UglyDolls Started as a Doodle! Chatting with the Creator of UglyDolls #UglyDolls

STX Films new movie UglyDolls is in theaters now! Did you know the original concept of UglyDolls started as a Doodle in an art class? ? Last week I had the chance to chat with Ugly Dolls creator, David Horvath to hear the story of just how the UglyDolls came to life! We also chatted with the UglyDolls movie producer Kelly Asbury and I loved hearing how his thoughts. Check out our interview highlights and this cool video below to hear from David Horvath about just how the UglyDolls came to be from what was initially just a random doodle into a full line of plush, then toys, and now a movie!!!!!!

UglyDolls Poster

#UglyDollsMovie – only in theaters! Get tickets now: https://www.uglydolls.com/tickets/

UglyDolls Started as a Doodle: The Origin of UglyDolls

Messages For the Audience

Both David and Kelly shared with us the various messages they hope the audience and children walk away with after watching UglyDolls. UglyDolls is full of amazing messages and I’m sure everyone who sees this film will definitely leave feeling more confident in their own uniqueness. After seeing this film, hopefully all of us – kids and adults – will feel that being “uglylicious” is fabulous and that we all need to love ourselves !

David Horvath: 

Pitbull said, you’ve got to love yourself? That’s so true, that’s perfect for me. And the movie’s messaging that Kelly Clarkson, as Moxy, told is perfect.

Kelly Asbury: 

“So, if my movie gives kids any kind of message that there’s more to someone than you might think, just–and forget about how they look. Forget about how they act, alright? Nobody knew, you know, our villain in our movie had this very sad reason that he’s who he is. And we were careful about that. But we wanted the audience to sort of learn that, you know, like it says in To Kill a Mockingbird, which is my favorite book and my favorite movie, “you don’t really know a person until you get in their shoes and walk around in them”. And I buy that. I buy into that whole-heartedly and I hope that in an indirect way that that message comes across in the movie.”

David Horvath, the Creator of the Ugly Dolls 

David Horvath

Question: Were there certain quirks or personality traits in your Ugly Dolls characters that you wanted to include? Did you plan to include quirks that your audience would relate to or specific qualities you know people struggle with ? 

David Horvath: 

“As for my own quirkiness–like in the U.S., and growing up, everyone always thought or told me that I was very quiet. And then I go to Korea and I’m the loudmouth, but I’m kind of the same! “

“I think for UglyDolls, for the way Kelly beautifully put this all together and what it–the messaging in the film is, I think, the most beautiful encapsulation of what we always wanted to say but we’ve also kind of never really came out and said it. Purposefully, for a very long time. To kind of save it for a story like this, and this is like the best version of if we were ever going to come out and say it in this format, I think Kelly said it beautifully. So, I really do applaud all of the work that, you know, the entire team put into it. And I think you really nailed it.”

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Kelly Asbury:

“What I always thought about the UglyDolls in relation to David is, you know, I sort of liken it to Charles Schultz and his Peanuts characters. And Charles Shultz was a big hero of mine, and he always said that every one of the Peanuts characters was some aspect of his own personality, either at one time in his life or always. And he related most to Charlie Brown, and so did everyone else. And I always thought that was interesting. We all are Charlie Brown first, and then we each have our pieces. And I think that, in many ways, I approached the movie pretty much, I think, everyone is Moxie, at one time or another. I know that I approached Moxie’s character the same way–thinking about when I was living in Beaumont, Texas, wanting to go to art school in California, wanting to work in the animation industry, having my dreams, and they were so far removed from where I was then, and the journey it took to get to where I’m not directing animated features in my old age–that it is kind of an extraordinary thing, when you look at the road behind you. And along the way, I say, you know, I understand Moxie being happy and loving her family. Being happy where she lives. I was happy where I lived. But I also had a yearning that was unquenchable until I found it. So that alone gave me Moxie, and then all the characters that join her each have their own extension of that and aspect of that that everyone would on that same journey. So, it’s all sort of an amalgamation of one, you know, one character sort of broken into pieces. I’d be curious, you know, I’d love to get to know David better to find out just how much these characters really are a piece of you, each piece of you. You know, it’s an interesting thing that happens with any creation.”

#UglyDollsMovie – only in theaters!

Buy tickets now! https://www.uglydolls.com/tickets/

UGLYDOLLS – IN THEATERS MAY 3

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Unconventionality rules in UGLYDOLLS, STXfilms’ new animated musical adventure starring the acting and singing voices of Kelly Clarkson, Nick Jonas, Janelle Monáe, Blake Shelton and Pitbull. The film is inspired by the unique and beloved global plush toy phenomenon launched in 2001.

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.

Director: Kelly Asbury

Cast: Kelly Clarkson, Nick Jonas, Blake Shelton, Janelle Monae, Wanda Sykes, Emma Roberts, Gabriel Iglesias, Wang Leehom and Pitbull

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