Josie and the Pussycats (film)
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| Josie and the Pussycats | |
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| Directed by | Harry Elfont Deborah Kaplan |
| Produced by | Tony DeRosa-Grund Tracey E. Edmonds Chuck Grimes Marc E. Platt |
| Written by | Harry Elfont Deborah Kaplan Dan DeCarlo (characters) |
| Starring | Rachael Leigh Cook Tara Reid Rosario Dawson Alan Cumming Parker Posey |
| Music by | John Frizzell |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures (USA) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (International) (through 20th Century Fox) |
| Release date(s) | April 11, 2001 (USA) |
| Running time | 98 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $22,000,000 |
| IMDb profile | |
- This article is about Universal Studios' 2001 Josie and the Pussycats film. For other uses, please see Josie and the Pussycats.
Josie and the Pussycats is a 2001 comedy film released by Universal Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan, and starred Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid, Rosario Dawson, Parker Posey, and Alan Cumming. It is based upon the Archie comic of the same name, which had been adapted into a Saturday morning cartoon by Hanna-Barbera in 1970.
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[edit] Plot
Wyatt Frame (Cumming) is a record executive, working for record label MegaRecords. The label, headed by the trendy and scheming Fiona (Posey) pumps out pop bands and, through an arrangement with the United States government, get teens to buy their records and follow "a new trend every week" by putting subliminal messages under the music. These messages change weekly; a fill-in-the-blank phrase of the film is [Blank] is the new [blank]. The Government's motive in the scheme is to help build a robust economy from the "wads of cash" teenagers earn from babysitting and minimum wage jobs. When a member of Wyatt's wildly successful boy band, Du Jour, uncovers one such subliminal message and, with innocent concern, asks him about it aboard Du Jour’s private jet, Wyatt parachutes out with the pilot, leaving the plane to crash.
He lands just outside the town of Riverdale, and desperate for a replacement for Du Jour, he meets Josie (Cook), Melody (Reid), and Valerie (Dawson): the financially struggling The Pussycats. He offers them a lucrative record deal and flies them off to Hollywood where they are renamed Josie and the Pussycats. All goes well, with instant popularity for the band until Valerie gets frustrated that the focus of the band is not on them as a whole, but rather Josie. Melody, too simple to notice the attention Josie receives, uses her uncanny behavioral perception and becomes suspicious of Fiona and Wyatt.
Because of these suspicions, an attempt is made to kill Valerie and Melody when they make an appearance without Josie on the MTV show Total Request Live. Meanwhile, Josie is brainwashed by subliminal messages in a new demo CD to try to push her into a solo career. Valerie and Melody survive the attempt on their life and return to their accommodation to discover Josie intent on a solo career. After a fight with her bandmates, Josie realizes that the music influenced the fight and she goes to the studio to investigate the CD that she was given. Her suspicions are confirmed at the studio but she is caught by Fiona.
MegaRecords have organized a giant pay-per-view concert, whereby it is planned to unleash their biggest subliminal message scheme yet. They try to force Josie to perform on stage, otherwise Melody and Valerie will be killed. The surviving but badly injured members of DuJour, who were thought to be dead, appear just in time to help the Pussycats. In the resulting fight scene, Josie manages to destroy the machine used to make the subliminal messages. The message is revealed to be one that will make Fiona popular. Her poor self-esteem began in high school where she talked with a lisp. Wyatt exclaims "Lisping Lisa?" and reveals that his appearance is a disguise - that he went to the same high school as Fiona, but was know as the albino kid, "White-Ass Wally". The two fall instantly in love, and are arrested by the government for crimes against the youth of America. The MegaRecords subliminal message program had been scrapped because the government decided to use movies instead.
Josie, Valerie, and Melody go on to perform the concert, and for the first time, the audience is able to judge the band on its merits, rather than be subliminally persuaded to like the band. The audience roars their approval as the film comes to a close.
[edit] Trivia
- In line with its theme of subliminal advertising, the inordinate degree of product placement in the movie constitutes a running joke. Almost every scene features a mention or appearance of one or more famous brands, including the likes of Motorola, Starbucks, McDonald's, Target, Aquafina, America Online, Pizza Hut, Cartoon Network, and more. None of the advertising was paid promotion by the represented brands, it was inserted voluntarily by the filmmakers.[1]
- Russ Leatherman, the creator and voice of Mr. Moviefone, is the voice of the subliminal messages. As Fiona says, "That's Mr. Moviefone. He does all our subliminal messages."
- Josie and the Pussycats are based in Midvale in the comics, not Riverdale (home town of Archie and the gang) as portrayed in the movie.
- Alan M. is actually a big and muscular guy in the comics, yet he appears slimmer in the movie.
- The singing voice of Josie was recorded by Kay Hanley. Songs for the film were written by Adam Duritz of Counting Crows, Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne, Anna Waronker and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, who also makes a cameo in the film.
- The film grossed $14,300,000 at the US box office, resulting in a loss.
- The MPAA gave Josie and the Pussycats a PG-13 rating, "for language and mild sensuality". Archie Comics was not happy at the rating, and went so far as to post two disclaimers on its website: "Heh, Josie, PG 13 -- say it isn't so!! What's up with that?!?" and "Astonished Alan M. exclaims, 'PG-13 -- Not My Cats!' (written from the perspective of Josie character Alan M.). When Universal released the film on video, it, at Archie Comics' request, had a PG-rated "family friendly" edit of the film released alongside the theatrical version. The differences between the two are minor, consisting of dialogue changes (to remove harsher PG-13 level language) and a few double entendres (both in the dialogue and on screen) revolving around the word "pussy".
- Donald Faison, Seth Green, and Breckin Meyer give cameos as the members of the band Du Jour. Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds also makes an uncredited cameo, appearing as "the Chief", supposedly the lost third member of the '70s group Captain & Tennille. Carson Daly and Eugene Levy also make appearances in the film, playing themselves.
- Du Jour is French for "Of The Day," most likely a comment on the late nineties revolving door teen pop groups.
- A soundclip of the Josie and the Pussycats movie is used at the end of the Arrogant Sons of Bitches song "Radio Single".
[edit] References
- ^ from DVD commentary
