Matinee Monday: Bratz (w/ Kate Berlant)
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bas.com slash bonkers and use the code bonkers at checkout. If Mean Girls was a person and then that person suffered blunt trauma to the head, you would have brats. We saw brats, so you know what that means. Jason brought two dead beds. They watched their babies talk about them. To answer the question, how did this get made? How did this get made?

Hello, people of Earth, and welcome to How Did This Get Made? That was a new theme song from Nick Jagger, and I'm glad I let the little tambourine play out at the end. Welcome. We are talking about Bratz today, the 2007 film-based...

On the popular children's toy, I am joined, as always, by my co-host, Jason Manzoukas. Jason, how are you? I can't believe Mick Jagger did a theme song for us. That's pretty huge. That's Mick's, no, it's Nick Jagger. This is a Mick Stepson. Mick Jagger from the Rolling Stones. No, it's Nick. It's, yeah. Hmm.

Also joining us, as always, is our co-host, June Diane Raphael. How are you, June? I'm good. How are you, Paul? Very good. I'm excited to talk brats with both of you. Oh, boy. Oh, boy.

But we are joined by a very special guest. She is somebody that I think is fantastically funny. She has a brand new series on Vimeo. Just go to Vimeo.com, check it out. It's called 555. Please welcome Kate Berlant. Hello. Hello. Oh boy, Kate. How did you feel about Bratz? Bratz! Okay. Gotta get them Bratz! I have to be honest, I loved it. I'm pro. You're pro Bratz? I paused it, certain frames, I was like, well, it's shot on film. Ha ha ha!

It's beautiful. The colors are vibrant. I'm not kidding. I have a lot to talk about. She pops. I will say that I enjoyed this movie. I find myself sometimes watching these movies and checking how much longer, how much longer. And there was something about this that had a nice forward momentum to it. See, I paused it at one point to be like, all right, I've got to be near the end. And I still had a full hour left. I was like, how have I only watched...

30 minutes of this. Oh, this movie is two hours long, by the way. Holy cow. It's an hour and 50 minutes. Yeah, an hour and 50 minutes. I thought it was 132. I was like, how economical. No, no, no. This is like pushing. This is longer than The Dark Tower and Dunkirk. This movie is longer than... By the way, and it's in 70 millimeter. I watched it in 70 mil. I rented a theater and I got them to play it in 70 mil. Well, here's my question, just to throw out as a general, before we even get into specifics. Is this movie a

parody? Is it satire? Or is it supposed to be straight down the middle? I can't... Oh, no. This movie is not at all a parody or satire. This is like... I feel like this is Mean Girls or...

Or cheerleader movie, what is it? Bring It On. Bring It On, but for younger girls. I feel like this is aimed at tween girls, not teen girls. Well, it's interesting. There's one scene. It's like where to start with Bratz. But there's one scene, like a makeover scene where they all go shopping. Which makeover scene? Okay. They go to the mall, the one where they're prepping for. At the Grove. At the Grove. They're prepping for the Sweet 16. Yes. Okay.

By the way, one of the characters, Meredith, has a second Sweet 16. That was one of the jokes that made me laugh in the movie. The presence of MTV. Oh, the MTV producer. Yes, it was her MTV producer Sweet 16. But there's one moment where they are getting made over. And then there's a bunch of younger girls sort of sitting at a table.

I don't know, island of some sort. And they're making them over. And that's when I realized, like, oh, that's the audience. Yes. This movie is for those little girls. This movie is for little girls that play with those dolls. No. Not anybody else. Is there any more information? Like, I don't know.

Is there a TV show that we should have seen? The Doll. The Doll is what this movie is based on. The Dolls were very popular. Keep your eye on The Doll. Yes. Okay, but are there books surrounding The Doll? You can't just keep on saying The Doll. The Dolls, there were four 10-inch dolls released in 2001. Yasmine, Chloe, Jade, and Sasha. Yasmine.

Yasmin. And then a fifth brat was added in 2015, and her name is Raya. And what is her nationality? Raya. Wait a minute. Did she invent the dating app? She probably did. Raya the brat invented the celebrity dating app. But-

The Bratz did spin off to Bratz Kids, Bratz Babies, Little Bratz, Bratz Boys, Itsy Bitsy Bratz, and Bratz Pets. Not Peets. Bratz Pets. Wow. And the Bratz Babies, with a Z, are very disturbing because they are like sexy...

As the Bratz. Bratz were a doll that I remember being, like, criticized because they were too skinny and had too big heads, right? That was the thing with Bratz. They look like the Steve Madden, like, ads. Like, yeah, their eyes are very big and, yeah. Here's what I do appreciate about the Bratz, though. I mean, 10 inches. So that's, like, taller than a Barbie doll. Yeah.

Is it? Right? Yeah. That's taller than. They're louder than Barbie. They're louder than Barbie? Yes. Yes. Well, that's what I think they sort of are a response to, which in some ways I. Now, look, this movie was nothing like I thought the dolls were having seen them only a few times. I thought the Bratz were Bratz.

I would have assumed as much. I thought that the Bratz were Bratz. They were not Bratz. Like these kind of badass, like rough. If anything, Meredith and her group would be the Bratz. They're reappropriating Bratz. Right. They embraced the Bratz.

Like, that's the whole thing, really. But I do think the good thing about the Bratz is also there they are. I'm showing some pictures of the Bratz. Just so you can see. I do think it's cool that they feel like a response to Barbie in that they are multicultural. Well, sure. And they are also young. Like, I think Barbie is meant to be an adult woman, right? They have full makeup on, Jason. They're not.

They're high school kids. How old do you think Barbie is? She's a professional woman. She works. She drives a car. She has an apartment. How old is Barbie? She's a woman. I would say Barbie is in her mid-20s. Okay, that's interesting. That's interesting. I was going to say 27. 27? What do you think? Barbie? I think Barbie's 21 if she's a day. Okay, that's good. Oh, no, no, no. I agree. I feel like she's in the 20s. I think Malibu Stacy is 21. No, I think Malibu Stacy's 18. But Barbie's like 24.

Really? Yeah. Oh, I got to make some calls. 27 probably isn't right. 27. Yeah, I think you're thinking. She's too close to 30 at 20. 24. Regardless, I think Barbie is an adult, let's say, in her 20s. And I think the Bratz are high school kids, right? Yes. They're freshmen in high school. I have a fundamental question about this movie. Yes. What is the length of time this movie takes place during?

A whole year. No, no, more than two. Three years? Because like eight minutes in, they're like, two years later. Yes. And you're like, what? Yes. They kept saying, it's been two years. And I was like, since when? Comic, and since what? Since what happened? They walked into the cafeteria. And like a couple of people waved at each of them. And they all were like, later, skater. And they basically stopped talking to each other for two full years. I think it's powerful.

