| “ | I'm not a baby. | ” |
— Sunny Baudelaire, The Slippery Slope
|
Sunny Baudelaire is the youngest of the three Baudelaire orphans. Her siblings are Violet and Klaus Baudelaire. Sunny, along with her siblings, are the three protagonists of A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Her age is unknown, being estimated as spanning from the age of one to two years throughout the main thirteen books, and is about three years old in Chapter Fourteen. Thus, she is always presented as a baby or a toddler.
Personality
At the start of the series, Sunny had four abnormally large, sharp teeth and enjoys biting things with them, an interest that stuck with her even after the rest of her teeth began to come in. She eventually acquires a penchant and talent for cooking, and both skills save the lives of the Baudelaires at various times (for instance, in The Slippery Slope, when Sunny and her siblings are separated, she uses a smoked salmon (described in-series as 'lox') recipe to signal her location to her siblings elsewhere in the Mortmain Mountains). The first time Sunny showed her passion for cooking is during the events in The Carnivorous Carnival, when she edited a hot chocolate recipe by including cinnamon. Over time, she began creating more and more complicated dishes, such as pesto lo mein, water-chestnut amuse-bouche, and coconut cream cake, with her prowess expanding over her time spent on the Island to include various types of soft baby food, developed for a young Beatrice Baudelaire II.
In her early appearances (before she could walk), she was usually seen being carried in Violet's arms, although there have been times when Violet will make her stand or put onto something such as a chair or table. She learned to stand and walk properly at the end of The Vile Village. In The Hostile Hospital, she is carried by Klaus, who rarely does this, as they need to get around the Hospital quickly.
At times in the series, Sunny is presented in an unrealistic way in terms of physical feats for a baby, adding to the absurdist nature of the series. For example, her teeth are sometimes shown carving hard material such as rocks and wood, she is seen changing a lightbulb on a ladder in The Bad Beginning, she defends herself against in a sword fight in The Miserable Mill, she works as a secretary in The Austere Academy (although Vice Principal Nero fires her for being a "terrible" secretary), she climbs an elevator shaft in The Ersatz Elevator, and she works as a hotel concierge in The Penultimate Peril, among various other accomplishments. In the TV series, she plays poker while being held hostage by the Hook-Handed Man.
Sunny communicating in subtitles, a style done for the film and TV series.
As Sunny is a baby, she is at an age where one mostly speaks in a series of unintelligible shrieks. She cannot say many English words at the start of the series other than "bottle," "mommy," "bite," and the names of her siblings. "Bite" is mentioned to be the first full word she spoke. She does, however, have an expansive vocabulary of non-English words that can be translated by Violet, Klaus, and, occasionally, Lemony Snicket (who despite giving meanings to most of Sunny's early language chooses to define the words as 'meaning something like' rather than meaning an exact word). According to The Miserable Mill, one of her favorite words is, "Aha!" Sunny's vocabulary grows overwhelmingly throughout the series, and by The End, she is speaking in full and clarified sentences. By Chapter Fourteen, Sunny can speak as well as both her siblings. In actuality, a lot of Sunny's gibberish are references and allusions. In the film and TV series, Sunny's language is translated and communicated with subtitles, and she comes off as a very sassy baby.
Biography
Early Life
Sunny was born to Beatrice and Bertrand Baudelaire at Pincus Hospital in The City,[7] much later than her older siblings, Violet and Klaus Baudelaire. While Klaus disliked her for the first six weeks of her life, eventually the two of them became thick as thieves. Violet also promised her parents that she would take care of Sunny (and Klaus) as the eldest child.[8] Her parents used to sing her a lullaby called "The Butcher Boy", taking turns singing the voices.[3]
She took an interest in biting things; on Beatrice's birthday, the family woke up early to make a cake, and when the electric can opener broke, Sunny, who had been playing quietly on the floor, said her first word, "Bite", and bit down onto the condensed milk can so they coudl pour the milk. This greatly impressed her family, and she tended to be used as a can opener from then on, except for beets.[3] She had four sharp teeth by the time her parents had died.[8]
Despite knowing a few words, she primarily spoke in a form of babytalk that few could understand, though her siblings would usually translate for her.
