The Willoughbys (2020)

The Willoughbys (2020)

Director: Kris Pearn, Rob Lodermeier, Cory Evans

Cast (voice): Ricky Gervais, Will Forte, Maya Rudolph, Alessia Cara, Terry Crews, Martin Short, Jane Krakowski, Sean Cullen, Brian Drummond

Convinced they’d be better off raising themselves, the Willoughby children hatch a sneaky plan to send their selfish parents on vacation. The siblings then embark on their own high-flying adventure to find the true meaning of family. – IMDB

There’s nothing like a quirky and colorful animated film to bring in some joy. The Willoughbys fills that really well. While its a bit of everything mushed together and incredibly random, (maybe you can call it imaginative), it manages to be clever especially as its full of little references of other popular things from movies and whatnot in their own version that makes it absolutely enjoyable to watch. That’s something that I’ve always appreciated in movies. It starts off with narration a little like A Series of Unfortunate Events and then the story moves on and these children are a little random like the Despicable Me kids and then we move forward the characters they meet including their parents are all very extreme in their own ways. It still manages to be quite entertaining.

The Willoughbys has a decent cast behind it and a few of them are pretty recognizable. First of all, we start of with Ricky Gervais being the narrator who is a cat that lingers in the neighborhood and just like Gervais’s humor, he delivers some funny narration that carries the story from one scene to the next. The parents who love each other so much that they don’t have any love left for their kids is voiced by Martin Short and Jane Krakowski, who are suitably mean for a family film. The nanny is voiced by Maya Rudolph who I’ve always loved and found incredibly underrated but her enthusiasm really carries through into the nanny here and adds so much fun. Then, on their city escape, the kids ends up meeting a Willy Wonka parallel sort of character voiced by Terry Crews whose voice is very unique and wildly entertaining all the time.

The Willoughbys is incredibly silly and at times some of the things that happen are a little absurd however somehow it all works together. There’s a lot to love here with the story progression. The kids themselves are trapped inside their world and each have their own personalities that somewhat balance each other out. They also have the heart to be true Willoughbys and defining what makes a good person and making good choices even if they don’t have the best approaches. At the same time, its a touching story about family whether its between the siblings or the finding them along the way.

You know what The Willoughbys is? Its simply a great time. Its full of laughs and adventures, mistakes and bad decisions and most of all, learning the meaning of family. There’s clever dialogue, fun characters and some pretty great voice cast tossed into the mix. Its charming, clever and colorful: three things that I love in animated films. Totally recommend this one!

Valentine’s Marathon: Michael Bolton’s Big, Sexy Valentine’s Special (Netflix 2017)

I was kind of on the fence whether to talk about this since its not really a movie but then its a new thing on Netflix. Michael Bolton’s Big, Sexy Valentine’s Special is a Netflix Comedy Special. Still, its Valentine’s related and I didn’t have time to watch another movie. I had promised to look at a double feature of Blue Valentine and Crazy Stupid Love. And I will a little later. The movies are sitting on my  player right now and I’ll get on that. In the meantime, let’s check this out!

Michael Bolton’s Big, Sexy Valentine’s Special (2017)

Director: Scott Aukerman & Akiva Schaffer

Cast: Micheal Bolton, Sarah Shahi, Jimmy Graham, Maya Rudolph, Brooke Shields, Michael Sheen, Sarah Silverman, Adam Samberg, etc….

After Santa tells Michael Bolton that he needs 75,000 new babies by Christmas to meet toy supply, Michael Bolton hosts a sexy telethon to get the world to star making love. – IMDB

I’ve said it over and over again that comedies usually aren’t my thing. I have this specific type of humor that I like. It has to be smart and funny or in some oddly absurd way. While some parts didn’t make me laugh, in general, this worked pretty well. Its kind of this absurd humor with actors playing roles of some known personalities and then there’s musical performances with some odd lyrics. There are a lot of big stars and comedic actors and actresses all joining into this project. Michael Bolton, along with some other stars, belt out some tunes.

I honestly don’t know how to talk about this show which sounds pretty weird in itself because I decided to put this together. While this sort of humor is not my usual type of thing, it worked incredibly well and was funny for a good part of it. It mocked the romance and the symbolic bits of Valentine’s and setting the romantic atmosphere. At the same time, it took normally cheesy tunes and added funny lyrics. My favorite part goes to Maya Rudolph singing “Key Change Baby”. It was just awesome and I couldn’t stop laughing. It is truly an absurd mesh of skits but set up in a charity hotline event where the celebrities answering the phone calls had funny little conversations as well. The fact that the show uses Christmas as the ten month anchor for building meaning to Valentine’s Day is actually pretty clever.

Overally, a surprisingly funny comedy special. If you are looking for some quick entertainment, this might fit the bill. However, as I always say, comedy is pretty subjective. I didn’t expect to enjoy this but did for the most part. It could be a nice twist from the normal romantic comedies or whatnot that you plan on doing. Plus, its on Netflix so a nice funny night in.

Have you seen this comedy special yet?