And they didn't really have... They didn't seem to have a breakup, though. They just seemed to... They were involved with... They ghosted each other. Yeah. They were brutalized into categories, which women are and teen girls are more than anyone. One category being mimes. Well, that was the thing. Sometimes... This is why I thought the movie had elements of satire in it because they would be like, oh, those are the loners. And then the mime was hanging out with some of the loners, but then there's also a table full of mimes. So they...

I felt like there was some elements. Like when that kid jumped in the pool with the leather jacket on, he swam up to the little brother. I could write a dissertation on the little brothers in teen movies. This kid is cut from the same cloth as the teen witch little brother? Yes. Like 100%. I disagree. Wow! Wow!

I think the Teen Witch Brother has so much charm and is so delightful. Yes. This little brother made me feel sick. And this little brother is a fucking pedophile. Oh, yeah. Wow. Wow.

Well, he's hitting on Meredith's little sister. Nine-year-old? Little sister. Yes. But how old is he? That's what I wrote. Because he's flirting. He keeps saying me likey. It's disgusting. Which I did not care for. You didn't likey. I didn't likey him saying me likey to the child who is in the movie. But then I was like, I don't know, maybe they're in the same grade? I don't know what this is. No, Jason, no. I thought she was younger. He was younger. She's much younger.

She has a lot of sass, though. She was a star. Yeah, she was great. She was terrific. She won my favorite parts of the entire movie because she just, you know, she knew how to throw it back at her sister. I mean, her sister isn't... These are the jokes here, folks, is what she says at one point. Well, here's something I just put in your bonnet. Now, just for the listener, June is wearing a bonnet. We make everybody now wear bonnets. This movie was written by a writer of The Man Show and The Ali G Show.

What? What? What are you talking about? Yeah, the story was by Adam DeLaPina and David Ellenberg. And yeah, the Ali G show and the man show. That's some of their credits. Wow. Listen, the basic story behind this movie is, I will say, there's something about it that's kind of original, which is...

it's not just mean girls. It's not, it's the idea, the basic premise is that,

In high school, you're divided into these groups, and so nobody can ever fully be themselves because what it is to be themselves is to be more than one thing, which the high school hierarchy and structure does not allow. Well, because they're running this high school like a prison, which is set up by Jon Voight. And that was hilarious. Right. The fact that that was Jon Voight kept blowing my mind. When he was voguing at the end. Yes. Yeah. He's having fun. Jon Voight, like, by the way. In a big fake nose. Yes. And ears. And ears.

And ears? Yes. Nose and ears fake. He... It was interesting because watching this movie in the beginning, when you see the names pop up, I'm like, this is a movie that came out in 2007. I'm like, I should recognize... Yeah, I should recognize a name or something. And the first and only name really I recognized was John Voight. And then later, Kadeem Harrison, who was on Different World. But that's even a deep pull. But I mean...

I didn't recognize and still don't recognize. Yeah. Yeah. They didn't. I don't know. This is like a movie...

That was trying to launch a lot of new talent. It was also like, it did like, I have no, and again, I do think this is, I kept coming back to like, Oh, I think this is a movie made and marketed to children. So like, I don't, cause I was like, I similarly was like, Oh, I don't have any reference point for this. I don't have any cultural awareness of this. I know the dolls more than I know that this movie exists.

But in a way, I was like, oh, but I think it was probably marketed towards 10 and 11-year-olds. So I don't think it was meant to be Mean Girls or have that kind of crossover, big, huge. I think it was for kids and would play on Nickelodeon or something. Or, I don't know, something like that. Or HBO Go.

Or HBO Go. Where I found it. Same. Oh, I didn't realize it. I bought it. You did. That says everything. It was $7.99. Wow. Yeah. And now you own it? I own Bratz. Lucky you. I own Bratz. It really does look pretty amazing. There's elephants in this movie. The clown stuff? Yep. Yeah. I paused the frame and I was like, yes. Yeah. This is sublime. This is sublime.

The clothing, though, I'm surprised to hear it was released in 2007. I found the clothes to be so gross. Shocking. Shockingly terrible. The use of belts. Belts where I've never seen them before. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was just hemlines and pants over skirts over socks. Almost Renaissance. Yeah, it was so bad. I feel like the costume designer was like, modern Renaissance flag.

with like kind of where are they? We're creating our own look. It's a, you know, it's like, it's futuristic fashion. You know, that kind of like, it's fashion that doesn't exist so they could probably get it for cheaper because if they had to buy like name brand stuff, they couldn't afford it. Like I feel like this movie was gone. It's like shipwrecked. I think it's basically, I think if this had been made for teenagers, it would have been

Everybody would have dressed normally. But because they were marketing this movie towards kids, they can't dress them up in like too revealing of things. Or I feel like they were over correcting in terms of, well, no, we're selling a message to very young people. And it can't be that everybody's dressed in like little things, which is I feel like what a high school movie at that time would have been. Right.

Am I wrong? I don't know. So you think they made them more modest. Yes. Everybody's always wearing long sleeves. Yeah, that's true. It's super weird. Everyone is always wearing sleeves and long pants. And it's like nobody, like the raciest it gets is cheerleading uniforms, frankly. All right, calm down. Which I was very into. I want to talk about the cheerleader's dad, Kadeem Harris. And those sexy pants.

Oh, no, no. The cheerleader's dad could be embarrassing. And those horny clowns. Oh, no, no. Clowns, how did you do? I did all right. You know, they're ladies, clowns. Jason has a fear of clowns. Hey.

Less a fear of clowns and just like it brings back a real trauma in my life when there were clowns driving around my hometown trying to lure kids into a van with candy. I mean, that didn't happen. Nobody believed me. And then there were multiple news reports that said it was true. Yeah. Well, there's news reports that they're happening now. Maybe you spurned it.

Are you saying this podcast has started the new resurgence of clown reflections? Yes, I feel like clown... By the way, that's a vote of confidence in this podcast. That speaks to our reach. This is what I love about movies like this because you can go very... I do agree that the moral of this movie is strong, right? Like it's like...

You can be many things. You can be a fashion designer and this amazing science mind who can mix two chemicals and make a fireworks display in the lab. That was like Harry Potter. Yeah, that was... And it went for too long, just by like four seconds. And cut, and then... Well, yeah, like that was... And that's where... But the...

the dad in the movie, when you're first introduced to the cheerleader's dad, he's in the kitchen tight on a toaster and he's trying to get the bread in the toaster and he's like, ah, ah, I can't, ah. And she comes over and she's like, boom, and she hits it and he's like, oh, what would I do without you? And she's like,

that is a problem that no one has. Like, that's not a, like, I can understand a dad going, I don't know, emojis or text. We're supposed to, like, now that he's divorced, he can't do anything. It just seemed like, later, he's playing chess alone. Yeah, that was sad. I was like, I feel bad for him. He, like, when she goes to college, he's going to die. I,

I didn't know what they were setting up there, though, like with that moment in the toaster and the chess moment because I do think there is that storyline we've seen before where like divorced dad or widowed dad tries to make the teenage girl like the surrogate wife. Right. Dan Aykroyd. Yeah, it's disturbing. My stepmom is an alien. Exactly. Exactly.

