'UglyDolls' Trailer: Can Some Chart-Topping Singers Make This Animated Musical Worth Watching?

Trying to follow in the footsteps of the vibrant, animated musical Trolls, we've got another animated adaptation of a popular toy brand coming to the big screen. However, rather than just delivering a slew of poppy covers, the UglyDolls movie is bringing a a lot more original music with it from the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Blake Shelton, Pitbull, Janelle Monáe, and Nick Jonas. Otherwise, based on this new UglyDolls trailer, this looks like a completely uninspired and has a voice cast that doesn't fit the characters.

All of the singers lending original tunes to the UglyDolls movie soundtrack are also voicing characters in the movie, which might be part of the problem. Clearly none of them know how to really bring a character to life with just their voice, despite the fact that their entire career is based around the sound of their voice. Singing is not the same as voice acting, and anyone who pays the price of admission to see UglyDolls will likely hear that first-hand.

Aside from the record-selling half of the UglyDolls cast, voices also come from Wanda Sykes, Emma Roberts, Gabriel Iglesias, and Wang Leehom, which doesn't do much to make me anymore interested in this movie. Clearly it's meant to play to a younger audience, and the message at the film's center is an important one, but surely there has to be a better way to get that message out there.

Kelly Asbury (Shrek 2, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Gnomeo and Juliet, and Smurfs: The Lost Village) is at the helm of this animated musical, which is also somehow produced by Robert Rodriguez (Alita: Battle Angel). You can watch another trailer here if you need anymore convincing to see it, but I think we've seen enough.

Here's the official synopsis:

In the adorably different town of Uglyville, weird is celebrated, strange is special and beauty is embraced as more than simply meets the eye. Here, the free-spirited Moxy and her UglyDolls friends live every day in a whirlwind of bliss, letting their freak flags fly in a celebration of life and its endless possibilities, occasionally looking to the sky, where a new UglyDoll will appear and be embraced by the community.

Moxy (Kelly Clarkson) loves her square-peg life in this round-hole town, but her curiosity about all things leads her to wonder if there's something – anything – on the other side of the mountain which nestles Uglyville. Moxy gathers a group of her closest friends and sets off to find what's on the other side. They discover another world – Perfection – a town where more conventional dolls are trained in protocols before they graduate and are sent to the "real" world to find the love of a child.

In Perfection, Moxy and her crew are subject to the manipulations of Lou (Nick Jonas), the perfect doll in charge of training recruits. Here, the UglyDolls will confront what it means to be different, struggle with their desire to be loved, and ultimately discover that you don't have to be perfect to be amazing because who you truly are is what matters most. Also starring in the voice cast of UGLYDOLLS are Wanda Sykes, Emma Roberts, Gabriel Iglesias, and Wang Leehom.

UglyDolls arrives in theaters on May 10, 2019.