Story
Uglyville is a town full of ‘ugly’ dolls, who’ve been rejected because of their imperfections – but the dolls don’t know this. Moxy (voice of Kelly Clarkson) is a free-spirited eternal optimist, who believes that one day ‘her child’ will come to take her home. Eventually Moxy realises that instead of waiting for her child to come, she needs to be pro-active. Against the advice of Ox the Mayor (Blake Shelton), she decides to enter the real world, taking her friends Uglydog (Pitbull), Lucky Bat (Leeholm Wang), Wage (Wanda Sykes) and Babo (Gabriel Iglesias) with her.
The friends find a tunnel that takes them to the Institute of Perfection, where ‘perfect’ dolls are trained for the real world. There they meet Lou (Nick Jonas), who controls the Institute and is adored by all. Lou tells the ugly dolls that they can never enter the real world because they’re imperfect, but he lets them stay for a while.
Moxy is certain she can make it in the real world and sets out to prove Lou wrong. There are many obstacles and rejections along the way, but Moxy never gives up.
Themes
Diversity; tolerance; body Image
Violence
UglyDolls has some violence that’s designed to make you laugh. For example:
- The dolls fall or get pushed and crash into objects.
- A character gets covered in ice-cream.
- The dolls have a food fight at a feast.
- A large bear doll knocks down Lucky Bat with his fist.
- The ugly dolls fall out of a tunnel into fast-moving tubes like a roller coaster.
- Ox ends up in a sack and trips on a rake. Some spies drag Ox back to Lou in the sack.
- Lou puts the ugly dolls in a washing machine several times because they’re messy.
There’s also some other violence in UglyDolls. For example:
- Lou throws the ugly dolls into the recycling bin.
- A large robot dog grabs a toy in its mouth.
- Lou pushes a doll into a vacuum.
- A large robot baby picks up Lou and Moxy and shakes them. Lou kicks the robot baby.
- Lou and Ox fight with a knitting needle. They hit and punch each other. Lou throws Ox off the steps. Lou ends up in the robot dog’s mouth.
Sexual references
There are no sexual references in UglyDolls.
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
There’s some use of substances in UglyDolls. For example, Uglydog flirts with a girl doll. He sets out a table and opens a bottle of champagne.
Nudity and sexual activity
UglyDolls has some mild nudity. For example, a doll is briefly shown with a bare buttock.
Product placement
There’s no product placement of concern in UglyDolls.
Coarse language
UglyDolls has some name-calling and insults, including ‘emptyheaded’, ‘mindless sycophants’ and ‘imbeciles’.
Ideas to discuss with your children
UglyDolls is an animated comedy that explores the issues of body image and the idea that true beauty is inside a person, not outside. This important message makes it a valuable movie for young children to see. It does have some scary scenes and violence, though, so we recommend parental guidance for children under six years.
These are the main messages from UglyDolls:
- A kind heart is much more important than an attractive appearance.
- Believe in yourself.
- Our differences make us shine, and our flaws make us unique.
- Don’t give up just because you’re not ‘perfect’.
Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include:
- love for others
- compassion and kindness
- acceptance of difference and diversity
- the power of positivity
- determination
- strength of character.
This movie could also give you the chance to talk with your children about real-life issues like why Lou is so mean and judgemental. His enforcement of high standards and his belief that appearances are important are shown to be false, but why do people think this way in real life?