But was that what was... I mean, they also set up this story that the parents are so hostile to each other, and yet the mom walked in and she seemed perfectly pleasant. And they shared a smile. Yeah. Perfectly pleasant. She said something like this. She said...

And remind your father that you have a dentist appointment on Thursday. And then he was like, Oh, like again, you're giving me this again. But it was, it was an in, it was an appropriate response to that thing. It would have been like, and tell your father to, uh, you know, pay the mortgage or whatever, you know, it's like, but she's like, and remind your dad about the dentist appointment. He's like,

ugh, woman. I think they were trying, maybe it got cut. They were trying to set up these stories where the parents were learning alongside the children. A lot was cut. Everybody. You can feel the floor. And that may have been the crossover elements that would have elevated Bratz to. I'm curious, as a Bratz owner, Paul, is there deleted scenes as part of your purchase? There is a DVD commentary. Oh.

Which I got a couple notes on here. Like a legitimate gasp from Kate. That's how I knew that Jon Voight is wearing a prosthetic nose and ears. Wait, you didn't know that from just looking at his nose? Well, I knew the nose was definitely weird, but I didn't know the ears. Why was he wearing a prosthetic nose? I don't know. He was gone to me. My best guess is so that people might not recognize him. That's what I thought.

It's so strange. The director also pointed out that that scene in the grove he shot in 15 minutes.

I was wondering. I'm always looking for background. Who's going to turn and look right in the camera? I actually liked seeing them around L.A. I liked seeing, like, hey, I know that place. It's a film about Los Angeles. And we can't be separated from one of the biggest characters. This is the Annie Hall. I mean, this is like L.A.'s Annie Hall. It's a love letter to Los Angeles, the city of dreams. And I will continue this Annie Hall thing and say that's where some of the comedy is. There's some big moments. There are these, you know, these...

Kind of, you know, a larger than life moment. Big life question. The other thing that I was obsessed with watching this movie was that there is never more than 10 lines of dialogue spoken in a row before a song starts playing. True. And oftentimes that song is then abruptly ushered out and a new song starts. Sometimes a song only plays for like a verse.

and then it turns into another song. Like, this is so heavily soundtracked, this movie, that I felt as though I was losing my mind. Well, I will also argue that this movie builds to a singing performance from the Bratz, but they are not established...

In a weird way, I would have liked the movie to start as they're in a band or they sing together. And then they go their separate ways and then they come back and they show everyone what they got. I love this. It would have been a huge script note. We needed that. Just show me where they get this. But we don't understand. The only one, Yasmeen wants to be a singer, but we never see her sing. She's too shy to sing. And so she doesn't sing until...

an hour into the movie yes is when and the only person that sees her sing is a deaf we have to talk about the deaf boy that's a different hour we have to talk about the deaf boy well this is this is the kind of movie where even like everybody like triumphs you know even the deaf boy can hear basically he's hot this is basically he's so hot this is when she meets him here take a listen are you blind? hello close up on her mouth I'm deaf what? I'm deaf

Kaboom!

And that is the introduction of our only love interest in the film. No, that's not true. There's that other guy. Oh, right, yes. There's Jade. Is he in the science club? Or is he? No, there's two other love interests. There's that guy who's amazing, Derek, who ends up doing stand-up comedy. Yes, yes. He's a brilliant actor. And also, Meredith's boyfriend goes with Chloe. Well, yes, because Meredith's boyfriend, when they're in the grove,

Like they see him across the way. And I would say this is a note that I would give in a movie that is actually well directed. He glances. He glances at her in a way almost as if you go like, oh, it's so quick. And he's checking you out.

He was not. He didn't seem to me checking her out. He seemed to like glance. You mean the deaf boy. Yeah. Was that the deaf boy? That was the deaf boy. I was confused by all these faces. I will say. By the way, the deaf boy. Did you have white guy face blindness? I did. I had white guy face blindness. I had white girl face blindness. You had rat's blindness.

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Did anyone else think that when she first, when Chloe first walked into the house that the mom was dead? It was. Yes. What? I did. Yes. I did. I thought, oh, wow. Because she's like, mom, mom. And the mom is lying dead on the couch. I assumed she was dead. I thought it was alcohol abuse. Here we go, brats. Yeah. Because then the way she came out of her mania, she's like, I had to cook.

I wonder if it's supposed to be that. That's crazy. I wonder if it's supposed to be that, but they can't do it. Because I do think, again, I don't think they can indulge in any of the harsher storylines of any of this, you know, because it's for 10-year-olds. My question is, so Chloe ends up, they win the talent show. Spoiler alert. Spoiler alert.

So Chloe ends up, they decide as a group that Chloe's going to be the recipient of the money from the scholarship scholarship. Well, first of all, they decide that when there's a tie, one person gets the trophy and the other person gets the full scholarship to college. Of your choice, to any college. It doesn't matter if you get it or not. That school really messed up. That seems crazy. Okay, but...

I would say, arguably, has the best chance of a scholarship on her own because she's a soccer whiz. She's a very good soccer player. Yeah, that's what I wrote down, too. That's a soccer scholarship you're making. I don't think you'd call her a soccer whiz.

Well, June was a soccer whiz, weren't you? I was. Oh, so that's what you called it? June recognizes Gabe. Yeah. June traveled around Long Island. Oh, I believe it. That's right. When we got married, her dad referenced the great victories of June's life. One of them was soccer? No, the whole speech was about soccer. Amazing. Wow.

The entire speech was just like a list of all of my stats. Really? Literally embracing the stats. And this is after you've done a lot of successful work as an anchor. Yeah, not mentioned. Again, because I don't know any of their names. When they're in that kitchen...

And she picks up that. She's like, oh, you guys are angels. Then she picks up a donut and puts it not over her head like a halo, kind of like up, like almost like you would put like an ice pack on your head, like, oh, I'm hungover. It's like, hey, it was odd. I don't know why. But anyway, we were talking about Scotia. Now, where was Chloe's dad?

Dead? That's not okay. We don't go there. I don't ever. No, they never. It's like, wow. I mean, look, it speaks very loudly, but it is unspoken. I don't know. It seemed really taboo. It seemed like he was probably dead. I think her mother's alcoholism drove him away.

