Do we really want our kids to have Brattitude?

Not if it requires seeing Bratz, a silly movie that's essentially a series of clichés strung together into a semblance of a movie. For a funnier, sharper look at the rough terrain of high school and how to combat the cruelty of popular tyrants, Mean Girls does a much better job. For a movie about the bonds of friendship among girls of a similar age, try The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

Bratz gamely tries to celebrate individuality, smarts and inclusiveness: The quartet of Bratz are Asian, Latina, African-American and white, and one of the girls has a quasi-romance with a jock who is deaf. They've got their bases covered, but cringe-worthy stereotypes abound. The Asian girl is a science nerd, the Latina dances around at home with her grandmother (Lainie Kazan) to La Cucaracha and appears to have a troupe of mariachi players living in her kitchen.

When they aren't trying desperately to be PC, they resort to the tried-and-true

The overall message is blandly positive: something about not kowtowing to mean people, and celebrating confidence and talent. But if it had been told in a less cloying fashion with an ounce of originality, that might have helped.

It just doesn't seem like a bright idea to celebrate brattiness in a culture already steeped in the bad behaviors of Paris, Britney and Lindsay. How about a movie based on Troll dolls?