Exactly like as was said in my review for 'Trollz' (dislike that show too), 'Bratz' was a show watched back when it first aired, back when CBBC was on the BBC for a couple of hours on weekday teatimes (like CBeebies in the morning and CITV on ITV, and when educational shows and weekend morning cartoons were still being aired on BBC and ITV).
Like 'Trollz', 'Bratz' left me indifferent initially but still stuck with it to see whether it would get better (like a lot of shows do after rocky starts) but to no avail. Giving it a fair chance as a young adult, as a fan of animation and as somebody who always watches something judging it for what it is and aims to be and takes target audience into account, 'Bratz' fares even worse. Not only notice the same flaws as when viewing it as a 13 year old, except even worse (such as the bad animation, writing and storytelling), but being an older person even more flaws are more apparent that went over my head somewhat when younger.
Saying that it is just a cartoon is a ridiculous, weak excuse for defending a show, as is saying it's a kids show (no, animation is for family, meaning kids and adults alike, and it also implies that kids have bad taste and intelligence which is far from the truth). Oh and the 'Tom and Jerry' comparison from personal opinion is an unfair and redundant one, 'Tom and Jerry' was violent but so were Looney Tunes, Tex Avery and Droopy cartoons, except they were extremely high quality, actually entertaining, had good characters, used the violence imaginatively and without bad taste (apart from the sadistic Gene Deitch 'Tom and Jerry' output), had good voice acting and weren't excuses for promoting and marketing toy lines, like 'Bratz' and 'Trollz' do. Just my outlook.
Back to 'Bratz', it isn't irredeemable but there is still very little to like about it. It did try to have some good morals (if not original or well-delivered ones, but the intent was there) and there are relevant and easy to relate to issues here (do think anybody can relate to being worried about sitting exams for example, especially if it's for a subject they usually flunk). That's pretty much the only credit one can give for a soulless, shallow, poorly made show that has nothing educational or anything of substance and not even a solid surface.
For CGI, while it's not the worst there has ever been, have said many times what the main offenders are so won't reiterate, it's still very poor. Flat textures, unnatural stiff movement, blocky character designs, backgrounds devoid of any life, colours that veer on the too bright and things out of focus and blurry. The music is very little different to the sort of music one hears in the charts today, very generic stuff and cheap.
It's written awfully as well. That it was cliché-ridden wasn't so big an issue. Bigger issues were that it was forced, was very vapid and not just makes one cringe it makes one feel dumber. The arguments and banter and such are so over-heated and cheesy. The stories suffer from a complete lack of originality or imagination, and continually do nothing fresh with old ideas, lack lustre and are so flimsy narratively that their short running times feel too long.
Any attempts, like 'Trollz', at morals and messaging is over-shadowed significantly by the negative, unoriginal and done-to-death stereotyping, and the constant negativity and dubious messaging leaves a bad taste at times. The characterisation very rarely goes beyond predictable stereotypes and negative ones, with constant condescending snobbery. There have been complaints about the appearances of the characters and the way they behave and dress and while not a prude that criticism is understandable if younger audiences look to their characters for role models, and as role models the characters are unhealthy ones.
The main villain Burdine Maxwell is not much of one at all, nothing amusing, nothing to present any kind of proper conflict and nothing interesting, and their motives and schemes are as lame as one could possibly get. The secondary villains are no better, resorting to extreme measures for trivial reasons (i.e. dog-napping to get rid of the competition). The rest of the characters don't register. The frequent whining that passes for voice acting comes over as irritating.
In summary, poorly written, soulless, shallow and annoying, lives up to its name to a tee. 2/10 Bethany Cox
