| Josie and the Pussycats | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Harry Elfont Deborah Kaplan |
| Produced by | Marc E. Platt Kenneth Edmonds |
| Written by | Harry Elfont Deborah Kaplan |
| Based on | Josie and the Pussycats by Dan DeCarlo, Richard Goldwater, and John L. Goldwater |
| Starring | Rachael Leigh Cook Tara Reid Rosario Dawson Alan Cumming Parker Posey Gabriel Mann Paulo Costanzo Missi Pyle |
| Music by | John Frizzell |
| Cinematography | Matthew Libatique |
| Editing by | Peter Teschner |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures (US) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (Int'l) |
| Release date(s) | April 11, 2001 |
| Running time | 98 minutes |
| Country | United States Canada |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $39 million[1] |
| Box office | $14,866,015[1] |
Josie and the Pussycats is a 2001 comedy film released by Universal Studios and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Directed and co-written by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan, the film is loosely based upon the Archie comic of the same name. The film stars Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid, and Rosario Dawson as the Pussycats with Alan Cumming, Parker Posey, and Gabriel Mann.
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Wyatt Frame is a record executive working for record label MegaRecords. The label, headed by the trendy and scheming Fiona, 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. 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 message and asks Wyatt about it aboard their private jet, Wyatt parachutes out with the pilot, leaving the plane to crash and apparently killing Du Jour.
Wyatt lands just outside the town of Riverdale, and meets The Pussycats: vocalist/guitarist Josie McCoy, drummer Melody Valentine, and bassist Valerie Brown. As they are struggling financially, they accept Wyatt's offer to a lucrative record deal despite its implausibility. They are flown to New York City where they are renamed "Josie and the Pussycats", much to the girls' discomfort. All goes well and their first single climbs rapidly to the top of the charts, but Valerie grows increasingly frustrated that all media attention is focused on Josie rather than the band as a whole. Melody, too simple to notice the undue attention Josie receives, uses her uncanny behavioral perception and becomes suspicious of Fiona and Wyatt.
Due to Val and Melody's suspicions, Fiona orders Wyatt to kill them; he attempts to do so by sending them without Josie on a fake "appearance" on a badly faked set for the MTV show Total Request Live, in which an obviously fake Carson Daly impersonator and the real Carson Daly assault them with baseball bats (the girls survive due to their attackers' incompetence). Meanwhile, Josie plans to attend a gig at a bar by Alan M, a musician whom she likes, but Wyatt convinces her it was canceled. Instead, Josie listens to a new remix of their latest single, and is brainwashed by subliminal messages into desiring a solo career and seeing Val and Melody as impediments. After an argument with her bandmates, Josie realizes that the music influenced the fight. Her suspicions are confirmed when she uses a mixing board to make the subliminal track audible, but she is caught by Fiona.
MegaRecords have organized a giant pay-per-view concert, whereby they plan to unleash their biggest subliminal message scheme yet. They force Josie to perform on stage by threatening to kill Melody and Valerie. The badly injured members of Du Jour appear just in time to stop Wyatt and Fiona from completing their scheme. In the resulting fight, Josie destroys the machine used to make the messages. The message for the concert is revealed not to promote the band, the label, or a corporate sponsor, but to make Fiona popular. Fiona suffers a breakdown and reveals that she had been an outcast in high school who spoke with a lisp. Wyatt reveals that his appearance is a disguise - that he went to the same high school as Fiona, but was a persecuted and unpopular albino nicknamed "White-Ass Wally". Fiona and Wyatt fall in love. The government agents (shown earlier in collusion with Fiona) arrive; because the conspiracy is exposed, and the government has decided that movies provide a better channel for subliminal messages (breaking the fourth wall with their own subliminal message promoting the film and the U.S. Army), the agents arrest Fiona and Wyatt as scapegoats to cover-up the government's involvement in the failed scheme.
Josie, Valerie, and Melody perform the concert, and for the first time their fans are able to judge the band on its merits, rather than be subliminally persuaded to like the band. Alan comes to the concert and tells Josie he loves her, and she returns his feelings. The audience roars their approval as the film comes to a close.
In line with its theme of subliminal advertising, the inordinate degree of product placement in the film constitutes a running gag. Almost every scene features a mention or appearance of one or more famous brands, including Sega and the Dreamcast (Sega's mascot Sonic the Hedgehog also appears in Archie Comics), Motorola, Starbucks, McDonald's, Gatorade, Snapple, Evian, Target, Aquafina, America Online, Pizza Hut, Cartoon Network (which has aired the cartoon series on many occasions), Revlon, Kodak, Puma, Advil, Bounce, and more. None of the advertising was paid promotion by the represented brands; it was inserted voluntarily by the filmmakers.[2]
The film grossed $14,866,015 at the U.S. box office; however, its budget was an estimated $39 million, resulting in a domestic box office loss. Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film one-half of a star out of a possible four, commenting that "Josie and the Pussycats are not dumber than the Spice Girls, but they're as dumb as the Spice Girls, which is dumb enough."[3]
Evaluating the film for the Onion A.V. Club in 2009, Nathan Rabin writes that it is "funny, sly and sweet' and "a sly, sustained spoof of consumerism". He rates the film as a "secret success".[4] The film currently holds a 53% "Rotten" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on an average of 114 reviews, holding the consensus "This live-action update of Josie and the Pussycats offers up bubbly, fluffy fun, but the constant appearance of product placements seems rather hypocritical."[5]
When released on VHS and DVD on November 20, 2001, a "Family-Friendly" PG-rated version was released as well: this version omitted a great deal of the profanity and sexual references.
Released by Sony Music Soundtrax and Playtone Records on March 27, 2001, Music from the Motion Picture Josie and the Pussycats was well-received, certifying a gold album with 500,000 copies despite the film's critical and commercial failure.
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