uglydolls movie review

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"UglyDolls" is less a movie than an infomercial for the plush Hasbro toys designed to be “ugly” in a commercially cute, lovable way. Unfortunately, the script is not particularly cute or lovable, just a muddled story with lukewarm musical numbers that takes pieces from better films like “ Toy Story ,” “Monsters Inc.,” “The LEGO Movie,” “ Smallfoot ,” “ Trolls ,” and all those other stories about how we should appreciate our own kinds of beauty and the individuality of those around us. It’s not bad. It’s just not very good.

Moxy ( Kelly Clarkson ) is a sunny character who wakes up each morning hoping that this is the day her dream will come true and she can be loved by a child. She's a resident of Uglyville, where the friendly residents live in a cheery world stitched together from scraps and cardboard. 

The benevolent mayor is Ox ( Blake Shelton ), who asks Lucky ( Leehom Wang ) to try to persuade Moxy that Uglyville is the only place there is so she can stop dreaming of “a child for every doll and a doll for every child.” But we know there is another place, because earlier we see a factory where imperfect toys are snatched off the conveyer belt so that only those that match the same identical template are given to children.

A new arrival shoots out of a portal into Uglyville ( Emma Roberts as Wedgehead). If someone can arrive, there has to be a somewhere to arrive from, and maybe that portal goes both ways. Moxy and her friends cross over and find a place where a handsome singing idol named Lou ( Nick Jonas ) presides over “the gauntlet.” It is a special kind of perfection boot camp that subjects the dolls to a rigorous series of tests. 

The participants introduce themselves, one a lawyer and model, one an engineer and model, and so on, all dressed in prep school plaid. Lou tells the dolls that “if you want someone to love you, you’ve got to look like me … kids just don’t want ugly.” 

Lou pretends to offer help to Moxy and her Ugly friends survive the gauntlet. He asks one of the “perfect” dolls, Mandy (Janelle Monaé), to be their guide and take them to a place he has selected for them to stay in. Mandy takes them past the row of immaculate, identically (and boringly) symmetrical houses to a shabby shed, which the Uglies immediately love. Just to hammer a bit harder on the theme, they see the items stored as junk to be treasures. Mandy, who has been hiding her glasses from Lou so she won’t seem less than perfect, begins to appreciate the warmth and optimism of the Uglies. 

“Perfect” here means more than to be without flaws or differences; it also means being free of “the three s's": stains, smudges, and smells. In Lou’s world, the kinds of wear and tear that come from playing or, really, any interaction, result in the most severe punishment: the washing machine.

As Moxy and her friends experience the bigger world, Lou sends three conventionally pretty but mean girl dolls to investigate Uglyville. They spend most of their time simpering about their crushes on Lou and making cutting remarks. It turns out that dolls who look “perfect” can be arrogant and selfish. And we learn that the upper-case "U" Ugly story has a lower-case "u" ugly history.

Like the dolls themselves, the movie is supposed to be concerned with kindness, but its appreciation of individual differences is regrettably superficial and cookie-cutter. Even worse, the voice talent is cast more for singing than creating distinctive characterizations, and while the songs are well-produced and performed, they're forgettable because they hardly move the story along. The always-welcome Wanda Sykes is here oddly relegated to a one-note role as a “can’t we just all stay home,” apron-clad, UglyDoll version of Betty Crocker.

"Uglydolls" struggles to sustain, much less promote, its message about how we should love to get messy and how our flaws make us who we are. The movie's conclusion seems to grossly suggest that children can only appreciate the dolls who share their imperfections, making it clear that some flaws, like this script, can and should be fixed.

Nell Minow is the Contributing Editor at RogerEbert.com.

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Film Credits

UglyDolls (2019)

Rated PG for thematic elements and brief action.

Kelly Clarkson as Moxy (voice)

Nick Jonas as Lou (voice)

Janelle Monáe as Mandy (voice)

Blake Shelton as Ox (voice)

Pitbull as Ugly Dog (voice)

Emma Roberts as Wedgehead (voice)

Wanda Sykes as Wage (voice)

Gabriel Iglesias as Babo (voice)

Leehom Wang as Ugly Bat (voice)

Charli XCX as Kitty (voice)

Bebe Rexha as (voice)

Lizzo as Lydia (voice)

• Kelly Asbury
• Alison Peck

Writer (based on characters by)

• David Horvath
• Kim Sun-min
• Julie Rogers
• Nolan Sutherland
• Christopher Lennertz

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‘UglyDolls’ Review: Stay Ugly, Friends

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By Glenn Kenny

• May 1, 2019

Adults who regularly buy children’s gifts will recognize the denizens of the movie “UglyDolls,” the plush toys of the same name. Milder in design than old-school troll dolls, these figures have a message: Idiosyncrasies of appearance and personality are not “ugly,” but rather emblems of awesome individuality. The relentless positivity of this fable is put across with such bounce-house energy that children in the audience may be bludgeoned into submission instantly. (It made this adult’s teeth hurt.)

Here, Moxy, the most cheerful doll in Uglyville, wakes each morning just knowing there’s a child for her in “the big world.” Moxy and some of her misfit pals set out to find said big world, only to be obstructed by the Institute of Perfection, a land of pretty dolls presided over by a pert-nosed, golden-haired paragon, creatively named Lou. He and some mean-girl dolls in his thrall will stop at nothing to thwart Moxy and her dream.

These characters are voiced by some of the most prominent names in pop music: Kelly Clarkson, Janelle Monáe, Blake Shelton, Charli XCX, Pitbull and Nick Jonas, to name but a few. Comic talents such as Wanda Sykes and Gabriel Iglesias also feature. Yet every aspect of this computer-animated movie directed by Kelly Asbury seems equally overdetermined and tossed-off, as if it were a caffeinated weekend project for everyone involved.

The neon colors bring to mind what a “Candy Crush” movie might look like, while the never-ending songs are cute, flavorless paeans to self-love. Individual scenes evoking “The Lego Movie” and “Toy Story 3” feel like lifts rather than homages, and are blatant to the extent that your older kids might even notice.

Rated PG. Edgy as a box of Peeps. Running time: 1 hour 27 minutes.

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UglyDolls Reviews

A movie that can bring real emotion and feeling is a movie that well worth the time and good for your kids and adults. UGLY DOLLS is above average for the sub-genre of kids entertainment and is good for developing minds and hearts.

Full Review | Dec 28, 2022

Ugly Dolls is a feel-good film which the under-10 kids might actually enjoy, unlike a Toy Story, which kids of all ages heartily embraced...

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jan 20, 2022

I will say that the music is fantastic.

Full Review | Sep 30, 2021

While it's cute and colorful, the best it can hope for is to appeal to the very youngest members of your family. Yet, as they grow and look back on it, they'll see what you will now: Lightweight animation with a muddled message.

Full Review | Jun 28, 2020

Obviously, a children's film has to be on the nose, but the film's unwillingness to explore its own message in depth is disappointing.

Full Review | Jan 18, 2020

Even undemanding kids in need of distraction might find it hard not to get restless during this word-heavy, woke animation.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 10, 2019

With the school holidays on, this movie is a colourful and entertaining 90 minutes for kids under 10. The songs are easy on the ear and there are a couple of good jokes for the adult minders.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 5, 2019

Sadly, the Ugly Dolls animated feature is anything but plush, a combination of dog-eared, deja-vu moments and care-worn plotting that will leave even the most upbeat young moviegoer a little disappointed.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 1, 2019

A 90-minute commercial for toys disguised as an entertainment.

Full Review | Sep 27, 2019

It's all pretty derivative but also pretty wacky, and there's meaning, if you look for it, on a whole lot of levels, from Freudian imagery and hints of religious allegory to the satire of reality TV.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 25, 2019

Not so much a movie as a contemplative space wherein the viewer ... explores the shifting dynamic between the eponymous plush toys and the hegemony of play.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 19, 2019

Thankfully, the voice cast is packed with popstars who are great at pouring sparky attitude into their performances.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 19, 2019

Positive messaging about celebrating our unique imperfections and seeking your own truth has never felt more urgent to children in the age of Instagram. Pity, then, that this toothless and derivative marketing exercise doesn't practise what it preaches.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 16, 2019

Certain scenes may scare more sensitive children but, on the whole, UglyDolls is cutely done, and it earns extra plaudits for being an animation for younger kids that attempts to address age-relevant issues of individuality.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 16, 2019

The songs are horrifically soppy.

