UGLYDOLLS: Muddled Message In Bland Animation

There’s a very telling moment towards the end of UglyDolls when one character questions just how time functions within the world of pre-claimed toys, unsure if the events took place over a day, week, or month. I started wondering as well. Then more questions came bubbling up. Who is in charge of this factory of manufacturing this sentience of toys? How do these felt and plastic characters consume food? Where did the robots come from?

These are very nitpicky questions that are invited not so much by the characters but from the uninspired story that is more interesting for the allegories it weaves than its presentation of an animated adventure.

The Ugly Story

So the flimsy story goes, the UglyDolls are simplistic, soft and deformed toys rejected by a factory line. Rather than being tossed into the furnace, they are instead diverted to the colorfully stitched-together Uglyville, a town where very few seem to question their origins of how they got there. Determined to find an answer is the chipper Moxy, played by Kelly Clarkson, who opens the film immediately with a song about wanting to find a child that will love her as a toy. Not content with her simple life of endless singing and dancing, she takes it upon herself to find answers to the bigger question of her toy existence.

Taking a handful of quirky UglyDolls with her, Moxy stumbles into the location where the beautiful and perfect toys go. The apparent proper product of the factory line is human-like dolls with thin bodies and big heads. Fresh off the line, they’re stationed at the Institute for Perfection, one of many gags of the literal that are not only abundant but spelled out constantly. The Institute is apparently the last stage of training before a doll is deemed worthy to be granted life as a toy, making this a rather eerie prequel of sorts to Toy Story, where admittance into the human world must be earned.

How a doll is deemed worthy and who enforces these rules are rather vague, intentionally covered up in one scene no less. The rules are apparently enforced by the handsome and judgmental doll Lou (Nick Jonas), striving for no flaws in the toys to be sent to the other side. He’s a fancy dresser with great hair and a swooning singing voice, so he’s naturally the nasty villain that Moxy must contend with. And he’ll naturally pull plenty of nasty tricks to ensure that no UglyDoll will ever enter the market to shatter his ideal of perfection.

Squandered Potential

From that setup, you can probably draw a few messages the film is putting forth, both boldly and blindly. There’s an obvious embracing of individuality, the confidence in one’s self that differences in creation don’t determine true happiness. Cooperation plays a key role in how Moxy desires that nobody is left behind or discarded when Lou demands the imperfect be recycled. Dig deeper and there’s a tale of eugenics if you factor in how the glasses-wearing black doll, Mandy (Janelle Monáe), struggles to hide her eyesight issue for fear of being exterminated. There’s a creepy and compelling narrative at play for this tale of dolls desiring to be loved, even religious if you wanna stretch that far.

Of course, these theories all stemmed from my tiring of the animated movie checklist. Moxy, despite being full of energy and music, doesn’t have much to her character past a sugar rush of love and honesty. Ox (Blake Shelton), the one-eyed bunny leader of Uglyville, comes off strangely boring for a character with a dark secret and genuine concern for Moxy. The rest of the Uglydolls fill up the rest of the trope quota; Wanda Sykes voices a snarky chef with an I-told-you-so attitude, Wang Leehom plays a meek and intelligent bat, Gabriel Iglesias is a resourceful giant, and Pitbull is the designated DJ who slaps on shades and gets others dancing with his raps.

These characters all seem to be capable of one joke only and then just sit back for the rest of the ride. Iglesias‘ character’s bit is that he carries a cartoonish level of gadgets and vehicles in his pockets but always believes he doesn’t have the right tool for the job. I can’t think of a better way to sum up the film’s squandered potential; sifting through a pile of meaty themes and comedy, only coming up with a hollow musical and phoned-in PSA, as though that’s all that could be mustered from this brand.

Somewhat protective of that brand, UglyDolls touches on subjects but never fully explores them, getting lost in the musical numbers of blunt messages with hollow delivery. Lou’s introduction is a big and flashy number of calling everyone not as perfect as him an ugly reject, but the true sting against the UglyDolls feels absent by the end of his song.

Mandy has a peppy number about getting all dolled up so the UglyDolls can be less ugly, only to feature a very brief and less memorable admittance that makeup doesn’t make a person feel true to themselves. Though these are not very memorable songs with their instantly-forgettable lyrics, I somehow think kids are going to remember the flashier sequence of Mandy gleefully pushing makeup on the dolls than her quiet spotlight scene of feeling unsure in the mirror.

UglyDolls: Conclusion

I hate getting into the mindset of wanting to rewrite a film in my head, but there’s a frustratingly passive nature to UglyDolls that prevents it from being the more meaningful film it could have been. I kept staring at these simplistic and felt toys hoping for that big and clever joke that never came. There’s a twinge of a bittersweet ending that hints at the more heartfelt, and made me wonder why this emotion wasn’t more present throughout.

And so where Toy Story found something deeply moving in a tale of connections with toys, UglyDolls comes crashing down with all the visual allure and moral engagement of a 1980s animated Public Service Announcement.

What are your thoughts on UglyDolls?

UglyDolls is now playing in theaters worldwide.