Bratz (2007)

Finally, a postfeminist multicultural musical extravaganza for 8-year-old girls. Is Bratz not the most totally stylin' movie ever? Grownups won't think so, but for their daughters who share a "passion for fashion" with the dolls that are giving Barbie a run for her money, it will be the event of the season.

A movie based on a doll line, is an M&M-colored high school fantasia for aspirational 10- and 12-year-old girls who'll be shocked (or, hopefully, delighted) when they get to ninth grade and find out life isn't so super-Bratz-fabulous.

Bratz's strong anti-clique sermonizing would be slightly more convincing if it weren't tethered to a movie romanticizing the most awesome clique ever.

Bratz’s references and parodies are consistently on-target, if always way too over-the-top. Every line of dialogue could plausibly take an exclamation point.

This is a movie for a grade-schooler's -- a female grade-schooler's -- sensibility. It's earnest, silly and sweet, with just enough food fights and musical numbers to keep everyone else from gagging on the goo.