Or killed. Maybe she killed him. Maybe the mom killed him. I think they did a lot of work to show different family structures. Agreed. Some children are raised by a grandparent, as is with Bobby. Some people, divorce is an issue. We've got the divorce. Was there the nuclear family? I don't think there was. And that's why the show is punk. The movie. Yeah, that is. It is. This movie is pushing boundaries. Well, wait a minute. That's a good point. I would say Meredith. I never saw Meredith's mom.

Yeah. You don't, you see her parents at the talent show or dad is the principal. Oh, Meredith. I'm sorry. No, I'm doing that is the principal. We never hear about her mother. It is odd. There are the Asian biracial family. Yes. And they seem to be, she seems to be an only child. Maybe I was going to say they're a nuclear family, I guess. Yeah. You know, and they're very protective of her and her fashion. Uh,

You know, she's, you know. Well, she also has successfully managed to have built a secret room in her. A bat cave in her. A fashion cave. A fashion cave. That would be impossible to have like a sliding door secret closet. But that's where I'm okay. You know, this is a bit of wish fulfillment for kids who want that. Like, I get that. But also like architecturally, that would be impossible. Yeah.

To put in a secret room. I thought we'd go. I will say, too, it is an odd choice for your four main characters to be so dynamically great at everything. Oh, their genius is instantly. They're amazing at soccer. They're amazing at singing. They're amazing at fashion. They're amazing at science. Catering. Cooking. There is not a single thing they can't do except for keep friends. I mean, that's really their only downfall.

But I thought that was odd that there's not much for them...

There's, like, not—everybody's, like, a triple threat. Yeah. Everybody can do everything because also many of the jocks also—like, the deaf boy is also a big-time jock. Now, is he deaf because of an accident? Did he say? Yeah, I think so. Because he's like, I miss music. So he's recently deaf. Well, I'm probably going to say something very ignorant, but this is a big disclaimer because I think if he would have been born deaf, there's no way his voice would sound like that.

No, yes. I think this has happened to him. But why does he call her so ignorant? Because she says – Because she says you don't sound deaf. Because he's like, how dare you assume that I can hear based on the sound of my voice. There's a range of deaf experiences. Right. Yeah, he's saying that, yeah, she doesn't – she's expecting him to do something that would be very stereotypical. And by the way, he does dip into what I can imagine would be called deaf voice by like an acting coach. Right.

He does? I've never heard it. He slips into it twice. A couple times, yeah. Barely. And then you could feel they were like, pull back. Pull back. We don't want that. It was almost like, do one without any affectation and let's just taste it. Here's my favorite scene. What doesn't he sign? He does a little bit. What does he do? Go for it? Go for it. He's a great lip reader.

When the music teacher, well, he does at one point when they say hummus or something, or she said foie gras. She says pomplamoose. Yeah, he's like, I'm not that good. But this is when the music teacher finds him. I just like this. This is him playing the piano. Dylan, you've been holding out on me. Huh? All this time, I thought you were just some cool jock. What? I miss music. I feel you, but you don't have to. What are you talking about? I can't hear. Come here. Like, that's the music switch you're talking about? Yes.

Feels it on his neck. So he's a DJ who is feeling it all on his neck, which I didn't know that was a thing.

I don't know. Maybe it is a thing. Well, it's also a thing apparently that... It's the earphones. Yeah. He feels the vibration. But could you... But based on vibration, are you going to be able to be an effective DJ is my question. Well, I think this Bratz is kind of tackling that question. Yeah. I feel like if anything, that's what this movie is about. Yeah. Sound is vibration. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and it's just moving through the airwaves, connecting us all together. Are you okay, Kate? Yeah, we're the Bratz. We're the Bratz. Yeah.

I would like to pitch the four of us now to be in the next Bratz movie. Oh, I would love it. As like the Bratz all grown up. Big Bratz. Big Bratz. Big Bratz. I love Big Bratz. Bratz Vacation. I'm ready. Because Bratz Vacation is about people with different backgrounds doing different things. Big Bratz. Big Bratz.

Not to be confused with Big Brats, which is another movie we're making. That's our Chicago-based movie where we all own a sausage factory. Right. We still have all the same issues, but we just deal with them differently. And then the crossover movie, Brats vs. Brats. And we'll be playing duplicates of ourselves. It's going to be really fun. I want to talk about the food fight.

By the way, why is everybody in the cafeteria eating a giant bowl of spaghetti? So much pasta. So much pasta. So much. When the first pasta dump happens, it is as if a full boiling pot of pasta is poured on her. It's like a disgustingly hot day, too. Why is everybody in the school eating giant bowls of pasta? I'm going to just say that when the director in the commentary said...

not enough spaghetti in that scene. No, literally. You're kidding. Not enough. Did not have enough spaghetti in that scene. Oh my God. But by the way, she wore that spaghetti better than like, I was like, well, she's the fashion one. She knows how to make spaghetti. When that's big, like it, it landed on her and it didn't like just fall off. It like stayed on her head. Like a, like a mop. Almost like there was also a stifled laugh. I don't know if anyone else caught it. No, our,

Wow. What's her name? The lead. Yasmin? Yasmin gets a fistful of spaghetti and you can see her start to laugh. And I was like, cut. She's having a great time. Let's redo this. Let's reset the pasta. Everybody, reset the pasta. This is interesting about those actresses. You know, because I think what they ended up doing was casting dancers for

Do you know there's that whole like, oh, she's a dancer who can act. She's an actress who can dance. It's that Disney disease. Yes. And I think that they were all ultimately dancers and that kind of like Disney Mouseketeer world that they tried, that they gave a movie to. Well, IMDb doesn't lie. Look at the credits after. It wasn't picking up. Yeah, no. The only one who really took off was the bad girl. Yeah.

We always do. Yeah, she was on a TV show that lasted for 100 episodes. Here's the interesting thing about this movie. Paula Abdul was going to be the executive producer, fashion designer, and choreographer of this film, but was fired. She looks like an adult brat. She does. She's brat. She was fired over email, and you can watch it on her TV series, Hey Paula, where she gets the email. I feel like I've seen this too. I've seen that. Wait, how come? I have seen that. I have seen that.

She's like in the studio, right? Yes. She's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes. So what would this movie would have been if it was. Do we have tape on that? I don't have tape. I wish I had the Paula getting the call. I have seen that moment. Guys, I have an update. Yeah. Oh, God. There are multiple Bratz movies. I have to. Many of them starring these same girls. What? What?

This is Bratz the movie. There's one called Bratz for real. What is that? Wait, but are you saying that they are continuing their character? Oh, wait a minute. Maybe I'm looking at it. No, there's a lot of Bratz cartoons. Maybe these, okay, sorry. I might be wrong. Oh, so there are cartoons. Yes, but. There's a lot going on. She's also, Yasmeen is also in Switched at Birth. Mm-hmm. Wow. She also plays Gretchen in Switched at Birth on the ABC Family Show. Yeah.

