Lou (Uglydolls)

"Only pretty dolls will meet their perfect human match."

- Lou explaining the rules of dolls. "Do you really think that you and your little band of sock puppets stand a chance here?"

- Lou's most famous quote when he tries to discourage Moxy, also foreshadowing his true nature.

Louis, also known as Lou, is the main antagonist of the 2019 animated musical comedy film UglyDolls, which is based on the toy line brand of the same name. He is a perfect doll and the (former) arrogant leader of the town of Perfection who intends to have every doll in the town to be perfect and he wants to get rid of the UglyDolls for falling short of his standards. He is also Ox's former friend and arch-nemesis.

He was voiced by, who also played Boone Clemens in the first season of Scream Queens.

Description
As the most perfect one at the Institute, Lou is universally looked upon as a role model to the rest of the dolls where the dolls glorify him to the point where a cult of personality has formed around him.

When the UglyDolls arrive at the Institute of Perfection, Lou is openly antagonistic towards them and tells them to "go back to where they belong". He tries to make things as difficult as he can for them and refuses to believe that they can succeed at the Academy. Lou doesn't want the UglyDolls to make it to the Big World where they can find a human to love them.

Personality
Lou is an egocentric and manipulative doll who is preoccupied with perfection. He instructed dolls on how to avoid messes, as this would result in them being thrown in a washing machine and coming out "a little less perfect". As a result, if this happened to a doll too many times, they would eventually be discarded. What's more, Lou is shown to be hypercritical of other dolls' appearances, labelling imperfect dolls as "ugly" and forcing a doll to wear an "UGLY!" sign around his neck. Lou is also shown to despise the Uglydolls and, during their training, appeared to have derived pleasure from repeatedly throwing them in the washing machine.

Despite his spiteful nature, he noticeably acted like a charming, amiable and considerate individual in public. He even let the Uglydolls stay in the Institute of Perfection so they could try their hands at getting into the Big World. Lou also claimed his "constructive criticism" (as Mandy once called it) is required for dolls to be loved and accepted in the Big World. However, his courtesy was merely a false front to give himself a good public image. He even flatly confessed to Moxy that he merely let her and the other Uglydolls stay so he could maintain his repute. Despite claiming to care about them, Lou regards other dolls with contempt and believes his looks to be superior to all the other dolls'. He also possesses several paintings and at least one statue of himself.

Toward the end of the film, however, Lou admitted he is a prototype doll who the factory sent to help other dolls get into the Big World. However, he could never go to the Big World himself because prototypes are not intended to be purchased by the public. As a result, Lou actually views himself as a failure underneath his feigned vanity. It was additionally revealed that his animosity (particularly toward the Uglydolls) stems from the fact that they could go to the Big World while he could not, which makes sense why he snapped.

Backstory
Near the end of the film, Lou reveals that he was created as a prototype doll (meaning that he is not a real doll, which is mentioned by Lydia), meant as a mold for the rest of the Perfection dolls that came after him. His job is to help the other dolls find their human match in the Big World. However, he himself can never leave Perfection, and over time, he grew bitter as everyone always left him.

When he first arrived at Perfection, he met Ox, the now-mayor of UglyVille and they became good friends. However, when Ox started contributing to the failure of other dolls in classes and challenges, they turned on him. Eventually, Lou brought Ox to the trash compactor chute, and Ox left for what eventually became UglyVille.

Lou began to create his cult of personality, substituting the love he knew he would never receive from a human child for the love of all the dolls who enter Perfection.

Introduction
The UglyDolls first meet Lou when they travel to Perfection when he sings "The Ugly Truth" to a crowd of new arrivals. Large crowds of them chant Lou's name while his name flashes on giant screens. Dolls -- both male and female -- yell that they love him and swoon at the sight of him. Lou pretends to compliment the UglyDolls but quickly makes it clear that he actually finds them ugly. He tells them that they don't belong in Perfection and advises them to leave.

The UglyDolls decide to stay in Perfection, which he only allows to keep up appearances of being a benevolent leader where he has Mandy bring them to a storage shed, which is where they'll be staying while they remain in Perfection.

