‘The Willoughbys’ is a quirky, entertaining animated film

Posted on May 1, 2020

By MARK VIOLA

Children’s literature is rife with bad parental figures, whether it’s the evil-stepmother is “Cinderella,” or the evil step-mother in “Snow White,” or the pretty-much evil mother in “Hansel and Gretel,” not to mention Vernon and Petunia Dursley in the “Harry Potter” novels.

However, the in-your-face evil (or in the case of the Dursleys, the unbridled loathing) found in those stories seems less vile in some ways than the willful neglect showcased by the parents in “The Willoughbys,” the new animated film on Netflix based on the novel by Lois Lowry (“The Giver”).

The film combines a dry wit with some genuine emotional weight to give us a fun story, and audiences of all ages should find something to enjoy. There is a bit of an edge to the humor (in the vein of the “Series of Unfortunate Events” series), and the story doesn’t shy away from the sadder elements of the story, but it always keeps things light enough to not drag down the proceedings.

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