Hey (Rock) Angelz!

Fifteen years ago today, one of the most memorable and iconic Bratz collections launched, setting the stage for the brand’s imprint as a major force in the toy and entertainment industries. From apparel, decor, dolls, food items, and media (among other things), Rock Angelz changed the direction the brand went in over the second half of the 2000s. Keep on reading this retrospective if you want to learn about the Rock Angelz line and its impact on the brand!

THE DOLLS, PLAYSETS, AND SPINOFFS

At its core, Bratz is a lifestyle brand with one essential component: Dolls. In order to kickstart this retrospective, it is important to discuss the doll collection that tied into the Rock Angelz phenomenon. The main Rock Angelz collection consisted of the main Bratz characters: Cloe, Yasmin, Sasha, and Jade. Each doll came with a first outfit consisting of a vintage leather jacket, Rock Angelz-themed top, jeans, and heeled boots. The second outfits consisted of a Rock Angelz t-shirt and pleather skirt, with additional accessories including sunglasses, jewelry, makeup, a microphone and stand, a guitar, and a display stand. Some variants of the core Rock Angelz dolls include hats and navel tattoos. Several outfit pieces from the dolls were released as part of a Passion 4 Fashion fashion pack in 2007. The band’s fifth member, Roxxi, was released as part of the Concert Stage playset, but was released separately with Yasmin’s second outfit and accessory blister as a Woolworth’s exclusive. Each doll notably came with a mini CD stylized like a vinyl record, with disc each including two songs from the Rock Angelz album. The five band members were also released as Funky Fashion Makeover styling torsos, each having variants with either a red or white shirt. A recycled Dynamite Meygan was released as the Rock Angelz #1 Fan Club President, which was a Kmart exclusive. Additionally, a Toys”R”Us exclusive two-pack with Yasmin and Eitan was released.

To engage consumers with the Rock Angelz universe, MGA released several playsets to support the doll line. The main playset, as mentioned before, was definitely the Concert Stage as it included an exclusive Roxxi doll. Additional playsets include the 3-in-1 Rockin’ Fun pack (which came with a full Rock Angelz doll and a recycled Funky Fashion Furniture Baby Doll vanity playset), Recording Studio, Band Instrumentz, Cruiser, Limousine (which came with a Rock Angelz Jade doll), Party Plane, Recording Studio, and Tour Bus (a recolored version of the iconic Flashback Fever FM Party Bus). I stumbled upon a few mysterious listings on Spanish auction site a few years ago in the midst of creating Lookin’ Bratz. The listings were of the Rock Angelz Recording Studio with dolls included; the dolls were recycled Beach Party Cloe, Jade, and Sasha dolls from 2002 wearing pieces from the First Date! and Shoppin’ Spree! fashion packs from 2003. Strange international Bratz exclusives are not uncommon for the brand and these looked somewhat legitimate. When adding products to the Bratz 2005 Playsets page in the database, I debated on adding these as I was unsure if they were actually released like this or not. A lot of people have argued that these were repackaged by a random person while some people, specifically Bratz fans from the Philippines, have claimed to have seen these versions end up in stores. These strange Rock Angelz Recording Studio playsets are definitely interesting if they are legit. Another playset released under the Rock Angelz name was not made for the regular Bratz line, but instead for one of the brand’s various spinoffs: Bratz Big Babyz; the Big Babyz Motor-Bike was recolored to fit the Rock Angelz branding and released as a Target exclusive.

On the topic of spinoffs, the Rock Angelz line extended outside of the main Bratz brand. Big Babyz versions of Rock Angelz Cloe and Yasmin were released as Target exclusives, both coming with altered versions of the outfits that came with their teenage Bratz counterparts. In some countries, the Micro Bratz brand, a rebranded version of the Lil’ Bratz brand, debuted with the Rock Angelz collection, which were repackaged versions of the Lil’ Bratz Rock Starz collection that had come out in Spring 2005; the dolls were Ailani, Talia, Zada, and Nazalia repackaged as Cloe, Yasmin, Sasha, and Jade, respectively. The Micro Bratz brand would produce two more (known) lines over the next two years, while the Lil’ Bratz brand was rebranded twice before leaving the market.

THE FILM

Bratz made a few arrays into the entertainment industry prior to releasing the Rock Angelz film, accompanying soundtrack, and video game tie-in. The first-ever Bratz television series CoooolTV premiered on Nippon TV (NTV) in Japan in Fall 2003 and was used to promote the dolls’ presence in Japan, as well as the release of two singles: “Show Me What You Got” featuring BoA and Howie D., and “Look Around” featuring Christina Millian and Verbal. In 2004, the first-ever Bratz film The Video: Starrin’ and Stylin’ came out featuring 2D animations of the girls with a passion for fashion. When it came to Bratz Rock Angelz, MGA Entertainment pulled out all the stops to ensure this brand venture would catapult the Bratz brand from stardom into superstardom.

