Sun-Min Kim
 |
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| Product type | Plush toys |
|---|---|
| Owner | Pretty Ugly, LLC |
| Country | United States |
| Introduced | 2001 |
| Markets | World |
| Website | http://www.uglydolls.com/ |
Uglydoll is a brand based upon a line of plush toys which began as a long distance letter between the creators David Horvath and Sun-Min Kim. The Uglydoll line was launched in January 2001. Uglydolls were awarded the Specialty Toy of the Year award by the Toy Industry Association in 2006.
The name of the brand is UGLYDOLL with no 's'. It started with a letter Horvath wrote to Kim just after she had to move away due to a student visa expiring, long before they were married. That letter had a cartoon of his character "Wage" at the bottom with the words, "Working hard to make our dreams come true so we can be together again soon," next to it. That dream was to tell stories through books and toys.
As a surprise gift, Kim sewed a doll of Wage and sent it to Horvath in the mail. Horvath showed Wage to his pal Eric Nakamura, owner of the Giant Robot magazine and store, who thought Horvath was pitching him a product and immediately ordered a few more for his shop. Horvath wrote to Kim asking her to sew more, while sending emails with stories about Wage, Babo and Ice-Bat's first ever adventure, soon to become Chilly Chilly Ice-Bat.
The brand is distinguished by its definition of the word "ugly." In the "uglyverse," "ugly" means unique and special, something that we should be celebrating, something that makes us different, and never hiding the "twists or turns" which make us who we are, both inside and out.
The Uglydolls were created in December 2001 and included Babo, Cinko, Ice Bat, Jeero, OX, Target, Tray, Wage, and Wedgehead.
In May 2011, it was announced that Illumination Entertainment had acquired the rights to Uglydolls to make an animated feature film. Four years later, in 2015, Variety magazine reported that an animated film based on Uglydolls would be the first project produced by STX Entertainment's new "family and animation" division. On March 28, 2017, Robert Rodriguez signed on to direct, write, and produce the film, with a release date set for May 10, 2019.
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