Avi Arad Interview, BRATZ

MoviesOnline caught up with producer and creative genius Avi Arad ("Spider-Man 3”) at the Los Angeles press day for "Bratz.” The highly popular dolls Bratz finally come alive in "Bratz,” directed by Sean McNamara, the first live action feature film based on the chic fashion dolls. As the Bratz navigate their way through this story, we will see how the four young women represent honesty, camaraderie and most importantly friendship.

As long as they can remember, Yasmin (Nathalia Ramos), Jade (Janel Parrish), Sasha (Logan Browning) and Cloe (Skyler Shaye) have been "BFF" - Best Friends Forever. Inseparable since they first met, the young girls have always supported each other's individual personalities, talents and fabulous fashion styles. But now as the foursome enter Carry Nation High, Yasmin, Jade, Sasha and Cloe face a brand new world: a blackboard jungle, where for the first time they discover life as a teenager means dealing with a system of social cliques, all strictly enforced by student body president Meredith Baxter Dimly (Chelsea Staub). Finding themselves being pulled further and further apart, the girls band together and rise up as "the Bratz" to fight peer pressure, in turn learning how true empowerment means standing up for your friends, being true to oneself and living out one's dreams and aspirations.

"’Bratz’ is X-Men for girls,” says Avi Arad, the producer behind such notable blockbusters as the ‘Spider-Man’ trilogy, ‘The Hulk,’ three ‘X-Men’ features, ‘The Fantastic Four,’ ‘The Punisher,’ ‘Ghost Rider’ and a string of other #1 box office successes. The story is a journey that touches upon everyday teenage life; a world full of laughter and celebration; where the multi-ethnicities of the girls is embraced and where the definition of family means loving single moms, divorced parents trying to make it work, a large supportive family or as in Jade’s case, the daughter of an immigrant.

So what was it about this project that inspired this legendary producer to take on the task of bringing the #1 fashion doll in the marketplace to life? Avi explains, "I felt that there is a story to be told to young girls that has to do with empowerment, with believing in yourself. Being a tween is a very tough age and the schoolyard is like a jungle. This movie is very special to me and I felt that ‘Bratz’ has the opportunity to appeal to the same philosophical issues as some of the other movies I’ve made like the X-Men films. What makes these dolls really unique is their diversity.”

Avi Arad is a fabulous guy and we really appreciated his time. Here’s more of what he had to tell us about his new movie:

Q: I’ve got to ask the obvious question. Why did you decide to do this movie given your history of doing comic book movies?

AVI ARAD: Well, comic books are metaphors of real life and I fell in love with the idea of the Bratz’s diversity story. It reminded me of an X-Men for girls in a way. It was a great emotional story. You know my movies are all about emotions. I thought it was a unique opportunity. No one is talking to these kids. It’s amazing. I have daughters and it’s not unique to daughters but I’ve seen it specifically with them – the sense of isolation, the cliques, the invitation to a birthday party and not to be invited. I mean it’s a pretty vicious bunch over there and the parents are part of it.

What you try and do in a movie like that is touch upon the diversity, social economics, relationship with their parents, the aspiration of the kids versus our aspirations for them. As you know, we all think we know what’s good for them and part of it is right if at the end of the movie they can come together and realize that they’re part of each other. I didn’t want the parents to come off like the villains. On the contrary, being a parent, I think we really mean well but at times we just don’t listen to what they really want.

It was such an opportunity to take these kids and give them a story. The backdrop of the talent show was obviously the hottest phenomenon in the world. I don’t know if you’ve ever done a talent show in high school but the politics of it… [laughs] – who goes first, who goes last, the registration is over, and all that stuff and kids work very hard on it, and then stage fear. All these things, they’re all real life experiences. They’re all just little morsels as they go through life.

I’m hard of hearing. I wear special stuff. I wanted this boy [referring to deaf character in film] to be there because he was so cool. When we were casting him, I was looking at him and saying "Girls like the silent type” and the fact that there’s no self pity there. On the contrary, he’s quite confident. And matching all these kids and a little bit of puppy love which is great because it’s as much puppy love as I would want my kids to have at this stage, to recognize that there is the opposite sex and how do you deal with that.

Our costume designer, Bernadene (Morgan), when she came on board saved my life because she was so busy with other shows. I said, "You have to come in.” And she didn’t know enough. She just said, "I’m going to dress them like I want my granddaughters to look like – stylish yet clean.” She did a brilliant job. One of the scenes that Sean and I asked her to do, we said, "Bear in mind, not everyone’s going to Bergdoff to get dressed, so go into layers, go into a scene where kids can really look into the closet and say, ‘Today I can take this shirt with this shirt underneath and put on these pants.’” And then individuality, even in schools where they have uniforms, they find a way to put something in there that’s unique to them.

You take all these issues -- divorced parents, the grandmother… How many of us were raised by a grandmother basically because both parents are too busy? There’s no one to talk to. Most importantly, kids have to walk out of the movie house knowing that it happens to all of us. It’s not unique. If you do your own little survey about how many of your high school friends are you still close with, that’s pretty thin. You move on with life and that’s life. That’s how it goes. But when you’re there, we all know kids around the age of 6 or 7 until high school. College is different because boys have a much bigger role in the girls’ lives. The social struggle is huge. They’re so concerned with being popular or being with the popular kids, and popularity doesn’t mean that these are the right kids to be next to.

