UglyDolls (PG)
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Caution: potential spoilers.

This is based on an actual line of plush toys, which I assume are popular enough to warrant a movie. Though I find that kind of ironic, since the Uglydolls in this movie are considered rejects that aren't worth even trying to sell. As for the movie itself, I thought it was okay, but not great. It's kind of derivative of other things, like the Toy Story movies and the Island of Misfit Toys from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. But at least the songs are reasonably fun, and the story isn't bad.

There's a town called Uglyville where all the Uglydolls live and seem to love life, but one of them, Moxy (Kelly Clarkson), desperately hopes that one day she'll get a chance to go to the "Big World" and be loved by a child. (Personally I feel like a life where you have to pretend to be lifeless is worse than the happy lives all the dolls, including Moxy, have in Uglyville. In fact, now that I'm typing this, it reminds me of a short horror film I've seen. But of course Moxy is welcome to have her own feelings on the matter. Actually, I guess all the dolls feel the same way as she does, they just don't believe the Big World actually exists.

But one day, Moxy decides to explore the chute that all new arrivals in Uglyville come through, and she coaxes some of her friends to come along with her, including Ugly Dog (Pitbull), Lucky Bat, Babo (Gabriel Iglesias), and the cynical Wage (Wanda Sykes). The five of them soon find their way to the Institute of Perfection, where all the pretty dolls wait to be sent through a portal that will take them to their intended children. Perfection is ruled over by a doll named Lou (Nick Jonas), who treats even the pretty dolls as if they're ugly, but they all still idolize him. When the Uglydolls show up, he takes a special interest in tormenting them as they face the challenges necessary to win a chance to go through the portal. Eventually, he sends three dolls, Tuesday (Bebe Rexha), Kitty (Charli XCX), and Lydia (Lizzo) to Uglyville to kidnap its mayor, Ox (Blake Shelton), which kind of reminded me of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Ox is forced to tell his fellow Uglydolls the story of how Uglyville came into being. I don't want to spoil that in full detail, but I will say that before Ox created the town, Uglydolls were recycled in an incinerator (which reminded me of Toy Story 3), so he actually saved the lives of all the Uglydolls that came after him. So, the Uglydolls return to Uglyville, where the news that they're all rejects turns the once high-spirited town into a dreary place where everyone is utterly despondent. But the Uglydolls get some help from a pretty doll named Mandy (Janelle Monáe), and um, a bunch of other stuff happens that all leads to a happy ending.

There. I've left out plenty of details while probably also divulging too much of the story. I do think it's basically a good story, but just not as fun or as clever and inventive as most of the CGI movies I'm used to watching. I'm still glad I watched it, though.