When Violet and Klaus became embarrassed by it, Sunny became the primary audience for her father's poetry recitations. She also remembers her parents using the phrase "eating crow" while playing backgammon.[9] Once, while Sunny was dropping forks onto the ground to see what sound they made, Beatrice taught her that people would think a dinner was impressive, even a hastily made one, if it was made to look fancy.[6] She also once asked her father about her name, to which he explained to her that it was family tradition to name children after the deceased.[10]
The family one went to a picnic at the Rutabaga River, but Bertrand was so excited that he forgot to pack silverware, and they had to eat sweet-and-sour shrimp with their fingers and wash their hands in the river. Sunny remembers biting rocks during the trip.[1] They also went to the Hotel Preludio for a weekend, where Sunny first learned how to blow bubbles in the pool. Bertrand taught his children a prank, where they pressed every button on the elevator before getting out, in order to make everyone else have to go up to every floor.[9]
Violet, Klaus and Sunny had a routine for whenever their parents went out to the orchestra; first, Violet and Klaus would play a few games of checkers while Sunny ripped up old newspapers, and then the children would read in the library (or, in Sunny's case, just look at the pictures) until they fell asleep on the sofas.[1]
The Bad Beginning
The series begins when Sunny, at Briny Beach with Klaus and Violet, notices Arthur Poe, a friend of the children, moving towards them. He informs the children that their parents have died in a terrible fire, which has also destroyed their home. The children, now orphans, are sent to live with the dreadful Count Olaf, who abuses them and attempts to get the fortune that their parents left behind by marrying Violet.
Later, Sunny is captured by Count Olaf, tied with rope, her mouth is taped, and is dangled from a birdcage on top of Olaf's very high tower. Count Olaf does this in order to force the Baudelaires into his play which is a scheme to steal their fortune. At night, Violet attempts to rescue Sunny by climbing the tower with her invented grappling hook, but she is found by a guard, and the children are locked up until the play begins.
During the play, Count Olaf releases Sunny after Violet signs the marriage certificate and she is reunited with her siblings. However, his plans are ruined by Violet who reveals she signs the wedding document with her left hand. Mr. Poe has to find another home for them.
The Reptile Room
Sunny and her siblings are sent to live with Uncle Monty, after the events of The Bad Beginning. Sunny befriends the Incredibly Deadly Viper, Uncle Monty's latest discovery, a completely harmless snake. She later stalls some time with the viper so that Violet and Klaus have a chance to find clues that would prove that Uncle Monty's lab assistant is really Count Olaf. In the Netflix show, Count Olaf wields a knife, which he uses to threaten them into not telling Uncle Monty. Sunny also bites Dr. Lucafont's hand and it cracks, revealing that he is the hook handed man. Sunny, Klaus, and Violet move on to their next guardian.
The Wide Window
Sunny breaking out in hives.
Sunny and her siblings move in with Aunt Josephine, another distant relative. She receives a rattle as a gift which she dislikes so she trades with her other siblings and gets a Pretty Penny doll to bite on. She has allergies for the first time in this book after eating a peppermint. She grew hives (which is what Violet suffers when eating peppermints) and had a swollen tongue (which Klaus suffers when eating peppermints). She also manages to steal a sailboat from the Enormous Androgynous Person who guards Captain Sham's Sailboat Rentals. Sunny also is a tiller mover here. Towards the end of the book, she bites Captain Sham's fake peg leg to prove that he is really Count Olaf.
The Miserable Mill
Sunny and her siblings are then sent to work at Lucky Smells Lumbermill, Paltryville. The workers at the lumbermill only get gum for lunch so Sunny bites pieces of wood, pretending that they are apples, carrots or cheese enchiladas. She also battles Dr. Georgina Orwell here, using her four sharp teeth against Dr. Orwell's cane sword. Dr. Orwell dies when she stumbles into an active saw, which kills her. In the show, she stumbles into a furnace when being confronted by a large mob of hypnotized workers.
