Uglydolls shares a message about individuality
Another day in Hollywood, another animated film featuring an all star cast…
When the trailer rolled online a few months prior to the release of Uglydolls, the internet was in a frantic frenzy with a list of complaints longer than Great Expectations. Most of the criticism of the Uglydolls trailer derives from the fact that this movie and Trolls share a similar color palette. Trolls and Uglydolls are also both animated musicals based on a famous toy franchise. People also called Uglydolls a Toy Story rip off for sharing the concept of toys coming to life when no humans are watching. Due to the fact that most trailers are incredibly misleading, especially when it comes to animated trailers, I decided to view the movie opening weekend with blind judgement.
After watching Uglydolls in its entirety, I was pleasantly surprised with its fun atmosphere and overall message. It’s not perfect, but what do you expect when most films nowadays are sequels and reboots?
One complaint I have with the film is the plot holes that come with the plot. If these plot holes were fixed or at least touched up, it would have not gotten the unusually low Rotten Tomatoes score it received. Many things are thrown at the screen with little to no explanation, which is fine for small children who have not yet grasped the idea of a plot yet, but may leave other viewers with a puzzled expression on their faces.
While celebrities such as Wanda Sykes (Wage) and Wang Leehom (Lucky Bat) do a phenomenal voice acting job, a few celebrities thrown into the mix do not belong in the voice acting ring. If the producers hired actual voice actors, I would not have to cringe every time certain characters spoke. Also, during some of the musical numbers, the autotune on some of the characters sounded beyond terrible. Janelle Monae (Mandy) is a fantastic singer, but her autotune on the song Unbreakable sounded like the alien filter on Snapchat.
On the contrary, the musical numbers overall ranged from decent to fantastic, with my favorite song being Couldn’t Be Better, starring Kelly Clarkson (Moxy). The song perfectly introduces the Ugly Dolls cast and setting with an incredibly upbeat tempo and playful lyrics.
My honorable mentions include The Ugly Truth and All Dolled Up.
Minus the continuity errors, the plot holds an important life message that is and will always be relevant in our society: the message of individuality.
Lou (Nick Jonas), the main antagonist of the film, may not be the most original of villain history, but he definitely plays his role as the villain well, for his narcissism and ego is higher than the Empire State Building.
Most importantly, the greatest part of the film is Moxy (Kelly Clarkson), one of the main Uglydolls. She not only does not give up on her dreams of finding the love of a child, but is able to keep a smile during (almost) all of the film.
Overall, Uglydolls isn’t the next Lego Movie or Incredibles, but serves its purpose as a animated musical that can be enjoyed by people of all ages, although the main targeted audience is kids.
