The Hugga Bunch was a 1980s toy line from the Kenner

Kenner

Kenner Products was a toy company founded in 1947 by three brothers, Albert, Phillip, and Joseph L. Steiner, in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, and was named after the street where the original corporate offices were located, which is just north of Cincinnati's Union Terminal.Kenner introduced its...

 company and Hallmark Cards

Hallmark Cards

Hallmark Cards is a privately owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce C. Hall, Hallmark is the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. In 1985, the company was awarded the National Medal of Arts....

.

Toy line

Starting in early 1985, the Kenner company and Hallmark Cards manufactured the Hugga Bunch dolls, each of which held a smaller doll called a "huglet" in their arms. During that year, the line generated over US$40 million in sales.

The title characters in the franchise lived in a place called "Huggaland" and loved being hugged.

Film

The toys inspired The Hugga Bunch, a 1985 television film produced by Filmfair Communications.

Written by David Swift

David Swift (director)

David Swift was an American film actor, writer, director and producer. He is best known for his 1967 film, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and the Disney films Parent Trap franchise.-Biography:...

 and directed by Gus Jekel, it earned a Primetime Emmy Award

Primetime Emmy Award

The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming...

 for Outstanding Visual Effects

Visual effects

Visual effects are the various processes by which imagery is created and/or manipulated outside the context of a live action shoot. Visual effects involve the integration of live-action footage and generated imagery to create environments which look realistic, but would be dangerous, costly, or...

. Produced for US$1.4 million, it was the most expensive TV special ever produced at the time. Along with a making-of special, it was released on VHS, Laserdisc

Laserdisc

LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...

, and Beta

Betamax

Betamax was a consumer-level analog videocassette magnetic tape recording format developed by Sony, released on May 10, 1975. The cassettes contain -wide videotape in a design similar to the earlier, professional wide, U-matic format...

 by Vestron Video

Vestron Video

Vestron Video was the main subsidiary of Vestron, Inc., a home video company based in Stamford, Connecticut that was active from 1982 to 1992. It is considered to have been a pioneer in the home video market....

's Children's Video Library. Whether it will be released on DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 and/or Blu-ray remains to be seen.

In the film, a girl travels through her mirror into HuggaLand to find a way to keep her grandmother—the only one who knows how to hug—young.

Cast

• Gennie James - Bridget Severson
• Natalie Masters - Grams Severson
• Terry Castillo - Huggins
• Tony Urbano - Hugsy
• Aarika Wells - Queen Admira
• Carl Steven - Andrew Severson
• Susan Mullen - Janet Severson
• Mark Withers - Parker Severson
• Adam Madrid - Gamzo
• Kelly Britt - Aunt Ruth