Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie

Grade: D-

Is Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie a bad movie? I don’t know. Maybe not. It almost didn’t feel like a movie, but rather something I’d put on while babysitting a very little girl – not that I’ve done much of that. Is it the worst movie of the year? Believe it or not, no. However, I’d rather rewatch MOST of the films I’ve seen this year than have another viewing of this one. There are still a couple that this was an improvement over.

Gabby’s Dollhouse, the series, has been running on Netflix since January 2021. It’s an interactive TV show, a la Blue’s Clues, which combines live-action and animation. Laila Lockhart Kraner, as Gabby, doesn’t have many credits aside from this, but I’d grant that she has promise. It must take commitment and energy to keep up such a shallow, over-the-top caricature – for 10 seasons and a movie, no less.

The film’s plot has Gabby staying with her grandmother Gigi (Gloria Estefan). Her dollhouse, which has been strapped to the car on the road trip there, comes loose and rolls down the steep city streets, eventually landing into the hands of an evil, Cruella de Vil-like Kitty Litter empire CEO named Vera (Kristen Wiig). It’s up to Gabby, Gigi, and the team of “friends” inside the dollhouse to coordinate a rescue plan.

Gabby is able to make herself small and animated, so she can play in the dollhouse. She accomplishes this by holding her friend Pandy and singing “a pinch on my left, pinch pinch on my right, grab Pandy’s hand and hold on tight!” – while pinching each ear to the corresponding lyric. Good, clean, safe adventures ensue. Estefan is aging nicely, and brings a sweetness to Gigi. Wiig is amusing when she sings an a capella song written by her character. I enjoyed the cat puns throughout. While traveling to Cat Francisco, where Gigi lives, we see a line on a map, Indiana Jones style, taking us through places like Nebraskat, Meowsiana, and my favorite: Arizona But For Cats. There’s a through-line about the toys being sad when their owner grows up, becomes interested in other things, and no longer plays with them. What a great idea for Pixar. Maybe they’ll use that one day.

Life is imitating art here. Gabby’s Dollhouse is closer to the end than the beginning. As Kraner will turn 20 in 2028, they are hanging it up in a couple years, with the final season airing in 2027. She will be a grownup, leaving the dollhouse behind and no longer playing in it. I bet it will feel bittersweet, but she’ll be free, with a world of possibilities in front of her. If (and only if) you have a young daughter who watches the show, it would make sense to attend Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie. Otherwise, I have a feline you’d enjoy watching something else more.

Grade: D-