Episode 170 - Bratz

[tomspanks 9039]

I've met a few deaf folks that really enjoy going to metal shows simply because the music is so heavy and loud that they can feel the beat. I have a friend who is an ASL interpreter, and metal shows are a big percentage of the gigs she gets. So, to me, DJ-ing seems doable.

 

Thoughts?

 

I also think it's doable. The dubious part was when Dylan felt the vibrations (?) of Yasmin singing alone in the music room and told her she's a good singer. How would he know this? It's one thing to feel the vibrations of the beats, but how can he tell if she was on pitch?

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

 

I also think it's doable. The dubious part was when Dylan felt the vibrations (?) of Yasmin singing alone in the music room and told her she's a good singer. How would he know this? It's one thing to feel the vibrations of the beats, but how can he tell if she was on pitch?

 

Totally couldn't. Yasmin could've belched into the mic and Dylan could've felt the vibrations and thought it was a #1 record. I figured he was just flirting with her.

[Cameron H. 23786]

 

Just for fun, I looked up the goofs on IMDB and this one made me laugh:

 

I feel like I'm being really harsh on Jade but she was my favorite. I just wanted better for her.

 

I think we've firmly established that Jade sucks monkey ass at math.

[Cameron H. 23786]

 

I also think it's doable. The dubious part was when Dylan felt the vibrations (?) of Yasmin singing alone in the music room and told her she's a good singer. How would he know this? It's one thing to feel the vibrations of the beats, but how can he tell if she was on pitch?

 

I was just about to mention this myself! I did love how the girl-who's-afraid-to-sing-in-public's first instinct was, go to the school music room with large windows (while school's in session), not lock the doors, plug in a microphone, and sing at the top of her lungs. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

I also found her to be the weakest singer of all the Bratz - which is really neither here nor there. Just an observation.

[Cheyenne Radd 13]

I have a theory that Bratz: The Movie is a satire of the popular tween Disney channel TV movie High School Musical that came out a year before. High School Musical is also about a school with severely regimented cliques that prevent the lead characters from being friends. They have eerily similar plot points and characters. Most notably having a perky blond villain who sings and has a weird little dog. Also having sad parent plot lines.

 

Bratz ratchets up high school clique culture established in HSM. There are the standard jock, cheerleader, nerd, band geek, etc. groups on the Bratz campus, but there's also ridiculous groups that dress like dinosaurs and mimes. The high school in Bratz is a literal prison to conformity and is even named after the famous prohibitionist Carrie Nation.

 

The writers probably did not have enough source material from the dolls and simply made Bratz a satire of the annoyingly popular HSM.

[Cameron H. 23786]

I have a theory that Bratz: The Movie is a satire of the popular tween Disney channel TV movie High School Musical that came out a year before. High School Musical is also about a school with severely regimented cliques that prevent the lead characters from being friends. They have eerily similar plot points and characters. Most notably having a perky blond villain who sings and has a weird little dog. Also having sad parent plot lines.

 

Bratz ratchets up high school clique culture established in HSM. There are the standard jock, cheerleader, nerd, band geek, etc. groups on the Bratz campus, but there's also ridiculous groups that dress like dinosaurs and mimes. The high school in Bratz is a literal prison to conformity and is even named after the famous prohibitionist Carrie Nation.

 

The writers probably did not have enough source material from the dolls and simply made Bratz a satire of the annoyingly popular HSM.

 

I don't know...clique culture has been around forever. Look at The Breakfast Club, Clueless, Pretty in Pink, and pretty much any movie set in a High School ever and it's probably going to come up. I'd need a little more evidence than this to believe that it was a direct satire of HSM.

[PollyDarton 1807]

June and Kate seemed baffled by remembering seeing the clip of "Hey Paula" where Paula Abdul freaks out about being overwhelmed by the Bratz movie. They probably saw it the same way I did... on The Soup with Joel McHale.

[Elektra Boogaloo 3371]

 

Don't leave us hanging!

The wiki left me hanging. It was all about which boyfriends she had and her various outfits. I didn't see mention of her father.

 

I bet someone murdered him and there is a coverup.

CONSPIRACY THEORY!!! He was murdered by the government cause he knew too much!!!