While the design is visually striking there's nothing beyond the paper-thin, by-the-numbers nature of UglyDolls.

This paean to body positivity and living your own truth is more than welcome, but you just wish UglyDolls' message could be more charmingly argued, adroitly assembled and just plain funny.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 15, 2019

UglyDolls' worst feature is that it's rather bland. For a movie about embracing one's differences, it does seem to be pretty much identical to the many other 'summer holiday kids movies' out there.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Aug 2, 2019

There's a frustratingly passive nature to UglyDolls that prevents it from being the more meaningful film it could have been.

Full Review | Jul 3, 2019

There is so much vocal talent in UglyDolls that it has a solid foundation. Kelly Clarkson's bubbly personality is perfect for Moxy who is perpetually optimistic.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 3, 2019

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

An animated adventure in which the free-spirited UglyDolls confront what it means to be different, struggle with a desire to be loved, and ultimately discover who you truly are is what matte... Read all An animated adventure in which the free-spirited UglyDolls confront what it means to be different, struggle with a desire to be loved, and ultimately discover who you truly are is what matters most. An animated adventure in which the free-spirited UglyDolls confront what it means to be different, struggle with a desire to be loved, and ultimately discover who you truly are is what matters most.

• Kelly Asbury
• Alison Peck
• Robert Rodriguez
• David Horvath
• Kelly Clarkson
• Janelle Monáe
• 172 User reviews
• 70 Critic reviews
• 39 Metascore
• 1 win & 1 nomination

• (as Wang Leehom)

• Gibberish Cat

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

'UglyDolls' Cast Pick Their Favorite Underdogs

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Did you know

• Trivia Uglydolls had made several cameos in past family movies before, such as Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005) , Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007) , Enchanted (2007) and The Smurfs (2011) .
• Goofs Near the end of All Dolled Up, during the shot where Wage says "We are uglylicious", a really strange error happens in Moxy's model. The layer of pink fur that covers the model is moved too much to the right, making some of the fur clip through her uniform, and creating a weird effect in her right hand that makes it look double. This is specially noticeable in her face, since the holes made for the eyes and the mouth are also incorrectly placed.

Lou : [after Lou fails the gauntlet challenge, Lou laughs] Well, I guess the cat's out of the bag.

Lydia : You failed?

Tuesday : How could you fail?

Lou : You still don't get it. Of course I failed, I will always fail. I'M A PROTOTYPE!

Mandy : What?

Tuesday : Prototype's like a good thing, right?

Lydia : No, he ain't a real doll girl?

Lou : You thought, I stook around this place, because I cared so about you mindless sycophants?

Tuesday : Sycophants's like a good thing, right?

Kitty : Ugh no, you imbecile!

Tuesday : Is imbecile a good thing?

Babo : My gut says yeah.

Lou : I'm the model, the mould. Sent by the factory, to help guide you through. Sounds amazing, right?

Nolan : Ugh...

Lou : Wrong! Prototypes are not meant for public consumption, I was never allowed to go the big world .

Lou : [pointing at Ox] But you could, how can someone as ugly as you, be accepted and loved? While someone as perfect as I, never could and never will? Let's see how you feel, when you're trapped in this place forever. Just like me.

• Crazy credits The beginning of the end Credits shows the main characters (except for Wedgehead (Emma Roberts) and Lou (Nick Jonas)) with their kids.
• Connections Featured in AniMat's Crazy Cartoon Cast: It's Not Ogre Yet (2018)
• Soundtracks Today's the Day Music by Christopher Lennertz Lyrics by Glenn Slater Produced by Christopher Lennertz Performed by Kelly Clarkson Kelly Clarkson appears courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp.

User reviews 172

• May 13, 2019
• How long is UglyDolls? Powered by Alexa
• May 3, 2019 (United States)
• United States
• Official Site
• Dallas, Texas, USA (Reel FX Dallas)
• STX Entertainment
• Alibaba Pictures Group
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $45,000,000 (estimated)
• $20,150,241
• May 5, 2019
• $32,450,241

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 27 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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‘UglyDolls’ Review: Charli XCX and Lizzo Are Best Part of Kids’ Movie Too Comfortable With Its Own Mediocrity

David ehrlich.

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For a disposable piece of children’s entertainment that features Pit Bull as the voice of a one-eyed, party-mad puppy named Ugly Dog, there’s something refreshingly straightforward about how “UglyDolls” goes about its agenda. At no point in its mercifully brief running time does this colorful pop confection pretend that it’s anything more than an 88-minute commercial for an innocuous brand of plush toys, and for that we should be grateful. Sure, it’s not as psychedelic as “Trolls,” nor as impressive a monument to the mediocrity of late capitalism as “The Angry Birds Movie,” but at a time when the typical animated movie spends $100 million trying to exhaust its young audience into submission, it’s kinda nice to see one that costs half that much, and tries half as hard.

Written by Alison Peck and Erica Rivinoja with an assist from Vivian Wang, the script doesn’t have much to go on, and it’s totally cool with that. In 2001, “UglyDoll” godheads David Horvath and Sun-min Kim created a line of semi-adorable stuffed animals that look like a cross between Ralph Wiggum and an inbred housecat; some of them have underbites, some of them have overbites, and all of them are designed to make kids feel like their supposed imperfections are the things that make them special. So far as this critic knows, the mythology pretty much stops there (although it seems that some of the characters were featured in a picture book about air conditioning ?) “Game of Thrones” this is not.

The “UglyDolls” film makes the most obvious choice at every conceivable opportunity, and is all the more tolerable for that. Within the first 30 seconds of the story, it’s established that the UglyDolls are defective plushies that got messed up somewhere along the assembly line; rather than be recycled, the rejects are sent through a chute into a slum where they all live together on an island of misfit toys (it’s called Uglyville, natch), and sing about how “it doesn’t get better than this.” It’s the perfectly bland Platonic ideal of a premise for an inspirational fable about being yourself.

But while most of the interchangeably jubilant and self-assured characters who live in Uglyville act as though they’ve already seen this movie, one of them can’t shake the feeling that, well, maybe it gets a little better than this. Her name is Moxy, she’s voiced by Kelly Clarkson , and she’s basically what it would look like if a squid could reproduce with a fuzzy turnip. Moxy is the most confident of the group, but also the most curious, and it’s she who leads her friends on a journey up to the Institute of Perfection, where they join the flawless dolls (who look like prep school students for some reason) as they prepare to be paired with a human kid in The Big World above. There’s just one problem: The Institute is ruled by an evil (but seductive!) pop star named Lou, whose design has a real “Draco Malfoy dressing up as Liberace for Halloween” vibe about it.

It should go without saying that Lou is voiced by Nick Jonas, just as it should go without saying that none of the actors in this film spent more than 45 minutes recording their roles. The fact that Blake Shelton plays Ox, a grizzled one-eyed snot bunny who’s seen some real shit in his day, suggests that all of the dialogue was recorded during commercial breaks of “The Voice.” If you asked Emma Roberts how she felt about playing the iconic part of “Wedgehead,” Uglyville’s newest resident, she would probably look at you were an orange chef monster with two entire teeth in your head.

Speaking of orange chef monsters with two entire teeth in their heads, Wanda Sykes manages to bring some real spice to the character of Wage, and she’s not the only one who manages to turn a snack into a meal. Bebe Rexha, Charli XCX, and the rising star Lizzo (!?) lend their talents to Lou’s trio of snickering henchgirls, and their occasional snippets of dialogue are much funnier than the rest of the script (“That man can entertain and emotionally devastate like no one else,” one of them coos when Lou comes by). “Welcome to Marwen” vet Janelle Monaé, a multi-hyphenated mega-talent who will apparently voice any movie doll you’ve got when she isn’t busy becoming the next Prince, plays Mandy, a perfect doll whose defective eyesight makes her a natural ally for Moxy.

“UglyDolls” only has enough plot to extend across a short film, but it’s able to fill out into feature-length with the help of a half-dozen songs written by Christopher Lennertz and Glenn Slater. Oh yeah, it’s a musical. And true to form, these tunes are so anodyne and forgettable that your brain might not even clock when the characters begin singing them. Most of these sugary pop ditties sound like Kidz Bop covers of old Taylor Swift singles (or like major improvements on that new Taylor Swift single ), and the visuals that accompany them are manic enough to ensure that even the youngest kids in the audience will be glued to the screen.

