“Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Film” is an expertise akin to having glitter thrown into your face, again and again.
It’s a capably animated and produced however chaotically written enlargement of a Netflix animated kids’s present that I mistakenly hoped my daughter had grown out of, however no such luck.
The plot: Gabby (performed by the unfailingly enthusiastic Laila Lockhart Kraner) goes on a visit to Cat Francisco to go to her Grandma. She is performed by Gloria Estefan, however bizarrely, her character by no means sings.
Cat Francisco, along with sporting a Golden Gate Bridge with cat ears, is house to a weird kitty litter mogul named Vera (Kristin Wiig).
As soon as Vera eyes Gabby’s dollhouse, which has rolled down the hill and in entrance of Vera’s automotive, the dollhouse is snatched, Vera locations it on a mantel in her cat-obsessed area. Gabby, with a view to take motion, should summon her superpower of remodeling right into a smaller, CGI model of herself.
How does she do that? She sings, “I pinch on my left, I pinch on my proper….” This occurs rather a lot.
The place to start with what’s improper with this film?
‘Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Film’ hits theaters as we speak, that includes a brand new tune “Dollhouse World” from #Kpop woman group #Aespa. THR has an unique first have a look at the four-member group recording the tune within the official lyric video https://t.co/pA9kmowEok pic.twitter.com/8Vw8LY1OtD
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) September 26, 2025
How concerning the rushed high quality to the screenplay, credited to 4 writers and stuffed with incident however by no means permitting character or stakes to construct. Gabby is all the time “on,” unbreakable in her cheeriness, and incessantly breaks the fourth wall.
The final time I loved an actor speaking on to me was Matthew Broderick, and that was in 1986. Gabby conspires with us so usually, I needed a fifth and sixth wall to be constructed instantly.
The story darts from the true world to CGI domains usually, however by no means totally develops the handfuls of recent characters and areas that maintain popping up. A subplot involving Chumsley, Vera’s former finest buddy and childhood toy, is a rehash of the “When She Beloved Me” sequence from “Toy Story 2” (1999).
Numerous scenes really feel lifted from different Pixar, DreamWorks and Blue Sky Studio CGI fests, although the film this jogged my memory of essentially the most is John Krasinski’s dreadful “IF” (2024) and the awful “Harold and the Purple Crayon” that occupied this actual area in theaters a 12 months in the past.
One of the best character within the sequence, CatRat, is barely on this, whereas the terrible DJ Catnip, who enters a room declaring “Wiggle-wiggle!” is on this far an excessive amount of. I hate DJ Catnip. I hate him as a result of his dialogue is all the time inane (plenty of gems like “Get your meow on!”) and since the character is a DJ who demonstrates how crowded dance events and clubbing are enjoyable.
Bear in mind, this can be a present (and now a film) for very babies.
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Wiig’s preliminary entrance is promising, as she’s enjoying it in a knowingly campy key that’s completely different from the remainder of the movie. I hoped Wiig would save the movie; as an alternative, she does right here what she supplied for “Marvel Girl 1984” (2020), rising as the most effective factor in a nasty film.
Vera has a Mr. Bigglesworth-like cat sidekick that ought to have gotten simple laughs, however the expression on the feline’s face mirrored my very own. That cat seems so depressing to be on this.
The one humorous scene is a TV advert demonstrating the effectiveness of Vera’s product, which is purple, sparkly kitty litter formed like a turd. Really, a turd fabricated from sparkly kitty litter is my on the spot evaluate of this film.
Am I not the precise viewers for this? Nope, good attempt. A few of my favourite motion pictures weren’t for anybody remotely like me, however nice motion pictures transcend demographics and may join with anybody.
I could also be rather a lot older than many of the viewers for “Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Film” however I used to look at that sequence each Saturday morning. I couldn’t watch for every cutesy-wootsy episode to finish, so my little woman and I might watch the much better “Tru and the Rainbow Kingdom,” “Sheriff Calley” and “Puffin Rock” (why couldn’t a kind of develop into a film?!).
When it was over, I requested my ecstatic daughter what number of stars she’d price this, and he or she replied, “A Lot!” My evaluation is under.
One and a half stars (out of 4)
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