Jane Willoughby

**Jane Merliah Willoughby** is one of the main protagonists (alongside Tim and The Barnabys) of Netflix’s 2020 film “The Willoughbys.” She’s the fun-loving middle child of Mr & Mrs Willoughby. She’s also the sister of Tim Willoughby and the Barnabys. After being adopted she also becomes the older sister of Ruth.

## History

Jane was born sometime after Tim and before The Barnabys. Jane's parents treated her (and the twins) with almost the same disdain as her older brother and made her sleep with her siblings in the attic with hammocks for beds. Nevertheless, Jane still kept hopeful that things could change for the better. Jane loved to sing but was unable to do so due to her parents usually yelling at her to be quiet.

Jane causes trouble for Tim when she sneaks into the living room and avoids being stopped by her parents, who apparently forbid their children from being anywhere except their bedrooms and manages to steal and eat her parents' meatloaf and steals their wine since the children were starving and their parents won't feed them anything but leftovers but they didn't leave any the previous night. The Barnabys soon followed her and Tim attempts to push all three of them into the kitchen while Jane asks her parents for another sweater for the Barnabys but this only results in Tim getting sent to the coal bin. She later attempts to sing in her room but is told to stop by her parents no matter how low she sings.

At night, it starts raining when an unknown person drops a box in the Willoughby house's gates and when Jane sees it she recruits the Barnabys to help her investigate and she discovers a little baby girl in the box. Jane takes a liking to the infant and wants to keep it but when Tim arrives he demands that they dispose of the child since their parents hate children and anything childish but Jane refuses and during their argument the baby sneaks off and into the parents' living room, who are horrified at the sight of a baby in their house who is not even a Willoughby so they kick all five children out and tell their own kids that they can't come back until they get rid of the baby. Jane then suggests that they take the baby to the place at the end of the rainbow she was looking at earlier while trying to sing, which turns out to be a candy factory and so they agree to leave the baby there. Jane suggests naming the baby before bidding her farewell and wants to name her a "proper three-syllable name" like "Taffeta" but Tim takes the baby and writers the name "Ruth" on the pajama bottom because "Re-Orphaning her makes us the *Ruth*less Willoughbys". Jane than rings the doorbell and drags Tim away after he trips before the factory's owner can see them.

On the way home, the children get an idea on how to also get rid of their horrible parents upon coming across a traveling agency so they subtly leave their parents a fake flier with the most dangerous places on Earth and as a bonus the children write down the words "NO CHILDREN ALLOWED", and so the excited parents call a "cheap nanny" to watch their kids to make sure they don't mess with their house and depart, much to Jane and her brother's joy.

Jane and her siblings, unaware that their parents called a nanny to watch them, rejoice over the fact that they are now orphans and their house is all for themselves and spend the day happily playing around, jumping on the forniture and breaking things while Jane plays all sorts of music as loud as she can until they get hungry and Tim, declaring himself the head of their new, parentless family, attempts to provide food for his family but messes things up by trying to make dinner with a fake lobster in a plate with some coal around it and a cheese plate that consist on rotten cheese with a mouse holding it that only the cat is willing to eat. An unimpressed Jane, followed by the Barnabys, try to leave the house to go back to the candy factory where they left Ruth for some "rainbow food" but Tim refuses to let them leave. Jane and Tim once again argue back and forth until the "cheap nanny" that their parents hired arrives.

Once Nanny is in the house, Jane is at first distrustful of her but quickly bonds with her due to their mutual love for singing and Nanny does her hair in an updo while decorating it with flowers. Jane shows Nanny the library, where the latter dubs the Barnabys "Barnaby A and "Barbaby B" and they grow to trust her as well. Jane and the twins are later seen happily eating the oatmeal Nanny made for all of them until she watches in shock as Tim accidentally throws his own oatmeal at Nanny's face, leaving to Nanny finding out about their parents placing him in the coal bin as punishment.

