''Bratz'' (also known as ''Bratz: The Movie'') is a 2007 American
comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
based on the
fashion doll toyline of the same name from
MGA Entertainment
MGA Entertainment Inc. (short for Micro-Games America Entertainment; sometimes referred to as MGA) is a manufacturer of children's toys and entertainment products founded in 1979. Its products include, Bratz, L.O.L. Surprise!, Num Noms and Rainbow ...
. The film is directed by
Sean McNamara with a screenplay by
Susan Estelle Jansen
Susan Estelle Jansen Corbett is an American television producer and writer.
Her credits include ''Home Improvement'', ''Boy Meets World'', '' Maybe This Time'' and '' You Wish''.
Her film screenplay credits include ''The Lizzie McGuire Movie' ...
, from a story written by
Adam de la Pena
Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...
and David Eilenberg. It is the first live-action film based on the toyline after a series of
direct-to-video animated films
Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was p ...
and a
television series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...
.
Nathalia Ramos
Nathalia Norah Ramos Cohen (born July 3, 1992) is an American actress. She is known for her portrayals of Yasmin in the 2007 film ''Bratz'', Jill in the 2013 film '' The Damned'', and lead character Nina Martin in the first two seasons of the ...
,
Skyler Shaye
Skyler Anna Shaye (born October 14, 1986) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Kylie in '' Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2'' (2004) and as Cloe in '' Bratz: The Movie'' (2007).
Early life
Skyler Anna Shaye was born on Octob ...
,
Logan Browning
Logan Laurice Browning (born June 9, 1989) is an American actress. She is best known for starring as Samantha White in the 2017 Netflix satirical-drama series ''Dear White People''. She is also known for playing Sasha in the 2007 film '' Bratz: ...
, and
Janel Parrish
Janel Meilani Parrish Long (born October 30, 1988) is an American actress and singer. She starred as Mona Vanderwaal in the mystery-drama television series ''Pretty Little Liars'' (2010–2017) and its spinoff '' Pretty Little Liars: The Perfecti ...
star as the member of the group, with
Chelsea Staub
Chelsea Kane Staub (born September 15, 1988) is an American actress and singer. She is known for her role as Stella Malone in the Disney Channel sitcom television series ''Jonas'' and the role of Riley Perrin in the Freeform sitcom, ''Baby Dadd ...
,
Lainie Kazan
Lainie Kazan (born Lainie Levine; May 15, 1940) is an American actress and singer. She was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for '' St. Elsewhere'' and the 1993 Tony Award for Best Featured Actr ...
, and
Jon Voight
Jonathan Vincent Voight (; born December 29, 1938) is an American actor. He came to prominence in the late 1960s with his Academy Award–nominated performance as Joe Buck, a would-be gigolo, in ''Midnight Cowboy'' (1969). During the 1970s, he ...
in supporting roles.
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
Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production.
Personnel
Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...
took place in Los Angeles between February and March 2007.
''Bratz'' was released in the United States on August 3, 2007, by
Lionsgate
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...
. The film was panned by critics and received five nominations at the
28th Golden Raspberry Awards, including
Worst Picture
The Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture is an award given out at the annual Golden Raspberry Awards to the worst film of the past year. Over the 39 ceremonies that have taken place, there have been 202 films nominated for Worst Picture and 42 ...
. It was also a commercial failure, grossing only $26 million worldwide against a $20 million budget,
failing to break even.
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
A clique ( AusE, CanE, or ), in the social sciences, is a group of individuals who interact with one another and share similar interests. Interacting with cliques is part of normative social development regardless of gender, ethnicity, or popular ...
, 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
Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ente ...
. 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
Production
Paula Abdul
Paula Julie Abdul (born June 19, 1962) is an American singer, dancer, choreographer, actress, and television personality. She began her career as a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers at the age of 18 and later became the head choreograph ...
was dropped from the production before completion while working on ''
American Idol
''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to Ap ...
''. She was originally enlisted to provide wardrobe designs,
choreograph
Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...
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.
