Film and television studio STX Entertainment is launching a new family and animation division to create multi-platform family content based on the Uglydoll toy brand by Pretty Ugly.

STX has announced plans to develop an animated Uglydoll feature first, heading up a production team that features co-producers Gigi Pritzker and OddLot, as well as executive producers David Horvath and Drew Matilsky from Pretty Ugly.

The pic will feature satirical, playful and off-kilter characters from the plush-led brand like Wage, Babo, Ice-Bat and Wedgehead, who live in an Uglyverse world where the traditional definition of ugly is turned upside down.

The Uglydoll brand was spawned in 2001 when Horvath included a drawing of a monster with unconventional problems in a letter to his college sweetheart, Sun-Min Kim. In short order, this initial sketch grew into a whole universe colorful characters, which led to the plush line, and then later a consumer products program that has done particularly well in Asia.