Nanny is utterly shocked upon finding out about the coal bin but gets angry when she finds out that the children left a baby in a candy factory and so she drags all of them with her to talk to the owner, who hides baby Ruth from them until she again sneaks away, eats a lot of candy and nearly gets herself killed in one of the machines. After Ruth is rescued Commander Melanof thanks the Willoughbys for bringing Ruth to him, referring to them as "Angels" but Nanny tells him that she could hardly call them angels.

After the ordeal is over, Jane and her brothers listen somewhat sadly at the adults talking about children who grow up with loving parents and return home once Nanny and the Commander have buried the axe and agree that he is able to take care of Ruth. After returning home, Tim reads a text on Nanny's phone that came form his parents, where they declare that they are going to travel and the world forever so they've put their house for sale and that she should "take care" of the children, much to the kids horror.

The Willoughby children do everything in their power to scare away potential buyers until they find a family that finds nothing wrong with the old fashioned home or the booby traps set by the siblings until Nanny manages to scare them away and comforts the children by claiming that she could take care of them but in a good way, not disposing of them. The children are relieved by this until Child Services, who had been called by Tim after he assumed the worst about Nanny, arrive.

When Child Services comes to take the kids away Jane immediately calls out Tim for talking bad about Nanny to them as well as for being bossy among other things before she is taken away by the social workers, leaving her heartbroken. She is then placed in the home of a nice hippie family who believed in "the healing power of music" but Jane just lies on her bed, depressed, with one of the hippies asking her if she is alright but she refuses to answer, sing or to say "what if?" anymore.

When his siblings and Nanny come to retrieve her she initially refuses to listen to her older brother since he was the one who caused them to be separated but has second thoughts after Tim brings up that Jane constantly got him in trouble and she forgives him and starts singing again. When Social Services arrive, Jane's foster family distracts them while Nanny drives past them with the Willoughby siblings.

After all the siblings are reunited and in Nanny's car, Tim brings out the idea of getting their biological parents back, much to the chagrin of both his siblings and Nanny until Tim reminds the children that that is the only way to stay all together.

## Personality

Jane is the cute, cheerful, hopeful, fun-loving & whimsical middle child of the Willoughby family, who has a brilliant talent for singing. Unfortunately, she’s constantly silenced by her selfish parents due to her outspoken nature. “Jane is this optimistic character that has a hard time taking responsibility for things,” said Pearn. “There’s this hopefulness and this undying optimism that is in denial of the situation. And then in moments where you see her a bit self-aware, she immediately pulls at the heart, because you really want this kid to escape.”

## Trivia

* In the book she is actually the youngest of the Willoughby children being 6 years old but in the movie she is 12 years old making her the middle child instead.
* She was confirmed to be 12 years old in the movie in a Los Angeles Times interview.
* In the book she also has brunette hair instead of reddish pink hair. She is also more submissive to her brother's bossy and sexist behavior.
* In the movie she seems to be the closest to the The Cat since she is the only one who held or interacted with him.\When Alessia Cara was recording a demo version of "I Choose" (Jane's recurring song throughout the movie), she suffered from a sinus infection. She apologized to the filmmakers for messing up the recordings, but was surprised to find out that they loved it, as it was used during a scene where the Willoughby children are suffering under the cold weather whilst on top of the Unclimbable Alps mountain range. The demo version subsequently ended up in the finished film.
* A common running gag of Jane's character is her often saying when someone believes something is coming is, "is it more of a some or more of a thing?", as well as her constantly using a "what if?" situation.
* Despite Jane despising her temporary foster family's love of music, Jane herself ironically likes music, as she is seen playing three instruments earlier in the movie at the Willoughby home, specifically a bass violin, a trumpet, and a tambourine.
* Although Jane claims Tim was the reason they got rid of Ruth the orphaned baby, it was technically her idea, as she was the one who found Commander Melanoff's candy factory in the first place. Though she could have been claiming it was Tim's idea because he chose to dispose of her when their parents told them to.