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UglyDolls

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For the dolls on which this movie is based, see Uglydoll.

UglyDolls
Theatrical release poster
Directed byKelly Asbury
Screenplay byAlison Peck
Story byRobert Rodriguez
Larry Stuckey (uncredited)
Based on
Uglydoll
by
  • David Horvath
  • Sun-min Kim
Produced by
Starring
Edited by
  • Julie Rogers
  • Nolan Southerland
Music byChristopher Lennertz[1]
Production
companies
Distributed bySTX Entertainment (United States)
VVS Films (Canada)
Huaxia Film Distribution (China)
Release date
  • May 3, 2019 (2019-05-03) (United States)
Running time
87 minutes[3]
Countries
  • United States
  • Canada
  • China
LanguagesEnglish
Spanish
Budget$45–53 million[4][5]
Box office$32.5 million[6]

UglyDolls is a 2019 animated musical adventure-comedy film directed by Kelly Asbury and written by Alison Peck, from a story by Robert Rodriguez, who also produced. It is based on the plush toys of the same name by David Horvath and Sun-Min Kim, and follows a group of them as they try to find owners in the "Big World" despite their flaws. The film stars the voices of Kelly Clarkson, Janelle Monáe, Blake Shelton, Wanda Sykes, Gabriel Iglesias, Wang Leehom, Nick Jonas, and Pitbull.

UglyDolls was theatrically released by STX Films, the first animated film produced by the company. It received negative reviews from critics and grossed $32 million worldwide, and was the last film directed by Kelly Asbury, who died in June 2020 from cancer.[7][8]

Plot

In a hidden universe within a toy factory, deformed dolls, or Uglies/UglyDolls, are dropped into a tunnel leading to the secluded town of Uglyville. Among these dolls is Moxy, who dreams of the 'Big World' and being loved by a child, despite Uglyville's Mayor Ox assuring her this concept is a myth. One day, Moxy and her shy advisor friend Lucky Bat talk about the big world, and Moxy mistakes Lucky as trying to say she should go. She, followed by the town's cynical baker Wage, easy-going Ugly Dog, Lucky, and soft-hearted giant Babo, get up to the tunnel and go through it, after Moxy convinces them that this is their chance to be loved.

The UglyDolls discover the Institute of Perfection, where Perfect Dolls (or "Pretties") are rigorously trained. The vain and superficial leader of the institute, Lou, tells Moxy and her friends that they cannot hope to pass the training for the Gauntlet - an obstacle course based on a human house, which determines if a doll will be allowed to use the portal to the Big World. Faced with Moxy's positivity, Lou relents and lets them train; however, he sends his three Spy Girls to find out where Moxy's group came from.

The Uglydolls's first days of training end in disaster. Mandy, one of the Pretties, sympathizes with them, as she has poor eyesight but can't wear glasses for fear of being labeled 'ugly' and put in the dreaded recycling center. She gives them some pointers, and helps them dress the part of a 'perfect doll'.

The Spy Girls return with a kidnapped Ox, and Lou makes him admit to Moxy he actually knew about the Big World, as he had once trained with Lou for the Gauntlet and nearly passed. However, the Pretties turned on Ox, and Lou sent him down the tunnel, claiming he thought it led to safety. Ox found the recycling center there; seeing other dolls like himself being shredded up, he rerouted the tunnel and founded Uglyville at the other end.

Demoralized by the realization they are factory rejects, the entire town of Uglyville falls into despair and Moxy resigns herself to her fate. Mandy visits and encourages Moxy to keep her faith, as it has given all the imperfect Pretties hope that they might succeed. Moxy and Mandy are then ambushed by the Spy Girls and are taken to Lou, who has unblocked the recycling center. He breaks Mandy’s glasses, and leaves her and Moxy to be shredded. Ox visits Moxy, and Buttons tells Ox what happened, causing Ox to rally the UglyDolls to rescue the pair.