The Austere Academy
Totally a real baby.
The Baudelaire orphans are then sent to the boarding school, Prufrock Preparatory. Because Sunny gets hired as Vice Principal Nero's secretary, while Violet and Klaus are students (since babies aren't allowed to be students). She does all the stapling and typing for him. She is forced by Nero to make staples out of long metal rods when his staple supply runs out. Thankfully, she manages to steal some of them so that her siblings (namely Violet) can make staples out of them.
She also experiences S.O.R.E. (Special Orphan Running Exercises), although it takes a strain on her energy and she is no longer able to work as a secretary. To substitute Sunny's place, the Quagmires disguise themselves as the Baudelaires and use a string tied to a sack of flour. This is discovered by Coach Genghis (Count Olaf). The Baudelaires end up being expelled from school.
The Ersatz Elevator
Sunny lives in the penthouse of Jerome and Esmé Squalor where she and her siblings find the two Quagmire triplets. She also is brave enough to climb an elevator shaft with her teeth when Esmé pushed them down one. She also joins an auction and said that she would pay a thousand for V.F.D. (Very Fancy Doilies).
The Vile Village
This time the children get to pick where they go, and they choose to go to V.F.D. (believing it might help in discovering the Quagmire triplets message), but it turns out to be the Village of Fowl Devotees. The Baudelaires live with Hector the village handyman. Sunny is dismayed by rule 4,561 which states citizens are not allowed to use their mouths for recreation, and if she bit for a recreational purpose, she would be burned at the stake.
Sunny and Violet fleeing the village.
Sunny gets accused of murdering Jacques Snicket and that her siblings are her accomplices in doing this crime. She also thought that the Quagmires could be near, so one night, she stayed under Nevermore Tree and found out that crows were sending Isadora Quagmire's couplets. In the TV series, Sunny drives a firetruck to help her siblings escape.
The Hostile Hospital
The Baudelaires have to make sure that are not recognized at Heimlich Hospital because they are being accused of murder. Sunny disguises as one of the white-faced women. She pokes the hole in the alphabet soup can that Violet uses for her invention. Klaus and Sunny rescue Violet from having her head cut off by Count Olaf and his assistants.
The Carnivorous Carnival
Chabo the Wolf Baby.
Sunny disguises as Chabo the Wolf Baby, a half baby, half wolf freak and she works for Madame Lulu in the Caligari Carnival. Violet made up a story behind the "wolf baby" - there was a female hunter who fell in love with a handsome wolf, and Chabo is their child.
Sunny's talent for cooking is also discovered here. She places a bit of cinnamon to the hot chocolate, which caused the hot chocolate to taste better (Hugo thought it was some kind of wolf recipe). She is also captured by Count Olaf because Madame Lulu betrayed them.
The Slippery Slope
Sunny forced to set up Olaf's camp.
Sunny worries about Klaus and Violet and how they survive while she is forced to work for Count Olaf. Olaf forces her to do chores for him like cooking and setting up a tent. She is forced to sleep in a casserole dish.
Upon being found by Violet and Klaus, she states that she is not a baby anymore when Violet calls her 'her baby sister'. She now improved in cooking, making lox and delicious False Spring Rolls.
Count Olaf orders the White Faced Women to throw Sunny off the mountain, prompting them to refuse and leave. Violet and Klaus managed to rescue her and she manages to learn that the Snicket File (except for page 13) is now with Count Olaf and that the last safe place was the Hotel Denouement.
The Grim Grotto
Sunny in The Grim Grotto.
Rescued by the Queequeg, Sunny managed to create a birthday party and a coconut cake for Violet with Phil's help. Sunny curls up in a diving helmet and gets poisoned by a mushroom spore while they travel inside the Grim Grotto. She gets sick and nearly dies. She also knows that wasabi is a counterpart of horseradish which removes the poison from her body. When the Queequeg springs a leak, Sunny covers it using gum.
