By Robert Yaniz Jr.

Here’s the latest assembly-line animated film with more commerce on its mind than creativity.

THE HYPE

Whenever any film — but especially an animated one — based on toys or games is announced, an immediate red flag should go off. Historically, these films have been almost universally just excuses to exploit parents and guilt them into buying more merchandise for their children. With The Lego Movie as a rare exception, these films feel creatively bereft, a slapped-together collection of cliches and lazy gags masquerading as a heartwarming story for children of all ages. On a related note, let’s talk about UglyDolls.

THE STORY

Based on the plush toys, the film takes place in a hidden world where every doll is designed for a specific child. The defective ones are sent to the land of Uglyville, where Moxy (voiced by Kelly Clarkson) dreams of something more, to belong to a child. Of course, she and a group of her UglyDoll friends ultimately embark on a quest to pursue said goal. Their journey leads them to discover the Institute of Perfection, where dolls compete for the chance to be delivered to a child. Essentially, it’s as if UglyDolls put the plot of every Pixar film in a blender and cherry-picked out the basic ideas without any of the intelligence, humor and legitimate insight.

THE CAST

The voice cast is perfectly fine in their roles, with nobody making a particular impression. Their performances, for the most part, sound just like their speaking voices with the modicum amount of emotion needed for each scene. For stars like Clarkson, Blake Shelton and Wanda Sykes, this is an easy way to earn a paycheck, but audiences still have to suffer through a film that has nothing new to bring to the table. One of the few saving graces of the film is the laundry list of talented pop stars in the cast, which brings us to…

THE PRODUCTION

The soundtrack to UglyDolls is actually pretty solid. That is, of course, almost inevitable with folks like Clarkson, Nick Jonas, Janelle Monae and Bebe Rexha onboard. While the equally unimpressive (but hugely successful) Trolls film chose to mostly riff on chart-topping pop hits, UglyDolls has all-new original music from Christoper Lennertz and Glenn Slater. The tracklist is more than a little derivative, but there’s enough there to make for a fun listen, especially for viewers looking for something tolerable to listen to with their young children in the car.

THE VERDICT

UglyDolls isn’t offensively terrible or anything, but it doesn’t have enough of its own vision to escape the shadow of the countless superior animated films that preceded it, namely the Toy Story franchise. Still, its message is an important one for children to hear. Burdened by a poor script and mediocre character designs, UglyDolls feels like a missed opportunity to create something that might have connected with families. As is, it struggles to make much of an impact on anyone other than the youngest of viewers.

UglyDolls stars the voices of Kelly Clarkson, Nick Jonas, Janelle Monae, Blake Shelton, Wanda Sykes, Gabriel Iglesias, Emma Roberts, Wang Leehorn, Bebe Rexha, Charli XCX, Lizzo and Pitbull and is directed by Kelly Asbury.