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Notes and Commentary By: Robyn Barnette
They are back, and they are united forever: Yasmin, Cloe, Sasha, Jade, Meygan, Dana, Fianna, Nevra, Cade, Cameron, Dylan, Eitan, and Koby. In summer 2004, I did my very first Bratz Photography Project titled "The Bratz Have Arrived." It was not a spectacular project, and perhaps it was not intended to be. And looking back on that project now, I admit it: It sucks. Then again, I was just starting out as a Bratz fan and learning about what made these dolls successful. Bratz Heaven did not even exist at the time I did my "The Bratz Have Arrived" project, and I did not envision back then that I would be doing a fan website devoted to these girls with a passion for fashion. In fact, the very first time I heard of Bratz and saw what the dolls looked like, I thought they looked ugly and hideous. Of course, that was then and this is now. So much has changed in the four years since I did my "The Bratz Have Arrived" Bratz Photography Project in summer 2004. However, what has not changed during those four years is my sincere love and devotion to these beautiful dolls known as Bratz. The Bratz dolls have become a part of my life and the lives of millions of children around the world. And the collection that my "The Bratz Have Arrived" project is based on, Bratz Funk Out!, would set the foundation for this insane universe I have created for myself with Bratz Heaven. Sadly, however, the changes that have happened to Bratz four years after I did my project were not changes for the better. MGA Entertainment, Inc., the manufacturer of the Bratz dolls, received tons of angry complaints about Bratz from parents, the press, and other media sources. They condemned the company for manufacturing a product that violated moral and conservative values with the dolls' thick makeup and provocative fashions. The company responded by making changes to Bratz that would tone-down the appearances of the dolls and make them more family-friendly, hoping that the changes would help the company escape from the intense controversy surrounding the dolls and increase sales of the Bratz franchise. They even recruited employees from rival toy company Mattel, Inc. to work on the Bratz products and collections, after Mattel, Inc. laid them off in February 2006 in a measure to cut costs. In the end, the changes MGA Entertainment, Inc. made to Bratz in the four years since I did my very first Bratz Photography Project have completely ruined the brand. The company, specifically the designers MGA Entertainment, Inc. recruited from Mattel, Inc., engineered the heart and soul right out of Bratz. Somewhere in those four years, MGA Entertainment, Inc. began not caring about Bratz and began preparing to move on to bigger and better things. They felt that they had accomplished everything they could with Bratz. Yet, they lost sight of the single, most fundamental thing that made Bratz successful: The millions of fans who fell in love with these dolls since 2001, when the company introduced the world to Yasmin, Cloe, Sasha, and Jade. Fast forward to today. In this new Bratz Photography Project, "Bratz: United Forever," I wanted to revisit what I loved about Bratz back then and what I want to love about it now. I wanted to recapture the joy and excitement of being a Bratz fan. I wanted to experience the thrill of capturing photos of Bratz dolls in settings that reflected the creativity and imagination of my Bratz universe. And most importantly, I wanted to rekindle my love of dolls again after the changes MGA Entertainment, Inc. made to Bratz from rebellious to wholesome shattered this integral part of my childhood. The first photo I captured was of my Bratz Funk Out! Nevra doll at the playground. But it was more than just an update to a similar photo I captured of this same doll four years ago....it was a declaration to myself to do this project and to be more than determined to establish that Bratz are urban hip-hop dolls with a funkdafied fashion passion, hard-hittin' cutting-edge style, and a bad-ass Brattitude. I wanted to shove this project into the faces of parents everywhere for the vicious and hostile remarks they have stated about Bratz, as my way of telling them all to go to hell. The approach I took in doing my "Bratz: United Forever" project was to film and photograph my Bratz dolls in the same way I did with my "The Bratz Have Arrived" project from summer 2004: Allow my imagination and creativity to go anywhere I wanted, as well as showcase what I can do in terms of photography. And just like my "The Bratz Have Arrived" project from summer 2004, my "Bratz: United Forever" project would be based on the entire Bratz Funk Out! collection.... That's right. I said the entire Bratz Funk Out! collection. One of the major changes I made in doing my "Bratz: United Forever" project was to introduce all five of the Bratz Boyz Funk Out! dolls: Cade, Cameron, Dylan, Eitan, and Koby. There was such a large fanbase following for the Bratz Boyz, even though MGA Entertainment, Inc. had been increasingly leaving the Bratz Boyz out of most of the Bratz collections the company released. I realized that leaving them out of my "Bratz: United Forever" project would be doing a huge injustice, and I overwhelmingly