The Penultimate Peril
Sunny and her siblings are assigned by Kit Snicket to be a concierge at the Hotel Denouement. She hears about Mr. Remora, Mrs. Bass and Vice Principal Nero talking about the party. She also tries to stop Olaf killing Dewey but fails.
Sunny suggests that they set the fire in the hotel, and Count Olaf is proud of her for it. To escape the fire she and her siblings, along with Olaf, take the boat that Carmelita Spats had on top of the hotel in the swimming pool. Sunny had to bite Justice Strauss' hand in order to do so.
The End
Sunny shipwrecked.
The Baudelaires are stuck on the Carmelita with Count Olaf, fleeing from the burning Hotel Denouement. After a huge storm, they find themselves on a coastal shelf of an island. A little girl named Friday Caliban gives them a tour and introduces them to other inhabitants of the island. She secretly gives Sunny a whisk, because she knows Sunny likes to cook food.
A few days later, the Baudelaires are abandoned on the coastal shelf with Count Olaf. They find the pregnant and weak Kit on top of a raft of books. Sunny sadly tells her that Dewey Denouement is dead. Towards the end of the book, Kit and Olaf, who are dying from the Medusoid Mycelium poisoning, recite a short poem called "The Night has a Thousand Eyes" together. It is unknown whether this poem has a secret meaning to V.F.D. members. Count Olaf dies shortly before the baby is born, and Kit dies soon after.
Sunny and her siblings adopt the newborn and name her Beatrice after their mother.
A year later, the four of them leave the island to start a new chapter in their lives.
After The End
The remains of The Beatrice.
Though the fates of Violet and Klaus are ambiguous, Sunny's fate is more well known. Several sources state that something happened to The Beatrice - it sank on some sharp rocks when they were close to the mainline, though what made it hit the rocks is unknown - and Violet was forced to make an "emergency repair" to it, which allowed the ship to land, successfully, on the mainland, allowing at least Violet and Sunny to survive.[11]
While Violet is stated as returning to Briny Beach for the third time but her fate after that is unknown, but Sunny survived to be "a young woman" who often discussed her new cooking recipes on the radio.[12]
However, despite all his research and hard work, even Lemony does not know the current position, location and status of the Baudelaire children, implying that Sunny has gone into hiding or is using a fake name on the radio.
Physical Appearance
Books
All of Sunny's physical appearance that is described in-text is that she is incredibly small; in The Bad Beginning, she is about the size of a boot, and she grows to the size of an eggplant by The Slippery Slope. She cannot walk on her own until the end of The Vile Village.
In the original illustrations, Sunny has one strand of black hair with a bow tied around it- the bow changes colors in the illustrations but seems to be either red/dark pink, yellow or blue. She has light skin and rosy cheeks. Her eye color is indeterminable, though it seems to be dark.
She wears a long white dress, though in some lighting it appears as light blue, with a laced collar and sleeves. It is long enough to cover her feet.
Her most notable feature is her four incredibly sharp teeth, which can bite through most anything. In illustrations featuring her biting something, her teeth stick out and are very sharpened.
Film
In the film, Sunny is a bit older than described in the books, already walking by the time the story begins. She has red hair, light blue eyes, and pale skin with rosy cheeks.
She wears a very large and Victorian-style dress, that is mainly gray but includes splashes off pink on the sleeves and top skirt, on the lace around the collar and sleeves, and as the bottom of her skirt. She has black stripes around the collar and a black ribbon around her waist. She also has black ribbon belted on her sleeves and tied into bows, and hanging from her collar. Her hair is tied up in a dark green ribbon, and she has white socks and black shoes.
In The Wide Window segments, she is given a light blue cloak with pink edges and a pink inside, tied with a matching pink ribbon. In some of the flashback segments at the beginning of the film, Sunny can be seen in a light pink dress in similar style to her normal outfit, and accented with light silver, including a ribbon collar.
