Why can dolls be creepy but not teddy bears?

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Also, another thing, often on face swaps with humans and animals, the humans always look scarier with the animal face than the animals with the human face do. The animals with the human face actually look funny, but the humans with the animal face look creepy.

because dolls mainly are models of humans where as teddy bears are models of an innocent animal (dangerous as it is).
i hate those old dolls from the 1800's where one eye's paint has worn off.
that is why i do not have any, other than the fact i have never played or been interested in dolls.

I never was interested in playing with dolls, either. I preferred to collect stuffed animals and animal figurines, especially cats. I still am.

I've been seeing photos on YouTube lately of a stuffed Winnie-the-Pooh with dentures in his mouth and I can tell you truthfully that it looks really creepy.

^I've been wondering for a while now what it would look like if you cooked it in the oven.

Inanimate objects,
do you have a soul,
hanging on to our souls
and the strength to love?
Translated, from Alphonse Lamartine

PS: not sure to which kind of souls the pictures of inanimate objects in this thread are hanging on?

Those one have hanged and are still hanging on to my soul:

the only dolls that aren't creepy are Barbie Dolls.

The Doll in the Film Annabel is very creepy.

There's a factory in the States that makes very creepy teddy bears with their hearts in their hands for men and women to buy for their lovers around Valentine's Day in order to show their better halves how serious they are about their relationships with them. I'd rather have a cute teddy bear from my mum.

I think it might be to do with the fact that dolls cross this border called the uncanny valley. The uncanny valley is a subject in aesthetics that relates to a phenomenon whereby a computer-generated figure or humanoid robot having a strong physical resemblance to a human creates a sense of eeriness and revulsion in observers. It's difficult for the human brain to handle fake faces, and thus an instinct comes about where the observer feels threatened by such a sight. This is especially prevalent in children, as dolls are marketed towards them and the young human is still in the early stages of development. The fact that fake faces are hard to handle for humans is also a reason for why clowns bring fear in so many people, although they don't cross the uncanny valley. I think the reason for this fear of "fake faces" comes from the fact that there seems to be a "middle-ground" between life-like and animate: not quite fully human, but not quite something else, either.

All in all, it's just a primitive instinct that kicks in when coming across such a figure. Nothing to be ashamed of, but there are also ways to treat yourself of your fear of dolls (if you do have one).

-Behaviour therapy and anti-anxiety medicine
-Psychotherapy
-Cognitive-behavioural therapy or CBT
-Behavioural therapy
-Exposure therapy
-Relaxation strategies – controlled breathing and visualisation
-Meditation

Of course, all dolls are different and not everyone is scared of them, but I'm just trying my best to provide an explanation for this.

EDIT - Apologies for my poor English.

The other night I saw a new video by Stuart Ashen's where he was showing and talking about these dolls called "Gloobees". They were made during the 90's and they were supposed to have comical and cute facial expressions but they really looked like their faces were all distorted and their eyes bulging out. And they were, you know, for kids!
I remember them, they were the ugliest, most horrifying things I'd ever seen, but I pretty much had forgotten about them until I saw the video, and I didn't know that they were loosely based on plastic figures made in the 70's of ugly toddlers doing gross things like picking their noses or pooping.

Another strange thing I've realised is whenever I search face swaps of humans and animals on google, the animal face on the human always freaks me out but the human face on the animal is always hilarious. I don't know the explanation for that one.

I don't personally find dolls creepy (although I do prefer teddy bears and other stuffed animals) - but the "uncanny valley" phenomenon mentioned by others sounds like the most plausible explanation. It would explain why many people are unnerved by similarly human-like forms or objects - like clowns, puppets, masks etc.