Bratz (film)

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Bratz
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Sean McNamara
Screenplay by	Susan Estelle Jansen
Story by	Adam de la Pena David Eilenberg
Based on	Bratz by Carter Bryant
Produced by	Isaac Larian Steven Paul Avi Arad
Starring	Nathalia Ramos Janel Parrish Skyler Shaye Logan Browning Chelsea Staub Lainie Kazan Jon Voight
Cinematography	Christian Sebaldt
Edited by	Jeff W. Canavan
Music by	John Coda
Production companies	Crystal Sky Pictures MGA Entertainment Arad Productions
Distributed by	Lionsgate
Release date	August 3, 2007 (2007-08-03)
Running time	102 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$20 million[2]
Box office	$26 million[3]

Bratz (also known as Bratz: The Movie) is a 2007 American teen comedy film based on the fashion dolls of the same name from MGA Entertainment. The film is directed by Sean McNamara with a screenplay by Susan Estelle Jansen, from a story written by Adam de la Pena and David Eilenberg. It is the first live-action film based on the toyline after a series of direct-to-video animated films and a television series.

Nathalia Ramos, Skyler Shaye, Logan Browning and Janel Parrish star as the members of the group, with Chelsea Staub, Lainie Kazan and Jon Voight in supporting roles.^[4] The story revolves around a group of four teenage girls, the origin of their friendship and the social pyramid that tries to make the Bratz conform to archetypal high school cliques. Principal photography took place in Los Angeles between February and March 2007.

Bratz was released in the United States on August 3, 2007, by Lionsgate. It was universally panned by critics and audiences alike, having received five nominations at the 28th Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture. It was also a commercial failure, grossing only $26 million worldwide against a $20 million budget, failing to break even.^[3]

Plot

Four teenage best friends, Cloe, Yasmin, Sasha and Jade, are about to start high school. Meredith, the extremely controlling student body president, wants everyone to belong to a clique, and goes about organizing students. She hates the independent spirit of the four girls and plots to destroy their friendship and make them conform to her pre-fabricated cliques.

Cloe is a soccer player. She meets Cameron and is instantly enamored, 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 decides to focus on another passion: singing. Though the girls do try and make time for each other, they are all busy with their own respective cliques and new friends. Yasmin meets Dylan, a popular jock, who is deaf but can lip read, who misses being able to listen to music. The friends begin to drift apart as they are compelled to stay within their cliques due to Meredith's plans.

Two years later, when an accidental food fight causes them to get detention for breaking the Principal statue, they explain 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 second "Super Sweet 16" party ends disastrously where she accidentally smothering by her own cake and falling into her own pool with her friends. Meredith tries blackmailing the girls by using an embarrassing photo to have them quit the talent show, which backfires as everyone shares their secrets.

The upcoming talent show and its scholarship prize gives them the idea to bring all the cliques together again with a musical 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 also get the scholarship, which they give to Cloe instead. They are offered an appearance at a red carpet gala by an MTV vice president.

Cast

• Nathalia Ramos as Yasmin, a Bratz member with a passion for singing.
• Skyler Shaye as Cloe, a Bratz member and a soccer player.
• Logan Browning as Sasha, a Bratz member and a cheerleader.
• Janel Parrish as Jade, a Bratz and science club member with a passion for fashion design.
• Chelsea Staub as Meredith Baxter Dimly, a rich and popular mean girl.
• Lainie Kazan as Bubbie, Yasmin's grandmother.
• Jon Voight as Principal Dimly, Meredith's father and the principal of Carry Nation High School.
• Anneliese van der Pol as Avery, Meredith's first best friend.
• Malese Jow as Quinn, Meredith's second best friend.
• Ian Nelson as Dylan, a deaf student and Yasmin's love interest.
• Stephen Lunsford as Cameron, a friend of Meredith and Cloe's love interest.
• Emily Everhard as Cherish Baxter Dimly, Meredith's younger sister.
• William May as Manny, Yasmin's self-obsessed younger brother.
• Kim Morgan Greene as Katie, Cloe's mother with financial issues.
• Carl Rux as Mr. Whitman, the high school choir and music teacher.
• Chet Hanks as Dexter, a science club member with a crush on Jade.
• Sasha Cohen as Bethany, the head cheerleader.
• Andrea Edwards as Goalie, the soccer team captain.
• Kadeem Hardison as Sasha's father.
• Tami-Adrian George as Allison, Sasha's mother.
• Constance Hsu as Julie, Jade's mother.

Additionally, director Sean McNamara make a cameo appearance as Tom McShavie, the Vice President of MTV Networks. Producer Avi Arad also makes an uncredited cameo appearance as one of the talent show judges. Jerad Anderson plays Jonas Johnson, a member of the football team, while Lee Reherman plays the Vice Principal Sludge. Daniel Booko appears as a jock, and Susie Singer Carter as Barbara Baxter Dimly.

