History Toys / Bratz

A line of [[{{Animesque}} anime-styled]] fashion dolls created by ex-Creator/{{Mattel}} employee Carter Bryant and produced by Creator/MGAEntertainment. Released in 2001, the line did the unthinkable and dethroned Franchise/{{Barbie}} from her spot as the #1 doll line among girls.

* GainaxEnding: The last part of ''Bratz Kidz: Sleepover Adventure'' will '''definitely''' leave you bewildered. Hang on, folks:
** When the Bratz pressure new kid Ginger to make her story scarier, she gets overwhelmed (and judging from what she exactly says, implied to have scared even herself with her untold ending) and runs out of the room, prompting the Bratz to try and look for her so they can apologize. Sounds like your simple everyday girl-oriented SliceOfLife children's movie, right? Well... they can't find her or her parents anywhere, and the house begins to age, disturbing the Bratz enough for them to escape the house and look at its exterior now. Turns out, [[spoiler: the house is actually abandoned, and Ginger's family was DeadAllAlong]]. The Bratz then flee to discover [[spoiler: the characters from their stories[[note]]The doppelganger from Sasha's story, the dog from Chloe's, the Ride Operator from Jade's, and the clown from Meygan's[[/note]] have become real]]. ''Then'' when they try to go to their own houses, [[spoiler: Ginger and her parents are at the door, repeating the words they said before the sleep-over began]]. The Bratz are understandably freaked out and flee each time they see this, but when they go to Sasha's house, [[spoiler: it's ''Ginger's'' family that is suddenly scared of the Bratz to the point of fainting by their presence]]. This is because the Bratz have lost any fear they had, but also have [[spoiler: inexplicably become the monsters from Jade's story. They also act like they've ''always been'' monsters, try to find somewhere to sleep...]] And that's it. Little to no explanation to ''how or why the'' '''''heck''''' ''it happened or what happens afterward.'' The closest we get is the phrase "Strange things happen on a full moon".

* BrokenAesop:
** The main characters constantly tell the one-shot characters that they should be themselves and follow their own style... right after they give them a makeover or finish gawking at the villains' untrendy LimitedWardrobe.
** In addition, the villains are supposed to reinforce the message that the viewer should be unique and look like nobody else... and yet the main characters and their boyfriends are all recolors of one another. (Yes, that includes their outfits.)

*** Chloe throws a tantrum when she doesn't get her own photo with Explodo-Girl, thus she has MakeMeWannaShout.

* MakeMeWannaShout: Cloe upon being affected by the Matter Exchanger in ''Bratz Super Babyz''.

In late 2012, the line expanded with ''Toys/{{Bratzillaz}}'', who are not only the cousins of the main cast, but also witches. The line took obvious cues from ''Harry Potter'', but has mostly been compared to Mattel's ''Monster High'', and with good reason- MGA seemed to be doing their best to [[FollowTheLeader openly compete]] with Mattel's juggernaut, with a similar catchphrase ("Glam Gets Wicked", as opposed to "Freaky Just Got Fabulous"), similar animated "webisodes,” and even a live-action music video which was often compared to the Monster High "Fright Song" video. After 2013, the Bratzillas line was quietly cancelled.

A line of [[{{Animesque}} anime-styled]] fashion dolls created by ex-Creator/{{Mattel}} employee Carter Bryant and produced by Creator/MGAEntertainment. Released in 2001, the line did the unthinkable and dethroned Franchise/{{Barbie}} from her spot as the #1 doll line among girls. The ''Bratz'' line features an [[FiveTokenBand ethnic rainbow]] of different characters to choose from.

The dolls' faces and bodies were obviously unnaturally proportioned so that they couldn't promote an unhealthy body image as Barbie is so often accused of, but unfortunately their personalities brought up another controversy as they revolved entirely around make-up and high fashion. They also had much narrower career paths than Barbie, focusing on glamorous occupations like models, pop divas, actresses, make-up artists, hairdressers, and fashion designers (Barbie, by contrast, has been everything from a veterinarian to an astronaut).

The line eventually became popular enough to warrant a bunch of spin-off lines, several animated [[DirectToVideo Direct-To-DVD]] movies, [[WesternAnimation/{{Bratz}} a short-lived cartoon series]], and [[Film/{{Bratz}} a live-action movie]], acquiring enough spin-offs in enough media for us to make the Franchise.{{Bratz}} page.