ABOUT ALIENS, TAYLOR?

MAJOR TWIST IN THE FATHER SITUATION.

 

The wiki says "Cloe doesn't have a dad." But in "Bratz Kids: Sleepover Adventure" (which maybe Paul can tell us about) there is a character called "Cloe's dad." http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/movies/Bratz-Kidz-Sleep-Over-Adventure/Cloes-Dad/

 

I'm really mad it's spelled Cloe not Chloe too.

 

Maybe aliens abducted her h.

[SaraK 1980]

MAJOR TWIST IN THE FATHER SITUATION.

 

The wiki says "Cloe doesn't have a dad." But in "Bratz Kids: Sleepover Adventure" (which maybe Paul can tell us about) there is a character called "Cloe's dad." http://www.behindthe...ture/Cloes-Dad/

 

I'm really mad it's spelled Cloe not Chloe too.

 

Maybe aliens abducted her h.

 

If that's the story about how her dad disappeared, then that's a really crazy sleepover adventure.

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

Just so happened to see this in my newsfeed this afternoon, so I thought I'd share since it applies to Jade:

 

"The 'Asian Character Hair Streak' Is Real And A Huge Problem"

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

June and Kate seemed baffled by remembering seeing the clip of "Hey Paula" where Paula Abdul freaks out about being overwhelmed by the Bratz movie. They probably saw it the same way I did... on The Soup with Joel McHale.

 

God, I miss The Soup.

[DanEngler 5249]

PSA: For more info about Carry A. Nation, the most recent episode of Criminal (one of my favorite podcasts) covers her bizarre life story in detail.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

I'm really mad it's spelled Cloe not Chloe too.

 

Maybe aliens abducted her h.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

I also found her to be the weakest singer of all the Bratz - which is really neither here nor there. Just an observation.

OMG YES! I totally forgot to mention that earlier! As soon as she started singing I thought, "Uh she's flat as fuck why is she considered the best???"

[grudlian. 4725]

Correction: Regarding Barbie's age, she was originally a "teenage fashion model" and there were some Random House books from the late 1990s which age her to be in high school. So, Mattel seems to be placing her consistently as a teenager. This doesn't explain, as Jason states, her being a professional woman with an dream house and several jobs.

 

Jason probably means Skipper, who is 14, instead of Malibu Stacy. Malibu Stacy is a parody of Barbie from an episode of The Simpsons.

 

Barbie's wikipedia page (which is where I'm getting all this esoteric Barbie info, please don't think I know this) has a section on competition with Bratz that I'll copy here.

In 2004, sales figures showed that Bratz dolls were outselling Barbie dolls in the United Kingdom, although Mattel maintained that in terms of the number of dolls, clothes, and accessories sold, Barbie remained the leading brand^. In 2005, figures showed that sales of Barbie dolls had fallen by 30% in the United States, and by 18% worldwide, with much of the drop being attributed to the popularity of Bratz dolls.

In December 2006, Mattel sued MGA Entertainment for $500 million, alleging that Bratz creator Carter Bryant was working for Mattel when he developed the idea for Bratz. On July 17, 2008, a federal jury agreed that the Bratz line was created by Carter Bryant while he was working for Mattel and that MGA and its Chief Executive Officer Isaac Larian were liable for converting Mattel property for their own use and intentionally interfering with the contractual duties owed by Bryant to Mattel. On August 26, the jury found that Mattel would have to be paid $100 million in damages. On December 3, 2008, U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson banned MGA from selling Bratz. He allowed the company to continue selling the dolls until the winter holiday season ended. On appeal, a stay was granted by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; the Court also overturned the District Court's original ruling for Mattel, where MGA Entertainment was ordered to forfeit the entire Bratz brand.

 

Mattel Inc. and MGA Entertainment Inc. returned to court on January 18, 2011 to renew their battle over who owns Bratz, which this time includes accusations from both companies that the other side stole trade secrets. On April 21, 2011, a federal jury returned a verdict supporting MGA. On August 5, 2011, Mattel was also ordered to pay MGA $310 million for attorney fees, stealing trade secrets, and false claims rather than the $88.5 million issued in April^.

