ALSO SHOWING
UGLYDOLLS HHHHH
THE most beautiful sight in the world is the inquisitive face staring back at you in the bathroom mirror. That’s the key learning of UglyDolls, a well-intentioned journey of selfacceptance and discovery based on the popular line of toys.
Misshapen and malformed dolls from a toy factory production line are diverted down a chute to the cardboard box ghetto of Uglyville. Pink plush Moxy (voiced by Kelly Clarkson), pictured, wakes each morning with a sense of unabashed optimism, hopeful that today she will ascend to the Big World and be paired with a child.
When her faith wavers, Moxy visits resident soothsayer Lucky Bat (Wang Leehom) and misinterprets his tea leaf reading as a sign to abandon Uglyville and forge her own destiny.
Lucky Bat, Babo (Gabriel Iglesias), Wage (Wanda Sykes) and Ugly Dog (Pitbull) join Moxy on her quest, which leads to the pearly gates of the Institute of Perfection. Here, dolls compete for the approval of Aryan major-domo Lou (Nick Jonas).
Lou sneeringly dismisses Moxy and her motley crew – “Ugly things belong in recycling” – but the new arrivals have dauntless belief in teamwork and they defiantly let their “freak flags fly”.
PLAYMOBIL: THE MOVIE HHHHH
(U)
(U) CAST in a similar mould to The LEGO Movie, replete with a live-action framing device, Playmobil: The Movie encourages young children who play with the plastic toy sets to never limit their imaginations.
Youthful exuberance romps through Blaise Hemingway, Greg Erb and Jason Oremland’s scattershot screenplay, which breathlessly slingshots from Norse mythology and the rootin’ tootin’ wild west to a prehistoric land before time and gladiatorial Rome.
Briskly paced interludes, which trade logic for a sensory overload of colour and cartoon violence, are glued together with saccharine pop musical numbers sung by an ensemble cast, which includes Adam Lambert and Meghan Trainor.
The humour on offer isn’t as sophisticated or snarky as the LEGO films and there are almost no cute visual gags aimed at parents, who may find themselves power-napping for the best part of 90 minutes as youngsters take in the spectacle on screen.