Movies don’t skew much younger than this — anyone who isn’t still attached to an umbilical cord might roll their eyes at some of the story beats — but “UglyDolls” grows increasingly self-referential as it goes on, as if commiserating with all the parents out there who might not be able to stomach another standard-issue empowerment narrative. Of course it’s important for kids to recognize their own value and embrace what makes them different, but if the last 100 movies didn’t sufficiently condition them to think that way, it’s not like this one is gonna do the trick.

“UglyDolls” seems to be at peace with that fact. If “Shrek 2” director Kelly Asbury’s relatively calm visual storytelling doesn’t make that clear enough, the Exposition Robot — yes, there’s a character named “Exposition Robot” — will seal the deal when he shows up to sheepishly own up to the idea that love and compassion are really what people should prize in each other. “UglyDolls” knows what it is, and it’s totally okay with that. Yes, it does get better than this (a lot better, in fact), but with the bar for kids movies as low as it is these days, it’s nice to see one that at least knows how to like itself.

STX will release “UglyDolls” in theaters on Friday, May 3. 

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Film Review: ‘UglyDolls’

An impish dance-pop fairy tale that feels like 'Trolls Lite' uses the Ugly Dolls to salute the power of being your beautiful ugly — individual — self.

By Owen Gleiberman

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In “ UglyDolls ,” an air-popped animated musical fairy tale about learning to embrace the ugly — that is, ordinary (that is, extraordinary) — specimen most of us are, the title plush toys are monochromatic fuzzy-felt factory rejects who get tossed off the assembly line for one reason or another. Each has a flaw that fails to meet the corporate standards of eye-pleasing symmetry and cuddliness. Moxy (voiced by Kelly Clarkson ), the movie’s heroine, is a rambunctious blob of pinkness whose problem is her teeth (she’s got three, unevenly spaced, with a prominent gap). Ox (Blake Shelton), a rabbity green customer, has an X where his left eye should be — though at least he’s meant to have another eye. Ugly Dog ( Pitbull ), a cyclops canine mascot, has one glaring yellow peeper at the center of his forehead. And Wage, voiced by Wanda Sykes, sports two ungainly lower incisors, an homage, I assume, to the gargoyle voiced by Sykes on Disney Junior’s “Vampirina.”

The Ugly Dolls, in their just-ugly-enough-to-be-an-individual way, are no one’s idea of a perfect seamless prototype. But you couldn’t say the same thing for the movie. It’s based on an insanely popular line of plush toys launched in 2001, and in the years since there have been any number of kiddie film franchises that this one studiously imitates. The main one (which predates the launch) is “Toy Story” and its sequels. The characters in “UglyDolls” live in Uglyville, a Dogpatch-meets-Whoville shantytown for stuffie rejects, where most of the dolls accept their outcast fate. But Moxy has never relinquished her dream of going to the Big World and becoming the cherished plaything of a human child; that, and only that, will complete her. It’s a desire that couldn’t be a more direct echo of Tom Hanks’ Woody and his eager, loving, but needy relationship to the kid he belongs to.

“UglyDolls” is “Toy Story” meets “Trolls” meets “The Smurfs” meets the Island of Misfit Toys. The “Trolls” connection is particularly telling. The whole notion of making the film into a spangly dance-pop musical in rainbow colors, with prominent music stars as the leads (in this case, Clarkson and Nick Jonas — in “Trolls,” it was Justin Timberlake), feels liberally borrowed from that movie. And even more than that, “Trolls,” one of the most splendid animated features of the last decade, had its own far more visually (and emotionally) sophisticated version of the Ugly Dolls: Prince Gristle and Bridget, the buck-toothed Bergens-in-love voiced by Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Zooey Deschanel. “UglyDolls” is “Trolls Lite,” and the way things work I have no doubt we’ll be seeing a movie in the next few years that’s “UglyDolls Lite.”

Yet this is still a winsomely appealing and joke-happy bauble for kiddies. Recently, catching up with “Missing Link,” I thought: It’s not badly done, but what small child wants to identify with a crusty frowning British adventurer like the hero of that film? “UglyDolls,” apart from the knowingly two-dimensional punk charm of its title toys, has been staged as a playground with moving parts. It’s the first animated feature produced by STX’s Family division, and the director, Kelly Asbury, coming off mediocrities like “Gnomeo & Juliet” and “Smurfs: The Lost Village,” here adopts a looser, funkier attitude. The movie isn’t aiming too far over the heads of 5-year-olds (and God knows, it’s not Pixar or the Spider-Verse), but for what it is, it works.

Five of the Ugly Dolls make it through a portal, but where they land isn’t the Big World. It’s the Institute of Perfection, a kind of Ayn Rand academy for finely chiseled tailored dolls with pinpoint noses to learn how to be the flawless specimens they think they were meant to be. At least, that’s the philosophy of the doll who rules the place. His name is Lou, and as voiced by Nick Jonas he’s a terrific contradiction: a pop-star guru who’s really a dictator, and an icon of standardized beauty who has more self-doubt than he lets on. The film’s best visual flourish is Lou’s hair: It’s a honey-er shade of pale, with each golden strand falling, like a perfectly cooked piece of pasta, into a pompadour from heaven. But Lou’s outfit — a preppie suit with handkerchief — is enough to tell you that he’s not to be trusted. Everything about the Institute of Perfection is uniform, down to the parochial-school dresses that the female dolls (including a trio of mean girls) wear.

The satire, even on a kiddie level, could have been a touch more biting. You wish that the filmmakers, in smiting overly fetishized children’s toys, had tweaked the American Girl Doll mystique. That said, the sincerity with which “UglyDolls” pits unblemished conformity against ungainly soul is touching — and, yes, instructive — in all the right ways. The vocal performances really register, from Clarkson’s life-force ebullience to Shelton’s saddened drawl to Pitbull’s street bravura. As Mandy, the Institute girl who’s trying to hide the fact that she needs glasses, Janelle Monáe captures the inner conflict of nice girls who don’t want to be mean but feel that’s the role that’s been set out for them. The message of “UglyDolls” — be yourself! — may not count as social justice, but it’s one that kids now need to hear from pop culture. And “UglyDolls” offers its own variation on it. The movie says that ugly is beautiful and that too much fixation on beauty is ugly. It says that the two should meet in the middle, a merger both you and your mirror can feel good about.

Reviewed at AMC Lincoln Square, New York, April 29, 2019. MPAA Rating: PG. Running time: 87 MIN.

• Production: An STX Entertainment release of an STX Family, Reel FX Animation Studios, Alibaba Pictures production. Producers: Jane Hartwell, Robert Rodriguez, Oren Aviv.
• Crew: Director: Kelly Asbury. Screenplay: Alison Peck. Editors: Julie Rogers, Nolan Southerland. Music: Christopher Lennertz.
• With: Kelly Clarkson, Nick Jonas, Janelle Monáe, Blake Shelton, Pitbull, Wanda Sykes, Gabriel Iglesias, Wang Leehom, Emma Roberts.

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UglyDolls review – fluffy toys deliver a fuzzy message

Cuddly cast-offs must overcome an evil mayor in an animated tale that urges us to cherish our imperfections – or does it?

T he good news of the summer was that Toy Story 4 didn’t suck. The bad news is the arrival of this sugary manic kids’ animation whose sole reason for existence seems to be hardselling the UglyDolls brand of cuddly toys. The film-makers have pilfered Toy Story’s emotional core, the need of toys to belong – what is a toy without a kid to cuddle it? – and spooned on the treacle. The spin here is that the UglyDolls are toy factory rejects, living with the dreadful void of never having known the warm touch of a toddler or the feel of wet snot on the fur. The songs are horrifically soppy.

Kelly Clarkson voices relentlessly cheerful Moxxy, a fuzzy pink doll with a missing front tooth who lives in the town of Uglyville. Moxxy wakes up every morning believing that today is the day she’ll finally be picked to live with a child. The dark truth is that all the cuddlies in Uglyville have been spat out of a chute at the toy factory and on to the scrap heap. One day Moxxy travels up the chute and the story shifts to the Institute of Perfection, the final testing stage for dolls, where the mayor is evil doll kid Lou (Nick Jonas), a plasticky cross between Justin Bieber and Draco Malfoy.

