The Nanny (real name Linda) is the deuteragonist of Netflix's 2020 computer-animated film The Willoughbys. She is a fun-loving babysitter who is hired by the neglectful parents Walter and Helga Willoughby to look after their children Tim, Jane, and the Barnaby twins. Over the course of the movie, she develops a maternal relationship with the siblings and at the end of the movie becomes their adoptive mother. She is also an orphan.
She was voiced by Maya Rudolph, who also voiced Rapunzel in Shrek the Third, Burn in Turbo, Precious the Pug in The Nut Job films, Aunt Cass in Big Hero 6, Griselda in Strange Magic, Matilda in The Angry Birds Movie films, Smiler in The Emoji Movie, Linda Mitchell in The Mitchells vs. the Machines, and Daniela Paguro in Luca.
Physical appearance
Linda (The Nanny) is that of a plump woman with tan skin. She wears her hair in two poofy pigtail-esque styles with a red bandana around the edge of her forehead, a pink and yellow shirt with green overalls over it and white shoes. She also wears glasses and gold bracelets.
Role in the film
The Nanny first appears in the movie after the Willoughby parents Walter and Helga have left for their "deadly romantic getaway" their children sent them on, holding an umbrella while she walks inside the Willoughbys' family home. At first Jane is suspicious of her, but after it's revealed she sings, she begins to trust her and the two befriend one another. Tim and the Barnabys are still suspicious of her intentions, as she is working for their parents. However, after The Nanny is impressed by the Barnabys' creation of the "Nana-pult" (a catapult that launches nannies out the window), they begin to trust her as well, leaving Tim the only one who distrusts her.
The Nanny is then seen feeding Jane and the Barnabys (whom she now calls Barnaby A and Barnaby B Willoughby) oatmeal, which Tim refuses to partake in eating. It almost causes a food fight, but due to hating her cooking being disrespected, she threatens to put Tim in a time-out, to which Tim mistakes it for being thrown into the coal bin again. Eventually, The Nanny learns about the Willoughbys' parents' cruelty, and eventually finds out that they re-orphaned a baby named Ruth they brought in to the home of a joyous candymaker named Commander Melanoff. The five of them then go to Melanoff's factory and try to save her from eating too much candy, to which The Nanny berates Melanoff for raising Ruth to eat candy all her life. However, after seeing him grow fond of her childish needs, she allows him to raise her as his own, to which he considers the Willoughbys who brought her to him wonderful children.
After returning home, The Nanny receives a message from the Willoughbys' parents that they are planning on selling their home to get enough money to continue their trip to Sveetzerlund (a parody of Switzerland), to which Tim believes she is trying to get rid of them. That night, he and his siblings plot to save their home from being sold and Tim calls the Department of Orphan Services to have The Nanny removed from their care. The next day, the Willoughbys manage to save their home from every possible buyer, except the "perfect family". They are eventually scared by the "Willoughbeast", which turns out to be The Nanny in disguise. She reveals that she cares about them even if she has to work for the parents who created them. This causes Tim to have a change of heart, only for the Department of Orphan Services to have her removed from the Willoughbys' custody and recognize her as a lonely orphan named Linda. They reveal that they tried to find her a home only for her to be rejected every time. At first it seems like the Willoughbys are going to have her adopt them, but after Tim's voice message to their facility is exposed, she is told to leave and no longer required. Jane then berates Tim for his selfishness and tries to start a fight, but is separated from her brothers and placed into foster care.
Now leaving town, Linda (The Nanny) feels guilty for what has happened. The bus soon stops abruptly and Linda sees Tim's head protector on the road. Having found a piece of Tim's character, she is determined to free the siblings from their foster lives. She manages to bust Tim out of the Department of Orphan Services correctional facility by hiding him in an oat cart, only for her scheme to be exposed when a guard she poses as named Phil finds out that she is not the real Phil. Linda and Tim then grab Phil's van and drive off to get the others. After rescuing all four Willoughbys, they all agree to get rid of the Orphan Services people, they must get their biological, if insidious, parents back home. The siblings then head to Melanoff's factory to build a giant candy dirigible, which the Willoughbys then steal to save their parents on their own.
Once arrived at Sveetzerlund, the siblings use the dirigible to fly all the way up the Unclimbable Alps to find their parents, only to have no luck as all the piles of snow are trees. They eventually do find them but are left stranded at the top of the mountain as their parents steal their dirigible to return home, only for it to crash and deflate. Now succumbing to the cold, Jane sings a demo version of her song "I Choose" to keep her siblings close, with the snow covering them up. Luckily, Linda, Melanoff, and Ruth show up just in time, and agree to adopt the four as their own.
Back in the factory, the Willoughbys, Linda, Melanoff, and Ruth are now living like a real family, with them all believing that they got what they wanted. The family then puts up a portrait of them all together.
Trivia
- The Nanny went unnamed in the original book. In the movie, she is named Linda.
- Linda (The Nanny) shares the same first name and similar appearance as Linda Mitchell from Sony Pictures Animation's 2021 film The Mitchells vs. the Machines. Coincidentally, both are voiced by Maya Rudolph and play the role of being maternal figures to the main protagonist(s) (Tim, Jane, and the Barnabys for Linda (The Nanny) and Katie and Aaron Mitchell for Linda Mitchell).
- Although Linda (The Nanny) adopted her children whilst Linda Mitchell is the biological mother of her children.
- Both Linda (The Nanny)'s voice actress Maya Rudolph and Commander Melanoff's actor Terry Crews have appeared in animated movies by Sony Pictures Animation starring Anna Faris: Rudolph was in The Emoji Movie where she voiced Smiler and Faris voiced Jailbreak, whilst Crews was in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, where he voiced Earl Devereaux and Faris voiced Sam Sparks.
- Both Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 and The Willoughbys were also directed by Kris Pearn, featured the voice of Will Forte, and were scored by Mark Mothersbaugh.
- Linda (The Nanny) is the first human character to be played by Maya Rudolph in a family film since the unnamed mother of Finn and Bianca in The Lego Movie's 2019 sequel The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part.
- Coincidentally, both movies had Mark Mothersbaugh as composer.
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