Production

Paula Abdul was dropped from the production before completion while working on American Idol. She was originally enlisted to provide wardrobe designs, choreograph the film, executive-produce, as well as hold a role in the film. This was revealed on Hey Paula, her reality show on her personal life.^[5]

Susie Singer Carter also wrote and produced the film for Lionsgate but lost her credit in a Writers Guild arbitration, then her name appears as screenwriter on the final movie poster.^[6]

The film was shot from February to March 2007 at Santee Education Complex in South Los Angeles, California, while school was in session.^[7]

Reception

Critical response

Bratz was universally panned by critics and audiences alike. On Rotten Tomatoes, gives the film a rating of 10%, based on 80 reviews, with an average rating of 3.40/10. The site's critical consensus, "Full of mixed messages and dubious role-models, Bratz is too shallow even for its intended audience."^[8] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 21 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".^[9] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.^[10][11]

Accolades

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It was nominated for 5 Golden Raspberry Awards in 2007, but received none.

• Worst Picture (lost to I Know Who Killed Me)
• Worst Actress for Logan Browning, Janel Parrish, Nathalia Ramos, and Skyler Shaye (lost as a tie to Lindsay Lohan in I Know Who Killed Me (as the characters of Aubrey and Dakota)
• Worst Supporting Actor for Jon Voight (lost to Eddie Murphy in Norbit (as the character of Mr. Wong)
• Worst Screen Couple for "Any combination of two totally airheaded characters" (lost to Lindsay Lohan ("as the yang to her own yin") in I Know Who Killed Me)
• Worst Remake or Rip-off ("a rip-off if there ever was one") (lost to I Know Who Killed Me)

Box office

Bratz grossed $10 million in North America and $16 million in other territories for a total gross of $26 million.^[3]

In its opening weekend, the film grossed $4.2 million, finishing in 10th at the box office, ultimately making it a box office bomb.

Home media

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The film was released to DVD on November 27, 2007.

Soundtrack

Bratz: Motion Picture Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by Various Artists
Released	July 31, 2007
Genre	Pop pop rock teen pop hip hop R&B
Label	Geffen
Producer	Chris Arvan Alex Band Reace Beatz Cindy Cooper Bryan Clark Ron Fair Matthew Gerrard Ron Harris Tal Herzberg Abraham Laboriel Mateo Laboriel Steven "Lenky" Marsden Anthony Mazza Stefanie Ridel Wayne Rodrigues Nicky Scapa Bradley Spalter
Bratz chronology
Bratz: Fashion Pixiez (2007) Bratz: Motion Picture Soundtrack (2007) Bratz: Girlz Really Rock (2008)

A film soundtrack entitled Bratz: Motion Picture Soundtrack was released on July 31, 2007, through Geffen Records. The soundtrack featured music from artists such as Ashlee Simpson, Dropping Daylight, and the Black Eyed Peas. Three singles were released prior to the album's release, "Rainy Day" by Janel Parrish, "Rockstar" by Prima J, and "Fearless" by Daechelle.

Sales for the soundtrack were good and the album remained on the Billboard 200 charts for three weeks, peaking during its second week at position 83.^[12] Common Sense Media gave the soundtrack three stars, writing that "With heavy-hitting help from the Black Eyed Peas, The Slumber Party Girls, Ashlee Simpson, Dropping Daylight, and Lifehouse, these young performers gamely negotiate some very ordinary-sounding, preachy material and make the songs sparkle anyway."^[13] The 9th track on the album "Out from Under" was later covered by Britney Spears on her 6th studio album Circus.

Track list

Video game

Bratz 4 Real
DS box art
Developer(s)	Barking Lizards Technologies (DS) AWE Games (PC)
Publisher(s)	THQ
Platform(s)	Nintendo DS Microsoft Windows
Release	November 5, 2007[14]
Genre(s)	Adventure
Mode(s)	Single player

A video game adaptation of the film entitled Bratz 4 Real was released to the Nintendo DS and Microsoft Windows on November 5, 2007. The game was published by THQ.

The game's plot mirrored that of the film and players are tasked with completing goals and errands in order to progress the story along. The DS version of the game also allowed users to design their own clothes patterns, care for a digital pet, and play various mini-games. The PC edition also utilized mini-games, but excluded the option for players to design clothing or raise a digital pet. In both games users could play as one of the four main characters and view clips from the film.

Pocket Gamer heavily criticized the game and stated that it felt that it was released too early and that "There are some nice ideas at play, in particular where it attempts to break down the social barriers that beset children in secondary education, but as a game it's far too vacuous to recommend."^[15] IGN shared similar sentiments, writing that "Bratz 4 Real does some work to recast the shallow, self-absorbed Bratz girls in a more redeeming light, using them and their friendship to tell a tale of unity and breaking down social barriers. But whereas that premise and the game's compelling customization options prove to be solid positive points for this package, Bratz 4 Real is still a game brought down by a variety of other oddities."^[16]

See also

• List of American films of 2007

References

External links

• Bratz at IMDb
• Bratz at AllMovie