Veteran Kelly Asbury ( Gnomeo & Juliet , Shrek 2 ) directs with brisk professionalism but the script is fussily and unimaginatively plotted. I had a problem too with the film’s message. The point ostensibly being made is that it’s your imperfections that make you special – let your freak flag fly! Ugly is cool! But the film is constantly defining what ugly is: freckles, crooked teeth, excess weight, glasses, clumsiness. At times it feels like an unintentional crib sheet for under-sevens bullying.

UglyDolls is released in the UK on 16 August.

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‘uglydolls’: film review.

Reject toys learn to embrace their flaws in the decidedly unlovely animated musical 'UglyDolls.'

By Keith Uhlich

Keith Uhlich

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It’s been a long road to the big screen for the plush monstrosities known as UglyDolls. Though they were first created in 2001 by David Horvath and his soon-to-be-wife Sun-min Kim, it wasn’t until a decade later, after the adorably hideous toys had grown in popularity, that the film rights were snapped up and ultimately split between American (STX Entertainment) and Chinese (Alibaba Pictures; Huaxia Film) interests.

Robert Rodriguez , who knows his way around spy kids, sharkboys and lavagirls, was signed to direct. Stuff happened, as it always does, and Rodriguez left the project (he remains a credited producer). Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and Smurfs: The Lost Village auteur Kelly Asbury replaced him. Finally, nearly eight years on from the signing of all the brand extension contracts, here is the primarily pop-star-voiced animated musical UglyDolls, an imbecilic eyesore that could lay claim to being one of the worst movies ever made if it was worth such hyperbole.

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Release date: May 03, 2019

Best to dispense with the film as quickly as audiences surely will — we’ve got Sonic the Hedgehog and Detective Pikachu to get to, after all! Moxy (voice of Kelly Clarkson ) has got spunk. What this pink, sentient, gap-toothed plaything doesn’t have is a human companion, something she sings bullishly about, in the first of several maddeningly bouncy tunes, to her friends and neighbors in UglyTown, a village on the far side of…where exactly?

A factory, to be precise. What Moxy doesn’t know is that she and her fellow Uglies — with names like Bobo (voice of Gabriel Iglesias ), Ugly Dog (voice of Pitbull ) and Wage (voice of Wanda Sykes ) — are rejects from a workshop assembly line. Instead of heading to Perfection, a kind of commune/trade school for aesthetically pleasing toys, they’re redirected to UglyTown. There, corn-pone Mayor Ox (voice of Blake Shelton ) tries to help every one of the amiable non-beauties under his care live in blissfully segregated ignorance.

Moxy’s curiosity gets the better of her, of course. And at the urging of tea leaves read by wise sage Lucky Bat (voice of Leehom Wang, because every Asian person is a wise sage who reads tea leaves), our rose-hued heroine embarks, with petrified pals in tow, on a transformative journey. Standing in the way is Perfection’s monomaniacal ruler/crooner Lou (voice of Nick Jonas ), who’s like Adolf Hitler reborn as Justin Timberlake. His final solution: Rid the world of every flawed toy, come hell or the high water of the washing machine into which he often tosses our poor heroes. Janelle Monáe is around, too, as the not-so-“perfect” Mandy, whom Moxy befriends and sings a few treacly power ballads alongside.

The morals of the tale: Love your flaws. Nobody’s perfect. Everybody needs somebody sometime. Yada yada. Thanks a lot, $45 million corporate product based on a toy line! I’d have never known.

Anything nice to say? Um, it’s kinda cool that the moon in UglyTown is a broken button. Uh, the training montage set to a Hall and Oates perennial is…fine. And, well, it’s pretty funny in a meta sort of way when, at the Uglies’ lowest point, one of them displays a sign that reads “Closed Due to Hopelessness.” I feel that.

Production companies: STX Entertainment, Alibaba Pictures, Huaxia Film Voice cast: Kelly Clarkson, Nick Jonas, Janelle Monáe, Blake Shelton, Pitbull, Gabriel Iglesias, Wanda Sykes, Leehom Wang, Charli XCX, Bebe Rexha, Lizzo, Emma Roberts Director: Kelly Asbury Screenwriters: Alison Peck, Erica Rivinoja, Vivian Wang Based on characters by: David Horvath, Sun-min Kim Producers: Jane Hartwell, Robert Rodriguez Associate producers: Andrea McCarthy Paul, Vivian Wang Music: Christopher Lennertz Editing: Julie Rogers, Nolan Southerland Casting: Ruth Lambert, Robert McGee Art director: Ravinder Kundi

Rated PG, 87 minutes

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'UglyDolls' Review: The Stitches Are Showing In This Empty, Manufactured Product

When UglyDolls opened with a scene of faceless dolls being manufactured on an assembly line, I wondered if it was being too on the nose. But subtlety, or irony, are not words that exist in the vocabulary of the STX Entertainment CG-animated movie, which produces as many empty platitudes and hollow proverbs about self-love as there are versions of UglyDolls.

Directed by Kelly Asbury ( Shrek 2, Gnomeo and Juliet ), UglyDolls is a movie designed for maximum outreach and replayability. In the ongoing content vs. cinema debate, UglyDolls falls squarely in the "content" arena: Its musical sequences presented like bright pop music videos, its characters made cute and non-threatening, its sweet self-empowering messages packaged up in tidy little bows. But the great tragedy of this shiny product is that the plush toyline upon which its based was a truly inspired creation made by two friends, David Horvath and Sun-Min Kim, who simply wanted to share their colorful characters with the world. Instead, their toyline has produced an empty piece of corporate media.

UglyDolls follows the free-spirited Moxie ( Kelly Clarkson ), an UglyDoll who dreams about entering the Real World and finding a child that will love her. Moxie has gathered around her a lovable group of friends that all have their own unique quirks: Wage ( Wanda Sykes ), a sassy chef who cooks up just as many comebacks as dishes; Lucky Bat ( Wang Leehom ), the wise and insecure advisor; Babo ( Gabriel Iglesias ) a strong doll with kleptomaniac tendencies; and Pitbull as...a rapping doll named Ugly Dog. Yes, really.

After some misinterpreted guidance from Lucky Bat sends Moxie on a quest to find the Real World for herself, she and her friends stumble upon a town called Perfection, populated by symmetrically faced models dressed in high school uniforms. Realizing that Perfection is her only chance to reach the Real World, Moxie convinces her friends to join her in passing the strict tests set by Perfection's leader Lou ( Nick Jonas , doing a thinly veiled Justin Bieber impression), who will do anything to get rid of the UglyDolls.

The reason that the entire cast is almost exclusively pop stars-cum-actors is because UglyDolls is, inexplicably, a musical. There's no inherent reason for this — the UglyDoll toys never showed any indication of being musically inclined, nor have singing dolls been shown to do well with a target audience. But UglyDolls seems to be following the trend as of late to cast vocally adept actors in animated family films ( Trolls, The LEGO Movie, Smurfs ) in order to score a Top 40 hit and earn the studio another revenue stream. Not that this practice is abhorrent in any way —Disney maintains its pop culture behemoth status with the help of massively successful earworms like "Let It Go" — but with UglyDolls it feels particularly egregious because of how obvious the intention is. The songs are made with easy radio listening in mind, all sleek production and multiple horn sections.

UglyDolls covers all its bases with a variety of musical genres too, from Disney-inspired songs that a drunk Alan Menken might have penned, to a theme song ("Couldn't Be Better") that veers eerily close to The LEGO Movie 's "Everything is Awesome." When Janelle Monae (who plays the lonely "Perfect" doll who befriends the Uglies) sings about loving herself, she is lifted out of the movie into a generic music video setting that could have been made in a YouTube video hit factory. The stars do their best to jazz up the songs, but their pop-star natures only succeed in making the songs less sincere, with R&B runs and country twangs only making each track sound more like a painfully banal radio hit. Clarkson is the exception, delivering each of her spoken and sung lines with a Disney princess-esque enthusiasm, but her Moxie is not enough. And don't get me started on Pitbull's rap verses.