Before releasing the Rock Angelz film, MGA premiered the idea of 3D-animated Bratz with the “Bein’ Who We Are” music video to promote the Live In Concert (formerly Space Angelz) collection, which premiered on 4KidsTV in 2005. The Space Angelz collection serves as the true jumpstart of band-themed collections for the Bratz brand having come out the season prior to Rock Angelz, so it makes sense that MGA debuted this new animation style to promote that line. This music video was also the jumpstart of MGA’s working relationship with Mike Young Productions (now Splash Entertainment), who would go on to produce a majority of the animated films and television series for the brand from 2005 through 2009; the company would go on to create video-on-demand network Kabillion where they would feature the Bratz television series, the Bratz Presents series with Brianna Gage, Bratzillaz, and Bratz C.I.Y. Shoppe, as well as collaborate again with MGA to produce the We’re Lalaloopsy series.

Not only did MGA utilize new 3D animation for the Rock Angelz film, but an all-star cast of voice actors were lined up to portray the core four and company. Some notable actors involved in Bratz Rock Angelz and some subsequent films, as well as the first season of the television series, include Tia Mowry (Sister, Sister, Seventeen Again, Twitches, The Game) as Sasha, Soleil Moon Frye (Punky Brewster, Sabrina The Teenage Witch) as Jade, Dionne Quan (Rugrats, The Fairly Odd Parents) as Yasmin, Olivia Hack (the Brady Bunch film series, Hey Arnold!, Avatar: The Last Airbender) as Cloe, Lacey Chabert (Party of Five, Mean Girls) as Kaycee, Kaley Cuoco (Charmed, The Big Bang Theory) as Kirstee, and Wendie Malick (Hot In Cleveland) as Burdine Maxwell. An all-star cast mixed with a brand-new animation style created success for MGA as Bratz Rock Angelz spawned a franchise of nearly a dozen 3D-animated films for the brand over the next four years. Bratz Rock Angelz also serves as a pilot for the Bratz television series, despite premiering on Cartoon Network nearly a month after the series premiered on 4KidsTV. Despite the series premiering before the Rock Angelz film, it can be argued that the movie helped the series develop as it made sense of how the Bratz began running their own fashion magazine. Along with its all-star cast and backstory for the television series, Bratz Rock Angelz is arguably synonymous with the word “Bratz” to many people who grew up with the brand. When most people remember the Bratz brand, they often recall the movies (typically Rock Angelz) along with the television series, music, and video games.

THE ALBUM

As mentioned in the previous section, the Bratz brand first branched out into the music industry in 2003 when they launched two singles in Japan. The Bratz brand further released another single in 2005 for the Live In Concert collection with “Bein’ Who We Are” before releasing the Rock Angelz album in Fall of the same year. The Bratz Rock Angelz album is probably one of the most ambitious music ventures not only for the Bratz brand, but for a doll brand in general. Unlike most pop-infused children’s music released by various doll brands up to that point, the producers behind the Rock Angelz album, most notably Matthew Gerrard (known for working with artists like Hilary Duff, The Cheetah Girls, Jessica Simpson, Kelly Clarkson, Eden’s Crush, Miley Cyrus, and Raven-Symoné), managed to create a mature rock sound with appropriate lyric content for pre-teen consumers.

The definitive song of the album is definitely “So Good” as it serves as the theme song for the Rock Angelz line and earned a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Original Song in a Children’s/Animated Program in 2007. Other songs included in the standard edition of the album are: “Change The World”, “I Don’t Care”, “All About You”, “Who I Am”, “So What”, “You Think”, “It Could Be Yours”, “Lookin’ Good”, “Rock The World”, “Stand Out”, “Nobody’s Girl”, and the Spanish-language bonus track version of the album’s first track “Se Siente”. A Special UK Edition of the album included two bonus tracks: “Hey (When The Angelz Play)” and “Grow Up (Blah Blah Blah)”. The first single release of “So Good” featured a B-side track titled “Sparkle and Shine”, while the second single release of “So Good” featured the B-side track “Girls Night Out”. The album managed to take topics like activism, rebellion, romance, self-confidence, sexism, and wanting to have fun while formatting them to fit a rock aesthetic that was kid-friendly, inspiring competing doll brands to take similar initiatives in delivering rock-themed music targeted towards pre-teen girl audiences.

Along with the lead single’s Emmy nomination, the album entered the U.S. Billboard 200 record chart at #79 and went to #1 on the U.S. Kid Top Audio and U.K. Kids Albums charts. Rock Angelz serves as the jumping point of the brand’s stake in the music industry, going on to release albums like Genie Magic, Forever Diamondz, Fashion Pixiez, Girlz Really Rock, the live-action film soundtrack, and a variety of other CDs over the years.

THE VIDEO GAME

Movies and music were not the only entertainment ventures taken for the Bratz Rock Angelz franchise. A Bratz Rock Angelz video game introduced Bratz fans to a virtual world in which players could play as the core four Bratz characters and interact with other characters like Eitan, Koby, Dylan, Cameron, Roxxi, Phoebe, Fianna, Meygan, the Tweevils, and Burdine. The game also allows players to explore different virtual worlds, like Stilesville, London, and Paris. The video game for Bratz Rock Angelz became the standard for Bratz video games based around Fall collections for the next three years, with video games being released for the Forever Diamondz, The Movie, and Girlz Really Rock collections.

