The Willoughbys - Review

 

If no other animated film is released this year, that means that the best animated film of 2020 will likely be “The Willoughbys”, a quirky, stylized animated adventure with as hard of an edge as a family animated adventure can have. That isn’t a slight though, as it is a worthy recipient of such praise.

With voice work from Will Forte (“The Last Man on Earth,” “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2”), musician Alessia Cara, Maya Rudolph (“Bridesmaids,” “Big Hero 6”), Martin Short (“Three Amigos,” “Father of the Bride”), Jane Krakowski (“30 Rock,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”), and Terry Crews (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “Idiocracy”), and narrated by Rickey Gervais (“The Office,” “Night at the Museum”), there’s a very cartoony spirit throughout the entire world of the film. Each character has a distinct personality and their actors do great jobs inhabiting the roles, preventing it from coming off like a “star studded” celebrity affair. The weakest link is likely Gervais, only because his narration doesn’t really feel necessary, but it doesn’t take away from the film as a whole.

Yarn for hair, wispy cottony clouds, and a deliberately stop-motion-esque pace lend the visual style of “Willoughbys” is one of its most endearing aspects. It truly lends the world a fairy tale kind of quality, which further enhances the dark edge given to the direction of the plot.

Most of the jokes are quite on the nose when it comes to poking fun at “traditional” families and values. An extended sequence focused around an open house is particularly amusing and is a perfect encapsulation of how the filmmakers juxtaposes the Willoughbys against the rest of the world.

Writer/Director Kris Pearn (“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2”) and writer Mark Stanleigh have supervised animation and done storyboarding for most of their careers and it really shows in the way the film presents humor. In a way most comparable to “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” there is a very deliberate focus on visual humor. While there are written jokes, most of the humor is in the way characters move, react, and the way it’s all animated. This is yet another animated film that understands that its style can be as inventive as the writing.

The easiest recipients of this adventure are likely to be those raised on “Invader Zim” or “The LEGO Movie” due to how the film’s edge works. Its not shy about throwing its characters down and letting utter despair washes over them and the audience. While most of it is candy colored, it feels gradual; things only become sweet and colorful once the Willoughbys outlook has turned that way as well.

In its most surprising feat, this is also a film that leaves you wanting more. At a tight 90-minute runtime, the world and characters are so delightful and likable, that it easily leaves the possibility open for a follow up film or television series.

While there’s nothing groundbreaking about it, this is another in a long line of animated films that shows that Hollywood is clearly opening up to more experimentation in its animation and storytelling. This is an extremely well executed adventure into an oddball family, backed up by a very tight script and wordplay and a wonderful sense of humor. Its easy to watch and enjoy, and most surprisingly of, how much you’re willing to come back for more. 4.5/5

Trolls World Tour - Review

 

It’s hard to be excited for a sequel film, let alone one from Dreamworks. Sure, they’re turned out hits like “Shrek 2”, “How To Train Your Dragon 2”, and “Kung Fu Panda 2”. But it’s difficult to justify a sequel to a film as hyperactive and peppy to a fault as 2016’s “Trolls” beyond just making more money.

Director Walt Dohrn (“Shrek Forever After,” “Trolls”) and the five writers on this flick: Jonathan Aibel (“Kung Fu Panda 2”, “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water”), Glenn Berger (“Kung Fu Panda 2”, “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water”), Maya Forbes (“Infinity Polar Bear”, “The Rocker”), Wallace Wolodarsky (“The Rocker”, “Monsters vs. Aliens”), and Elizabeth Tippet (“Neighbors from Hell”) have done a surprisingly good job of expanding the world of this sequel in a way that makes a lot of sense. Given how music-centric the first movie was, it only makes sense to broaden that aspect for this sequel.

This world and music expansion also helps to bolster the film’s soundtrack and cast to include the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Anderson Paak, George Clinton, Mary J. Blige, J Balvin, Gustavo Dudamel, Anthony Ramos, and Red Velvet. It’s a veritable who’s who of all across the spectrum of musical genres and it lends the film’s extensive soundtrack and world a lot of creative heft.

That’s right, there’s quite a bit of world-building here. There are plenty of other genres besides Pop at play here, and each get their moment in the spotlight. This makes some of the subplots, one of which involves a Troll with a multi-genre background, and groups of subgenre Trolls, far more interesting. It’s just much easier to take, for example, a world focused entirely on Funk, seriously when the king and queen are voiced by George Clinton and Mary J. Blige. And it is very important that you take this world seriously, because “Trolls World Tour” might be a kid’s movie about bright colors and music, but it’s also about cultural appropriation.

In a trend continuing from “Ralph Breaks the Internet” and “Frozen 2”, “World Tour” is yet another kids film sequel that stuffs some really heavy real-world metaphors into its plot. As queen of Rock Barb tries to forcefully transform the world into only loving rock music, there are legitimate discussions into why the genres and worlds are separate from each other, who’s to blame for that separation, and who music even belongs to in the first place.

This isn’t Pixar levels of subtext, but the effort is clearly there, and it makes the whole experience feel a bit more nutritional. It’s also pulled off far better than the first films depression and “eating your feelings” plotline was.

A huge reason why it works is thanks to the performance from Rachel Bloom (“The Angry Birds Movie 2,” “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”) as Queen Barb. While the rest of the cast is pretty good, but nothing exceptional, her voice work and singing really knocks it out of the park. Her comedic timing and stylings for this villainess showcase just why she seems to be on every animated casting director’s radar in the past few years.

Just like with the first film, the arts and craft visual style makes this one of DreamWorks’ most visually distinct films yet. Despite what you might think with the smaller budget, it ends up looking even better than the first. Waterfalls are silvery strands of cellophane, the ground is literally made out of stuffing and crafts, wide-open desserts are patchwork, and every piece of sand and drop of water is glitter. Some moments even look stop motion, and it ends up being as gorgeous to watch as it is to listen to.

Now, at the end of the day, this is a sequel to “Trolls”, and therefore no matter how pretty it looks, great the world-building is, and surprisingly effective its sub-textual social message is, if you didn’t like the first film, you’re not going to like this one. It’s at least more effective and creative than the giants vs. trolls fairy tale plot of the first film, but the very things that annoyed so many about the first film are baked into the entire franchise by this point.

So, take that warning as seriously as you wish. At the end of the day, “Trolls World Tour” might just be better than the first film, thanks to stronger subtext, visual style, soundtrack, world-building, and a pretty exceptionally memorable villain. At the end of the day, it’s about as good as it could possibly be. 4/5