approved the decision to include all five of the Bratz Boyz Funk Out! dolls in this project. I will admit that the settings and backgrounds where I captured photos of each of the Bratz Boyz Funk Out! dolls were not the greatest or the most interesting, but at least they are in a Bratz Photography Project for the first time and hopefully will be in many more of them. Another major change for this project, and perhaps the most significant change of any Bratz Photography Project I've done so far, was the introduction of a one of a kind creation: Bratz Funk Out! Meygan. When my "Bratz: United Forever" project was in its planning stages, the original idea was to include Bratz Step Out! Meygan and have her "blend in" with the existing characters in the Bratz Funk Out! collection. Meygan was not included in Bratz Funk Out! when the collection was released in spring 2004 (she was still "out of town" at that time), and for the past few years Bratz Wild Life Safari Meygan was used as a substitute for Bratz Funk Out! Meygan. Ironically, Bratz Step Out! Meygan is a recycled Bratz Wild Life Safari Meygan doll. Meygan has always been and always and forever will be my all=time favorite character in the Bratz Pack. When it came to "manufacturing" this one of a kind creation Bratz doll, I spent a week figuring out the type of look the Bratz design team would achieve if they included Meygan in the Bratz Funk Out! collection. I browsed through several photos of older Bratz collections, studying the quality of the fashions, the accessories, the Brattitude, and other issues in order to harvest what a Bratz Funk Out! Meygan doll would look like. And after some research and analysis, I achieved the results that I believe represented what Bratz Funk Out! Meygan would look like if MGA Entertainment, Inc. really manufactured her: Dress up Bratz Step Out! Meygan in Bratz Funk N' Glow Meygan's and Bratz XPress It! Meygan's fashions. The results were incredible, and the photo I captured of her is simply outstanding. My one of a kind creation Bratz Funk Out! Meygan really is one of a kind after all. With the exception of Bratz Funk Out! Nevra and the Bratz Boyz Funk Out! characters, I captured photos of all the characters in the Bratz Funk Out! collection at locations that were different than those from my "The Bratz Have Arrived" project four years ago. For example, my photo of my Bratz Funk Out! Cloe doll in the old project was captured in a setting along train tracks. In the new project, I did away with the idea of capturing the photo in a similar setting and instead captured a photo of Bratz Funk Out! Cloe at a location that was very popular with married couples. I will never forget the three wedding entourages that simultaneously descended onto the location where the photo was captured to do their wedding photography sessions. While it was fun to observe how the wedding photographers were capturing special moments for newly married couples to treasure forever, I had to endure a very long wait before I got my opportunity to capture my photo of my Bratz Funk Out! Cloe doll. After what seemed like forever and a day (the wait lasted two hours), I was very happy that I finally got the opportunity to successfully capture the photo I wanted. Not too far away from the location where I captured that photo of my Bratz Funk Out! Cloe doll was the one of my Bratz Funk Out! Jade doll overlooking a city landscape. This photo is one of my most favorite photos I've captured of my Bratz dolls, because it represents what the Bratz dolls are all about and is like seeing my Bratz universe realized. Other favorite photos include my Bratz Funk Out! Sasha doll with a graffiti wall in the background, to reinforce her love of rap and hip-hop music; the Japanese-inspired Serenity Garden with my Bratz Funk Out! Fianna doll; and, of course, the photo of my one of a kind Bratz Funk Out! Meygan doll with the wine and fruit setting. That photo of my one of a kind Bratz Funk Out! Meygan doll was the final photo captured for my "Bratz: United Forever" project, and it was nice to end the project by capturing a simple photo — one that was both innovative and artistic. This project was intended to be a complete renovation to my "The Bratz Have Arrived" project from Spring 2004. However, the more I worked on doing my "Bratz: United Forever" project, the more I realized that the project represented a rediscovery on why I loved the Bratz dolls in the first place. I was not aiming to do a spectacular and phenomenal project with incredible photos of my Bratz dolls — I simply wanted to have fun playing with my Bratz dolls and capturing photos of them in beautiful settings and backgrounds. But more important than that, I wanted to prove to myself and to everyone (especially to those who intensely abhor the Bratz dolls) that Bratz represents an unparalleled standard of excellence, a standard against which all other industries have tried but can never duplicate. It is a standard that Bratz has always represented since its inception in 2001....and a standard that it will always and forever represent for many years and many decades to come. Damn skippy. | ||||||||||||||||
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Copyright © 2005-2008 Bratz Heaven. All Rights Reserved. | |||||||||||||||||
