Bratz: The Movie

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Bratz: The Movie's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Bratz: The Movie completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 22 September 2007.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Bratz: The Movie contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

This is the story of four girls whose friendship started in kindergarten. Sasha (Logan Brown), Jade (Janel Parrish), Yasmin (Nathalia Ramos) and Cloe (Skyler Shae) come from very different backgrounds and have different interests, but feel their friendship is very important and are very loyal towards one another. As the film opens they are about to start high school together at Carry Nation High and are excited by the prospect.

The four friends soon find their friendship severely tested. The powerful school president and daughter of the principal, Meredith Dimly (Chelsea Staub) is determined to have complete control of the whole school and therefore when students turn up on the first day she directs them to an area where there are students with similar interests. This way the students are split into cliques and, by not mixing with each other, leave Meredith and her friends to run the school.
Each of the four friends has different skills and interests. By joining the various groups that allow them to follow through with these interests they find that they are unable to spend time with each other and two years later they hardly talk.

One day the girls end up in detention together and realise that they have been coerced into behaving in a way that is detrimental to what was once very important to them - their friendship. They form a plan to not only spend time together but to get cliques to get to know each other as well. In doing this they make an enemy of Meredith and need to work hard to be together and follow their dreams.

Themes

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

High school cliques and peer pressure

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including:

• a fist fight between students
• a food fight

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters. Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened. Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Children of all ages are unlikely to be disturbed or scared by anything in this film.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

• The film itself can be seen as a marketing platform for “Bratz” dolls and associated merchandise
• Apple iPods feature heavily
• American shops and clothing brands

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

• young girls being described as “hot”
• the words of some songs are suggestive, although these are often not easy to make out

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

• sexualised dancing
• clothing which exposes cleavage and midriffs
• girls wearing bikinis and brief leotards
• some kissing

Use of substances

None of concern

Coarse language

There is some mild coarse language and putdowns, including:

• “Oh my God” used frequently
• “Dorks”, “Nerds”, “Freaks”

The movie's message

Bratz: The Movie is a teenage comedy based on characters from Bratz dolls and cartoons. The main focus of this movie is friendship. Values which parents may wish to reinforce include

• loyalty to friends and faith in them even when you may not fully understand their reasons for their actions
• belief in yourself and standing up for your principles in the face of opposition.
• success is not just based on looks but also your behaviour

Parents may also wish to discuss the negative consequences of cliques, peer pressure, selfishness and the need to control others.