The derivative songs only scratch the surface of the film's recycled elements. There is imagery that is blatantly lifted right out of other (better) animated films: the lanterns from Tangled , the incinerator from Toy Story 3 , the facial stylings of the Dreamworks face . UglyDolls is also full of random cinematic homages, from a reference to Oliver Twist, to one sequence done entirely in the style of Depression-era talkies. For what reason? Who knows? But UglyDolls is so jam-packed with stuff that it feels like a never-ending content machine.

For a film supposedly about originality, its "unique" heroes all look remarkably similar. There is nothing particularly "ugly" about the titular dolls — in fact, with their big eyes and soft, fuzzy figures, they present a much more friendly face than the so-called "Perfect" dolls whose mannequin-like appearances unintentionally calls to mind many a horror movie. While the film does throw in a few chuckle-worthy jokes that poke fun at film's own formula (the best joke goes to the reference of each "Perfect" doll as an insert-career-here/model), the humor doesn't fill in the gaps of UglyDolls ' tenuous plot.

It would be all more believable if the real-life UglyDolls toyline wasn't such a major global success. The plush dolls were a phenomenon from the moment they hit shelves in 2001, going on to appear in all manner of pop culture properties — from music videos, to K-dramas, comic strips. They were so ubiquitous precisely for their general pleasing demeanors that didn't offend or grate. Despite their "Ugly" name, they were cute.

UglyDolls tries to present its heroes as underdogs that come from an island of misfit toys, but there is little "misfit" about them. All the characters are perfectly tried and tested for maximum likability (yes, even Pitbull). It's not weird, or original, it's just safe. And it's a real shame that the cool alternative toy line that grew out of two friends who wanted to create something unique turned into a shiny corporate knockoff. /Film Rating: 2 out of 10

clock This article was published more than  4 years ago

UglyDolls — yes, those goofy-looking misfit toys — are in a movie. And it’s actually kind of charming.

The story behind UglyDolls — the toys, not the new animated movie about them — is a real charmer. Aspiring artist/storytellers David Horvath and his then-girlfriend Sun-Min Kim created the first character, Wage (voiced by Wanda Sykes in the film), when Horvath wrote a letter to Kim, including a sketch of a cartoonish, apron-clad wage slave. When Kim mailed him back a hand-sewn felt version of the figure, Horvath ran over to show it to a friend, Eric Nakamura, who had just opened the store Giant Robot , dedicated to Asian and Asian American pop culture.

Nakamura said, “I’ll take 20.”

The rest, as they say, is history. Horvath and Kim are now married. And the line of UglyDolls — launched in 2001 — has grown to include a wide variety of goofy-looking animal and (vaguely) humanoid characters. They are now, in all likelihood, for sale in a store near you.

Based on Horvath and Kim’s appealingly cockeyed characters, “UglyDolls” begins in a place called Uglyville, where an outcast citizenry of misshapen and otherwise substandard dolls has been exiled, cut off from the love of children because of their perceived imperfections. And who cannot relate?

The off-kilter, jerry-built visual design of the place is actually pretty cute, even if it bears more than a passing resemblance, in spirit, to the Island of Misfit Toys from the 1964 Rankin/Bass holiday classic “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” There’s also a teensy touch of the “Toy Story” franchise here, especially in the movie’s secret-life-of-toys setting. But Horvath and Kim’s backstory and the sweet, small beginnings of their once-outsider product are nowhere to be found.

It probably wouldn’t have made much of a movie anyway.

And yet, as with a bay leaf that has been removed from the stew, there remains a whiff of that counterculture energy and that message of love to the film, despite the feeling at times that you are watching a feature-length commercial for the toys. Mostly, this is thanks to the powerful visual appeal of the dolls themselves, who have delightfully misaligned teeth, missing eyes and other lovable deformities. Their un-slick appearance helps to compensate for the fact that some of the main characters — Moxy, Ox and Ugly Dog — are voiced by pop music stars Kelly Clarkson, Blake Shelton and Pitbull. Nick Jonas and Janelle Monáe also voice characters from a land of “perfect” dolls, where our heroes journey to become more likable.

Yes, “UglyDolls” is a musical, and the peppy songs, while devoid of any subtlety, help tell the story, and are delivered with sincerity. Such ditties as Clarkson’s “ Broken and Beautiful ” celebrate body positivity and self-acceptance.

It’s hard to find fault with that, even if there are moments when the film’s explicit critique of idealized beauty is obscured by packaging that is also, in the end, a kind of product pitch.

UglyDolls are already adorable. You don’t have to work that hard to convince anyone.

PG.  Area theaters. Contains brief action and some mature thematic elements. 83 minutes.

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• DVD & Streaming
• Action/Adventure , Animation , Comedy , Kids

Content Caution

In Theaters

• May 3, 2019
• Voices of Kelly Clarkson as Moxy; Nick Jonas as Lou; Blake Shelton as Ox; Janelle Monáe as Mandy; Pitbull as Ugly Dog; Wanda Sykes as Wage; Leehom Wang as Lucky Bat

Home Release Date

• July 30, 2019
• Kelly Asbury

Distributor

• STX Entertainment

Movie Review

The perfectly adorable but misshapen doll Moxy believes in something special: A wonderful place where human children adopt dolls like her forever. Granted, she’s never actually seen that rumored outside world. (In fact, she’s never even seen a child. ) But she is unabashedly certain that it all exists out there somewhere. It’s a dream that fills her heart with fuzzy feelings of hope and love.

So each day she leaps out of bed with a smile on her face and a song on her pink, fuzzy lips. She dances through her little town, Uglyville, and declares to every other misfit and misshapen dollish resident that maybe, just maybe, today will be the day that they’ll somehow connect with their loving new owners! Today!

But despite Moxy’s earnest faith, well, she doesn’t really have much to base it on. That’s why most of Uglyville’s other imperfect residents just snort and roll their button eyes at Moxy’s unbelievable dream. There’s no big world or children out there, they chuckle. That’s just a story. A nice one, sure, but a tall tale nonetheless. But they don’t mind Moxy singing another cheery song in their cheery oddball town. In fact, tomorrow will bring another happy, sunny day, and another reason to sing out a little joy. It’s all good.

Truth is, Moxy is just as happy as all the rest. But she can’t help but wonder aloud: “Haven’t you ever felt that, even when you’re happy, there’s something more?” That unexplained feeling sticks with her as if sewn into her plush heart with steel thread.

Then one morning, the ever-curious Moxie starts thinking about the big mountainside that nestles up to their square-peg-in-a-round-hole town. There’s an opening way up on the mountain’s side that will occasionally shoot out another doll with too many eyes, or a stuffed puppy with a head that’s too flat on one side. But nobody’s ever wondered where that tunnel comes from . Or where it … goes .

Until today, that is.

So Moxy gathers a few friends, and they make their way into the depths of that mysterious dark opening. And they find something quite unexpected: It’s a place called The Institute of Perfection. It’s a sparkly clean new realm filled with beautiful dolls. Unlike Moxy’s motley crew, they all have perfect shining eyes, perfect woven hair, perfect teeth, perfect clothes.

These dolls are everything that Moxy and her friends are not. And the most perfect of their number—a singing, dancing dreamboat named Lou—is there to groom his spotless doll charges and lead them to their ultimate goal. If they can prove themselves worthy—if they can show that they’re beautiful and perfect enough—they can pass through a crystal portal and enter the world of humans. Once there, they’ll be wrapped in the warm embrace of … a loving child !

Well, Moxie just about sinks to her knees and cries tears of joy right then and there. She knew that place existed. She knew there were loving human children out there somewhere. She just knew it.

There’s just one little problem. Well, two actually. One, Moxy and her misfit mates are anything but perfect. And two, smooth-talking Lou isn’t about to let the freakish likes of these ugly dolls find happily ever after in the arms of a loving child.

Positive Elements

The dolls at the Institute of Perfection are all uniformly pretty and fashionable. And at first, Moxy and friends pursue that paradigm of perfection, convinced (despite their formerly carefree life in Uglyville) that they are in fact useless rejects (a sigh-worthy impression that’s harshly promoted and encouraged by Lou). But UglyDolls makes it crystal clear that external beauty and seeming perfection, while nice, are not the things of greatest importance. In fact, the prettiest dolls here also tend to be the meanest and least likeable.

