Fandom Life Cycle: When Bratz was first introduced in 2001, its popularity skyrocketed to Stage 4; in 2004 it managed to outsell Barbie in the UK, by 2006 it held 40% of the fashion doll market and Bratz merchandise was everywhere. Things slowed down following the lawsuit with Mattel (which briefly saw the line discontinued) and despite MGA ultimately winning the case Bratz never quite recovered, greatly declining in popularity by the early 2010s; the failure of the live-action movie didn't help. MGA made comeback attempts but struggled to compete with other brands like Monster High; some of their rebranding also proved unpopular with fans. Eventually, with the rise of the Y2K aesthetic in the late 2010s to early 2020s and many fans who grew up with the franchise now being adults, Bratz made a successful comeback at last with the release of reproduction dolls starting in 2021; it also released a new webseries on TikTok along with a new line of core dolls named Alwayz Bratz in early 2024. At the moment, it lies in stage X.
Follow the Leader: History seems to repeat again as a recent Amazon listing reveals that My Scene will also come back thanks to the renewed interest in Bratz.
Keep Circulating the Tapes: It's hard to find older Bratz related stuff, with even the clothes for the dolls going for over $40 USD. Thankfully, due to the resurgence of popularity, the brand started reproductions of lines such as Pretty N' Punk and Rock Angelz so that new collectors and longtime fans can get them without having to pay outrageous Ebay prices.
Started out as a Follow the Leader to Barbie, but soon became more popular. That didn't last.
Bratzillaz tried its best to cash in on Monster High, trying so hard they copied even the marketing. Judging by the low view counts of the webisodes though, it's not exactly edging in on MH. In an all too common case of Follow the Leader backfiring, Bratzillaz was scrapped only two years after its creation, mostly likely due to low sales or lack of interest. Despite MGA's attempts to bring back Bratz, they seem to have abandoned Bratzillaz all together.
Screwed by the Lawyers: The courts found the toy line was being worked on by Mattel before the creator left the company, so Mattel won a suit to discontinue the line. According to some fans, this is evidence that Barbie is jealous of the Bratz. Speaking to those fans—Judge Alex Kozinski, who granted MGA the appeal, seemed to agree that there was some "jealousy" involved in the case, saying, "America thrives on competition; Barbie, the all‐American girl, will too."(See here) and (here).
Show Accuracy/Toy Accuracy: The Fashion Pixies dolls have a much cuter pastel style than their edgy dominantly-black Goth designs in the movie they appear in. One of the reasons for this is said to be because the original colors were deemed "too scary" for children.
Write What You Know: The character Yasmin is based on MGA Entertainment's CEO Isaac Larian's daughter. Interestingly while the person she is based on is Iranian-American, Yasmin is Hispanic in many adaptations.
The Other Darrin: Cinégroupe produced the first direct-to-video movie, Starrin' and Stylin', which featured a different (uncredited) cast from the TV series which was produced by Mike Young Productions (now Splash Entertainment). Beginning with the direct-to-video movie Bratz: Fashion Pixiez (produced in-between the first and second seasons), recording moved from California to Vancouver, which replaced the entire cast.
Uncredited Role: The entire cast of Starrin' and Stylin' are uncredited. Contrary to what's posted on websites such as IMDb, the majority of the characters were not voiced by their actors from the CGI series.
Cloe's actress (Skyler Shaye) was 21 at the time the movie was released, playing a senior high school girl. Also Anneliese van der Pol, who was 23 years old when she played Avery.
Inverted with then 15-year-old Nathalie Ramos playing senior Yasmin (unless she's so smart she jumped three grades).
Franchise Killer: Downplayed. The film bombing is often believed to be the main cause of the toyline fading into relative obscurity.
Genre-Killer: This movie basically killed off the idea of theatrical films based off dolls, with any further films based on them going direct-to-video. This may also have been why cinemas were wary about showing Kit Kittredge: An American Girl the next year, even though it got good reviews from critics. The release and moderate success of the film based on the2010's era of My Little Pony and the record-breaking acclaim of the Barbie movie have a hint of reviving the genre, though only time can tell.
Not Screened for Critics: Averted. Despite what people may expect, this movie was screened for critics. It went about as well as you'd imagine.
Vindicated by Video: The movie did surprisingly well in DVD sales on release, making nearly $40 million back within a month and floating around the top 10 in the best selling list for a few weeks.
and (here).