History WesternAnimation / TheWilloughbys

* HardTruthAesop: Just because a family is related by blood doesn't mean that [[AbusiveParents they will look out for you in the way that they should be,]] and it's better to have [[FamilyOfChoice an unconventional family that treats you kindly]] than to have a blood-related yet neglectful one. This is compounded by the fact that in most animated children's films which portray AbusiveParents, the abusers tend to be [[WickedStepmother step-parents,]] [[OrphansOrdeal adoptive parents,]] or [[{{Nephewism}} distant relatives]], while [[DeceasedParentsAreTheBest biological parents are often put onto a pedestal]] or [[ParentsAsPeople have their worst traits portrayed sympathetically.]] [[note]] This is likely to avoid pissing off MoralGuardians and parents in the audience who won't appreciate the notion that kids should disobey parents under ''any'' circumstances, even if the parents are portrayed as abusive, because they think it will encourage disobedience in their kids.[[/note]] Mr. and Mrs. Willoughby are the main characters' biological parents and are never given any reasonable justification for why they treat the kids the way that they do, and the Wiiloughbys being [[spoiler: adopted by Nanny and Captain Mel is seen as an unambiguous GoodEnding.]]

* TooHungryToBePolite: Jane eats an entire roast in one bite when given the chance. Later, she and the Barnabys are wolfing downs Nanny's oats.

* AdaptationDyeJob: Covers for the book depict the Willoughbys as brunette. In the movie they’re all [[RedheadedHero red headed.]]
* AdaptationalJerkass: The Willoughby parents aren’t the greatest in the book, of course, but the kids were taken to school, birthday parties, and the zoo. Here, they (except maybe Jane) haven’t been out of the house in their lives.
* AdaptationalNameChange: A weird case. The book gives the parent’s names as Helen and Frances, while castlist give them as Helga and Walter...except in the movie proper, they are ''exclusively'' known as Mother and Father.
* AdaptationalPersonalityChange: The Barnabys spoke more normally in the book.

* AlwaysIdenticalTwins: The Barnabys. Same hairstyle, same hair colour, same names, all that's not the same about them is that they only have one sweater to share.
* AnAesop: As per the movie's tag line: “Family is what you make it.”

* AwardBaitSong: “I Choose” sung by Alessia Cara.

** [[spoiler: A baby’s first word being “Willoughby”.]]

* ABoyAGirlAndABabyFamily: [[spoiler: Technically it’s three boys, one girl, and a baby family after the Willoughbys and Ruth get adopted but the same principle applies.]]

* ButICantBePregnant: Mrs. Willoughby apparently didn't realize that she was pregnant until ''after she gave birth to Tim''. And they didn’t know how not to make it happen, hence the existence of his siblings.

** Mr. and Mrs. Willoughby are seen deeply engulfed in wedded bliss-until Tim’s unexpected birth sours their tempers.

* FreezeFrameBonus: During the credits, there’s a brief shot of Tim’s report card. From what can be seen, he has good grades in history but [[EverybodyHatesMath poor grades in mathematics.]]
** The kids briefly stop by a gas station named “[[ToiletHumour The Gas Hole.]]”

** The Cat directly intervenes in the plot halfway through, apparently at the viewer’s request.

** There’s a shift in orchestral arrangements. Scenes inside the Willoughby house use fewer instruments, whereas all scenes outside the Willoughby house uses a fuller orchestra.

** Jane sings the same tune with different lyrics numerous times throughout the movie. It’s eventually incorporated into “I Choose.”

* MiddleChildSyndrome: To extremes. While they’re annoyed by Tim and creeped out by the Barnabys, they seem to be unaware Jane even exists, up to ''not recognizing her name.'' Jane uses this to her advantage, though, making sure Tim takes the rap for her antics and possibly sneaking off to the city.

** The Willoughbys' tabby cat who narrates the film is only referred to as “the cat.”

* PaperThinDisguise: Linda's disguise as “Phil” is just her [[ImpersonatingAnOfficer wearing a security uniform]] and arranging her hair to look like a beard.

* PlanetOfSteves: The Barnabys are identical twins to the point of sharing the same name.

** Mother will find something inconveniencing her and forcing her to declare, “I can’t knit!” It gets to the point that the tardigrades in Father’s mustache also repeat the phrase.

** Jane changing the lyrics of her song, though [[spoiler: it’s PlayedForDrama at the end.]]
* SceneryPorn: There’s an abundance of well detailed scenes, especially the exterior shots of the Willoughby home.

** Ruth eats the candy in Commander Melanoff’s factory like PAC-Man.

* SnowMeansDeath: [[spoiler: Played with. The Willoughby kids nearly freeze to death in a snow storm on the Swiss Alps after their parents abandon them. They’re promptly rescued by Nanny, the Colonel, and Ruth though.]]
* SnowMeansLove: [[spoiler: Of the familial love variety. It’s at the top of the snowy Swiss alps when the Willoughbys, Linda, Melanoff, and Ruth start to call each other family.]]

* TooHungryToBePolite: Jane eats an entire roast in one bite when given the chance. Later, she and the Barnabys are wolfing downs Nanny’s oats.