Eventually, though, Moxy and her friends reject the superficial value system of the Institute of Perfection. Along the way, they also make self-sacrificial choices, and we see that what truly matters is what’s on the inside.

The ugly dolls’ friendship and self-sacrifice also change the minds of some of the perfection-focused Institute dolls. “ Love and compassion are a doll’s true purpose ,” the film declares—a message of encouragement that obviously applies to young human viewers as well. It’s also made very plain that individual differences and even seeming imperfections are the things that make us special and “make us shine!” The film repeats and reinforces that redemptive theme a number of times before the credits roll.

Spiritual Elements

Early on, you could say that Moxy’s belief in an “outside world” filled with loving children is akin to faith in an unseen, heaven-like realm. Even when her friends deny any possibility of it being true, Moxy clings to her convictions—and acts upon them. Even the manipulative Lou seems to support this idea. But that’s really about as far as the film takes this faith parallel.

But this feel-good tale also has some moments that seem to emphasize a kind of personalized relativism. A couple of times, we hear the idea that you have to “find your own truth.” That said, this line is never really unpacked or explored. And it seems to be couched in the context of encouraging Moxy to hold onto her “faith” in the hope of finding a loving child of her own.

One scene involves a character opening a fortune cookie. That character obviously doesn’t take the fortune inside very seriously, but Moxy does. She also asks him to read the tea leaves at the bottom of her drink. Though he’s very hesitant to act in the “fortune telling” role Moxy’s bestowed on him, when he says the word “leaves,” Moxy receives it as a prophetic word for her to leave Uglyville.

Sexual Content

Several girl dolls sigh and swoon over the handsome Lou. One of them says she has a crush on him.

Moxy’s friend Ugly Dog (voiced, I guess appropriately, by the singer Pitbull) seems interested in romance. He brags a couple of times about how suave he is with the ladies—who mostly don’t seem to notice his attempts to attract them.

Violent Content

After a doll accidentally steps on a rake and gets thumped, he doubles over, groaning, “Ooooh, right in the buttons.” Lou makes a concerted effort to discourage Moxy and her friends—sending them into messy situations and then repeatedly tossing them into a tumbling washing machine. (The washing machine is said to be the enemy of perfection because it causes wear and tear on the dolls.)

There’s also a gauntlet that competing dolls must work their way through that involves dangers such as a huge robot dog, a gigantic vacuum and a rambunctious robo-baby. These robot opponents try to grab dolls that pass by. We do indeed see a doll get tossed around in the jaws of a dog and another sucked up into a vacuum cleaner bag. But the attacks are never truly perilous.

Several different characters are kidnapped, wrapped in a large sack and thumped about quite a bit. Lou threatens Moxy and others with a recycling machine that looks like a set of chomping and slashing jaws. (This is the most intense visual in the film for very young and/or sensitive little viewers.) Moxy and her friends are almost swallowed up by this contraption, but they’re eventually rescued by a number of brave and devoted friends.

Crude or Profane Language

Characters call out “oh my gosh” clearly a handful of times. Other times, we hear variations such as “oh my goll” or “oh my doll.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

A very depressed character looks at a bowl of gray gruel and groans, “I need something stronger than this soup.” Ugly Dog and a female doll sit at a table with, it seems, wine glasses.

Other Negative Elements

A trusted individual lies, though he believes he’s doing so to protect others. We find out that Lou is a vindictive individual who repeatedly manipulates others to aggrandize himself.

Moxy and all the residents of Uglyville temporarily become convinced, thanks to Lou, that they are totally worthless because of their many imperfections. They all become incredibly depressed as a result . Their normally colorful world turns drab and gray. And one despondent character even seems to give up totally as his small boat sinks (though a mother octopus rescues him).

We hear someone shout, “Move your butts!”

There’s a certain irony in the fact that a movie that encourages kids to embrace their imperfections is itself a bit misshapen and lumpy at times. Specifically, those occasional “find your own truth” bits and pieces, while never fully explored, still feel unnecessarily stitched in.

However, like the pink, purpose-driven hero at its core, this movie’s heart is warm, fuzzy and endearing. UglyDolls encourages kids (and maybe even the parents who brought them) to stop worrying about everyone else’s “perfect” standards.

Instead, the story instructs, focus on being the most loving, compassionate and kind versions of yourself that you can be. After all, those things are far more important than the hippest hair styles or the flashiest fashions. And no matter how perfect someone might seem from the outside, it’s the character a person has on the inside that really counts .

Add those cuddly truths to this delightful story’s sweet moments, and you’ve got a misfit pic that’s a solid matinee fit for your fam.

Individual differences and even seeming imperfections are the things that make us special and “make us shine!” Help you kids discover their own special shine:

Encouraging Your Child’s Smarts

Study Your Family

Raising Resilient Kids

8 Great Smarts: Discover and Nurture Your Child’s Intelligences

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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UglyDolls movie review: There’s nothing ugly about these Dolls

By sandy c. | may 2, 2019.

UglyDolls feels like a big warm hug to kids of all ages, leaving you wanting to love and positivity.

Before we dive into Uglyville and discuss the film, here’s some background information and fun facts about  UglyDolls you may not know, but should:

As soon as I saw the UglyDolls  movie announced, I thought it was a cute and unique idea. The message the movie tries to teach children is clear without doing any research — perfection isn’t real, no one is ugly and we are all worthy of love. However, I didn’t know UglyDolls is actually a brand of real dolls. It’s true, you can get your kiddo their own “ugly doll” and they have been around since 2001!

UglyDolls can be found anywhere from Wal-Mart to Barnes & Noble. I knew these dolls looked familiar. The collection includes Babo, OX, Tray, Wedgehead, and other characters we meet in the movie. And, if after the movie your kid can’t get enough UglyDolls, an animated series is on the way!

A while before the movie’s theatrical release, Hulu and STX Entertainment signed a deal for a 26-episode series order of  Uglydolls. 

With an animated series to follow the movie and a well-establish brand of dolls, does the movie live up to the hype? Light spoilers ahead! 

The doll factory is designed to create beautiful, perfect dolls. But just like its creations, even the factory has its flaws. Buttons are missed, the head of some dolls may be inflated a tad too much, you name it. Any dolls the factory detects an error on are sent to Uglyville, to live with other imperfect designs. All dolls there are perfectly happy there, though, unaware of their flaws. There’s one doll, however, with different plans than the rest.

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Moxy, a pink and jolly doll (voiced by Kelly Clarkson) has bigger dreams than living out the rest of her days (which are infinite) in Uglyville. She dreams and fantasizes about going to the Big World (the real world) to a young child who’ll love her. All Moxy wants in life is to be a child’s doll.

Frustrated with never being selected, Moxy and her closest friends venture out of Uglyville to go up to the portal themselves. To get there, they need to get through Lou (voiced by Nick Jonas), first. Lou is the self-proclaimed leader of Perfection, a village of perfect dolls. Lou trains dolls to be perfect and approves them to cross once they are ready.

Clarkson provides a sweet and happy tone for Moxy, making the doll instantly lovable. It’s Nick Jonas, however, who I believe steals the show. Jonas is the perfect match for Lou, a vain and cruel doll with the best tune in the film. You want to hate him, and at some point towards the end of the film, you do — he is a bully after all. But kids light up the most when Lou is on the screen, we don’t want him to win (and again, he’s a big bully), but you can’t deny he’s very intriguing.

It’s a good change of pace, and a great lesson to kids, to see a villain who is attractive in a children’s film and not some monster or creature. Lou may be a doll, but he looks like a handsome kid. This should teach children that bullies are all bad, no matter how they appear.

Lou’s lessons and teachings to be perfect are quickly questioned by the Uglyville residents. What even is ‘perfect’ and what makes someone ugly? Before arriving to the town of Perfection, Moxy never even knew she was ugly. It’s heartbreaking for Moxy and her friends to learn this and my fiver-year-old who I brought to the screening with me gave a look of concern, also never realizing the dolls weren’t perfect.

Another fun addition to the movie is Pitbull as Ugly Dog. Needless to say, Ugly Dog provides some very fun moments and a lot of jokes (mostly for the parents).

My favorite message the movie delivers is to be yourself and not what other people want you to be. Unfortunately, other than the colorful and endearing characters and powerful messages, the songs in the movie are forgettable. As mentioned previously, Lou and Ugly Dog’s songs are the most fun, but even those are long forgotten about as soon as you leave the theater.