The brand’s first video game came out in 2002, simply titled Bratz, and was a dancing game. A follow-up game called Bratz Party Night was to be released in 2003 in support of the Formal Funk collection, but was cancelled due to a lawsuit between MGA and the video game developers at Ubisoft; the demo trailer for this video game showed a similar format to the Rock Angelz video game and its predecessors in which the core four characters could interact with other characters and explore a virtual Bratz world.

The brand released several other games that did not follow the Rock Angelz format like Bratz Babyz, Bratz Ponyz and its sequel Bratz Ponyz 2, Bratz Super Babyz, Bratz Kidz, and Bratz Fashion Boutique, but none of them had a gameplay as fun as Bratz Rock Angelz and the other games that followed the same format. THQ, the game developers behind Bratz Rock Angelz and similar Bratz video games, went into bankruptcy and folded in 2013 before coming back under the THQ Nordic name in 2016. In 2018, THQ Nordic began releasing remasters of its most popular video games, leaving Bratz fans to wonder if there was the possibility of them releasing remastered versions of classic Bratz video games like Bratz Rock Angelz. There has been no news regarding remastered Bratz video games, but it would definitely be a treat for fans of the brand and those who grew up playing the games to play updated versions of these classics.

As a kid, I grew up playing the Bratz The Movie video game for the Wii console system. I knew the Rock Angelz and Forever Diamondz games existed, but I had no idea that The Movie was essentially a mix of those two games with improvements and a new storyline. After nearly fifteen years of not playing it, I finally set up my childhood GameCube console and bought a copy of the Rock Angelz and Forever Diamondz games. Both games were so much fun and made me feel a sense of nostalgia despite not playing them when they originally came out. These games still hold up well fifteen years later, so it would be cool to see what a potential remaster or rerelease of these games would look like.

THE LIFESTYLE PRODUCTS

Because of how extensive the Rock Angelz line was outside of the doll and media lines, this article would be much longer if I went into detail about all of the lifestyle products attached to it. The Rock Angelz line extended into apparel, appliances, cosmetics, home decor, doll organizers, electronics, food items, books, board games, gift cards, birthday party supplies, sports equipment, and school supplies. Bratz Magazine, which had debuted a year prior in the U.K. (possibly earlier in 2004 in Brazil), gained popularity as it mirrored the fictional Bratz Magazine from the film and television series. The Rock Angelz line further promoted Bratz as not only a doll brand, but a lifestyle brand that encouraged consumers to lead a Bratz life!

IN RETROSPECT...

The Bratz Rock Angelz line was truly the first major endeavor for the Bratz brand as it combined dolls, media, and lifestyle products to create an experience for consumers. Rock Angelz became the standard for big launches for doll brands, showing how impactful marketing is for these types of lines. The Rock Angelz line created a lot of buzz and inspired competitor doll lines to launch their own rock-themed doll lines and entertainment, even inspiring longevity for a Bratz knockoff line called “Asary” that debuted with a Rock Angelz-esque line called “Super Cool Gal”. The success of the Rock Angelz dolls also drove MGA to create even more band-themed lines for the brand including Bratz Star Singerz, Itsy Bitsy Bratz Music Stars, Bratz Neon Pop Divaz, Bratz Girlz Really Rock, Bratz Kidz In Concert, Bratz Rock, Bratz On The Mic, and Bratz Style Starz, as well as an unreleased Bratzillaz “Witchy Band” line in 2013 and unreleased Bratz band-themed line from their reboot era in 2015. Other MGA properties, like Moxie Girlz, Lalaloopsy, and most recently L.O.L. Surprise with their Remix lineup, have followed in the Bratz brand’s footsteps in creating band-themed lines immersed with multimedia efforts. MGA even recycled one of the Rock Angelz playsets for sister brand 4-Ever Best Friends. It is clear that the impact of Rock Angelz in the doll industry and pop culture is still alive fifteen years after its release.

Before I end this article, I would like to commend the people at MGA who worked to create Rock Angelz fifteen years ago. Rock Angelz is quite literally one of the most iconic collections to come from the Bratz brand in its nearly twenty-year run. Reflecting back on this line, it is clear that a lot of love and care went into crafting this project. From the dolls, playsets, media, and various lifestyle tie-ins, it is apparent that MGA knew how to perfectly brand the Rock Angelz vintage-punk aesthetic while staying true to the Bratz brand. And a big shoutout to former Bratz designer Ellen Komatsu for designing the Bratz Rock Angelz line!

If you are interested in seeing all of the Rock Angelz products and media mentioned in this retrospective, check out the Bratz 2005 database pages, the Bratz Big Babyz 2005 database page, the Lil’ Bratz 2005 Dolls database page, and the Media Profiles in Stilesville Central.

Thank you for reading (and making it to the end of) this retrospective of Bratz Rock Angelz! Make sure to check out Lookin’ Bratz on Instagram (@LookinBratz), Facebook (Lookin’ Bratz), and YouTube (Lookin’ Bratz) for more Bratz content. And stay tuned for a special announcement this Friday on the Lookin’ Bratz Instagram page!

xoxo