If you’re over the age of eight, Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie is probably not something you’ll have come across, or the Netflix show it sprang from. Its star, Laila Lockhart Kraner, probably won’t mean much to you either. Your loss? This intensely likeable, positive, bright and sunny excitement isn’t a “something for everybody” offer. But if you’re in the right demographic – the producers go as low as pre-schoolers and that seems about right – who knows?
As is traditional for shows given a movie breakout, the writers send the format on holiday. So Gabby heads off with her Grandma Gigi to Cat Francisco, in Gigi’s VW Camper Van – number plate KTTY WGN – where her dollhouse goes missing and winds up in the hands of Vera the Cat Lady, a kitty-litter magnate and fulltime sourpuss.
Did I mention that Gabby’s Dollhouse is phenomenally feline? If there’s a chance to meow something up and render it even more kittenish, that opportunity is grabbed with both paws. The other distinctive feature is that while Gabby is a real-life girl, her adventures mostly take place in the animated realm of the dollhouse, which Gabby accesses by putting on cat’s ears and incanting the spell: “a pinch on the left, pinch pinch on the right” and off she whooshes, shrinking in size and transforming from flesh and blood into a cute cartoon avatar.
So, a mission to rescue the missing dollhouse, with Gabby’s feline friends in it, and a plotline borrowed from Toy Story 2, give or take, with Vera the Cat Lady a lift from 101 Dalmatians – Cruella Da Ville.
Gloria Estefan mugs along gamely as Gabby’s Grandma Gigi, and Kristen Wiig gives it the full Cruella – dressed head to toe in leather to start with but in a succession of funny outfits as things bomb along.
Which brings us to Lockhart Kraner herself, a bright button who has been playing Gabby since she was 11. She’s about 17 here and the spectre of adulthood is not just present but anxious to take over. Smartly, the film addresses this very point. When is a girl too old to play? Never is the obvious answer, though another spectre is obviously present as the final titles roll – Lockhart Kraner’s replacement.
She’ll be hard a hard act to follow. Essentially the show’s concept made flesh, she is likeable, fun, compassionate and enthusiastic, and when she breaks the fourth wall encouraging viewers to join her in some bit of participation, you can imagine four- to eight-year-olds joining in. There is not a whiff of cynicism about her.
The odd song, a lot of good-natured jeopardy as Gabby eventually faces off against Vera, with Grandma largely relegated to the kitchen where she spends most of the film preparing snacks, while Gabby’s animated self has candy-coloured adventures that never veer anywhere close to real danger.
There is, maybe, a little bit of something for everyone – a song here, or a fancy bit of bubblegum animation there, Gloria Estefan and Kristen Wiig, perhaps. Fun appears to be being had.
There have been many episodes (and seasons) of the show on Netflix already. As of writing they keep coming, and though there’s no sign of Laila Lockhart Kraner quitting, that must now be an inevitability.
Magic, creativity, imagination, it’s all summed up by the word “sparkle” – which is bandied about quite a bit in the movie and in the interviews promoting it. Nothing wrong with a bit of sparkle. It sums up the whole approach – a challenge to your inner curmudgeon to find something to hate.
Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2026