Next. 10 TV shows and movies to watch on Netflix in May. dark

Still, it’s not a deal-breaker. By far, life lessons and characters you can’t get enough of outweighs the lack of catchy tunes. UglyDolls  is sure to entertain the entire family and leave you wanting a big hug and to spread love.

UglyDolls  is in theaters Friday, May 3. 

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UglyDolls Parent Guide

It may be a long advertisement for the uglydoll toys, but the film still manages to deliver a sweet message about self-acceptance..

Facing intense pressure to conform to contemporary beauty standards, the "UglyDolls" have to find a way to stay true to themselves.

Release date May 3, 2019

Run Time: 87 minutes

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by bethany gustafson.

If you’ve ever walked through a toy store and been unnerved by rows of identical dolls staring at you, you’ll appreciate the concept behind UglyDolls . The franchise is the invention of husband and wife duo David Horvath and Sun-Min Kim. These plushies began as novelty toys and characters in a series of children’s books. From there, they’ve steadily gained a place in pop culture. As the name suggests, they’re weird looking—floppy and squishy with buck teeth and googly eyes—and stand in stark contrast to the idealized bodies and fashionable outfits of most dolls. And it’s this obvious difference that’s the focus of this film.

The story begins in a toy factory which apparently specializes in the creation of cute stuffed animals and dolls. But occasionally, mistakes are made and an imperfect toy exits the production line. These rejects are sent through a pipe to the remarkable town of Uglyville. It doesn’t sound like much, but this village of cardboard and fabric scraps houses a thriving community of cheerful, misshapen creatures. Moxy, (voiced by Kelly Clarkson,) is foremost among them—an eternal optimist who enjoys her life in Uglyville, but still wishes she belonged to a loving child.

Watching these misfits compete with an army of identical prissy kids leads to plenty of silliness and slapstick scenarios. This clowning around is mostly harmless fun until the villain suddenly becomes a little too villainous and Moxy finds her very survival threatened. Consequently, parent’s largest concern in this film will be the cartoon violence. While the characters are usually impervious to harm, (they bounce off walls, get squished, flattened, drenched and messy,) there are moments of genuine peril and malice that may be troubling to the littlest viewers.

And, of course, Moxy and her friends struggle with the emotional toll of being belittled and labelled as unattractive mistakes. This leads to a prolonged scene in Uglyville where plush toys are too depressed to do daily tasks. When Lou finally gets his comeuppance for the verbal abuse he’s heaped upon them, the UglyDolls become vindictive. This is a real disappointment in a film about overcoming bullying by developing friendships and self-confidence. The filmmakers, it seems, were willing to challenge a few stereotypes, but not all of them.

Despite these flaws, UglyDoll’s theme of self-acceptance will resonate with many, and the goofy critters onscreen are a sweet celebration of the differences we all have. That’s a message that’s anything but ugly.

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Bethany gustafson, watch the trailer for uglydolls.

UglyDolls Rating & Content Info

Why is UglyDolls rated PG? UglyDolls is rated PG by the MPAA for thematic elements and brief action

Violence: Dolls and stuffed animals kick, slap and hit each other, and make weapons out of knitting needles in a lengthy fight scene. Characters are dropped from great heights, run into walls, are stuffed in bags, and are involved in many other slapstick scenarios. Characters are nearly mulched by a frightening machine and are in peril of their lives before being rescued. Characters are chased by robotic creatures, including a giant robotic dog that chews, tosses, and sits on a few of them, with no harm done. Sexual Content:   None noted. Profanity: None noted. Alcohol / Drug Use: None noted.

Page last updated July 29, 2019

UglyDolls Parents' Guide

Words hurt. Name-calling and gossiping can lead to tragic consequences—in the movie, the UglyDolls lose their desire to do anything when they learn that they were created by mistake. Do you ever encounter name-calling and gossip? What can you do to avoid participating in these things?

When Moxy doesn’t feel confident, her friends encourage her and remind her of her own value. Do you struggle with low self esteem? Who can you go to for encouragement and advice? In what ways can you learn to appreciate your own value?

Loved this movie? Try these books…

For stories about toys that live, young readers can get their parents to read Jane Hissey’s The Old Bear Collection. Gentle stories and beautiful pencil caryon illustrations are sure to be a hit with preschoolers.

And, of course, there are the classics about living toys: Margery Williams Bianco’s The Velveteen Rabbit; A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh, Dan Freeman’s Corduroy, and Lynne Reid Banks’ The Indian in the Cupboard.

Readers of all ages will enjoy Bill Watterson’s classic Calvin and Hobbes comic strips, now available in multiple book collections. The ageless story of the mischievous Calvin and his stuffed (or maybe real) tiger have enchanted readers for decades.

Parents looking for kids’ books that foster self-acceptance have lots to choose from. There is Munro Leaf’s classic, The Story of Ferdinand, about a bull who doesn’t want to fight in the arena but prefers to smell flowers in the pasture. Robert Kraus’ Leo the Late Bloomer will comfort children who might not feel like they fit in. With It’s Okay to Be Different, Todd Parr gives a straightforward message with bright, simple illustrations. In Giraffes Can’t Dance, Giles Andreae and Guy Parker Rees have created a titular giraffe who desperately wants to dance, despite the challenges posed by his long legs. Another animal with unlikely dreams is a penguin who wants to fly. His tale is told by Lita Judge in Flight School.

Christian parents will also appreciate Max Lucado’s aptly named You Are Special.

And any parent who wants to discourage bullying or unkindness based on differences will be happy to turn to Dr. Seuss’s classic, Sneetches and Other Stories.

The most recent home video release of UglyDolls movie is July 30, 2019. Here are some details…

Related home video titles:.

The classic film about toys that are actually alive is Toy Story . Viewers who can’t get enough of Buzz, Woody, and the rest of the gang in Andy’s toy box can watch the sequels: Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3.

There are numerous family friendly films about looking beyond the surface and accepting others for who they are. Wonder tells the story of Auggie Pullman, a boy born with a genetic defect that leaves him with significant facial deformities.

Born with a pig’s nose and ears, Penelope struggles to find a blue-blooded man who is willing to look beyond her porcine features and break the curse by marrying her.

The children’s classic Charlotte’s Web reminds viewers that even the most unlikely of people can become close friends.

"Full of Heart and Spunk"

UGLYDOLLS Movie Review UGLYDOLLS is an animated musical comedy about a little pink doll named Moxy who wants more than anything to go on the great big world and be owned and loved by a child. Posted by Movieguide on Thursday, May 2, 2019

What You Need To Know:

Miscellaneous Immorality: Light miscellaneous content, multiple examples of bullying but rebuked, dolls are kidnapped a few times and taken back and forth from Uglyville to the Institute of Perfection, and one example of lying.

More Detail:

UGLYDOLLS is an animated musical comedy about a little pink doll named Moxy who wants more than anything to go on the great big world and be owned and loved by a child. UGLYDOLLS is full of heart and spunk, and is easily enjoyable as well as appropriate for all ages.

UGLYDOLLS takes place in the town of Uglyville, where the dolls there have unusual characteristics, but wake up every day singing joyously. Some of the dolls have one eye, or even five eyes, a flower coming out of their head, or funny teeth. They live in a colorful town and sing together and are kind and loving to each other. A little pink doll, Moxy, loves where she lives and all of her friends, but she can’t help but feel like there’s something more than their small, ugly world. She dreams of going to the great, big world where she can be loved by a child. However, the mayor of Uglyville, Mayor Ox, tells her there’s no such place, and she should just enjoy the town where they live.

One day, Moxy is talking to her friends about this dream and convinces them to venture out with her in search of another world. They find a dark passageway and soon find themselves in a strange new place. It’s called the Institute of Perfection, and all of the beautiful dolls there are in training to be perfect so that they can pass the gauntlet test, go through the portal to the real world, and be with a child forever. The appearance of the UglyDolls frightens the dolls in this world. The beautiful dolls tell them, in the form of a musical number, that they are too ugly to ever be loved by a child. The doll who’s singing this to them is named Lou, and he’s the “perfect” leader in this world, training all the other dolls how to be more like him. Moxy begs him to let her and her friends stay and learn how to pass the test so they can go on to the real world. He agrees, and they begin to train.

