Honey Girls

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source: Honey Girls

The Honey Girls is a line of plushies made by Build-A-Bear workshop. In 2021, they teamed up with Sony Wonder to make a movie, and man, is it too many steps backwards. So, let's start with how it's done. Instead of doing a animated film utilizing CGI in the vein of Toy Story, what we get is the girls turned into humans (and renamed Charlie, Maya, and Alex, which is pretty pathetic). The three are part of a reality competition hosted by hit singer Fancy G and the three soon become a viral hit when they become The Honey Girls, which becomes a double life they have to hide to avoid being disqualfied. So basically, this is a horrible movie where the Honey Girls are only there in name only. Alongside its change to humans and following the overmilked cliches of teenage girls trying to be pop stars and living a double life as a band in masks, it is not very exciting, as it's just another boring teenage drama using the name of a Build-A-Bear original brand to get recognition. Not even the great music of Ashanti, who plays Fancy G, is enough to save this one from being a cheap cash grab. If this movie was a CGI film utilizing the plushies instead of switching to human actors, then I would be more forgiving, but as it stands, Honey Girls will join Jem and The Holograms as yet another example on how not to adapt a brand into a live action movie.

My kid convinced me to watch this movie with them and so glad I did! The team power theme of the movie was inspiring and the music had us dancing in our seats.

So I've been a fan of Build a Bear Workshop's series The Honey Girls since 2017, and they even influenced my anthropomorphic animal art style. They were pretty unique compared to other plushies the store sold, as they sported hair (they even looked more human-like than the other BABs), had a unique style of clothes and color schemes, and was even multimedia with animated music videos and some lore as well. I was really sad when I found out they were on a hiatus, and I'm glad that 3-year hiatus is over now, but saddened to find that not only do the reboots look a lot cheaper than the originals from 2015-2017, but the movie is beyond disappointing to say the least. When I found out that the movie is going to be live action with the characters turned into humans (aside from masks and ear headbands that are a reminder of who they represent), I just knew it was going to be terrible, and indeed a marketing nightmare given that they look absolutely nothing like the plushies Build a Bear advertises. I sat down and wasted over an hour of watching this excuse of an adaptation, and what I knew was that it's just your average run-of-the-mill teen (or preteen) drama film that's also a cash grab for people who didn't even know what the Honey Girls are in their prime. Believe me, if they knew what the HG are back in 2015-2017 and seen their MVs, then they would've been just as disappointed as I was when I watched it. The trio, who are humanized and renamed to Alex, Charlie, and Maya for some odd reason (now keep in mind the HG are named Teegan, Risa, and Viv, and those names are even kept in the reboot plushies), audition in a competition hosted by the famous Fancy G (I'm guessing they made a reference to both Honey G and Iggy Azalea when it came to Ashanti's character), and the trio have to be under a different guise once they become famous as "The Honey Girls". Now the music and moral are...fine to say the least, but that doesn't automatically make the movie good. I've seen too many people pay attention to the moral and brush off the other factors such as the medium this movie was made with and the plot as well. Just like what another user said, this movie would've been much better if it were CGI with the characters actually looking like the plushies sold in BABW stores and the names unchanged, along with fleshing out the characters more by giving a little bit of background info in the storyline or something like that, perhaps making the plot more interesting than just your average slice of life teen drama. But as they decided to go to the live action and human route, which would only make sense with toylines involving fashion dolls like Bratz and American Girl, this really doesn't make sense. I really need to know the whole reason on why they thought it was a good idea to go live action as well as humanizing and renaming the characters. This is just an abysmal choice right there, especially for those who were longtime fans of the Honey Girls. And if they say that this movie is "canon" to the Honey Girls lore, I wouldn't even know what to say given how this would not make any sense whatsoever. This is not the Honey Girls we know and love.

No objectionable content in either the dialogue, the costumes, or the musical content. A decent entertainment movie for the whole family, with a positive message about being yourself, winning and losing gracefully, and how sometimes success doesn't look like what we thought it would. I watched this movie because there were no reviews and I needed to know if the content was acceptable for a family resort audience.

A great film showcasing the chance that some lucky youngsters get, if picked , in a hard place to make it , if the 3 girls are actually a group , I hope they stick together and make it.

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Honey Girls