The entire population of Uglyville arrives at the institute on the day of the Gauntlet. Moxy, Mandy, and several Uglies demand to be allowed to participate. Lou announces he and several others will run with them, secretly planning to sabotage the Uglies' chances. Once in the Gauntlet, Lou shows his true colors as a coward, abandoning Nolan and the Spy Girls so he can win, with the abandoned pretties being saved by the Uglies.

After the Uglies and Lou make it to the end, they are stopped by a giant robot baby. Lou kicks the baby, making it cry much to the shock of everyone. Lou is thrown in a box, and Moxy comforts the baby instead of finishing the course like everyone expected her to. Lou gets up and escapes, and the other Uglies join in and the Uglies and the baby hug. The system automatically passes them, since a Doll's true purpose is to make a child happy. Lou is failed despite finishing the course, and is forced to admit he is only a prototype and forbidden to leave the factory. When he saw Ox nearly pass the training, he couldn't bear to see an Ugly go to the human world when he, supposedly perfection itself, could not. He sabotaged Ox so he'd hopefully be killed in the recycling center. Seeing everyone has turned on him and that right now, perfection was losing to ugliness, Lou tries to break the portal so that nobody else can go to the human world. The Uglies try to stop him, but he ends up smashing the portal to the human world after getting past them. The robot dog and Nolan put Lou in a washing machine as punishment, but the portal is irrevocably destroyed.

The Uglies and Pretties work together to build a new, permanently-open portal that does not require any training to pass back and forth through. They combine their towns into the City of Imperfection, still led by Mayor Ox. Moxy finally passes through the portal and is placed in the arms of her perfect child, Maizy, who has the same missing tooth as Moxy does.

During the credits, different images show that several Uglies and Pretties have found their perfect human while a bedraggled Lou has been demoted to janitorial duty for his actions.

Cast

  • Kelly Clarkson as Moxy, a pink UglyDoll with lots of confidence, hope, and curiosity. Her design is based on that of Gorgeous, a character from the original toyline.
  • Janelle Monáe as Mandy, a kindhearted perfect doll who wears glasses for eyesight problems and befriends the Ugly Dolls
  • Blake Shelton as Ox, a green UglyDoll and the Unofficial Mayor of Uglyville, mentor to all of the other Ugly Dolls and former friend of Lou
  • Wanda Sykes as Wage, an orange UglyDoll and cynical baker who can be frequently found cooking up some amazing and inventive culinary concoctions[9]
  • Gabriel Iglesias as Babo, a grey UglyDoll and the largest of the UglyDolls[9]
  • Wang Leehom as Lucky Bat, a red bat-like UglyDoll who is the thoughtful but shy adviser[9]
  • Bebe Rexha as Tuesday, a blue-haired perfect doll and one of the Spy Girls
  • Charli XCX as Kitty, a pink-haired perfect doll and one of the Spy Girls
  • Lizzo as Lydia, a purple-haired perfect doll and one of the Spy Girls
  • Nick Jonas as Lou, the preppy leader from the town of Perfection and a bully towards the Ugly Dolls and the other imperfect dolls
  • Pitbull as Ugly Dog, a one-eyed blue dog-like UglyDoll and Moxy's closest friend[9]
    • Pitbull reprises his role in the Spanish dub.
  • Ice-T as Peggy, a small one-eyed flying unicorn
  • Emma Roberts as Wedgehead, a yellow UglyDoll and the newest citizen of Uglyville[10]
  • Kelly Asbury as the following roles before his death in 2020:[7][8]
    • Gibberish Cat, a cat-like UglyDoll whose name is self-explanatory.
    • Oliver, an insect-like UglyDoll who admits that he gets greedy with soup.
    • A large chef UglyDoll that serves soup during Uglyville's time of despair
    • Buttons, Moxy's printer
  • Jane Lynch as the scanner that decides the role of the Institute of Perfection's new arrivals with many of them being part models
  • Natalie Martinez as Meghan, a lawyer and model at the Institute of Perfection
  • Stephen Zimpel as Michael, an engineer and model at the Institute of Perfection
  • Enrique Santos as Nolan, a doll at the Institute of Perfection who Lou calls ugly
  • Rob Riggle as the Exposition Robots who oversee the exams at the Institute of Perfection
  • Steven Schweickart as a new arrival to Uglyville during its despair
  • Afi Ekulona as Tray, a three-eyed purple UglyDoll wearing three-eyed glasses
  • Jacques Colimon as Sporko, a spork-shaped UglyDoll

