IF Bratz: The Movie, the first live-action film based on the best-selling dolls, truly speaks to the youth of today then we’re doomed.
 Spouting cheesy platitudes as if they were the most profound universal truths, Sean McNamara’s film is a crudely constructed piece of merchandising propaganda, urging its young female audience to become obsessive about make-up and clothes. Cloe (Shaye), Jade (Parrish), Sasha (Browning) and Yasmin (Ramos) are BFF – best friends forever – who always put the interests of their group ahead of personal gain. As they enter freshman year at Carry Nation High School, the girls ruffle the feathers of class president Meredith Baxter Dimly and her entourage. Meredith believes that students should remain in their cliques, a system flouted quite openly by Cloe, Jade, Sasha and Yasmin. However, the girls soon bow to Meredith’s wishes. Two years pass and the enormity of the estrangement finally hits the pals, who wonder: “What happened to us?”. Cue the birth of the all-singing, all-prancing Bratz. With the goal of railing against insidious peer pressure and prejudice in its many forms, McNamara’s film attempts to trumpet female empowerment and social harmony, exemplified by the four lead characters who collectively bridge the ethnic, religious and class divides. But Bratz: The Movie continually muddles its trite messages – such as there’s no shame in being poor because your rich friends will always bail you out and don’t be afraid to dream because everything you desire will fall in your lap. The four leads are bubbly, but the screenwriters pilfer from countless other superior teen wish fulfilment fantasies, which unfortunately means that, in the case of Bratz: The Movie, BFF stands for big, fat failure. | 
