REVIEW: “UglyDolls”

REVIEW: “UglyDolls”

May 6th, 2019

Martin Goodman

With Toy Story 4 warming up for release, UglyDolls may be the least anticipated animated release of this Spring. More’s the pity. Although this film has taken a critical drubbing (and some aspects of it deservedly so), My own take is that STX Family UglyDolls is an underrated work that deserves better than the barbs thrown at it by critical consensus.

Uglyville is home to a bevy of misshapen plush dolls who seem to be having a jolly fine time of it, except for Moxy (Kelly Clarkson), a bright pink, gap-toothed girl who believes that the ultimate joy in life is to be adopted by, and loved, by a human child. This desire leads her to ignore the warnings of Mayor Ox (Blake Shelton) and explore a tunnel that may lead to “the big world” where her dreams will come true. She is accompanied by her buds Ugly Dog (Pitbull), saucy Wage (Wanda Sykes), Lucky Bat (Wang Leehorn as the sage of the group), and mighty Babo (Gabriel Iglasias). They end up at the Institute of Perfection, where dollmeister Lou (Nick Jonas) separates desirable newly-made dolls from imperfect ones. Lou is ruthless in his cruelty and the dolls fear him. The Ugly crew begs for access to the “big world”, but Lou is determined to doom their hopes—and lives.

The film contains several musical numbers, all of them rather good. The most memorable are “The Ugly Truth”, performed to supercilious perfection by Jonas, and “Unbreakable” featuring Clarkson and Janelle Monáe (as Mandy, the Uglies’ sole ally in the Institute). The music is good, the scenes imaginative, and the direction flawless. Kelly Asbury, who directed Shrek 2 and Spirit:Stalllion of the Cimarron among other features, is a veteran storyboarder and voice artist going back to the 1980s, and his directing experience shows in his sure handling of the story.

The voice cast (including Asbury in incidental parts) is outstanding. Headliners Kelly Clarkson and Nick Jonas turn in spot-on performances and singing numbers. Janelle Monáe brings real feeling to the voice of Mandy. Her musical duet with Clarkson is stunning. Wanda Sykes and Pitbull turn in some first-class character acting. Lou’s sinister coterie of Bebe Rexha, Charli XCX and Lizzo (Tuesday, Kitty, and Lydia respectively) combine for some fine comedy. Blake Shelton is unexpectedly good as Mayor Ox.

The main problems with UglyDolls? There are powerful echoes of other films that are difficult to ignore. Never-say-die, perky pink Moxy strongly recalls Poppy from Trolls, and that same film influences much of the early story. One scene in which the Uglies and Mandy face destruction by shredder recalls a very similar scene in Toy Story 3.

Perhaps the worst flaw is redundancy: The story’s message is one nonstop affirmation that being different is OK, accept yourself, you are special just the way you are, diversity is to be welcomed, and above all feel good about yourself no matter what others may think. Yes, these are desirable messages, but every form of media and the schools seem to be drumming that message into kids at every turn. In case you missed it, the child self-esteem industry is a booming one and has been for a better part of the past fifteen years.

There is a disturbing scene in which Lou (a white male doll) denigrates Mandy (a female African-American doll) and then tries to destroy her in the aforementioned shredder. This is ostensibly because Mandy is imperfect (she wears glasses) and has aided the Uglies, but uneasy undertones of racism and sexism seem to lurk beneath the scene.

And, of course, one can’t ignore the implied merchandising angle. I’d expect a big perk in UglyDoll sales after the movie premiers. The UglyDolls have actually been around since 2001 and some of the rarer ones fetch huge prices today. I’ve had some dog toy knockoffs that have been entertaining my Yorkshire Terrier for years. Problem for the movie is that they aren’t all that ugly; they’re somewhat adorable, and many times they come off in the film the same way. That tends to undermine the angle stressed by the Institute of Perfection that they are unacceptable to any child.

Although the message to love yourself and who you are may be overstated, it must be said in all fairness that UglyDolls manages to do this with imagination, heart, and a touching sense of compassion for those who are different among us. The movie will probably not recoup its reported $45 million budget but that does not mean it’s not worth a look to kids. Sometimes critics will savage a film that deserves a kinder review, but as Lou would put it, that’s the ugly truth.