The main characters constantly tell the one-shot characters that they should be themselves and follow their own style... right after they give them a makeover or finish gawking at the villains' untrendy Limited Wardrobe.
In addition, the villains are supposed to reinforce the message that the viewer should be unique and look like nobody else... and yet the main characters and their boyfriends are all recolors of one another. (Yes, that includes their outfits.)
Fair for Its Day: Back when the franchise was still huge, it was actually somewhat praised for its large cast of diverse (at least on the surface) characters; the four core characters alone consisted of Hispanic Yasmin, Caucasian Cloe, African-American Sasha and Asian-American Jade. Some aspects of the franchise are perceived as having aged badly (such as teenage or younger characters wearing skimpy clothes and the fixation on consumerism), but some appreciated its attempts at diversity, with other brands like Barbie taking longer to adopt this.
Fandom Rivalry: With Barbie, especially in the 2000s when Bratz was at its most popular. Bratz fans found Bratz to be more hip and trendy compared to Barbie, which they saw as past its prime and unable to appeal to anyone but very young children; Bratz was also initially praised for having more racial/ethnic diversity among the dolls. Barbie fans found Bratz to have creepy-looking dolls with overly-sexualized clothing and questionable messages for children (in the early days, Bratz tended to revolve around partying, shopping, being 'cool' and not a whole lot else, while Barbie is depicted engaging in a wider range of activities and careers, although Bratz did later make some effort to have messages about being yourself and friendship); Barbie also did eventually make attempts to diversify their brand such as by adding dolls with varying body types. The legal troubles between the two brands didn't help. To this day, some parodies of both brands, such as Robot Chicken sketches and the Sam & Mickey web series, will crack jokes about the rivalry between Barbie and the Bratz.
Friendly Fandoms: Surprisingly, after time passed and the heyday of Bratz died down, it also gained this with Barbie. Many Barbie fans have also had Bratz dolls and seen the cartoon and/or movies in addition to the Barbie films, and vice versa.
Older Than the Demographic: Controversially so. The toys feature arguably sexualized teens but are aimed at preteens. It's been criticized for being age-inappropriate. As a result, the characters were eventually retooled to dress more conservatively and put more emphasis on the Be Yourself aesop rather than the fashion and partying.
Overshadowed by Controversy: Outside of the target demographic, the dolls are best known for the controversy they caused about being "ultra-sexualized".
Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Many comments and jokes have been made about how creepy and inhuman the Bratz look, due to their heads being massively oversized for their bodies, huge eyes and lips and tiny noses (so tiny they're almost invisible). And don't even get us started on the feet (unlike Barbies where the shoes can be removed and added normally, the legs of Bratz dolls end in stumps and the feet can be pulled off completely).
This is likely the reason (along with the Mattel lawsuit) that the Bratz fell out of favor while Barbie continued to sell. Bratz was very much based on the then-current "hip" 2000s trends of flaunting wealth, nightclubs, partying, and shopping, all of which gradually grew outdated and became outright tacky after the recession, while Barbie's premise of being The Everyman for girls to project onto meant she could easily adapt to new trends every decade. Bratz didn't have the same benefit, and as a result, its attempts to rebrand by emphasizing friendship and having more modest outfits only caused fans to complain about the changes.
Many of the clothes worn by the Bratz are clearly influenced by 2000s fashion trends, such as low-slung pants, wide-legged jeans, ruffled skirts, crop-tops, skirts or short dresses paired with jeans and so forth.
Crosses the Line Twice: A clearly distraught radio caller tells Kirstee that their cat has recently died. What does Kirstee say? "Get a new one." In the most non-caring way possible. How blunt she says it in response to a pet's death is just offputtingly hysterical.
Fountain of Memes: Take any scene from the series out-of-context and the results are legendary. This is especially true for anything the Tweevils and/or Burdine say.
Ham and Cheese: Wendie Malick really, really gives it her all in her performance as Burdine Maxwell in this poorly-animated cartoon series.
Informed Wrongness: In Meygan's story for Sleepover Adventure, her eventually becoming scared by the park's loneliness after a magic trick was meant to be a way for her to learn a lesson in snapping at her sister and wishing to be alone, but with said sister being extremely bossy and patronizing, the park's local clown being rude and slobby, and a rider (seemingly deliberately) throwing up on Meygan's clothes earlier, the vomit ruining them beyond repair, and not shown apologizing, and her sister giving Meygan a shirt too big for her only to mock it, it can be hard to blame her.