Susie Singer Carter
Susie Singer Carter is an American film director and actress. She is best known for her work on ''My Mom and the Girl'', ''Soul Surfer'', ''Bratz'', ''Cake'' and ''Dance Revolution''.
Life and career
Susie was born in Los Angeles, California. Sh ...
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.
The film was shot from February to March 2007 at
Santee Education Complex
Santee Education Complex is a secondary school located at 1921 South Maple Avenue in Los Angeles, California. Santee, which serves grades nine through 12, is a part of the Los Angeles Unified School District, and is located in the South Los Angel ...
in
South Los Angeles, California
South Los Angeles, also known as South Central Los Angeles or simply South Central, is a region in southwestern Los Angeles County, lying mostly within the city limits of Los Angeles, south of downtown.
It is "defined on Los Angeles city maps as ...
, while in session.
Reception
Critical response
''Bratz'' was universally panned by critics and fans alike. On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, 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." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the film has a score of 21 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by
CinemaScore
CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data.
Background
Ed Mintz founded Ci ...
gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.
Accolades
It was nominated for 5
Golden Raspberry Awards
The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, ...
in 2007, but received none.
*
Worst Picture
The Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture is an award given out at the annual Golden Raspberry Awards to the worst film of the past year. Over the 39 ceremonies that have taken place, there have been 202 films nominated for Worst Picture and 42 ...
(lost to ''
I Know Who Killed Me
''I Know Who Killed Me'' is a 2007 American psychological thriller film directed by Chris Sivertson, written by Jeff Hammond, and starring Lindsay Lohan, Julia Ormond, Neal McDonough and Brian Geraghty. The film's story revolves around a young ...
'')
*
Worst Actress for Logan Browning, Janel Parrish, Nathalia Ramos, and Skyler Shaye (lost as a tie to
Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Dee Lohan ( ; born July 2, 1986) is an American actress and singer. Born in New York City and raised on Long Island, Lohan was signed to Ford Models at the age of three. Having appeared as a regular on the television soap opera '' An ...
in ''
I Know Who Killed Me
''I Know Who Killed Me'' is a 2007 American psychological thriller film directed by Chris Sivertson, written by Jeff Hammond, and starring Lindsay Lohan, Julia Ormond, Neal McDonough and Brian Geraghty. The film's story revolves around a young ...
'' (as the characters of Aubrey and Dakota)
*
Worst Supporting Actor for Jon Voight (lost to
Eddie Murphy
Edward Regan Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and singer. He rose to fame on the sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'', for which he was a regular cast member from 1980 to 1984. Murphy has als ...
in ''
Norbit
In electronics, the NORBIT family of modules is a very early form (since 1960) of digital logic developed by Philips (and also provided through and Mullard) that uses modules containing discrete components to build logic function blocks in resis ...
'' (as the character of Mr. Wong)
* Worst Screen Couple for "Any combination of two totally airheaded characters" (lost to
Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Dee Lohan ( ; born July 2, 1986) is an American actress and singer. Born in New York City and raised on Long Island, Lohan was signed to Ford Models at the age of three. Having appeared as a regular on the television soap opera '' An ...
("as the yang to her own yin") in ''
I Know Who Killed Me
''I Know Who Killed Me'' is a 2007 American psychological thriller film directed by Chris Sivertson, written by Jeff Hammond, and starring Lindsay Lohan, Julia Ormond, Neal McDonough and Brian Geraghty. The film's story revolves around a young ...
'')
* Worst Remake or Rip-off ("a rip-off if there ever was one") (lost to ''
I Know Who Killed Me
''I Know Who Killed Me'' is a 2007 American psychological thriller film directed by Chris Sivertson, written by Jeff Hammond, and starring Lindsay Lohan, Julia Ormond, Neal McDonough and Brian Geraghty. The film's story revolves around a young ...
'')
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
A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...
.
Home media
The film was released to
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
on November 27, 2007, and was released for free April 1, 2020 on YouTube Movies. A
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
version of the film has yet to be released.
