| “ | They're creepy! | „ |
| ~ Mother talking about his kids. |
Barnaby A and Barnaby B Willoughby are titular supporting characters in the Netflix 2020 computer-animated feature The Willoughbys. They are a pair of creepy but intelligent young twin brothers who, like their siblings Tim and Jane, want a new family life without their neglectful biological parents Walter "Father" and Helga "Mother" Willoughby. Like with Tim, they initially distrust Linda the Nanny, but quickly warm up to her after she is impressed with their "Nana-pult". They also have a hobby of making homemade dirigibles out of their mother's yarn.
They are voiced by Seán Cullen.
Background[]
Prior to his and his siblings' birth, the Willoughbys were a family of courage, determination, and hope. Once Walter "Father" and Helga "Mother" Willoughby gave birth to Tim, Jane, and the Barnabys, all of the family's "greatness" went away, to the point of them not feeling like a real family anymore.
Physical appearance[]
The Barnabys are short young boys with magenta hair stylized into mushroom tops (hence why The Nanny calls them "Mushroom" heads) and each wear white button-down short-sleeved shirts, green short trousers with suspenders, and black shoes. They also on occasion are seen wearing a magenta sweater made from their father's mustache hair that they go back and forth with sharing.
Appearances[]
The Willoughbys[]
Barnaby A and Barnaby B Willoughby first appear in the movie alongside their siblings Tim and Jane, where they are all seen looking at portraits of their family's ancestors. Later on, at dinnertime, their parents Walter "Father" and Helga "Mother" Willoughby are seen eating meatloaf without sharing any with their children, to which Tim begs for some of the meatloaf, as all of the leftovers have been eaten the previous day. Just then at that moment, Jane is seen eating the whole meatloaf, and Tim is punished for it by being forced to spend the night in the coal bin, much to his displeasure. Meanwhile, the Barnabys inform Jane of a noise they overheard outside and Jane assumes it to be a beast. And so, Jane and the Barnabys go towards the gate of the front yard to see what it is, but the Barnabys are too afraid to continue and back away in fear. Jane opens the box that is in front of the gate and gets attacked by the "beast" inside, prompting her to scream. Tim overhears this scream and heads upstairs to the library to see what is going on.
It turns out that the "beast" is a baby orphan, whom the Barnabys repeatedly give back and forth between Tim and Jane to, causing them to get into an argument about who gets the orphan. The baby then escapes into the living room, frightening the parents, who then kick their children out and telling them not to return until the baby is gone. The siblings, following Jane's example, proceed towards the "perfect home" at the end of a rainbow, which is revealed to be a candy factory. The Barnabys look at the factory's machinery, enchanted by the multiple levers and buttons that are used to make the candy. Jane places the baby orphan in a box and names her Ruth, and then rings the doorbell so that the owner of the factory, who is a joyous but lonely man named Commander Melanoff, can take her in, which he does.
As the siblings are returning home, they decide to get rid of their parents themselves following them noticing a travel agency brochure. They create one of their own from the "Reprehensible Travel Agency", in which they hope to send their parents on a "romantic getaway hiding deadly orphaning opportunities". The plan works, and their parents foolishly leave them home alone. Finally getting what they want for good, the siblings embrace this moment and have fun with themselves to the point where they nearly break every object in the house, but before the greatness can truly commence, a fun-loving Nanny the parents hired comes into the house with an umbrella, and immediately wins Jane over because they both sing, but Tim and the Barnabys don't trust her at all.
Heading up to the library, the Barnabys show Tim a contraption they made called a "Nana-pult", which is a catapult designed to get rid of unwanted nannies. Although impressed by the concept, Tim claims it to be a terrible idea as the Nanny would have to willingly sit in the "Nanny cup" to get launced outside the window. Right when they are talking about this, Jane and the Nanny come into the library, where the Nanny does indeed willingly put herself into the Nanny cup after mistaking it for a bouncy chair. She then calls the Barnabys Barnaby A and Barnaby B, to which Jane can tell them apart more easily, and then pulls the lever of the catapult, launching Tim outside. She then feeds them oatmeal, which they are all enjoying much to Tim's disliking. Tim refuses to partake in the Nanny's cooking, which nearly begins a food fight, but the Nanny, feeling disrespected, proceeds to put Tim in a time-out, but Tim mistakes it for going into the coal bin again. The Nanny then realizes the Willoughby children's parents' neglectful nature, and after hearing that they got rid of the baby Ruth because their parents wouldn't let them keep it, takes the four to Commander Melanoff's factory, which the Nanny claims to be the worst home ever.
At first, the Nanny does not approve of Melanoff being the caretaker of the baby, but after seeing her being cared for by Melanoff lovingly, allows her to stay. The Willoughby siblings (sans Tim) then hug Commander Melanoff, and all go on a bus back home. Although the siblings are all convinced that the Nanny is trustworthy, Tim tells them otherwise when he finds out that their parents are still alive. To make matters worse, their parents are actually enjoying their vacation and are selling the house to continue to Sveetzerlünd. That night, the siblings prepare for the selling of the house the next day by setting up booby traps and Tim calls the Department of Orphan Services to have the Nanny removed from him and his siblings' custody.
The next day, several potential buyers are launched outside of the house by the booby traps the siblings set up, but the "perfect family" remains largely unaffected. As the siblings are preparing to lose their only home, something scares the perfect family into fleeing the house and not buying it at all. The siblings then go up to the library and are confronted by the "Willoughbeast", who turns out to be the Nanny in disguise. She explains that she wanted to help because she truly cares about them. The siblings then hug her and embrace her love, but their love is quickly cut short when the Department of Orphan Services shows up. The lead agent of the organization recognizes the Nanny as Linda, an orphan who was turned down numerous times by other families to the point where she was alone for years, and Tim's phone call to them is played, to which Linda then leaves with a broken heart. Jane berates Tim for his selfish behavior, and the siblings are separated as a result, with Barnaby A and Barnaby B Willoughby placed into a modern home in an apartment complex.
Just as Linda the Nanny is preparing to leave town, she sees Tim's head protector on the road, and decides to get the gang back together. The siblings all agree that they need to get their parents back in order to keep the Department of Orphan Services off their tails. The whole gang then goes to Commander Melanoff's factory and builds a candy dirigible to get to Sveetzerlünd, to which the siblings then use it a little bit too early to get there by themselves.
Once arrived at the top of the Unclimbable Alps mountain range, the siblings split up to find their parents, but to no success, as everything they uncover from the snow is a tree. They then hear their parents' kiss, and manage to successfully thaw them out from the ice and snow. They are then left on top of the mountain as their parents run towards the dirigible, which they steal to continue their adventure, only for it to deflate and cause them to fall to their dooms. The siblings are succumbing to the cold, with snow covering them up, but luckily Linda the Nanny and Commander Melanoff show up and decide to adopt the siblings as their own children. They all then go back home via Commander Melanoff's candy suit.
Back at the factory, the Willoughby children embrace their newfound family lifestyle, and how they are living the life they had hoped for. They all then put up a family portrait on the wall.
Trivia[]
- Barnaby A and Barnaby B Willoughby are the only characters in The Willoughbys to be played by the same actor, as well as the only ones to have a trained voice actor provide their voices.
- A common running gag with their characters is they will often switch their one sweater from one Barnaby to the other one, as well as them saying, "Hi, mommy" together simultaneously in a creepy tone of voice.