I'm just checking it out. Jade was in Bratz for Real, the video game. Oh, that's what that is. You guys are playing Bratz for Real. Sasha, the woman who plays Sasha, she is one of the characters in Dear White People. I'm just now looking at... Oh, great. I'm just now looking at what they're doing. I don't know that it's their fault. Bratz for Real. I think...

It's always tough to have younger actors acting. Oh, I think they're Disney kids kind of coming out of the Disney Channel stuff. I've seen it. I don't know why. I have too. I need to get this Bratz for real video game. It's pretty amazing. I'm a little concerned, Paul, that you are purchasing all of the Bratz content. Shut up, Jason. Just shut your mouth. It's fine. This is a movie and it's a movie show and I love it. Check his browser history, June. Bratz, Bratz, Bratz.

Gosh. Also, all the terrible songs were written, clearly written for this movie and all had like thematic lyrics that were like not at all subtext, were just text. Like it would be like they would have a moment of making up and then the song would be like, and all the songs were weirdly chunky guitar rock and roll songs, not songs these kids would listen to at all. By the way, they weren't

fun songs. They had no energy to it. We're friends now! I didn't mind Meredith's song at our Sweet 16 Fabulous. No, that was fine. That I appreciated. It's all about me? Yes. I could not, I just simply couldn't understand the lyrics of the Bratz last number, which was like, attitude of gratitude. Bratitude. Bratitude? Bratitude? You want to hear some Bratitude? Bratitude. Bratitude.

Plattitude. To feel some gratitude. You know they want to go on Broadway with this. No, no, no. That was gratitude. That was gratitude. Here we go. It's not a plattitude. They're rhyming with plattitude. I thought I heard brattitude in there. Brattitude. Brattitude is just an attitude. Brattitude.

I see. Okay, so it's... It's gratitude. Gratitude is not an attitude. It's not a platitude to feel some gratitude. Gratitude. Which I think is... Yeah, you have the latitude. I can't even... You have...

I couldn't really make sense. This is the song that's supposed to kind of harness their whole thing. But it's very gospel-y. That's a gospel-y song. I was like, it's not a... The vocals of 40-year-old women, too. Yes. A lot of backup singers. Coming out of children. Yes, the end credits song that Yasmin sings is like a man. I got that again. Here we go. It's her! That's Yasmin.

We're supposed to believe that that is Yasmin. That is... Without the visual, it's even more startling. Well, by the way, they do a song at the end where then after the main song is over, they cut to this white room and a white piano. Oh, I didn't see this. Oh, yeah. Paul, why are you watching the post-credits scenes? Paul!

What is happening? I watched this movie in one sitting from midnight to 1.50 in the morning last night. Yeah, up late at night like a real perv watching the Bratz movie. The craziest part about this is he also watched it with his mom last night. Yeah, I did watch it with my mom. My mom's like, what is this? She's like, well, you're going to have plenty to talk about on your podcast about this. She was like, how did this get made? Oh, I would love it if your mom was a guest on the podcast. Me too.

It would be a lot of questions that you would be uncomfortable answering. She's like, do you think that they're attractive? Do you think they're attractive? I don't think so. It looked like she was hit by a bus. My mom is very critical of these young girls. Yes, very critical of women.

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This podcast is supported by FX's English Teacher, a new comedy from executive producers of What We Do in the Shadows and Baskets. English Teacher follows Evan, a teacher in Austin, Texas, who learns if it's really possible to be your full self at your job, while often finding himself at the intersection of the personal, professional, and political aspects of working at a high school. FX's English Teacher premieres September 2nd on FX. Stream on Hulu.

So, the birthday party scene, I do want to point out when the MTV crew is there, it's a guy, I only saw one guy with a camcorder with an MTV shirt, that was it. And then the producer who comes up with the most fake ending of all time, is that that person?

No. No, I mean, this is what he does. It's an homage. He comes up with this. Tom McShave, vice president of MTV Networks. He's like the lost beauty of this guy. Networks. No. It's got the best numbers to date. You in the pool. Outrageous. My idea. Smart girl. But you four girls, whoa. You have got superstar written all over you.

We do? Oh, without question. Hey, we're having a movie premiere next Saturday night. How would you girls like to be the featured act on the red carpet? Featured act on the red carpet? Two words. Duh. Fantastic. We'll be in touch. BF!

Even better. Brats. Brats. That's how red carpets function. I haven't been to a million red carpets. I've been to a handful, more than a handful. I've never seen a band on the red carpet ever. As the featured act. Featured act. That means there are other acts.

I need to pull up just to show your faces because to see your faces on the final closing song of the Bratz movie. Just to see, I just want to see what you guys think. Oh, the white room. Paul, is this so you can watch it again? This is weird, man. You're really talented and I like supporting young artists who are really into, whatever. You're gross, man.

I think it is. I am disturbed, though, that I looked up and this has like two stars and I really feel like it deserves more. And I think it's such an upsetting sentiment of misogyny in our culture. This was not celebrated. You lost your mind. Well, this is the weird thing about Meredith. I think you've lost your mind. I think this movie is so terrible. And

- I also think it's terrible because it's such a rip off of like the Meredith character. I'm so tired of seeing this girl in these movies. Like she has no redeeming qualities and we also have, like what does she want ultimately? - Order, order, order. - But how does she experience power?

Control. I'll go down here with you. So control over just knowing everybody's in their place because people openly do not like her. Right. And nobody seems that scared of her.

I have no idea what she's getting out of this order. She also is so involved in these things. She's running the talent show and stacking it purposefully with untalented people. Again, to what end? I can see her wanting to win a scholarship. She wants to... I think she wants to... She basically...

She basically is in control of the whole school. She's student body president. Everybody goes through her. She decides where everybody sits. She is rigid. By the way, she's rigid. She's rigid and keeping control of everything. She's going to win the talent show. She's going to have the best sweet 16, blah, blah, blah. The existence of these four girls as four girls from disparate groups who are forging a bond and a clique of their own...

like challenges her supremacy or her primacy as the rule maker, order maker, order giver, and allows for people to say, well, then if, if, if they don't have to listen to her, we don't have to listen to her. And that means chaos. Well, but I didn't understand. Yeah.

She wants love. But does she? Absolutely. She wants love. Who is she getting it from? Exactly. She's not getting it. She has to practice self-love. The Bratz connection threatens her subjectivity. She's like, I have to break that up because the connection they have threatens my identity. So the only way I'm going to maintain any power is if I divide up them. Here's what's hard for me. She does genuinely seem to love herself, though. Yeah, which honestly I think is a powerful thing.

Or should I applaud? Well, I guess I do, too, but it...

That's what's weird about the character is that if we saw that she was in pain over this situation she's gotten herself into, which is that she can't have any real connections and she's set up this system in the school that she thinks is going to help her. But there should be a certain amount of pain, though, that she experiences because of not having any real friendship. She never does. Bratz does not go there. Mean Girls beautifully does that. We see Regina sad. Yes.