Soundtrack
A film soundtrack entitled ''Bratz: Motion Picture Soundtrack'' was released on July 31, 2007, through
Geffen Records
Geffen Records is an American record label established by David Geffen and owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M Records imprint.
Founded in 1980, Geffen Records has been a part of Interscope Geffen A&M since 1999 and h ...
. The soundtrack featured music from artists such as
Ashlee Simpson
Ashley Nicolle Ross ( Simpson; born October 3, 1984), known professionally as Ashlee Simpson, is an American singer and actress. The younger sister of singer and actress Jessica Simpson, she began her career as a back-up dancer for her sister ...
,
Dropping Daylight
Dropping Daylight is an American rock band from Minneapolis, Minnesota. They have performed with Jason Mraz, The Pixies, Plain White T's, Jonas Brothers, Paramore, Papa Roach, Cypress Hill, Green Day, Phantom Planet, The Misfits, Blue October, B ...
, and
The Black Eyed Peas
Black Eyed Peas (also known as The Black Eyed Peas) is an American musical group consisting of rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap, Taboo. The group's line-up during the height of their popularity in the 2000s featured Fergie, who replaced Kim Hil ...
. Three singles were released prior to the album's release, "Rainy Day" by
Janel Parrish
Janel Meilani Parrish Long (born October 30, 1988) is an American actress and singer. She starred as Mona Vanderwaal in the mystery-drama television series ''Pretty Little Liars'' (2010–2017) and its spinoff '' Pretty Little Liars: The Perfecti ...
, "Rockstar" by
Prima J
Prima J is an American musical duo, composed of cousins Jessica and Janelle Martinez. Jessica (born on May 25, 1988) and Janelle (born on August 26, 1988) came up with their stage name by combining the letter "J" in each of their given names w ...
, and "Fearless" by Daechelle. The soundtrack was released in the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as Australia, where it featured an additional musical track by the Australian singer and actress
Stephanie McIntosh
Stephanie McIntosh (born 5 July 1985) is an Australian actress and singer. She played the role of Sky Mangel in the Australian soap opera ''Neighbours'' from 2003 to 2007. She made a brief appearance for one episode in 2015 as part of the show ...
.
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.
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media (CSM) is an organization that reviews and provides ratings for media and technology with the goal of providing information on their suitability for children. 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." The 9th track on the album “Out from Under” was later covered by
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the " Princess of Pop", she is credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s and early 2000s. After appearing in stage productio ...
on her 6th studio album ''
Circus
A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclist ...
''.
Track list
Video game
A video game adaptation of the film entitled ''Bratz 4 Real'' was released to the
Nintendo DS
The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...
and
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
on November 5, 2007. The game was published by
THQ
THQ Inc. was an American video game company based in Agoura Hills, California. It was founded in April 1990 by Jack Friedman, originally in Calabasas, and became a public company the following year through a reverse merger takeover. Initial ...
.
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
''Pocket Gamer'' is a video game website that focuses on mobile, portable and handheld games. The site launched in 2005 and is published and owned by UK company Steel Media Ltd. The site covers all major portable and mobile gaming formats, incl ...
'' 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."
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
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."
See also
*
List of American films of 2007
This article lists of American films released in 2007.
Box office
The highest-grossing American films released in 2007, by domestic box office gross revenue, are as follows:
January–March
April–June
July–September
Octobe ...
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bratz (2007 film)
Bratz
2007 films
2007 comedy films
2000s buddy comedy films
2000s female buddy films
2000s high school films
2000s musical comedy films
2000s teen comedy films
American buddy comedy films
American female buddy films
American high school films
American musical comedy films
American teen comedy films
American teen musical films
Brookwell McNamara Entertainment films
Crystal Sky Pictures films
2000s English-language films
Films about music and musicians
Films based on toys
Films directed by Sean McNamara
Films produced by Avi Arad
Films shot in Los Angeles
Lionsgate films
Live-action films based on animated series
Films based on fashion dolls
2000s American films