UglyDolls Parent Guide

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.

Eager to pursue her dream, Moxy brings along a few friends and climbs up the delivery pipe in search of the wider world. A wrong turn takes her to Perfection—another inexplicable village somewhere in the walls of the toy factory. Unlike Uglyville, Perfection is home to the dolls that made the cut—a bunch of pristine boys and girls in matching uniforms. Here, any differences are shunned and publicly ridiculed by Lou, (voiced by Nick Jonas,) the most perfect doll of all. Naturally, he has nothing but disdain for Moxy and her friends but agrees to tolerate them as they accompany the other dolls of Perfection through the rigorous training required to enter the human world and be given to a 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.