Film / Bratz

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Bratz: The Movie is a 2007 movie based on the popular but controversial line of dolls. It is set in an Alternate Continuity to the CGI films.

The movie follows Cloe, Sasha, Yasmin and Jade as they go through high school. After being broken up on the first day, Yasmin decides to take the initiative and bring her group back together and show Meredith and her Girl Posse that she doesn't rule the school.

This movie shows examples of:

• Absurdly Divided School: When the four main characters first arrive, the Alpha Bitch Meredith tries to sort them and everyone else into cliques in an effort to keep everything orderly. This actually works for a few years, as everyone but Yasmin manages to fit into a clique, and the later attempts to break out of this situation is what creates the big conflict.
• Adults Are Useless: Principal Dimly has less influence over the school than Meredith does and he has less discipline over both of his daughters.
• Alpha Bitch: Meredith is trying to out-bitch both Libby from Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996) and Tess from Camp Rock with songs like "It's All About Me" and "FABULOUS".
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Cherish is this from Meredith's perspective. Though, given that she antagonizes Meredith, she winds up being sympathetic to the audience, and she seems nice otherwise. She helps the Bratz girls discredit Meredith's lies in the finale.
  • Manny plays this a little straighter towards Yasmin, and jumps at the opportunity to provide Meredith with an embarrassing video of her.
• Appropriated Appellation: Meredith calls the four main characters "Bratz" in anger during her second sweet sixteen party. They decide to take the term as their group name.
• Bond Breaker: Head girl Meredith is set upon driving the Bratz girls apart; after two years, she has succeeded in making them part of her pre-defined cliques, and they can barely speak to each other any more.
• Clique Tour: Meredith lists the school's cliques to Avery and Quinn. She's even got a color-coded map of where each clique sits, and the camera pans to each group for the audience's benefit as she rattles off their names.
  Meredith: You have the goths, the skaters, the disco dorks, the beat boy blingers, the gangstas, the wanna-be gangstas, the pretzel people, who are into yoga, very different from the greenies, who hate anything not made of plants. Then you have the nerds, the kids who like to dress like dinosaurs, and the football jocks.
• Contrived Coincidence: Meredith's dog tugs on Cloe's pants, which causes the main characters to get covered in food, thus causing them to hate each other and a massive Food Fight ensues.
• Control Freak: Meredith, who organises everyone into cliques, even the unpopular kids, going to ridiculous extremes to discredit anybody who stands in her way.
• Expy: Meredith is a Sharpay-Evans-Rip-off. She shares her Large Ham persona and her obsession with maintaining the status quo. Though she doesn't have the likability or the Character Development Sharpay has.
• Four-Girl Ensemble: Yasmin is the level-headed one; Jade is the savvy one; Sasha is the glamorous one; and Cloe is the naive one.
• Freshman Fears: The very beginning of the film involves the main characters starting high school together and discovering that their school runs on cliques. They're slowly forced apart as they discover their new niches and end up fitting in better with other groups than with each other, before the Time Skip kicks in.
• The Glasses Gotta Go: Dexter.
• Graceful in Their Element: Cloe is repeatedly shown to be a bit of a klutz, but put her on a soccer field and all that goes flying out the window.
• High School AU: This movie is an Alternate Continuity to a universe set in a high school. It includes pretty much every stereotype you can name and even makes up new ones.
• Hollywood Science: To make a super cool CGI fireworks show just combine three different chemicals in a pseudo smart way!
• Informed Flaw: Cloe's 'clumsiness.' Yes, a klutz is capable of pulling off soccer moves only professionals can barely do.
• Informed Poverty: If Cloe is so poor, where did she get all of those clothes, the computer in her bedroom, and the moped she drives to school? (It is never mentioned whether or not she has a job outside of school to make up for it.)
• It's All About Me: The title of the song Meredith performs at the Talent Show.
• Kid-anova: Yasmin's brother Manny is quite vain and fancies himself a bit of a pickup artist. He's like, twelve.
• Large Ham: Meredith is an unapologetic diva, and Chelsea Kane appears to be having a lot of fun playing her.
• Little Miss Snarker: Cherish has quite a mouth on her, and constantly backsasses her older sister Meredith. Manny, of course, finds her attitude entertaining.

  Manny: Athletic and yet, very hot. Me likey.

  Cherish: Me thinkie you're a twerp.

  Manny: So what do you think of my hair today? I did this side just for you.

  Cherish: Don't you need a license to be that ugly?

  Manny: Ooh, I like'em feisty.

• Make Way for the Princess: Meredith and the Bratz.
• The Man Behind the Man: The high school girl behind the man specifically. Meredith's influence in the school is so significant that she actually whispers to her father—the principal—on how to handle the Bratz when they get in trouble after the Food Fight.
• Meaningful Name: Principal Dimly, who is indeed depicted as very dim.
• Merchandise-Driven: It's based on a doll line, so... yeah.
• National Stereotypes: Mexicans have mariachi bands living with them. Bratz: The Movie said so. And that's just the beginning.
• Pocket Pet: Meredith owns a Pomeranian named Paris and sometimes carries her in a purse.
• The Power of Friendship: BFFs WOO!
• Product Placement: The girls/dolls.
• Raised by Grandparents: Yasmin and her brother are living with their grandmother for some reason, and no mention is made of their parents.
• Rich Bitch: Meredith.
• Talent Show: The climax.
• Trailers Always Spoil: Most of the trailers consist mainly of scenes right from the end of the movie—for instance, from Meredith's Super Sweet 16 party, when the Bratz triumph over Meredith, or from the food fight.
• Title Drop: A very, very agitated Meredith does this when the girls (unintentionally) humiliate her during her birthday party. After a couple of seconds where she seems to struggle with what to call them, she settles on:

  Meredith: You... you... BRAAAAATZ!

• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: While it's unknown if Meredith used to be sweet, when she sings "Fabulous", it's implied that she was bullied in elementary school.
• Wakeup Makeup: It's like they got up and fixed their hair and makeup before re-waking up.
• Wardrobe Wound:
  • There's a Food Fight scene at school, in which the Bratz treat the mess made of their clothes and hair as Serious Business and the ultimate insult.
  • As part of Meredith's Humiliation Conga, she gets covered in cake, then knocked into a pool, publicly humiliating her at her own party.
• Xtreme Kool Letterz: Averted, apart from Bratz.
• You're Just Jealous: An example of this occurs in the song "Rock Star" by Prima J.
  You hate me 'cause I'm everything that you ever wanted to be.
  And I don't mind, 'cause I love it when you're looking at me.