Bratz
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Bratz (also known as Bratz: The Movie) is a 2007 American musical comedy film based on the dolls and the cartoon show of the same name. It's the only Bratz movie to be both live action and thereatical, it also spawned two video-games: Bratz 4 RealCGW for PC and Nintendo DS which follows the movie, as well as Bratz: The MovieCGW For Wii Playstation 2 and Gameboy Advance
Contents
Plot
Four teenaged friends (Cloe, Yasmin, Sasha, and Jade) are about to start high school. Extremely controlling Meredith, the student body president wants everyone to belong to a clique, and goes about organizing students. She does not like the independent spirit of the four girls and plots to destroy their friendship and make them conform to her pre-fabricated cliques.
Cloe is an amazing soccer player. She then meets Cameron and is instantly smitten, further distancing herself from her friends. Sasha is recruited as a cheerleader. Jade joins the science club, then meets Dexter and discovers a passion for fashion design. Yasmin joins the journalism club, but later in the movie decides to focus on another passion: singing. She also feels lonely as her friends are busy with their own cliques. She also meets Dylan who is deaf but can lip read. The friends begin to drift apart as they are compelled to stay within their cliques.
Two years later, when an accidental food fight causes them to get detention, they realize that they miss being BFF's and decide to be friends again. They also try to get the other schoolmates to socialize outside their cliques but their attempts fail when Meredith's 2nd "Super Sweet 16" party ends disastrously and Meredith tries blackmail using an embarrassing photo to have them seated with their original cliques, which backfires.
The upcoming talent show and its prize of a scholarship gives them the idea to bring all the cliques together again with a song number, but the chances are slim with Meredith's constant attempts to steal the spotlight. In the end, there is a tie. Meredith gets the trophy, but the girls get the scholarship, which they later give to Cloe and are offered an appearance at a red carpet by an MTV VP.
Why It Sucks
- Extremely bad grasp of the source material with the exception of the character’s names. For example:
- In the TV show, the Bratz run their own teen magazine, But in the film, they don't.
- The girls look really nothing like they're original designs, Yasmin Looks more like Meygan and has a personality close to Dana for some reason.
- The main antagonists of the show, Kirstee, Kaycee and Burdine aren't in this movie nor are they mentioned, instead being replaced by Meredith.
- The girls didn't get their name for a contest, in the show they got them for their fashion magazine, despite also being referred as Bratz by the villain in one scene.
- The girls look like young adults when they're supposed to be teenagers.
- With the exception of the main 4 girls and a few other characters, none of the other characters from the Dolls or the Cartoon show appear in this movie, although the connected Toy-line includes Sharidan, who she isn’t in the movie.
- Predictable and clichéd plot that feels more like your average teen movie.
- It uses the clichéd "be yourself" moral, but in a sexual way.
- Very terrible acting, especially from Logan Browning, Skyler Shaye and Nathalia Ramos who pretty much didn’t even try to give the characters a very lively performance and mostly looks goofy and unnatural. Keep in mind this was they're first movie they ever starred in, meaning that it not only wastes original talents but new talents as well.
- Poor casting choices.
- As mentioned above none of the characters look like their original designs.
- Logan Browning wasn’t even a leading role to play Sasha, as she was a little too old to portray a teenager.
- Dumb and unfunny jokes.
- Laughable and corny dialogue. The biggest examples are Sasha's: I'm the kid, you're supposed to be the adults, and Yasmin's: Sasha, you stupid cheerleader!
- The film represents more of middle school than high school.
- Meredith is much of a spoiled snobbish daddy's girl who does in the film is stalk the Bratz and one of those clichéd popular girl characters. At least the villains of the show had their own moments and a good hatred on the Bratz, but Meredith doesn’t.
- There are also cliques that don't exist in real-life schools like Mimes.
- Executive meddling: originally this movie was going to be an animated movie, However later it was changed into a live-action movie.