Production

In May 2011, it was announced that Illumination had acquired the rights to Uglydolls to make an animated feature film. Chris Meledandri was set to produce, with a screenplay from Larry Stuckey. The original creators, David Horvath and Sun-Min Kim, were set to executive produce.[11] Four years later, in 2015, Variety magazine reported that an animated film based on Uglydolls would be the first project produced by STX Entertainment's new "family and animation" division.[12] On March 28, 2017, Robert Rodriguez signed on to direct, write, and produce the film, with a release date set for May 10, 2019.[13] Animation for the film was done at Reel FX Creative Studios.[14]

In March 2018, it was announced that the voice of rapper Pitbull would be featured in the film for an unknown role, and he would also provide an original song for the film.[15] In May 2018, it was announced that Kelly Asbury had signed on to direct the feature film.[16] In July 2018, another singer Kelly Clarkson joined the voice cast of the film as the voice of Moxy, and would provide an original song for the film.[17] In August 2018, Nick Jonas joined the voice cast of the film, and he would also perform an original song for the film.[18] In September 2018, comedians Wanda Sykes and Gabriel Iglesias joined the film.[19] On September 20, 2018, it was announced that country music singer Blake Shelton had joined the film, and would voice Ox, as well as performing original music.[20] In October 2018, it was announced that Wang Leehom, Janelle Monáe and Emma Roberts had been cast in the film.[10][21]

Music

Main article: UglyDolls (soundtrack)

The film features original music from Kelly Clarkson, Nick Jonas, Blake Shelton, Janelle Monáe, Bebe Rexha, Pentatonix, Anitta, and Why Don't We.[17][15][18][20] The musical score is composed by Christopher Lennertz while songs are written by Lennertz and Glenn Slater. Lennertz previously worked with Asbury on Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017), and also worked with Slater on "The Great Beyond" number from Sausage Party (2016), which Lennertz composed with Slater's collaborator, Alan Menken. The film's soundtrack was released by Atlantic Records.[22]

Clarkson's track "Broken & Beautiful" was released on March 27, 2019, prior to the album, as the soundtrack's lead single.[23] The Brazilian singer Anitta contributed "Ugly" to the original soundtrack in English. She also recorded two alternative versions of "Ugly", one in Spanish and one in Portuguese, for their respective markets. These versions were released prior to the release of the film and are not included in the soundtrack in these markets.[24]

Pitbull was also slated to have an original song for the film, which was to be a parody of "You Make My Dreams" by Daryl Hall and John Oates. However, Pitbull's contributions to the song were scrapped, as he broke the fourth wall as Uglydog. Pentatonix was then given the final version of the record, which was included in the movie's soundtrack. Pitbull's original version, titled "Dreams Come True", can be found on DJ record pools for promotional use.[25]

Release

UglyDolls was initially scheduled to be released on May 10, 2019, but was later moved down a week to May 3 in order to avoid competition with Pokémon: Detective Pikachu.[13][26]

The studio spent around $40 million on promotions and advertisements for the film.[5]

Home media

UglyDolls was released on Digital HD on July 16, 2019, and on DVD and Blu-ray on July 30, 2019.

Additional media

A video game tie-in for various platforms was produced by Outright Games titled Ugly Dolls: An Imperfect Adventure, with the initial retail price being US$39.99.[27][28] A variety of merchandise, including plush toys, playsets, and blind bags, was released by Hasbro featuring several characters from the movie.[29]

Reception

Box office

UglyDolls grossed $20.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $11.2 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $31.4 million.[30]

In the United States and Canada, UglyDolls was released alongside The Intruder and Long Shot, and was projected to gross $12–14 million from 3,652 theaters in its opening weekend.[31] The film made $2.5 million on its first day, including $300,000 from Thursday night previews. However, it underperformed in its first week, finishing fourth in box office receipts at only $8.6 million.[5] The film fell 51.8% in its second weekend, grossing $4.1 million and finishing in seventh place.[32]