I'm not saying Bratz doesn't have limits. I'm not saying there aren't walls. But I'm just saying... Wow, that's really hard for you to say. I was blown away. Well, and then she lords with a flash drive. The only reason why those people are even friends with her is because she lords over them with this flash drive. And at the end, there's no comeuppance for her at all. Not at all. Because she still wins. She still wins. She still wins.

I think ultimately what we're supposed to take away is that we know she's not winning because she doesn't have her crew of brats. But the— I don't know. Who cares? What I'm surprised with in this movie is normally this person, especially in a movie like this that's aimed at kids—

Normally in this movie, that character would have a... Boyfriend? She has a boyfriend, the guy that ends up with Chloe. But she doesn't really care about him. No, she doesn't care about anyone. She only cares about him in the sense that she doesn't want someone else to take her. 100% associate. She loves her dog, so I'd argue she's not an associate. She has a strong connection to Paris, the dog. Ha ha!

True. Who dresses just like her and the director said that was one of the coolest things that he thought he did. But she never has a moment. It's a classic film. She never has a moment where she learns her lesson or whatever. When we see her at the end of the movie, she and her dad are spying on the Bratz singing in classic Bratz.

black hat, black turtle, like, spy thief gear. Yeah. Which is to assume, like, oh, she's truly a villain. And they're going to college. And that, to me, seems like the wrong message to be sending. To me, the message to send is, like, oh, even the girl who is the villain or the enemy needs to be understood and needs to, like...

Of course we all have the monster inside of us. But she should have realized that she could become friends, like real friends with these people, and it would be okay. But that never happens. In fact, she's just turned into an even more cartoonish villain, I feel. She should have had her confession moment. Can I ask one question? Why did the Sweet 16 party backfire? It seemed like somebody fell into the pool, and then the next day they're like, oh, well...

oh, well, the clicks are back now. Yeah. It didn't seem like there was any connective tissue to why the clicks went immediately back into position after they... I don't understand. I think that was...

One of the very few flaws in the screenwriting was that you're building to these two set pieces in the third act instead of just one. Yes. It's either going to be the Sweet Sixteen or it's going to be the talent show. Right. And in this movie, it was sort of both. And weirdly, like, neither of them had –

But odd because also it builds to this moment where everyone confesses. I'll just play this because this is also like, well, is that the point of this movie that everyone has confessions? Like, here we go. I eavesdropped on my sister and then I betrayed her. Yasmin, I'm very sorry. Most of my friends think I'm a tough jock, but I've been taking ballet since I was five. And you know what? I like it. I'm Bubby and I am a chocoholic. Hi.

The one that you didn't include, which is the most insane one. Yeah. Everybody's admitting like secret. I'm secretly passionate about ballet, but I'm embarrassed or I love chocolate or whatever. There's a nerd kid who gets up and is like, I'm not.

I cheated on all of my exams. I cheated on my term paper. I cheated on my finals. Everybody else is having a moment of revelation that is met with acceptance by the crowd. This kid is going to be expelled for his. Immediately. Immediately, they're going to be like, you don't get to go to college. His future is totally jeopardized. Is the moral that these girls freed...

everyone in school from having different interests? Is that like the, like, is that what we're building to? Yes. You can be a nerd and you can be into fashion. You can be this. Okay. Well, it's her monologue. She's like, I'm a science. I love science, but you know what? I also love fashion. Yes. And I thought that was exciting. By the way, that's a cool, yes, that's a cool story. Yes. You can still be femme presenting and be interested in science. Yes.

Yes. How about the fact that no matter where they are, whether they're at the Sweet 16, at school itself, which makes sense, but then anywhere else in the world, if you are a cheerleader or a jock or a member of the marching band, you only wear your uniform. Yes.

Like at the Sweet 16, the cheerleaders are all wearing cheerleader uniforms. How else would we recognize them? The people who love dinosaurs have dinosaur lapel pins on and are dressed as dinosaurs sometimes. That's another section of people that were discriminated against in this school.

And they also, like, when they go over to her house, she's like, oh, we're just practicing. But they're all in their full... Yeah. They're always in their cheer. They're in it. Everybody's always wearing uniforms if their characters have them. Well... Except for our girls. Like, Jade will be with the... No, no, no. Sasha will be with the cheerleaders. Sure.

She's wearing normal clothes, and they're all only wearing uniforms. That was weird when that cheerleader came up to her at the end, the captain, saying, you know, we do want you on the team. But it's like, well, has she been auditioning for this team for two years? Yes.

You would think. I mean, it seemed like her position was being— Was still tenuous. She was still trying out for the cheerleading team. Still trying out years later. But that's the thing. Everybody basically has a moment, every character, every brat has a moment where their chosen clique comes up to them and is like, listen, we love you. You're great. We want you on the team. We want you on the whatever. Right.

But if you don't hang out with us exclusively, you can't do it. That's what I wanted to know. That would not be allowed. What Yasmin was doing in those two years, because she is the only one that didn't have a

Yes, because she's too afraid to sing. So she's just, but at one point she holds up a sign when she gets her invitation from Meredith in a balloon that popped. The sign says journalism. Yes. The easy way out, as we all know. Yes, journalism. Well, she says she has a journalism thing earlier in the movie as well. She says those words? She says she has like something for journalism.

She does. I remember hearing her be like, what is that? So that's what she was, those are the kids she was hanging out with? Yeah, she's a real... She covered the Gulf War. She's a real... She should have been breaking the story on Meredith. What's going on? What's making her tick? The hard drive, the dad, the inner... And she could have used it to her advantage, digging up dirt, being an investigative journalist. She could be a real Rory Gilmore. She could have pulled the lid off of her.

I still want to talk about the magician that clearly killed that girl in the box. Oh, yeah. He killed that girl. And why was Yasmin's little brother at the Sweet 16?

He snuck in. Yeah. Okay, fine. Why did John Voight have a bodyguard? No. Who's also the vice president? That's the vice principal. Vice principal, yeah. That was confusing. That's the vice principal who forgot to cast it. And he's like, you're both. You're both. Yeah. Obviously, we had an opinion about this movie, but there are people out there with a different opinion. It is now time for Second Opinions. Come gather round, listeners, on every device.

Keep your ears open, I won't say it twice Paul, June and Jason are not very nice To bad movies of which there's a shit ton Their mockery of mediocrity will not suffice It's time for a second opinion Paul, you're quite funny on screen and on stage

But you've got a few black marks on your own wiki page Bad films are released in wave after wave Don't act like you've never been in one We all saw your shoulder on screen in midday It's time for a second opinion

All right, these are five-star reviews called From Amazon. These people love brats, and you know what? I think they're in Kate's camp here. This is written by CoolKid363.com.

