USA TODAY International Edition
Kelly Clarkson shows her Moxy in ‘UglyDolls’
Kelly Clarkson used to dream of playing Disney princesses as a child. Destiny had another animated character in mind for the free-spirited pop star.
She fell in love with the character Moxy, whom she voices for the upcoming animated movie “UglyDolls,” revealed exclusively by USA TODAY.
“Moxy could not be more perfect for me. Because I’m not really that (princess) girl. I’m really this girl,” says Clarkson, 36. “Moxy’s personality is like 100 percent me. It’s not acting. It’s weird, it’s like she was written for me.”
Top-teeth-heavy Moxy and the rest of the popular plush toys UglyDolls, which started in 2001, make their movie debut on May 10, with the movie’s first trailer arriving Nov. 8. Ugly or adorable (we’re going with adorable), the label doesn’t matter to Clarkson.
“It’s a giant metaphor on life,” she says. “We all come in different shapes, sizes and personalities, but with our own individuality.”
Moxy lives happily in the town of Uglyville, where cake and cookies are balanced diets and weird is celebrated as a special kind of beauty. Ever the adventurer, Moxy sets out with her friends Ox (voiced by Blake Shelton), Wage (Wanda Sykes), Babo (Gabriel Iglesias), Lucky Bat (Leehom Wang) and her sidekick Ugly Dog (Pitbull) to explore the world.
They find Perfection, a town of perfect dolls with a tough-talking, buff leader named Lou (Nick Jonas). Lou is the image of perfection, who trains citizens to behave in prescribed doll ways in order to “graduate” to the human world in hopes of finding a child’s love.
Clarkson shows plenty of her own personality in her first lead animated role. Director Kelly Asbury insisted she let her freak flag fly and improvise in the recording studio.
“Moxy is outrageous, I’m outrageous. So we leaned in on that,” she says.
She sings in “UglyDolls.” But Clarkson passed on writing songs for the movie, given her many commitments, including current duties as a coach on “The Voice.”
“I know when I’m spread really thin,” she says. “So I said that I would love to find amazing songwriters and for me to click with a song.”
She’s especially impressed with how Jonas, 26, gleefully embraces his villain role and belts out a song critical of UglyDolls.
Jonas says his fiancee, Priyanka Chopra, isn’t shocked by his new colors: “I may not be villainous (in real life), but if I haven’t had my coffee in the morning, I can be a bit prickly.”
Telling the story, he believes, will shine a light in a world that desperately needs it.
“Every passing day, the world seems to just get darker and darker, and times get harder,” Jonas says. “It’s exciting to bring something joyful into the world with a positive message of hope and acceptance.”