- Bad CGI. One example is where Jade does a lab experiment and fireworks came out and it looks obviously fake.
- In the scenes where Cloe plays soccer and riding a moped, they could have had used a stunt double for her because it doesn't look anything like her.
- Most of the score is lackluster, as they were took from one of the Bratz albums.
- Lots of blatant product placements like Mac, MTV and Nokia.
- Too many pop culture references.
- The Bratz lack chemistry with each other and are huge jerks towards one another. Which is completely opposite of what it's supposed to be as by the original dolls: they need to be best friends.
- When singing (except on Jade) it looks fake as they don't look like they are actually singing and are lip-syncing instead, this is because Janel Parrish was the only one who was actually singing, while the others we're lip syncing.
Redeeming Qualities
- Some of the soundtrack is decent. Like the ending song Bratitude.
- The film is quite vibrant and colorful
- The costumes look gorgeous.
- Janel Parrish and Jon Voight give decent and tolerable performances in this film, even know it’s clear that these aren’t their best performances.
- The ending isn't too bad.
- Dylan, despite being a stereotype is the only likable character in this movie, way more likable than he was in the cartoon show.
Reception
Bratz was universally panned by critics, movie goers and fans of the dolls alike. It received a 10% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 78 reviews, with an average rating 3/10. The site's critical consensus, "Full of mixed messages and dubious role-models, Bratz is too shallow even for its intended audience." It has also recieved a 3.0/10 on IMDB and a 21/100 on Metacritic, based on 21 reviews, indicating generally unfavorable reviews.
Box Office
Bratz grossed $10 million in North America and $16 million in other territories for a total gross of $26 million.
In its opening weekend, the film grossed $4.2 million, finishing in 10th at the box office, making it a box office bomb as the film had been beaten by larger scale films such as The Simpsons Movie, Transformers and Ratatouille.
Awards and nominations
The film was nominated for five Razzie Awards, Janel Parrish, Nathalia Ramos, Skyler Shaye and Logan Browning as Jade, Yasmin, Cloe and Sasha we're Nominated for Worst Actress But Lost to Lindsay Lohan as tie for Aubrey Fleming and Dakota Moss in I Know Who Killed Me, Jon Voight was nominated for Worst Supporting Actor (along with National Treasure: Book of Secrets, September Dawn and TransformersGMW as Patrick Henry Gates, Jacob Samuelson and John Keller) (respectively). But Lost to Eddie Murphy as Mr. Wong in Norbit, also for Worst Screen Couple for "Any combination of two totally airheaded characters"., Worst Rip-off or remake and Worst Picture but all lost to I Know Who Killed Me.
Trivia
- The original idea was for an animated film.
- Paula Abdul was originally hired as the film's Executive Producer, Fashion Designer, and Dance Choreographer. During an episode of her reality television series Hey Paula (2007), she received an e-mail on her Blackberry firing her from this movie.
- As Janel Parrish was an experienced singer, she was the only actress who actually sang when the opportunity arose. The rest were coached on lip-synching to prepare for their musical numbers.
- Film debut of actresses: Janel Parrish, Logan Browning, Nathalia Ramos, Chelsea Kane, Malese Jow, and Anneleise van der Pol.
- Skyler Shaye is Jon Voight's god daughter and this was her 2nd time working with him since Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2.
- There is a doll line connected to this movie, despite this the dolls look nothing like they’re movie counterparts, and look like they’re normal self, and it also includes Sharidan, who is not in the movie.
Videos
External Links
Comments
- 2000s Films
- Based on toylines
- Based on television
- Based on cartoons
- Abusing the Show
- Live-Action Films
- Lionsgate Films
- Razzie Awards Worst Picture Nominees
- Box office bombs
- Films That Have Cancelled Sequels
- Comedy films
- Musical films
- Family films
- Teen comedies
- Rip-off films
- Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel Nominees
- Buddy films
- Films with misleading posters
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