"My cat died today..." "Get a new one." is becoming a popular source of audio on TikTok for its Crosses the Line Twice nature.
The Gainax Ending for the first Bratz Kidz movie is often talked about for how it scared and/or confused the ones that watched it.
"You're standing in poison ivy!"Explanation Cameron warns Dylan that he stepped into poison ivy on their camping trip. The scene in question has become infamously hilarious for the wrong reasons, mainly that Dylan's only standing on dirt and the weird scream Dylan reacts with.
So Bad, It's Good: The CGI animation was clearly made on a shoestring budget that has not aged well. Yet it features a lot of bizarre plots and scenes that has to be seen to be believed, especially when watching them out of context. Also helping is Burdine and the Tweevils with their over the top antics that practically steal the show.
Strawman Has a Point: In "It's Not About Me Week"; due to her co-host Kirstee giving absurd or mean-spirited advice, Chloe tells a listener of the Teen Hotline to refer to her by giving her phone number live on the radio. Kirstee rightfully points out that "...all these losers are going to be, like, calling you in the middle of the night!"
Anvilicious: All of the other students are stereotypes in a highly stratified social system, making it easy to argue against cliques and for expressing your true identity.
Awesome Music: "Rainy Day" from the soundtrack is actually a pretty good song. Shame it ended up attached to this movie.
Heck half of the songs qualify.
Bile Fascination: It's so horrible it has to be seen to be believed.
Broken Aesop: The movie is infamous for its promotion of unbridled materialism, since their looks and fashion seem to be the only thing the heroines have in common. This undermines the Be Yourself lesson by reducing people to their looks and accessories. No wonder Meredith split the girls up so easily.
Animat: The last thing on earth that should tell me about being myself is a toy line that emphasises I'm nothing more than their looks, fashion and going out with boys. This is the equivalent of Hitler telling you to respect other people's beliefs.
Meredith may be enforcing social stereotypes because she's a dictator and likes to be Alpha Bitch, but face it, why wouldn't people with similar interests want to meet each other? It's not as if the Bratz discover they hate the cliques they're pushed into. If you've ever been lonely, you may have encountered groups that explicitly help you meet up with people who share your interests.
Epileptic Trees: Watch this movie with the mindset that it's White Supremacist Propaganda. It won't make the movie good, but it will make the experience of watching it more bearable.
Signature Scene: The scene in which Yasmin bumps into Dylan, a deaf kid who puts her in her place after she's rude to him, has become famous over the years for being one of the only great parts of the film, and being a small example of Values Resonance.
Squick: The fact that the Alpha Bitch's eleven year old sister is being hit on by a high school aged boy.
Awesome Music: Most of the things associated with the Rock Angelz movie and doll-line, the CD included some pretty great songs (Nobody's Girl and So Good) and the video game (also mentioned below).
Continuity Lock-Out: If you want to watch any of the videos, you better start out with the first two (Rock Angelz and Genie Magic) as those two have callbacks to later events and Genie has a sequel called Desert Jewelz. The only ones you don't need to worry are the 2D ones and the Babyz (Super Babyz and Saves Christmas) and Kidz spinoffs. The former because they're a different continuity and the latter, while still the same canon as the CGI ones, don't really have a strong continuity.
There is a reason the word Closmin exists. MGA's ability to create lines with only Cloe and Yasmin and if not create clones, nicknamed Closmin clones, who are Cloe and Yasmin in all but name.
Supposedly the preference for Yasmin is because the name and appearance of the doll is based on the creator's daughter.
Critical Dissonance: Go up to any adult about Bratz, and they will most likely tell you how much of a terrible influence they are to young children due to how sexualized and materialistic they are. But go up to those who grew up with the dolls, and they will most likely tell you how groundbreaking and inspiring the toyline was, at least in 2000s fashion.
The Problem with Licensed Games: A series of video games based around Bratz were eventually introduced. All of these games used the exact same engine and gameplay, had painfully forced tutorials, poor graphics and terrible controls.
Squick: One of the extra clothes one could buy for the Babyz was a small bikini. Another one had fishnet stockings.
Unintentional Period Piece: Jade's favorite music was still listed as Gwen Stefani even in 2012. It's been listed as that since as far back as 2005. Stefani was pretty big as a solo artist in the mid-2000s and was also still known for her No Doubt hits in the 90s, but by the 2010s she hadn't released any new music for years (she released a moderately successful third album in 2015).
Explanation 