In December 2008, Mattel won a copyright lawsuit against MGA that ruled that, since Bryant was still working at Mattel when he created the original dolls, they were Mattel's intellectual property. As a result, [[http://www.thestar.com/business/article/548268 MGA was banned from selling all 40 dolls in the line]]. MGA successfully [[http://www.mgae.com/downloads/pressreleases/MGA%20Statement%20-%20Bratz%20Ruling%207-22-10.pdf appealed the ruling in July 2010 and regained ownership]]. In August, they released updated dolls with wider figures, less make-up, and more modest clothing to celebrate the franchise's 10th anniversary ([[BatmanGambit and so that they can claim they are not the same designs that Mattel claimed ownership of]], but that is neither here nor there.)

In late 2012, the line expanded with ''Toys/{{Bratzillaz}}'', who are not only the cousins of the main cast, but also witches. The line takes obvious cues from ''Harry Potter'', but has mostly been compared to Mattel's ''Monster High'', and with good reason- MGA seems to be doing their best to openly compete with Mattel's juggernaut, with a similar catchphrase ("Glam Gets Wicked", as opposed to "Freaky Just Got Fabulous") and even a Youtube channel that has short "webisodes" and even a live-action music video which has been compared to the Monster High "Fright Song" video. As of 2015, it seems Bratzillaz is a retail failure, as even the original 5 dolls can be purchased for well below original retail cost, the webisodes only received very sporadic updates and new doll releases have been sparse at best since 2013.

** The 2D animated films made prior and during the CGI seem to be like this, as the backstories are different. (eg. Yasmin being a new student and Cloe stating that she and Cameron met at elementary school, despite knowing each other in the first Bratz Babies film)

* ArtisticAge: The characters are only high schoolers but they act and dress a few years older than their official ages.

** Katia and her father, introduced in ''Bratz: Genie Magic'', is ''obviously'' Russian, according to Cloe's latest blog post, she's now Moroccan (This might be a case of research failure since the fashions in Genie Magic had a slight Moroccan influence).

* {{Bowdlerize}}: The recent comeback has the girls dressing in layers and pastels for no apparent reason. This wouldn't be so bad if they were actually well done, though. All of the make-up is the same now too.

** The main characters constantly tell the one-shot characters that they should be themselves and follow their own style... right after they give them a makeover or get done gawking at the villains' untrendy LimitedWardrobe.

* CluelessAesop: In ''Bratz: Super Babyz'', there's a side moral on how Cloe shouldn't cry over things. Problem is that the Bratz are, well, Babyz in this. Babies naturally cry a lot.

** The Bratz Babyz' [[https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZCj9idh7L.jpg outfits presented on the cover of Bratz Super Babyz]] are vastly different (and more modest) from [[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xwIJD0TJQ5U/hqdefault.jpg the ones they wear in the film]].
** Likewise, the cover for ''Bratz Kidz: Sleepover Adventure'' has the Kidz doing activities such as Cloe painting Sasha's nails, Jade eating popcorn, and Yasmin combing Cloe's hair. All they actually do is dance and tell stories. Also, Taco the dog is shown along with them as a "cute sidekick"-type character when in the movie he's actually the antagonist of Cloe's story. Oh, and Ginger is absent in spite of the fact she hosted the sleepover.
* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler: Ginger]] in the first ''Bratz Kidz'' movie is all but outright stated to be this from what the GainaxEnding can best tell us.

** Then Jade and the rest of the Bratz fake being employees of ''Your Thing'' and then Byron Powell gets the ''Your Thing'' crew ''kicked out'' of a concert because they're not dressed punk.

*** Yasmin brings up that the old movie theater Sasha and Ginger met was closed for years.

*** Jade gets messy with ice cream and candy, hinting her StickySituation power.

** In ''The Movie'', Cloe is supposed to be clumsy. But that doesn't stop her from being the best soccer player on the school's team, capable of pulling off moves that only professional players can do. Her clumsiness even gets the girls into the situation where they make up and become friends again and lets her spend time with her crush.
** In one of the animated movies, Jade is publicly humiliated at school when word got out about her fashion ''disaster''... which was... a pretty cute and unique outfit. despite the fact that there didn't seem to be ''any'' thing wrong with it, all of her friends say that it looks terrible. Instead she happily chooses to wear a generic yellow dress identical to the other ones everyone else wore to the dance, and happily declares that she finally got her individual fashion sense back.