While training, they meet a doll named Mandy who feels like she doesn’t belong in Perfection because she has to wear glasses. She befriends the UglyDolls and tries to help them by giving them makeovers. Annoyed by the imperfections of the UglyDolls, Lou has Mayor Ox kidnapped and brought to the land of Perfection to tell Moxy and her friends an ugly truth.

Feeling rejected and unworthy, Moxy and her friends return back to Uglyville, and she puts an end to her dreams of ever being loved by a child. However, Mandy has come to the rescue. She encourages Moxy not to give up and tells her how much courage she has given her to be herself and wear her glasses. Filled with new motivation and self-assurance, Moxy returns to the Institute of Perfection determined to pass the gauntlet test no matter what it takes.

UGLYDOLLS centers on the encouraging message of being able to accept the unusual things about oneself and others. It teaches that no one is actually perfect, and that we should love the things that make us unique and special. This is all told with colorful musical numbers and characters that are immediately endearing. With mainly singers as the cast, this movie has made a positive and entertaining story out of what was once just a few dolls sitting on a toy store shelf. The humor is enjoyable for all ages, as well as the catchy songs. There is mainly a moral, redemptive worldview, as the characters are taught lessons about love, compassion and acceptance. Good triumphs over evil, and everyone in both towns learn something valuable. There is a very minor Occult element in one of the jokes of the story, some light violence and other miscellaneous content. UGLYDOLLS teaches positive moral lessons for children of all ages.

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Movie review: 'uglydolls'.

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As I mentioned in my summer movies article , I don't have children, but I am somewhat familiar with the Uglydolls toy line. I always admired their unique design, as well as their message, where "ugly" means being an individual and it should be celebrated, not shunned. It would seem to be the perfect message for a family film, and thus UglyDolls was produced.

At the toy factory, when dolls are accidentally created with some sort of imperfection, they're sent down a pipe and end up in Uglyville. Everyone loves their life in this community. Moxy (Kelly Clarkson) is one of its cheeriest residents, but she also believes there's a mythical place called the Big World where she can be the favorite toy of some human child. She wakes up every day thinking that will be the one where she's chosen to go to the Big World.

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One day, she wrangles a bunch of her friends to climb up to the pipe new arrivals pop out of, to see if that's the path she needs to take. What they find is the town of Perfection, where so-called "normal" dolls are trained by the perfect Lou (Nick Jonas) to navigate the Gauntlet and show they're ready to enter the Big World. Of course, Moxy and her friends are mocked for their appearance, so they try to prove they're just as worthy to attempt the Gauntlet.

Like Moxy, UglyDolls aspires to be something that's just out of its reach, but the movie's never able to grab hold of its goal. While it's cute and colorful, the best it can hope for is to appeal to the very youngest members of your family. Yet, as they grow and look back on it, they'll see what you will now: Lightweight animation with a muddled message.

It follows the Musical/Disney Playbook to a tee. Have a character aspire to a better life. Song. Dialogue. Reprise. Character discovers a way to achieve this better life. Song. Dialogue. Reprise. Character meets their obstacle. Song…you get where I'm going.

What sets the great and memorable musicals and other animated films apart is how they find a way to breathe life into the formula, creating something magical. UglyDolls feels like it looked at the Playbook and followed its directions without really knowing why . It simply mimics the dotted lines, avoiding the x's and making its way downfield until it reaches the end zone. Yay team.

As for the songs, they are admittedly catchy, but they're also confused on what exactly the message is supposed to be. Moxy starts the film by singing about how today will be the day she's chosen, essentially how she wants to leave Uglyville, then segues right into a typical how-great-the-town-is ensemble opening number. Another character, Mandy (Janelle Monáe), a perfect doll with a secret she's hiding from Lou, sings about how she admires the Uglydolls' uniqueness, then agrees to help them look more like the dolls of Perfection in the exact same song .

Believing in yourself and accepting who you are is a very simple lesson. How UglyDolls failed to properly impart this message is baffling, to say the least.

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• Parents say (29)
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Based on 29 parent reviews

Don't give in like I did. Hard pass.

Report this review, dumb storyline, shows the evil of bullying. celebrates uniqueness.

This title has:

We have really gone down hill

Just terrible. i would not., not as good as apple sauce, not as good as applesauce, not for younger kids.

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FILM REVIEW: ‘Uglydolls’

‘You guys are the ugliest’ is def my new fav compliment.

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Geek is chic, nerdy is in, and counterculture has somehow morphed into mainstream, but nothing says “let your freak flag fly” more than STX Entertainment’s  newly released UglyDolls movie, directed by Kelly Asbury. (Like, literally: it’s in a super catchy song.)

If you’re looking for something that reinvents the feel-good-animated-kids-movie wheel, UglyDolls isn’t it. And it doesn’t try to be. What it does do — and quite well, in my humble, B-movie-loving opinion — is shine a light on some of the issues that kids face, from bullying and weight to the pressure to be perfect and the desire to just fit in and be accepted. It is in turns silly and whimsical and ridiculously over the top, and other times a bit darker than a PG-rated movie should be. (Mild spoiler alert: Is it attempted suicide if it’s a stuffed, felt doll?! Asking for a friend. …)

The movie begins in UglyVille, a fab felt world full of giant, misshapen homes in all the colors you can imagine. Throw in some contrasting buttons, baubles, threads, and more, and it’s easy to see why the UglyDolls think it just “couldn’t get better.” My DIY-obsessed heart is inclined to agree, too. Moxy (Kelly Clarkson) is the star of the show, and she’s never far from her ragtag crew of fellow Uglies: Lucky Bat (Wang Leehom), Babo (Gabriel Iglesias), Wage (Wanda Sykes), and Uglydog (Pitbull). Mayor Ox (Blake Shelton) is a bit of a naysayer initially, but he too joins the crew later on in the flick.

Moxy is plump and pink and proud of it all. She sings a few lines about it in the first few minutes of the film; it’s fast and fun, but it sets a tone early on that being different is in and deserves celebration:

Hello gorgeous, let’s check out how you look today/Short and stubby, and, my gosh, look how much you weigh/ You’re pinkish red, got this thing on your head, and woah/ Girl, you couldn’t look better

Moxy loves her fellow Uglies and living in UglyVille, but she is certain that she’s destined for something more than just singing happy songs all day — something great: to be matched with her very own kid in the great Big World. But first, she and her BFFs (who tag along reluctantly) have to get past some impossible standards and a big, doll-faced bully named Lou ( Nick Jonas ). The UglyDolls find themselves on an adventure they weren’t quite prepared for, but they give it their all anyway, using charm, determination, and allll the catchy tunes to try to beat Lou and make it to the Big World.

Along the way, the UglyDolls get a little help from a visually challenged doll named Mandy ( Janelle Monaé ) even as a trio of mean girls — Tuesday (Bebe Rexha), Kitty (Charli XCX), and Lydia (Lizzo) — does everything possible to break the Uglies’ spirits and keep them from making it to the Big World.

Clarkson’s rather famous comfort in her own skin shines through Moxy, and the comedic talents of Iglesias, Sykes, and Pitbull (who knew?!?) help bring some levity to the heavier moments. Plus, they’re #SquadGoals. If you don’t love these dolls, you’re legit dead inside. The film may be wacky and a bit repetitive (I’d say it doesn’t need to be an hour and a half but then I remember the songs so fiiiiine), but it hits you right in the feels and makes it clear throughout that pretty does not equal perfect; individuality, messiness, compassion, and determination can get you close, but nobody is perfect, and that’s just fine. It’s a serious, important message that kids hear parroted from the authority figures in their lives, and the movie really reinforces it and drives it home.

At its core, UglyDolls is an electric reminder that “our flaws make us who we are,” friendship will get you out of the toughest of spots, and there’s nothing wrong with waving your freak flag high in the great blue sky.

Photos: STX Entertainment

About the author

Sierra McCleary-Harris

Sierra McCleary-Harris is a senior editor at Adventure Publishing Group, editing and producing content for the Toy Insider, the Toy Book, and the Pop Insider. If she's not at her desk, you can find her somewhere doing a puzzle, losing it over the latest arts and crafts, or hanging out with her kitties Hazelnutz & Pepper Ann.