TV Series
In the television series, Sunny begins around the same age she was described in the books- actress Presley Smith was eight months old when filming began. However, due to a large gap in production time between Season 1 and Seasons 2 and 3, Presley aged quickly and grew into a toddler. This is waved aside as a growth spurt, and she begins walking in "The Austere Academy: Part One" as opposed to at the end of The Vile Village.
She has blonde hair that is typically tied into a ponytail, with a light-colored ribbon. For the majority of The Carnivorous Carnival and The Slippery Slope, her hair is down, and it is very short in the back, though her bangs almost reach her eyes. She has pale skin and hazel eyes.
She has a much wider variety of outfits than previous adaptations. Her most marketed outfits are her dark-pink-and-white striped onesie with a white collar as seen in The Bad Beginning and at the beginning of "The Reptile Room: Part One," her white-accented dress from The Vile Village through "The Carnivorous Carnival: Part One" that has a blue top, and a skirt with three large yellow, pink and dark blue stripes, light leggings, and three white buttons shaped like stars, and her white floral dress with bright pink accents and white buttons (designed after the book illustrations) from "The Penultimate Peril: Part Two", though in early promotion for Season Three she was shown in her Slippery Slope outfit made for her by Fernald, where she has a dark yellow jacket, plaid skirt, white leggings and boots.
When she leaves the island, her hair is the same as before, but she has a white sleeveless dress, lightly striped with blue and pink, and with light buttons.[13]
Behind the scenes
Sunny Baudelaire in the film.
- In the 2003 Multi-Voice Recording of The Bad Beginning, she is voiced by Tara Sands.[14]
- In the film, she was portrayed by both Kara and Shelby Hoffman. However, some stunts were too dangerous or impossible for a baby, so a virtual baby was used. One part where a virtual baby was used was when Sunny bit the table and held on. Another, as revealed by the commentary, was when Sunny is thrown out the window in a crate; the director reveals it is an animatronic baby.
- In the TV series, she is portrayed by Presley Smith, with her vocal effects provided by Tara Strong. Again, some stunts were dangerous or impossible for a baby, so a computer-generated baby was used. Known scenes where this was used include Sunny jumping to the floor and biting Sham's peg leg, as well as debarking logs with her teeth. Her double in the TV series was Colby Cremers.
Etymology
The name Sunny was chosen for the youngest Baudelaire because it sounds distinctly American. Lemony Snicket wanted to make the setting of the series ambiguous. Violet is a fairly British name, Klaus is a fairly German name, Sunny is a fairly American name, and Olaf is a fairly Scandinavian name, thus creating a certain amount of confusion as to where the series is based.[15]
Her surname, Baudelaire, comes from the poet Charles Baudelaire whose most famous work is The Flowers of Evil, a cycle of poems that discusses dreadful circumstances and finds beauty in them.[15]
Quotes
Books
- "Pietrisycamollaviadelrechiotemexity." (Sunny lingo for "I must admit I don't have the faintest idea of what is going on.")[3]
- "I'm not a baby!" (to Count Olaf)
- "Jojishoji." (which meant something like, "I don't believe that abridging the freedom of expression and the free exercise thereof is the proper way to run a community.")
- "If we fail, at least we die reading together." (to her siblings)
- "You little thing." (to Beatrice Snicket)
Movie
- "Let's sleep outside." (viewing Count Olaf's house)
- "Don't mock me!" (to Count Olaf in her language)
TV series
- "I prefer the music of Tito Puente." (given a rattle by Aunt Josephine)
- Mr. Poe: "I will prove to you that Captain Sham and Count Olaf are two completely different people, step by step, as if you were babies."
Sunny: "That's offensive." - "Get a room." (regarding Violet and Duncan, and later Klaus and Fiona)
- "I can dig it." (viewing the ersatz elevator, a reference to a song)
- "Mata Hari" (Sunny telling Violet she wants to spy on the villains to find out their plans)
- "I despise you." (to Mr. Poe)
- "Scalia."