* WhatTheHellHero: [[spoiler: Everyone’s reactions when it’s revealed that Tim called CPS to rat out Nanny.]]
* WhamLine: [[spoiler: “Linda? [[OrphansOrdeal Is that you?”]]]]

** When Mr. and Mrs. Willoughby aren't being emotionally AbusiveParents to their kids, they're being this. The children are forced to eat leftovers, if their parents bother to leave any for them, they couldn't even be bothered with giving the Barnabysone sweater each or even individual ''names'', and they apparently never enrolled the kids in school. The ''only'' reason they bothered to hire Linda was to make sure that the kids didn't break anything while they were gone.

** When Mr. and Mrs. Willoughby aren't being emotionally AbusiveParents to their kids, they're being this. The children are forced to eat leftovers, if their parents bother to leave any for them, they couldn't even be bothered with giving the Barnabys individual ''names'', and they apparently never enrolled the kids in school. The ''only'' reason they bothered to hire Linda was to make sure that the kids didn't break anything while they were gone.

''The Willoughbys'' is an American computer-animated BlackComedy film directed by Kris Pearn, and based on the book of the same name by Lois Lowry. The film is about four siblings who have had enough of their terrible parents neglecting them, so they send them away on a potentially life-threatening vacation only to end up in the care of an eccentric nanny, and must hide away from the draconian Orphan Services.

* YankTheDogsChain: [[spoiler: After rescuing their parents from freezing to death on top of the Unclimbable Alp, the Willoughby children confessed their plans to get rid of them and started telling them to come home. Mr. and Mrs. Willoughby walked towards Tim, Jane, and the Barnaby, thinking they saw the errors of their ways. That is until Mr. Willoughby pushed his children out of the way and took his wife to the blimp. When the couple got inside, Mr. Willoughby accidently popped the blimp and left their children stranded.]]

** Also of the OrphansOrdeal. The Willoughby kids think that being orphans will immediately free them of their parents neglect and allow them free range to do as they like, even citing ''Literature/JamesAndTheGiantPeach'' and ''Literature/OliverTwist''. While it turns out that sending their parents' away did get them off their backs, [[RealityEnsues it also turns out that the modern world the Willoughbys live in is much more strict than the worlds of those stories, and they are brought into child services as soon as they are discovered.]]

* RapunzelHair: Jane has long pink hair that nearly reaches her feet.

* AdultFear: Almost everything the Willoughby children go through- from horrible levels of neglect to being separated by the foster care system to [[spoiler:almost freezing to death on top of a mountain.]]

* {{Meganekko}}: Jane and Nanny both wear glasses.

* AmazingTechnicolorHair: The entire Willoughby family has pinkish-red hair.

* BadassMustache: The Willoughby family is a long line of bold adventurers that all have big bushy mustaches, even the women, until Father Willoughby and his wispy pencil stache- though that might be partially because his knitting-obsessed wife harvests the hair to make yarn. Tim is obsessed with this along with the rest of his heritage and it's the first thing he notices and respects about Commander Melanoff.

* RealityEnsues: The film shows us what happens when children try to take care of themselves, especially from a neglectful household; since their parents couldn't be bothered to teach them ''anything'', the Willoughbys don't know how to make their own food or even heat the house and are shivering and starving before the Nanny shows up.

* AdaptationalJerkass: The Willoughby parents aren’t the greatest in the book, of course, but the kids were taken to school, birthday parties, and the zoo. Here, they (except maybe Jane) haven’t been out of the house in their lives.

* AdaptationalVillainy: The Willoughby parents aren’t the greatest in the book, of course, but the kids were taken to school, birthday parties, and the zoo. Here, they (except maybe Jane) haven’t been out of the house in their lives.

''The Willoughbys'' is a American computer-animated BlackComedy film directed by Kris Pearn, and based on the book of the same name by Lois Lowry. The film is about four siblings who have had enough of their terrible parents neglecting them, so they send them away on a potentially life-threatening vacation only to end up in the care of an eccentric nanny, and must hide away from the draconian Orphan Services.

** The kids briefly stop by a gas station named “[[GettingCrapPastTheRadar The Gas Hole.]]”

* WhamLine: [[spoiler: “Linda? [[OrphansOrdeal Is that you?”]]

** MiddleChildSyndrome: To extremes. While they’re annoyed by Tim and creeped out by the Barnabys, they seem to be unaware Jane even exists, up to ''not recognizing her name.'' Jane uses this to her advantage, though, making sure Tim takes the rap for her antics and possibly sneaking off to the city.

** The Barnabys share a single sweater and will randomly switch it with one another.

* InSeriesNickname: Implied and zigzagged with Tim. As, once in the movie, the cat narrator called him ''Timothy'', but no one else in the movie ever calls him it. Not once. In the beginning, it's even shown that his father had named him Tim, and that was the only thing he ever gave him.

** Mr. and Mrs. Willoughby aren't given first names. They even refer to each other as Mother and Father.

* OrphansOrdeal: The Willoughbys think this is preferable to their current situation of abusive parents until it actually happens and they're separated in the foster system to neglectful homes. The Nanny is revealed to also be an orphan, and has painful memories of the same system being rejected from home after home.