GABBY’S DOLLHOUSE Emphasizes Creativity, Kindness
By Movieguide® Contributor
GABBY’S DOLLHOUSE streams across eight seasons on Netflix. It’s about a real-life girl named Gabby, played by Laila Lockhart Kraner. Gabby becomes tiny in order to play in her cat-themed dollhouse with her kitty friends. The animated version of herself excitedly explores everything that the dollhouse and its inhabitants have to offer. The series is produced by DreamWorks and is written by Traci Paige Johnson and Jennifer Twomey, both of whom helped create BLUE’S CLUES.
With each episode, Gabby, her stuffed animal best friend Pandy Paws and the other “Gabby cats” go on adventures. They always start with a surprise box that Gabby opens. In it, she finds an object that they will use in the dollhouse. Then Gabby and Pandy shrink and go to grow a make-believe garden, ride through the Wild West, hatch a mysterious egg and many other adventures.
GABBY’S DOLLHOUSE shows that a little creativity goes a long way. It tries to display the many possibilities there are when one plays pretend. Each episode is always positive and upbeat and usually contains a demonstration of how to do a fun craft or make a cat-themed snack. Gabby and her friends learn to have responsibilities, solve problems, work together, help others and stay calm when something stressful happens. Gabby tries to be flexible when something doesn’t go as planned, and she is quick to forgive when Catrat, the chief mischiefmaker, causes trouble.
GABBY’S DOLLHOUSE contains a biblical focus on friendship, kindness and forgiveness. There’s some magical stuff–Gabby seems to magically minimize herself and there are mermaid cats, fairy cats and anthropomorphic talking animals–but overall, the show is wholesome.
Any immorality (lying or thieving, for example) is portrayed negatively and is corrected. What separates GABBY’S DOLLHOUSE from other kids’ shows is that when something or someone stirs the pot, it doesn’t acknowledge feelings of “that upset me” or “that made me sad.” Instead, the characters don’t make a big deal of it and focus on solving the issue at hand. It doesn’t exactly ignore feelings, but it doesn’t focus exclusively on emotions.
The show incorporates a real-life character with a fun animated world right in Gabby’s bedroom. It embodies a little cat-loving girl’s imagination through play. It’s all about being a kid and having a creative, childlike outlook. Each episode’s plot is very inventive, and the writing is engaging. All of the production elements seem to come together seamlessly.
This show has been a big hit for Netflix, and with minimal questionable elements, it’s easy to see why.