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 30% of 89 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "Very young viewers may be entertained by UglyDolls -- if only because they're less likely to recognize the many familiar elements in its affirmative yet formulaic story."[33] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 39 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.[34] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars and a 51% "definite recommend".[5]

Owen Gleiberman of Variety magazine was positive, saying that "the sincerity with which UglyDolls pits unblemished conformity against ungainly soul is touching—and, yes, instructive—in all the right ways."[35] Jesse Hassenger of The A.V. Club gave the film a grade C− and wrote: "Like their Troll ancestors, the UglyDolls combine an evergreen cuteness with a why-now lack of currency."[36]

Accolades

UglyDolls was awarded a ReFrame Stamp in the category "Top 100-Grossing Narrative Feature" for involving women in at least four of eight key areas of production.[37] The song "Broken & Beautiful" was nominated in the 2019 Teen Choice Awards in the category "Choice Song from a Movie".[38][39]

Future

Television

In May 2018, Hulu signed a deal with STX Entertainment to produce an animated television series based on UglyDolls. Hulu also gained VOD rights to the animated film. The series was meant to consist of 26 episodes per season with a projected release date of early 2020.[40] However, due to the film’s financial failure, no further updates regarding the series have been announced as of 2024.

Sequel

References

  1. ^ "Christopher Lennertz to Compose Score & Songs for Kelly Asbury's 'UglyDolls' | Film Music Reporter". Archived from the original on March 2, 2021. Retrieved September 1, 2018.
  2. ^ Dave McNary (January 11, 2019). "China's Alibaba Pictures to Partner on STX's UglyDolls Franchise". Variety. Archived from the original on November 7, 2021. Retrieved January 15, 2019.
  3. ^ "UGLYDOLLS | British Board of Film Classification". Archived from the original on October 24, 2019. Retrieved October 24, 2019.
  4. ^ Verhoeven, Beatrice; Williams, Trey (April 23, 2019). "10 Riskiest, Priciest Summer Movie Gambles, From 'Dark Phoenix' to 'Detective Pikachu'". TheWrap. Archived from the original on February 26, 2022. Retrieved April 24, 2019.
  5. ^ a b c d Anthony D'Alessandro (May 4, 2019). "'Avengers: Endgame' Mows Down 'Long Shot', 'Intruder' & 'UglyDolls' With $146M+ Second Weekend, Crosses $600M In Record Time". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on May 4, 2019. Retrieved May 4, 2019.
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  10. ^ a b Wiseman, Andreas (October 8, 2018). "Emma Roberts Joins STX Animation 'UglyDolls' With Kelly Clarkson & Blake Shelton". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on August 13, 2020. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
  11. ^ Fleming, Mike (May 26, 2011). "Chris Meledandri's Illumination To Turn Uglydoll Into Animated Film". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on December 13, 2013. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
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  21. ^ Kroll, Justin (October 2, 2018). "Janelle Monae Joins Harriet Tubman Biopic and 'UglyDolls' Voice Cast (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Archived from the original on October 3, 2018. Retrieved October 2, 2018.
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  23. ^ Acevedo, Angelica (March 27, 2019). "'UglyDolls' Soundtrack Features New Music From Nick Jonas, Kelly Clarkson & More: See Track List". Billboard. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
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  36. ^ Jesse Hassenger (May 1, 2019). "Leave UglyDolls on the shelf". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on May 1, 2019. Retrieved May 1, 2019.
  37. ^ N'Duka, Amanda (February 26, 2020). "ReFrame Stamp Affixed On Record 26 Films For 2019". Deadline. Archived from the original on February 27, 2020. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
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  39. ^ Sun, Rebecca (February 26, 2020). "ReFrame Stamp Awarded to 26 Films From 2019". Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on November 17, 2020. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  40. ^ Musnicky, Sarah (May 23, 2018). "STX's Uglydolls Franchise Gets Animated for Hulu". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved May 23, 2018.
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