This movie delivers important messages every preteen should understand before heading to high school. Friendship is important, how to stand up for yourself. Plus, most preteens would enjoy this movie as many are excited to head into high school, and the movie gives them an insight of what high school is really like. And let's face it, it's impossible for a movie to give perfect insight of what high school is really like. Oh, boy. Fair, fair, fair. I actually do think that's fair. Yeah.

These are a little bit different than we normally get. This is a good one. Okay, this is from Melanie Stepp.

The language amounts to about five or six uses of God's name, but no more. A few times the characters expose a little belly, and there are a few short skirts. Meredith wears the most revealing out of all the characters. Who cares? How dare you? But the clothing is mostly very layered and modest, vastly different from the doll counterparts. Fashion and shopping and beauty are emphasized a little too heavily, but it's all fun.

And not trying to look too sexy. Jade does lie to her parents, but she later apologizes. Aggressive shopping is shown in a not good light. I mean, do we really want to be jerking belts from other people's hands and playing a tug of war until one person goes flying? I don't think so. When the camera's there, we do. Overall, it's an extremely enjoyable movie that I want to watch again, despite myself. Five stars. Oh my God. I would not give it the big five. Yeah, I know. Three stars, would you give it? Three. Oh, nice. Wow. That's,

I feel that's fair for you. Yeah. Okay. For what it is. For what it is. Because I really, I'm telling you, when I pressed play, I went, here we go, this is going to be pure trash. And you enjoyed it more than you thought. You know what? They're reaching. And in this day and age, a little ambition, seeing that, that for me gives you stars. Wow. And by the way,

Kate, you can come over to my house anytime and watch it. I own it now. Thank you so much. This is weirder. This is weird getting weirder. By the way, I do think that if Paul Abdul did get behind this movie, it would have ratcheted this movie up. Music and dancing. I also think, unlike many of the movies we do, I will judge this less harshly because it is a movie made for children.

Like in a way that even though we've tackled other like gooby and like terrible, this like there was something about it which I felt like it couldn't be as sharp. It had to be dulled or whatever because of its intent, its intended audience. In some ways I feel the exact opposite. Yeah. Which is that the movies made for children are so important.

It should be held to a higher standard. Yeah, it should be held to a higher standard. Well, I'll tell you that Roy wrote on January 25th, this product was delivered on time. My daughter loves this movie. I bought it for her and she's a grown woman. Need I say more? Five stars. Gross. I don't like any of that. And then finally, we end with Cool Cat,

who says, I thought it was pretty good compared to those other stupid movies that came out this year, like Knocked Up. What? Yeah. If you love the Bratz, I would say get this. It is not overrated. They didn't show any cleavage. Sorry. They didn't show any cleavage. Cleavage? Sorry. I was starting to laugh at the fact that this guy is perverse and cleavage.

I just started to laugh at it. Sorry. It isn't overrated. Are you laughing to cover the fact that you wrote this? Whatever. I don't have opinions about this movie. Paul, are you Roy? It isn't overrated. They didn't show any cleavage, and it was enjoyable for all audiences. I can't think of a movie that is better than it. Wow. And it's definitely better than SpongeBob, and I wasted my money on that.

Five stars. Jesus. Wow. I mean, yeah, more cleavage for sure in this movie. Roy, a.k.a. Paul Scheer. I also felt like the girls got a bum rap for breaking that bust. I feel like whoever put that principal's bust on there, they didn't solder it down or anything. It was very bad. Did you guys notice that during the food fight, there were, at a certain point, just cream pies on the ground? Yeah.

Then people started picking up and throwing at each other. There just were cream pies. Damn, I missed that. They bend down and pick up cream pies and start mushing them into each other's faces during the food fight. I was like, why are those just there on the ground, like in tins? Yeah. Hey, magic. Magic.

I always felt in middle school and high school a little scared a food fight was going to break out. Really? There's so many food fights in teen movies and kids' movies. I always felt like I was living under the fear that at any moment someone was going to throw a sound at me. Our parents lived under the fear that there was going to be an atom bomb. An atomic bomb. And we had food fights. We would do a terrible thing in my cafeteria where you would –

like say someone was sitting down and it could be anybody. It wouldn't just be a nerd thing. It would be. And if you pulled the seat out from underneath them and they fell on the ground, the entire cafeteria would start chanting, dick, dick, dick, dick. And it would be like a hundred or something. People just all shit. Of course.

Of course me. Yeah. I mean, and by the way, the worst moment that happened here was there was a football player who was on crutches one time. And he was pushed backwards and his crutch broke the window and he fell out the window into a courtyard. It was the same level courtyard. Fell out the window and the whole cafeteria was like, dick, dick, dick, dick.

As this man has fallen through. The cruelty of children. Yeah. That's terrifying. And I thought. It's horrible. And it was so fun to everyone be chanting dick. To be part of the gang. Because you could yell dick. Yeah. And you weren't getting. It was in a Catholic school. You couldn't get in trouble. And everyone's screaming dick. And the brothers couldn't control it. But now thinking about that young man. Did it ever happen to you? Never happened to me. Thank God. Thank God. It still might. It may. It may. It may. Here at the Earwolf Cafeteria. No. No. No.

Yeah, yeah. We had to do some pretty fucked up stuff in my school. We dumped a kid in a garbage can head first. All right, babe. We used to, for our marching band initiation, we would pick up the freshmen. This is the nerds against nerds. And there was like a big, huge industrial sink in the band room. And you would spend, first we would fill up the sink like halfway, and then you would get dunked in the sink basically.

That was your initiation. This is fun. Classic. It was very fun. Yeah, that seems a little more light-spinning. Oh, it was very innocuous. So basically you were wet for the next period. Yeah, that's okay. Ooh. Paul! Oh, sorry, sorry. You know what, man? I know you've got breath on the brain with their busty cleavage. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's some good cleavage there. Um...

Well, let's just go around the horn here. Jason, do you recommend the movie? I don't really. I mean, it is... This is... This is... I mean, listen. If my nieces were like, we're going to watch The Brats, I'd be like, okay. I mean, I'd rather you watch something a little better. But that's what I mean. Like, on a message level, it's all about...

It's all about being friends, staying friends, looking out for each other, being generous to people, being kind, having each other's back. It has all the right messaging for, I'm sure, the little girls that are the intended audience. But as a movie, it is...

just kind of boring. You know, like it really is. And it is the level of intrusive song placement is maddening. It's distracting. It is aggressive. It distracts from the brats. Oh, yeah. I want, you know, I want to focus on these brats, you know. Of course you do. Not the way that Paul does. Hey, I like these girls. Kate, what would you say?