Training
When Lou starts teaching a class on how to be a proper doll, the UglyDolls start playing with glue. He tells them they passed the test and tricks them into jumping into the washing machine. Lou tells them that the goal is to avoid making a mess, because otherwise they get put in the wash, and eventually, their child's parents will throw them out.

During their time at Perfection, the UglyDolls are unable to avoid getting messy and continue to be thrown in the washing machine by Lou.

Kidnapping
Lou sends the Spy Girls to UglyVille to kidnap Ox and bring him back to Perfection. He has Ox tell the other UglyDolls the truth about the assembly line. The UglyDolls were supposed to go to the incinerator, but Ox had boarded up the chute. This, Lou says, shows that the UglyDolls aren't meant to exist, and shouldn't even try to graduate from Perfection and go to the Big World. Lou succeeds in demoralizing the UglyDolls, who return home.

Attempted Murder
Lou meets the Spy Girls in the tunnel after they kidnap Moxy and Mandy. He says that he knows that as long as Moxy is still around, she will not stop trying to get to the Big World and she'll keep trying to inspire other UglyDolls. Lou throws Moxy and Mandy down the incinerator chute, leaving them to die.

The Gauntlet
When the UglyDolls return to Perfection and enter the Gauntlet, Lou tells them that he'll run it with them; he doesn't need to win, he just needs to make sure that they don't. In the Gauntlet, Lou lets Nolan get taken by one of the mechanical dogs, and pushes Tuesday into a vacuum cleaner to save himself. In the kitchen, Lou pushes a box of detergent to crush the UglyDolls.

Near the end of the Gauntlet, Lou gets caught by a mechanical baby and kicks it in the face. The baby starts crying and the Perfection dolls -- who are watching the Gauntlet challenge on the stadium screen -- turn against him.

Despite being the only doll to cross the finish line, Lou fails the Gauntlet while the others, UglyDolls included, pass. Lou reveals his backstory to the UglyDolls and takes a knitting needle to destroy the portal to the Big World.

Resolution
As Lou is about to destroy the portal, he is confronted midway by Ox, and the two engage in a conflict until Lou thrusts his knitting needle to the portal, making a crack and eventually an explosion that blasts away both Lou and Ox. Lou attempts to fully destroy the portal, despite Ox's attempts to stop him, but he is stopped by Lucky Bat, who beats him up with the same knitting needle that Lou is holding, Babo and Wage catch Lou and throw him to the robotic dog. Moxy is now commanding the other dolls and asks the other dolls for suggestions on what to do with him. Among the responses, she gets things like "tear the stuffing out of him", "let the dog have him" and/or "give him back to the baby". Lou asks for a second chance but he is ultimately thrown in the washing machine by Nolan (a doll who was called "Ugly" by Lou in the song "The Ugly Truth").

In the end credits, Lou (who is now messy and no longer perfect) is relegated to working as a janitor, where he is seen cleaning up the mess as he is being watched by a robotic dog. What last happens to him afterwards is unknown. Either he still mopped the floor, or he probably tried to escape until getting eaten by the dog.

Trivia

 * Lou was Nick Jonas' first-ever role in the computer-animated movie.
 * According to his backstory, Lou and Ox (Lou's former Ugly Doll partner) used to be friends until their betrayal.
 * In the movie novelization, Lou and Ox tried to run The Gauntlet together, It was the robots who tried to recycle Ox and not Lou.
 * Lou's room is full of art styles popular in the 1950s-1960s. His blond hair and blue eyes make him the spitting image of the American "golden boy" during that era. This, coupled with the dream that all dolls have of going to the "Big World" draws parallels with American history. His obsession with perfection and getting rid of dolls that came off of the assembly line "wrong" bears resemblance to American eugenics, which inspired the Nazi eugenics program, and continued long after Nazi Germany was defeated.
 * In Lou's Room, There's a Picture of Lou Riding the Horse without his Shirt On, At least Lou's room had a statue of himself.