 

In August 2009, MGA introduced a range of dolls called Moxie Girlz intended as a replacement for Bratz dolls.

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

Jason probably means Skipper, who is 14, instead of Malibu Stacy. Malibu Stacy is a parody of Barbie from an episode of The Simpsons.

 

D'OH!!! How'd I let that one get by? Hats off to your airtight Barbie scholarship ... Genius at Work, indeed.

[walterwoodsiv 215]

So. Many. Things.

 

First,

 

https://youtu.be/ggEPIKZuPn4

 

This is suppose to be Sasha?

 

 

Second, Deaf DJs are actually a thing. I had to look it up after this movie.

 

 

Also, I started loosing my mind watching this at 1:00 AM and started creating a theory about how this movie predicts the rise of Donald Trump and failure of the GOP to stop it. I can totally go into that if you want.

[Cameron H. 23786]

Not for nothing, but if any of you out there are ever in a situation where your sworn blood enemy of two years unexpectedly invites you to perform in front of crowd of your peers, you have every right to say "No thanks. I'm good." Jesus, Yasmin, you don't need a Mon Calamari Admiral to tell you that that's a fucking trap.

[ChunkStyle 1160]

I also totally missed the "2 years later" part of the movie and when it came up on the podcast I thought they had it wrong somehow. It is shocking information because it takes a bad movie and made it retroactively worse. If they really went two years like that then if it wasn't for the happenstance of the food fight getting them detention together they would have just kept going like that until graduation and never seen each other again. In my Bratz movie the food fight just sped up the inevitable rejoining of the friends. It wasn't the most critical juncture of their young lives.

 

On a more petty note I was out on this movie right away due to the awful looking opening credits. I imagined an intern half way out the door taking the film to print when someone came running in saying "Holy shit! We forgot this movie needs opening credits!" and they had to throw them on in 7 minutes.

[Cameron H. 23786]

On a more petty note I was out on this movie right away due to the awful looking opening credits. I imagined an intern half way out the door taking the film to print when someone came running in saying "Holy shit! We forgot this movie needs opening credits!" and they had to throw them on in 7 minutes.

 

Fat Cat Producer (chomping on a cigar): "You know what's hip with the kids? Comic Sans."

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

 

Second, Deaf DJs are actually a thing. I had to look it up after this movie.

 

 

 

That's a cool video, but did you notice his headphones were laying on the console next to the computer the whole time, instead of wrapped around his neck, like our boy Dylan?

[ElieB 238]

I was really turned off hearing what this week's movie was then I saw this

 

 

 

So much to unpack in this screenshot. Wtf is happening. Listening tonight.

[The Human Target 34]

June's very proper pronunciation of "Latina" made me laugh almost as much as her pronunciation of "Gooby."

 

She and Paul are a perfect pronunciation Yin and Yang.

[Cam Bert 8145]

Okay I just had the chance to watch the movie this morning but you guys have done a good job on unpacking most things.

 

Here's my weird observations about Deaf Dylan. So he's playing the piano when the music teacher walks in. He says to the music teacher something along the lines of "I miss music." This one lines paints so much backstory for this character. He was a talented piano playing kid who loved music. Then one day a terrible accident leaves him deaf. Suddenly all his ambitions to be a musician are thrown out the window and he starts playing sports and becomes a jock, but his heart still belongs to music. What is more shocking that the music teacher never told him that Beethoven also went deaf and still managed to compose great music. Rather he got Dylan to DJ which seems like it'd be much harder for a deaf person who isn't familiar with the technology or music.

[joel_rosenbaum 1269]

The gang talked about how they wished the actress playing Yasmin was a Latina. According to the internet, the actress, Nathalia Ramos, was born in Spain to a Spanish father and an Australian mother, who has a "Sephardic Jewish background." Maybe that explains Yasmin's "bubbie," which is a term for a Jewish grandmother.

That's a sharp observation, but I have a correction here. "Bubbie" is from yiddish, which is basically a dialect of German spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. Sephardi are basically Spanish, both culturally and in language, so it's very unlikely that any Sephardic Jew would use the word "bubbie" or any other Yiddish.