I would say Bratz, you know, it can't help but escape. It does not succeed in escaping kind of the trappings that you might expect from a film like this. And at times they are offensive.

and not productive. Stereotypical. Right. However, I would say that it's well-directed. I truly feel that way. And I think it's visually, again, shot on film. And I think these colors pop. You've got to appreciate that. By the way, that's something that we got. A lot of these movies, we don't give it enough credit. It was shot on film. Yeah, we've got some cool shots. Oh, it feels big. It feels big. They have an elephant in this movie. It's ambitious. And I recommend it on a family ski trip when everyone's asleep.

I've never gone skiing with my family. That's the only parameters in which you would recommend watching it. Everyone's asleep. You find this DVD in a ski cab and you're like, what brats? Exactly. I don't want to do a puzzle of a boat. I just want to watch Bratz.

Most people are not wealthy enough to ski because it's an expensive sport. Again, never once gained a child. I feel like it's a ski-oriented TV show. I'm curious in the same way if people in our audience, the young people that is, are going to feel about this movie the way that other people felt about when we did Spice World and felt like this is preposterous and people were like, what are you talking about? This is my life? No, I don't think so. I think Spice World was more our generation, right?

No, that's what I mean. But I don't think we have listeners who went to see Bratz. But listeners, I want to hear it. Did you feel like... In 2007, they were 10. Yeah. Which means that now they're 20. Okay, maybe they are listening. Yeah. Listen, 20-year-olds, if you're out there and you're listening to this show, let us know, did this movie mean something to you? Were there girls who grew up being like...

I'm a Jade. I'm a Yasmin. I'm a, like, everybody else is like, I'm a Samantha. I'm a Raya. I mean, I think what we are missing in our reading of this movie is the whole, more of the source material. I think we only know the doll. We gotta go back to the source. No, no, no, no. We gotta go back to the source. I think there's more that we don't know.

about their family. Actually, that reminds me of a great thing. Guys, as you know, we are launching a lot of other podcasts built off of this podcast. Bitch Sesh came out of our feed. Welcome to the Bratcast. We're here. We're talking nothing but brats. We're going to get into the cartoons, the video game. Nothing but brats. We're going to talk about the brats. It's because we got that bratitude.

And, you know, here we are. It's just us. Yasmin, Sasha, Jade, and Khloe here talking brats with you. I do think, though, there's more. There's another way to experience this movie, and I don't think any of us were able to really. I enjoyed it. Enjoy it. Because I think, like, we probably would have known more about their families and what happened to Khloe's dad. Yeah. All of that stuff just we didn't know. What happened to Khloe's dad? We got to know. I thought.

I bet it's in the books. As he left the family. Abandoned them. You know, it's hard. I don't think it was a death. I think it was like he left the family and we have no money and there's an unsupportive dad out there. I gotta say, June, it's like, you know, especially with that movie It coming out, it's so hard to...

you know, to adapt a piece of source material into a feature film and get everything right. Dark Tower is having that issue. You know, and I think... Are you suggesting that this is a Stephen King property? I'm just saying that, you know, like... It did have clowns in it, like... You know, yeah. Look, I'm just saying... It would be amazing if it was like the four brass... It's definitely part of the Stephen King world. Pennywise. Thinner, there's elements of thinner in here. Lawnmower man. Yeah, there's a lot. Look, all I'm saying is...

It's so hard to bring everything that you know from an action figure, 10-inch action figure, and be able to put that in a movie. I mean, look, the first Harry Potter movie was so hard to get all that in there. And this is an action figure. That's bigger than most books. 10 inches to 35 millimeters, baby. That's right. June, you recommend it or no?

No, no, I couldn't ever. No, I didn't. I didn't enjoy it. And I went in actually when I saw that we were watching Bratz, I was excited. So I also went in. I was excited. It's not like a sci-fi movie or I felt like it was in a genre that I could definitely stomach. And I was disappointed. Yeah.

I say buy this. It's $7.99. It's a steal. You're going to rent it. It's going to be $4. Don't worry about it. Support the Bratz. Help them get back their $20 million budget. I feel like someone your age should be able to buy this movie. Bratz, Bratz, Bratitude, Bratat, Bratat, Bratatude. That makes sense why you're wearing that crop top t-shirt today. Whatever. I think it's fun and it's nice and it's hot out. Kate, talk to us about what you're doing. We know you have this great Vimeo series, 555. Oh, thank you. That you can get cheaply.

It's not an expensive buy. Less than Bratz, folks. $3.99, less than Bratz. You get five episodes starring myself and John Early, directed by Andy D. Young. Just check it out. It's really funny, and you have to go to Vimeo.com to get it. That's it. That's where people, you know. If you get scared, just Google Vimeo, Kate Berlant, John Early. Find it. Anything else? Anything else you want to talk about? No? Anybody? No, I'm good. June? Hi.

I would just suggest for those listeners who are activist-minded, there's two great things you can check out. Five Calls, which is an app you can download, and ResistBot, which makes it really easy to call and contact your representatives. I actually just used that. It's great. It sends a fax right to your representative. You write it on your text, and it goes right in. Well, I am a senator. Oh, wow. And I wasn't going to say that here. Whoa!

I am involved. I like it. So write to me and we're going to do it. Great. Are we sure they all have faxes? Fax seems like outmoded. Yeah, you want to get all the faxes. It's actually just as meaningful as a phone call. And they deal with so much paper. It's like, I want to inconvenience these people. Trust me, when my secretary brings me a stack of faxes, I go, okay, I'll read the bill again. And I appreciate you taking some of the time out of your schedule to watch this movie because you were probably in that office. People, no.

knocking on that door. I got home and my husband said, are you kidding? And I said, put the briefs, he's a lawyer, put the briefs down. I'm glad you said he was a lawyer because I would have thought his underwear. Put the briefs down and put the brats in. I said, put the brats in, we're going to have fun. He loved it, I loved it, we had fun. No!

Just a reminder to sign up for our mailing list. You can find that on our Facebook page and our Twitter page. That's the show, but it doesn't end here. Listen to our mini episode where the discussion about this movie continues. You can give us a call at 619-P-A-U-L-A-S-K. That's 619-Paul-Ask. I'll answer all your questions about this movie or even about your life. Also, if you like How Did This Get Made and you want to wear it or put it as a sticker or have it as a cell phone case, head over to tpublic.com.

And you can check out all of our amazing merch like Put Her in a Bra or the Jason Zardoz shirt, which I particularly love. A big thanks to Kelly Alto, Avril Haley, July Diaz, Nate Kiley, and Leanna Waldron, all who come together and put this show and help me do the show every single week. But first, I want to thank you all for watching.

But more importantly, everybody here at Earwolf, their amazing engineering team that puts together this episode makes it sound absolutely flawless. Make sure you rate and review us on the iTunes. We like that. It's fun, and we have a good time with it. See you next week. Bye for now. Earwolf.

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