UglyDolls

WHAT IT'S ABOUT:

In the adorably different town of Uglyville, weird is celebrated, strange is special and beauty is embraced as more than simply meets the eye. Here, Moxy and her friends live every day in a whirlwind of bliss, letting their freak flags fly. Moxy’s curiosity leads her to wonder if there’s something on the other side of the mountain that nestles Uglyville. She gathers her closest friends and sets off to find another world – Perfection – a town where conventional dolls are trained in protocols before they are sent to the “real” world to find the love of a child. The UglyDolls will confront what it means to be different, and ultimately discover that you don’t have to be perfect to be amazing.

WHAT WE THOUGHT:

UglyDolls, although sweet, is a mediocre animation filled with A-list celebrities who are a mere cover-up for an average script, two-dimensional graphics and a not-quite rightly executed narrative – that's the adult in me talking.

The kid in me totally loved this movie, which I guess is what will make it successful because despite the PG-rating it is totally catered for primary-schoolers.

Moxy (Kelly Clarkson) is an ugly doll living in Uglyville with her fellow ugly doll friends – which is totally 'normal' until she and group of friends venture to the Institute of Perfection where ugly is not a thing and only the best get chosen to go to the real world to meet their perfect human. 

Without giving any more information I know you're already thinking how this is going to end.

Nevertheless, the underlying message of UglyDolls is an important one that all kids should be exposed to. The word ugly should not even exist and what matters most is staying true to yourself no matter what you look like, how much you weigh or where you come from. 

The movie's happy-clappy vibe, filled with rainbow colours and singing and dancing will make you think of DreamWorks Animation's Trolls, however the quality of the film doesn't quite meet that of the latter.

The script falls short in that it lacks deep emotion and sounds a lot like the voices are merely just reading their script – that may have to do with the fact that majority of the cast are not trained actors but rather musicians.

I will give a shout out to Kelly Clarkson's Moxy, Nick Jonas' Lou and Janelle Monáe's Mandy. They are three cast members who put effort into the delivery of their lines.

And while the film is filled with a lot of upbeat and catchy musical numbers, I do feel as though some of the cast were not used for their singing talent, namely Charlie XCX's Kitty, Bebe Rexha's Tuesday and Lizzo's Lydia. If you're going to sell a movie using big names in the music industry, then let them sing!

UglyDolls has a great message that all kids should see, serves as a colourful distraction to keep kids entertained but may be disappointing to the older half of the audience who have to sit through it, too.