Ranking The Best Classic Bratz Movies From Your Childhood
This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s fall editorial intern Raven Minyard. Find her on Instagram at @raven.minyard. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
Following the success of the Barbie movie, Zillennials everywhere have been reminiscing about our favorite early 2000s dolls, including Barbie’s competitor, Bratz. You may have seen our article ranking the classic Barbie movies, so we decided it was time to give the Bratz their turn.
Bratz have been on the rise again even prior to the Barbie hype. In 2021, Bratz celebrated their 20th anniversary by releasing a new line of replicas of the original dolls, and the brand has released a web-series exclusive to TikTok and even a new video game reminiscent of the classics like Rock Angelz and Forever Diamondz. Since the girls with a passion for fashion have made their comeback, we’ve gathered a list of Bratz movies to relive our childhood.
While there are currently fifteen entries into the Bratz Cinematic Universe, this list focuses only on the standard CGI-style movies you probably think of when you think of the Bratz films. It doesn’t include the first Bratz movie created, Starrin’ and Stylin’, since it’s a different animation style, nor does it include the Bratz Babyz or Bratz Kidz series. And it most definitely does not include the 2007 live action version because that monstrosity would come in dead last! Now, without further ado, let’s rank some Bratz movies!
8. Pampered Petz
Pampered Petz is one of the later entries into the Bratz Cinematic Universe. It follows the Bratz Pack (Cloe, Sasha, Yasmine, and Jade) as they help their friend Lola find homes for all of her 30+ pets when she is threatened with eviction after a neighbor filed a complaint to the police about the animals.
I hadn’t even known this movie existed until beginning my research for this article – and for good reason. This didn’t feel like a Bratz movie to me. It was a generic kids’ movie that could have been made with any characters. Bratz Magazine was never mentioned, the Tweevils were nowhere to be found and none of the usual side characters made an appearance. Since this was one of the newer movies, the original voice actors who gave the characters so much, well, character did not reprise their roles, either, so Pampered Petz had nothing in its favor. Plus, I thought the monkey looked creepy. That alone would put it in last place for me.
7. Girlz Really Rock
Girlz Really Rock follows the Bratz, plus their friends Dylan and Eitan, as they attend Camp Starshine, a summer camp for the performing arts. The end-of-camp showcase is judged by a famous director, and the winner will star in his next movie. The Bratz girls have to decide if they want to enter together or compete against each other, while Dylan romances the camp’s best ballerina. Overall, the plot is very reminiscent of Disney’s Camp Rock.
This was the first movie I watched where the change in voice actors was obvious to me, and it threw me off. I also didn’t expect the characters to randomly break out into song. The Bratz are a band in this one, like in Rock Angelz, but they usually only sing when they’re performing. This movie was a straight-up musical – even Dylan sings a duet with his love interest. This made it feel very out of place with the rest of the Bratz movies, and the plot was very predictable and lacked the campy humor I’ve come to expect from this franchise.
6. Desert Jewelz
Desert Jewelz is a sequel to Genie Magic, which we’ll see later on in this list. When the Bratz arrive in Morocco for a fashion show with their friend Katia, they get swept up into a plot with a thief named Alia and an archaeology professor named Willard Charlat. The girls must team up to win back Katia’s magic carpet and save the day from the thieves.
For a direct sequel to a direct-to-DVD movie, this isn’t bad. It’s simply not as good as the rest of the movies. It’s nice to see the return of Katia and her father, but like the other movies in this list so far, it just didn’t have the same vibes as the earlier releases. I also would’ve liked to see the Tweevils or some of the Bratz boys wandering the desert for comedic effect, but they were nowhere to be found.
5. Fashion Pixiez
Fashion Pixiez is based on the release of some of the most iconic Bratz dolls, in my opinion. In this movie, the Bratz discover classmates Cymbeline and Breeana are actually pixies. When new girl Lina arrives, Cymbeline begins acting out of character, and the Bratz team up with Breeana to save the town from the Dark Pixiez.
I debated whether to put this at the fourth or fifth spot, but ultimately it landed in fifth because it loses points for being the first of the Bratz movies not to feature the original voice cast (if you haven’t noticed by now, this is something I’m very passionate about). This is still a really fun movie, though, as Dylan gets put under a spell and acts weirder than usual and the Bratz get attacked by a talking lawn gnome. This movie also led to some fun “Bratz Out of Context” videos!
4. Genie Magic
Genie Magic follows the Bratz when they befriend, you guessed it, a genie. When the girls invite new student Katia to a sleepover, they quickly discover she has the power to grant wishes. They’re soon wrapped up in an adventure to save Katia from the government organization that’s been holding her captive.
Even though my enjoyment of Bratz movies is usually based on the amount of Tweevil screentime, this one had enough magical hijinks that I didn’t notice their absence. Katia often misses normal human social cues, and if she overhears anyone say the phrase “I wish,” she has to grant it, which leads to some funny situations for the Bratz. This is a fun movie, but it isn’t as personally memorable for me as the ones higher on this list, so it lands solidly in the middle of the pack.
3. Bratz Go to Paris
Released in 2013, Bratz Go to Paris is the most recent Bratz movie. The Bratz are approaching their fifteenth friendship anniversary when Byron Powell reaches out asking them to go undercover as supermodels in Paris to discover who is secretly poisoning the models there.
After watching the other newer movies, I wasn’t looking forward to this one because I expected it, too, would lack the fun, campy tone the early movies had. I was pleasantly surprised to find the original voice actors had returned, as had characters like Burdine and Byron. After doing a little research, I learned that this movie was actually a rerelease of three episodes from the Bratz TV series, which explained the sudden improvement in quality. I wondered if I should include it in this list since it wasn’t originally a movie, but the Bratz Wiki considers it the latest addition to the Bratz cinematic universe, so who am I to argue?
2. Rock Angelz
The movie that started it all. While technically the second Bratz movie ever made, this was the first in the CGI style in which the rest of the series was produced. Rock Angelz follows the Bratz as they first develop Bratz Magazine after Jade gets fired from an internship with Your Thing. After going through the mail Burdine throws away, the girls find an invitation to a new club in London, England, and decide to attend to write an article for the magazine. Of course, Burdine and the Tweevils arrive soon after to try to sabotage them.
It was hard to decide between my number one and number two picks for this list. Rock Angelz is a classic. It sets up the Bratz Cinematic Universe, introducing us to all the key characters, including Byron Powell, and we get plenty of personal drama and growth for the Bratz. This is definitely where you should start with the Bratz movies, but there’s just one more that’s a bit more fun and chaotic, which suits my personal taste a bit better.
Passion 4 Fashion Diamondz
This masterpiece has everything I could want in a Bratz movie: Cloe being her overdramatic self, Your Thing Magazine causing chaos and… aliens? Released in 2006, this was the last movie featuring the original voice cast and an appearance by Burdine Maxwell. It follows the Bratz as they compete against Your Thing in a cross-country competition to find the next best teenage fashion designer. When things start going wrong for both teams, the Bratz begin to wonder if someone is sabotaging them.
Passion 4 Fashion Diamondz is so outrageous it genuinely still makes me laugh as an adult. Burdine and the Tweevils are at their peak, and the plot is a classic battle of the two magazines – the very thing that made the Bratz franchise so popular to begin with. Plus, there’s a whole sideplot of the Bratz being haunted by a ghostly hitchhiker, and the Your Thing team gets abducted by aliens. I love a good roadtrip comedy, and this one is so chaotic that I couldn’t look away. If you’re going to watch a Bratz movie, watch this one.
What do you think of this list of Bratz movies? Do you agree with this ranking? What’s your number one? Let us know in the comments!