feel that he played an important role in the story, but the movie would have worked just as well without him. Also with this film's episodic nature, it can feel a little overlong at times, especially when we get far enough in to guess how it will end. Still all these faults are overcome by the simple charm of this movie.
While I certainly miss going to the movies it is delight to see a new movie that is very delightful.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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