* MediaScaremongering: Every few years or so, someone starts a panic saying that the toyline is teaching girls to dress like hookers or that beauty is everything in life. It doesn't exactly help that the franchise doesn't exactly present its supposed Aesops (individuality and self-confidence) in the best light.
* MerchandiseDriven

* OverlyLongName: Bratz Passion For Fashion Diamondz

** MGA seems to be trying to change this with the new dolls, who are much more covered.

* TamerAndChaster: The ''Bratz'' dolls were always controversial for being too sexualized and mature for their target audience of 9-12 year olds. In the 2010s, the series attempted to retool itself with a more G rated image. Gone was the emphasis on fashion, the dolls were now about creativity and taking selfies. This turned the title of the series into a bit of TheArtifact as the girls were no longer "bratty". The reboot ended up bombing. They also created the Bratzillaz line of dolls, which were cuter in style but were "creepy" dolls [[FollowTheLeader based on]] ''Toys/MonsterHigh''.

%%* TotallyRadical

** Neither Burdine nor the Tweevils have gotten any toys. [[AvertedTrope Averted]] for the Tweevils as of 2023 now that they have a collectors edition 2 pack.

* VomitDiscretionShot: In Meygan's story for ''Sleepover Adventure'', a rider sitting next to Meygan turns to her to throw up on her clothes. We only see the outside of the ride as we hear the splat and Meygan's BigNO

** Neither Burdine nor the Tweevils have gotten any toys.

** When the Bratz pressure new kid Ginger to make her story scarier, she gets overwhelmed (and judging from what she exactly says, implied to have scared even herself with her untold ending) and runs out of the room, prompting the Bratz to try and look for her so they can apologize. Sounds like your simple everyday girl-oriented SliceOfLife children's movie, right?
** Well... they can't find her or her parents anywhere, and the house begins to age, disturbing the Bratz enough for them to escape the house and look at its exterior now. Turns out, [[spoiler: the house is actually abandoned, and Ginger's family was DeadAllAlong]].
** The Bratz then flee to discover [[spoiler: the characters from their stories[[note]]The doppelganger from Sasha's story, the dog from Chloe's, the Ride Operator from Jade's, and the clown from Meygan's[[/note]] have become real]].
** ''Then'' when they try to go to their own houses, [[spoiler: Ginger and her parents are at the door, repeating the words they said before the sleep-over began]]. The Bratz are understandably freaked out and flee each time they see this, but when they go to Sasha's house, [[spoiler: it's ''Ginger's'' family that is suddenly scared of the Bratz to the point of fainting by their presence]].
** This is because the Bratz have lost any fear they had, but also have [[spoiler: inexplicably become the monsters from Jade's story. They also act like they've ''always been'' monsters, try to find somewhere to sleep...]] And that's it. Little to no explanation to ''how or why the'' '''''heck''''' ''it happened or what happens afterward.'' The closest we get is the phrase "Strange things happen on a full moon".

* AnthropomorphicFood: The main antagonists of ''Bratz Super Babyz'' are alien potatoes.

* ChangelingTale: The alien potatoes in ''Bratz Super Babyz'' ultimately plan to disguise themselves as human infants and replace the Bratz Babyz so they can apparently be "worshiped" by Gran, who was merely babysitting them at the time.

* EekAMouse: How the potato aliens in ''Bratz Super Babyz'' are defeated. Using the same "Matter Exchanger" device that turned the Bratz Babyz into superheroes, the aliens turn themselves into 'something hard to find' to hide from Gran, who the Bratz Babyz convinced into making potato-based foods to scare the aliens away. They're turned into mice, disgusting Gran once she finds them and prompting her to shoo them out of her house.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: So the aliens in ''Bratz Super Babyz'' are finally defeated! Yay! So... what are we going to do about the device that started it all? Oh, we're not going to bring it up again? Well okay then.

** Cymbeline from ''Fashion Pixiez'' didn't get a doll either, but oddly enough [[spoiler: her EvilAunt]] Lina did.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: A couple of hints are dropped in "Sleepover Adventure" on a part of the ending ([[spoiler: specifically the idea of Ginger's family being DeadAllAlong]]), but can easily be missed with how Sasha dismisses them.
** Cloe brings up that she heard nobody lived at Ginger's house.
** Yasmin brings up that the old movie theater Sasha and Ginger met was closed for years.

** In ''Bratz Rock Angelz'', after Jade gives [[LeanAndMean Burdine]] a double cheeseburger for lunch, Burdine fires Jade, her children, and her grandchildren from the Your Thing magazine for life and tells her that she'll never work in any magazine from that day onwards.