20260526-20190503-0-69143478
Critic's Rating: 2.0
UglyDolls Story: In the adorably different town of Uglyville, weird is celebrated, strange is special and beauty is embraced as more than simply meets the eye.

UglyDolls Review: Millions of dolls are manufactured every year for kids to play. But what happens to those that are less than perfect? The ones who aren’t perfect enough to hit the stores because of their irregularities go to Uglyville where all the rejected dolls are sent to live. One plucky doll named Moxy, played by Kelly Clarkson, believes that she will get chosen to be someone’s doll eventually. She convinces her friends to join her in search of the big world, but instead, they come across the Institute for Perfection where dolls go through a series of tests to be paired with the right child.

Although its core idea is that we should accept one another despite our differences, ‘UglyDolls’ squanders this timeless lesson and reduces it to a film that doesn’t know how to engage with its audience. Breaking into song at every occasion it gets to maximise the talents of its voice cast is the logical approach, but the tracks are neither well written nor composed to make them memorable. They end up becoming a drag, and it doesn’t help that the rest of the plot isn’t exactly innovative either. Add voice acting that’s uninspired with almost every actor seemingly phoning in their lines. In this sea of weak performances, Janelle Monae makes a genuine attempt to make her character Mandy stand out, but her role is relatively small to make a significant difference.

To make matters worse, the animation and character design are both less than stellar. Although the ‘ugly dolls’ are made to look endearing enough, the ‘perfect’ dolls come across as poorly rendered video game ripoffs. The environment designs aren’t memorable despite the limited areas the film is set in. The biggest blunder is the film’s screenplay that goes all over the place as it’s unable to keep its target audience in focus – it veers between catering to kids and then to adolescents, with its group dynamics, and the constant peer pressure to look a certain way. Sadly, this ends up being – and there’s no joy in making this pun – an ugly mess.



Summary / Analysis

Spoiler alert! Please do not read the following plot summary if you have not seen the film.
In a hidden universe, dolls are given anthropomorphism and are chosen for a single special kid. However, dolls that are deformed get thrown into the remote town of Uglyville, where everyone is happy and at peace. Among the dolls in Uglyville is an idealistic and optimistic doll named Moxy (Kelly Clarkson), who dreams of the 'Big World' and getting chosen to be with a child, despite the fact that Uglyville's Mayor Ox (Blake Shelton) keeps on telling her that it is a myth. After inadvertently getting advice from the shy village 'wiseman' Lucky Bat (Wang Leehom), she decides to enter the hole where new Ugly Dolls are dropped off from to see if it leads to the Big World with the help of Lucky Bat and her other friends, easy-going Ugly Dog (Pitbull), cynical baker Wage (Wanda Sykes), and strong, soft-spoken Babo (Gabriel Iglesias).

Going through the tunnel, Moxy and her friends soon end up at the Institute of Perfection where human dolls go through a number of tests, culminating in an obstacle course based on a human house called the Gauntlet, to be with their perfect child. The Institute's leader, a suave yet superficial adorable perfect doll named Lou (Nick Jonas) soon meets the Ugly Dolls, but states that they cannot participate in the Gauntlet since they fall short of the standards needed for it, but Moxy's optimism coerces Lou to let them participate. As they settle in one of the institute dorms, they are visited and befriended by another perfect doll named Mandy (Janelle Monae), who is more accepting of the Ugly Dolls and has poor eyesight, but she refuses to wear glasses to be labelled as 'imperfect'.

The Ugly Dolls' first few days of training for the Gauntlet ends up disastrous as they are constantly put in a small washing machine for the slightest of messes. Eventually, they decide to try and dress up like the perfect dolls to have a better chance at going to the Big World. Lou sends the Spy Girls, a trio of ruthless female perfect dolls consisting of Tuesday (Bebe Rexha), Kitty (Charli XCX), and Lydia (Lizzo), to kidnap Ox and make him confess that he and Lou used to be friends who trained for the Gauntlet until apparently Ox fell short of the standards, resulting in him being banished to Uglyville and making him decide to keep the Big World a secret from his fellow Ugly Dolls to protect them from being judged since they were rejected from going to the Big World. Moxy, completely demoralized, decides to abandon her quest for the Big World and return to Uglyville.

Back at Uglyville, every Ugly Doll has become demoralized after the events of Moxy's adventure is disseminated. As Moxy decides to resign herself to a lifetime of sadness and self-loathing, Mandy visits her and convinces her that it doesn't matter what Lou says about her or any other Ugly Doll since she believed that there was a child for her in the Big World. With her confidence renewed, Moxy decides to be in the Gauntlet after all, but she and Mandy are kidnapped by the Spy Girls on orders from Lou to put them in a recycling bin underneath Uglyville, which is basically a death trap. As Moxy and Mandy try to escape, the rest of the Ugly Dolls come to their rescue and they head to the institute to compete in the Gauntlet, much to the surprise, and chagrin, of Lou.

As the Ugly Dolls advanced through the challenges, Ugly Dog distracts a robotic dog to help the other Ugly Dolls; this encourages Lou to repeatedly try to sabotage Moxy and make her avoid crossing the finish line, to no success. As they near the finish line, Lou and Moxy are stopped by a robotic baby. Lou makes the baby cry after kicking it in the face, which makes the Ugly and Perfect dolls turn on Lou, prompting an empathetic Moxy to forgo finishing the competition to comfort the crying baby. Although Lou crosses the finish line, Moxy is dubbed the winner for making a child happy, which is a doll's true purpose. Even though Lou crossed the finish line, he failed because he is revealed that he is actually a 'prototype', which isn't supposed to go to the 'Big World' and he was the reason for the standards. Enraged that he will never be loved despite being the 'perfect' doll, he then uses a knitting needle to make a huge crack on the portal to the Big World, despite Ox's attempts to stop him; but Lou ends up getting beaten up by Lucky Bat, whereupon Babo and Wage get their hands on Lou and throw him to the robotic dog. When Lou demands another chance, he is thrown into the same washing machine that he tormented Moxy and her friends with by Nolan.

Afterwards, the Ugly Dolls and the Perfect Dolls fix the portal, make peace, and merge their hometowns to create the town of Imperfection. Moxy finally gets to go through a portal where is put into the arms of her special kid, which is a little girl named Addison who is revealed to have her imperfect mouth, much to Moxy's elation.

During the credits, the Ugly Dolls, Mandy, and the Spy Girls are shown to have found their own special kid who have similar characteristics as them. A now messy Lou is demoted to janitorial duty while being overseen by the robotic dog.

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FAQs
  1. What is the release date of 'Uglydolls'?
    Release date of Emma Roberts and Janelle Monae starrer 'Uglydolls' is 2019-05-03.
  2. Who are the actors in 'Uglydolls'?
    'Uglydolls' star cast includes Emma Roberts, Janelle Monae, Nick Jonas and Blake Shelton.
  3. Who is the director of 'Uglydolls'?
    'Uglydolls' is directed by Kelly Asbury.
  4. What is Genre of 'Uglydolls'?
    'Uglydolls' belongs to 'Animation,Adventure,Comedy' genre.
  5. In Which Languages is 'Uglydolls' releasing?
    'Uglydolls' is releasing in English.