Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie

“Gabby’s Dollhouse” is a sweet television series for young children about a girl who can shrink (and turn into an animated character) to play with cat-ish friends in a magical dollhouse. Gabby (Laila Lockhart Kraner). The show, from Traci Paige Johnson and Jennifer Twomey of “Blue’s Clues,” shares that series’ interactive style, with Gabby asking the audience to help her sing and dance. The cupcake aesthetic, silly cat-puns, varied but cute dollhouse characters, and cheerful tone have made it a favorite for preschoolers.

Gabby is an appealing, aspirational heroine. She is enthusiastic and imaginative and she tells us “every moment is a chance to create magic.” She invites us into a gentle world of candy colors, sparkles, balloons, marshmallows, hugs, and magic. But it does not always scale up to a feature film, especially for those young enough to be the show’s biggest fans who might not be interested in the longer, slightly more complex storyline.

It begins with the origin story of the dollhouse. Gabby’s grandmother, Gigi (singer Gloria Estefan) made it for Gabby when she was a little girl. In present day, Gabby is older, but still loves pinching the cat ears on her headband and squeezing the paw of her stuffed toy Pandy to enter the dollhouse. She’s especially excited as the movie begins because Gigi is coming to pick her up for a visit to “Catfrancisco.” Of course that means hauling the dollhouse behind the van; Gabby would never leave her friends behind.

Gigi is so excited to show Gabby her crafting room (which is wonderfully equipped and could inspire a show of its own) and give her something to eat that they leave the dollhouse strapped to the van outside. This is a mistake. One of the dollhouse denizens is so eager to get going he releases the trailer hitch and Catfransisco is just as hilly as San Francisco (it also has a very big bridge) and off the dollhouse goes on a wild ride. It ends up in the hands of the evil (mildly evil — this is a G-rated film) Vera (Kristen Wiig, looking gorgeous and having a blast).

Gabby and Gigi go after the dollhouse. Vera, who has forgotten how to play and sees objects only as collectibles has moved the little characters from the dollhouse to display them, one in an aquarium and one in the garden, plus one in her purse. Rescuing them, with the help and sometimes hindrance of Vera’s abandoned toy (voiced by Jason Mantzoukas), takes up the rest of the film.’

There’s enough tension to keep it interesting, though the theme of an adult re-learning the importance of play may not grab young audiences. More interesting but getting almost no screen time was Gabby’s original hesitation when Gigi encouraged her to create her own project, and then, after the rescue gave her confidence and encouraged her creativity, she was willing to try. At the screening I attended, the children in the audience started to get squirmy when the film ran past the brief run time of the segments of the series, and a few of them were anxious about Vera’s low-wattage villainy. The likely audience for the film might be happier just watching the series.

Parents should know that this film has some mild potty humor and mild peril and stress.

Family discussion: Who is your favorite Gabby Cat and why? Why didn’t Vera want to play anymore? If you got tiny, where would you go?

If you like this, try; The series on Netflix