Bratz (film)
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.
Bratz
- Adam de la Pena
- David Eilenberg
Bratz
by Carter Bryant
Jeff W. Canavan
- August 3, 2007
102 minutes[1]
United States
English
$20 million[2]
$26 million[3]
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[edit]
Cloe, Yasmin, Sasha and Jade are four teenage best friends 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 dislikes the independent spirit of the four girls and plots to ruin 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 singing. She meets Dylan, a popular jock, who is deaf but can lip read, who misses being able to listen to music. Though the girls try to make time for each other, they are all busy with their own respective interests and new friends. The friends begin to drift apart as they are compelled to stay within their cliques due to Meredith's plans.
Two years later, an accidental food fight causes them to get detention for breaking the principal statue. They realize that they miss being close friends and decide to recover that connection. 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. Meredith tries blackmailing the girls by using an embarrassing photo to have them quit the talent show. This results in secrets being revealed.
The talent show and its scholarship prize gives them the idea to bring all the cliques together again with a musical number. Meredith's constantly attempts to steal the spotlight. In the end, there is a tie. Meredith gets the trophy, but the girls also obtain the scholarship, which they give to Cloe. They are offered an appearance at a red carpet gala by an MTV vice president.
Additionally, director Sean McNamara makes 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[edit]
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[edit]
Critical response[edit]
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]
Bratz: Motion Picture Soundtrack
July 31, 2007
- 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
- Barking Lizards Technologies (DS)
- AWE Games (Windows)
November 5, 2007[14]