Bratz: The Movie

 Review

Common Sense Media says

Material girls in immaterial comedy for tweens.
greenON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.
yellowPAUSE: Know your child; some content
may not be right for some kids.
redOFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.
not for kidsNOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age.

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Quality
 
Sometimes media can be age appropriate but a real waste of time. Our star rating assesses the media's overall quality.

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Parents say

Kids say

What parents need to 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; overweight or plain-looking girls are not very much in evidence. Food fights happen more than once.

  • The four heroines are multi-cultural and (mostly) confident in their abilities and friendships. Furthermore, they dare to socialize with people outside their clique at school, and one even urges her divorced parents to be civil to each other. There's a big qualifier though -- as befits characters based on a product toy line -- that they're fixated on fashion and material possessions (Buy! Buy! Buy!). Some stereotyping: the Asian-descended one is a science-math whiz. A boyfriend character is deaf, but defies the disability.
  • Some slapstick pratfalls, food fights, and a hostile athlete gets martial-arts punched (and impressed) by a science student.
  • A few provocative or tight dresses on the girls, and bikinis at poolside.
  • Not applicable.
  • Not only are the main characters inspired by a line of toys, they're surrounded by (and practically engulfed in) brand-name clothing, cars, computers (Apple, of course), and a shopping-as-empowerment message.

What's the story?

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.


Is it any good?

 

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.


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What families can talk about

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?


This review was written by Charles Cassady Jr.
Parent of 14 year old
February 3, 2010
 
perfect girl movie.
This is all everything little girls need to know. Parants cant possible find anything bad in it.

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Kid, 12 years old
December 20, 2009
 
Terribele: Worst Role Models
Nothing good about it! Here I am, A nine year old saying TERRIBLE!! It has bikinis near the pool side and TERRIBLE STUFF! PARENTS DON'T LET YOUR KIDSWATCH IT NO MATTER WHAT! also it will give you bad dreams, too much violance

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Kid, 13 years old
December 18, 2010
 
Great movie with a positive message, despite what Common Sense says.

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Parent
December 25, 2010
 
Great movie with wholesome and positive messages, is appropiate for all ages

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Teen, 14 years old
June 1, 2011
 
This Movie Rocks
I Love This Movie.. And Im 13 Year Old.. Going On14 It Has Some Greet Actors/Actress In It.. And It Is Sutible For Any Age Over 5 To About 15 I No The Idea Of Plying With Bratz 'Dolls' Is Probaly a Little 'Baby-ish' But The Movie Is A Fab Movie An dId Rate It 5-5 Star Rating

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Teen, 15 years old
August 15, 2010
 
Brattitude... good? bad? watch the movie..
It wasn't a 'Horrible' movie, I liked it, but the role models are good and bad at the same time. Good: The girls want to express themselves, and try to break up the cliques, and they are 'usually' nice to people, Cloe's mom and her are broke, and her friends help with her job, even if it meant coliding with mean girl Maridive. Bad: There's a mean girl with very annoying backup friends, but it mostly points out how obnoxious it looks. Yasmin's brother gives an embaressing video about her to mean girl, and he hits on the mean girls little sister that is MUCH younger than him. The girls like to express themselves, but their way of helping others is making others look hot like them. The girls drift apart and end up causing a foodfight, and Sasha throws a crack about how Cloe's poor and without a dad, and Yasmin is Jewish and Hispanic, and its a little sterotype with the random mariachi band in her house.

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Kid, 12 years old
May 9, 2010
 
great for ages 5-12 (K-6)!
"f--k" it says and "c--ks--ker" are bleeped and other words are unbleeped and the word "s--t" is unbleeped one at the time.

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Teen, 16 years old
December 25, 2009
 
Waste of time
Someday, when I'm laying on my deathbed, thinking about all the time I've ever wasted, I'm going to remember this movie. I'm going to remember how I lost more than an hour of my time on this piece of crap. Rant end.

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Teen, 14 years old
March 20, 2011
 
This movie sucks! There is no educational value whatsoever and is bad-written! Also, poor acting and horrible clothes!

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Parent of 12 year old
February 25, 2011
 
Nice movie not just for kids and teens but adluts to!
Wow love this movie any girl can watch it its one of those movies sorta like SleepOver only way better love the Bratz cute movie this is a movie any little girl would love not just for little kids but for teens and even aldults !

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This review was written by Charles Cassady Jr.
Topics:friendship, high school
Studio:Lionsgate
Director:Sean McNamara
Cast:Chelsea Staub, Janel Parrish, Jon Voight, Logan Browning, Nathalia Ramos, Skyler Shaye
Genre:Family and Kids
Run time:99 minutes
Theatrical release date:August 2, 2007
DVD release date:November 27, 2007
MPAA rating:PG
MPAA explanation:thematic elements.

This review was written by Charles Cassady Jr.
 

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About our rating system
ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.
PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids.
OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.
Learning ratings
BEST: Really engaging, great learning approach.
GOOD: Pretty engaging, good learning approach.
FAIR: Somewhat engaging, OK learning approach.
NOT FOR LEARNING: Not recommended for learning.

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