For us, it was really interesting to develop Chelsea who was an amazing young actress. I think this girl is going a long way up. Meredith was actually high school class president. To make someone like that also quite formidable and really accomplished, someone who put the time into being who she is. Not everybody wants to volunteer to do this stuff. It’s a lot of work. So she was not just a mean girl without an agenda. She was quite accomplished. When you look at it, you’ll even come away having respect for your villains which is again something very much in comic books. Villains are interesting. Their circumstances make them the way they are.

We felt that there is so much ground to cover and these kids are so fresh. It was fun to see how Logan (Browning) is realizing there is enough there between her parents that it was worth the time for her to tell them something. When they’re happy at the end, with the song Gratitude, I don’t think her parents are going to get remarried. That’s not what this is about. It’s [about] recognizing the best thing that did happen to them which is this girl.

Personally I just wanted to feel that once it’s all said and done, that’s where Sean’s genius comes in, because he’s so warm and loving and the kids trust him. When you make a movie like that, you’d better have a director that is in the skin. He’s experienced like that. You want these parents to walk out of the movie house also thinking, "Hmm. Maybe we have another role here. It’s not all on them.” In some early screenings with parents, it was really interesting to see guys who are trying to hide a little tear here and there because it’s all experience. There’s nothing more painful than to watch your kids struggle for social recognition and social economics. I like this line, "My mother is my hero, my mom is my hero” because it’s true.

Unfortunately that’s the majority of our world. All these issues you see in this movie are really everyday issues. That was the motivation to get involved. Without a brand it would have been very tough to make a movie like that. No one is making these kind of movies because it’s a little harder to sell. But when you have a brand like Bratz, millions and millions of girls are so connected. At least we had a shot and an opportunity to take this. Something that’s in plastic doesn’t tell you enough, doesn’t tell you anything actually aside from, okay, there are diverse social backgrounds and all of a sudden you can really give them a voice and show them how this friendship is real. It is a new world. It’s happening. I wanted kids to know.

"X-Men” was the same thing. We started the show in ’92. I remember this was before emails. It was the nether days where so many people got so many kids that I didn’t realize how mean I was. Hopefully, I think the kids will see the screening and they’ll walk away feeling like that, thinking maybe being kind is okay.

Q: What about your own high school experience? What clique were you in?

AVI ARAD: My high school experience was weird because I lived at a time when television didn’t exist in Israel and I was a fantasy books/comic book guy and that wasn’t very popular. You were supposed to play soccer, handball or something. And I was an only child so isolation was part of my life. It was weird because you want to be isolated if you feel like that but then when you want to come in, it’s too late. They’re already all set. On the soccer field, you’ve picked first, then second, and all of a sudden there’s one kid left. At least you got to play but it doesn’t make you feel good.

I’ve seen it being a parent of three kids. I’ve been through all of it. I’ve lived on the East Coast, on the West Coast. It’s the same. The guilty party always starts with the parents. The parents tell the kids how to… If you make this rule, birthday party, the whole class is coming or no one is coming, that helps. Otherwise today with IM and email and all this stuff. Whoa! Friday evening can be a pretty treacherous time when your friends make sure you know that they’re going to so and so’s house and you sit there and say, "How come I’m not going?”

All these emotions, you know, you have 90 minutes to tell this story. The sequel will take it even further. Most important is to believe in yourself. I think what I like about Jade the most is… I’m an immigrant so I know as an immigrant parent you think your kids are safer going to law school. They will always get a job. That’s not what I did but I think it’s easier for them. You’re protected this way. And then they tell you, no, I want to be a filmmaker or a jewelry designer, and you look at them like, "Do you know what it’s takes to get there?” They look at you like, "Yeah.” But you feel protective. You want to give them a different life, an easier life. And it’s wrong, but they do it. Each one of these kids was bringing an element that was important to tell and has room to take it even further.

Q: What’s up with the Marvel world of comics and the movies? Is there anything that you’re working on?

AVI ARAD: I do both. I’m like Janel (Parrish), I like science, I like fashion.

Q: Is there one comic hero that you’re waiting for to come out?

AVI ARAD: I like so many of them, it’s really hard, you know. The one you do next is the one you think about the most. All of them, listen, it’s the same thing. These are living heroes. I’m doing now a very small movie about a woman who is under house arrest for 18 years. She’s a real hero in Burma. Suki (Dusanj). It’s an amazing story. She got a Nobel Peace Prize. She didn’t see her kids for 17 years. That’s a real hero.

I grew up in a world where heroes are born out of the metaphors, you know, that take them into the next world. But it’s really interesting to run into the real ones. I think there’s something about these kids when they go to high school and they have to do certain scenes in order to go to college. Look at the cost of college today. You’d better do something that helps your parents help yourself to get there. There are a lot of little heroes and that was interesting about projects like that. So I’ll make the big movies, the little movies, whatever. The nice thing about retirement is you do what you want to do.

Q: I think you and Stan Lee can make the perfect Jewish super hero.

AVI ARAD: I don’t know. He’s a super hero. He’s unbelievable.

"Bratz” opens in theaters on August 3^rd.