- "Karma." (seeing Count Olaf in a cage)
- "Yuck!" (seeing Count Olaf kissing Kit Snicket)
- "Cake!"
Trivia
Lil' Linda Lotsaluck on The Pony Party!
- Her foil from The Luckiest Kids in the World! written by Loney M. Setnick is a baby named Lil' Linda Lotsaluck who, in The Pony Party!, is treated to a fun party, a big prize, a pony ride, several kind and sensible adults, and all the cake she can eat.
- Some fans speculate that Sunny was named after S. Theodora Markson who was the chaperone of Sunny's father, Bertrand. However, it is unknown what the S. in Theodora's name stands for.
- In The Bad Beginning and the film adaptation, it is mentioned that Klaus initially disliked Sunny when she was born. The reasons are unknown; it's possible that it was because his parents focused less on him and more on Sunny. However, he grew to love and accept her, and by the time Sunny was six weeks old, they were "thick as thieves."
- Just like her siblings, she is severely allergic to peppermints. In her case, her tongue swells up (like Klaus) and her skin breaks out in hives (like Violet).
- In The Slippery Slope, Sunny says "Busheney" to Olaf, which meant something along the lines of, "You're an evil man with no concern whatsoever for other people." It is theorized to be Daniel Handler throwing shade at George Bush and Dick Cheney for supporting the Iraq War.
- Daniel Handler once confirmed that Sunny and her siblings are of Jewish descent.[15] It is unknown if he means ethnicity only, religion only, or both. Sunny is never seen practicing any religious rituals relating to Judaism.
An example of Sunny's sassy demeanour in the TV series.
- Sunny seems to become ruder and sassier in each adaptation of the series. In the books, Sunny is generally polite. In the film, she then says things like "Is she desperate?" and "I think she's the mayor of Crazy Town". In the TV series, Sunny comes off as blunt and at times almost rude, though she is shown to have a compassionate side as well.
- In the TV series, Sunny is two years old at the time of The Austere Academy, according to the show's official Twitter.[16]
Family
| Unknown | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Unknown if adoptive or biological | Unknown | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Unknown | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | Unnamed Guardians | Biological Parents † | Unnamed Mother † | Unknown | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monty Montgomery † | Monty Montgomery's Sister | Bertrand's Cousin | Bertrand Baudelaire † | Beatrice Baudelaire † | Gregor Anwhistle † | Ike Anwhistle † | Josephine Anwhistle † | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Violet Baudelaire | Klaus Baudelaire | Sunny Baudelaire | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Beatrice Baudelaire II | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Appearances
- The Dismal Dinner (Mentioned only)
- The Bad Beginning
- The Reptile Room
- The Wide Window
- The Miserable Mill
- The Austere Academy
- The Ersatz Elevator
- The Vile Village
- The Hostile Hospital
- The Carnivorous Carnival
- The Slippery Slope
- The Grim Grotto
- The Penultimate Peril
- The End
- The Beatrice Letters (Mentioned only)
- Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography (Mentioned only)
- Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (film)
- Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (video game)
- A Series of Unfortunate Events (TV series)
Gallery
Books
Film
Animated
Promotional/Behind the Scenes
Screenshots
Video game
TV series
Sources
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 PROSE: The Austere Academy
- ↑ PROSE: The Miserable Mill
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 PROSE: The Hostile Hospital
- ↑ PROSE: The Carnivorous Carnival
- ↑ PROSE: The Vile Village
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 PROSE: The Slippery Slope
- ↑ PROSE: The Ersatz Elevator
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 PROSE: The Bad Beginning
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 PROSE: The Penultimate Peril
- ↑ PROSE: The End
- ↑ The Bad Beginning: Rare Edition and The Beatrice Letters
- ↑ PROSE: The Beatrice Letters
- ↑ TV: The End
- ↑ https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062873927/a-series-of-unfortunate-events-the-bad-beginning-vinyl-mp3/
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 The Jewish Secrets of Lemony Snicket, Moment
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Unfortunate/status/991699398970216448
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