BRATZ could be seen as a PG alternative for those whose children are too young to see Mean Girls. It's designed as a live-action adaptation of a product line of vampish, high-fashion dolls with outlandish fashion accessories, spun off into coloring books, CDs, and a CGI TV series.
Parents (and psychologists) have had their own issues with the dolls' unrealistic proportions and sexualized clothing, but there are issues other moviegoers will have as well. Bratz steals directly from Mean Girls, showing the severe peer pressure that forces girls to try to fit in and be popular. At least this clone, pitched to a younger (doll-buying) tween age group, took out the Lindsay Lohan movie's objectionable language, sex, and alcohol references, while delivering the same self-affirming morals. It gets grudging points on that count.
Set in southern California, Bratz centers around Chloe (Skyler Shaye), Sasha (Logan Browning), Yasmin (Nathalia Ramos), and Jade (Janel Parrish), four clothing-empowered girlfriends, so fashion-conscious they computer-conference each morning to coordinate their outfits. They eagerly enter freshman year at a cartoonishly caricatured Carrie Nation High School. Here a blonde, preppie class president Meredith Baxter Dimly (Chelsea Staub), who happens to be the spoiled and pampered daughter of the principal (Jon Voight), reigns like a queen. She personally assigns every beginning student a clique to belong to, outside of which they dare not stray. These subgroups cover everything from cheerleaders and science-whizzes to such arcane tribes as loners and kids who like to dress as dinosaurs.
At first, the interests of the various friends –- Jade is into science, Yasmin wants to sing -– pull them in different directions during class and extracurriculars, so they no longer have time for one another. In junior year, however, the quartet re-establish their camaraderie. Her system of conformity threatened, Meredith tries to blackmail and humiliate the "Bratz" into submission, mostly through vulnerable Yasmin.
Much of the comedy is pitched at high-decibel level and deals with school talent-show extravaganzas, CD-soundtrack samples, crotch kicks, swimming pools, shopping malls, food fights, and teen-slang dialogue. And, while you're supposed to admire the Bratz over the vile, manipulative Meredith, with her expensive mansion and ostentatious "MTV Sweet 16 birthday party," all the exaggerated bling and cosmetics make these young shopaholics look distressingly alike after a while.
If you still think this is a kinder, gentler Mean Girls (which actually was more realistic), OK, but for another fun movie on this theme of high fashion and school hierarchies that's smarter to boot (but also for a somewhat older age group), check out Clueless. A Bratz subplot about a hot athlete guy with severe hearing loss who learns nonetheless to play music looks like something that came in from another movie altogether –- and there is indeed a recent documentary, Touch the Sound, about a real-life deaf musician, that you could show disbelieving kids.
What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that this movie derives from a popular line of dolls on the market with an outrageous arsenal of fashion accessories. A pro-shopping, pro-consumerism message underlies all the preaching about acceptance, confidence, standing by your friends, etc. There's a heavy emphasis on physical appearance, and it might be noted that overweight or plain-looking girls are not very much in evidence. Food fights happen more than once. That said, the movie Bratz girls sport significantly less clingy attire than the dolls in an attempt to de-sexualize their appearance. Maybe the producers took it to heart when the American Psychological Association Task said it was "worrisome when dolls specifically designed for 4- to 8-year-olds are associated with an objectified adult sexuality."
Families can talk about whether the movie promotes an enlightened attitude, or lots of clothing, accessories, and Bratz dolls. Could its message have come across without all the materialism? What's the appeal of the Bratz dolls in the first place?
BRATZ could be seen as a PG alternative for those whose children are too young to see Mean Girls. It's designed as a live-action adaptation of a product line of vampish, high-fashion dolls with outlandish fashion accessories, spun off into coloring books, CDs, and a CGI TV series.
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information to help parents make media and entertainment choices for their families.
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