Rated PG-13 - Running Time: 1:38 - Released 4/11/01
JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS
Rated PG-13 - Running Time: 1:38 - Released 4/11/01
Those of us who watch TV's Cartoon Network (or, more specifically,
whose kids do) have been forced to come to grips with the abysmal
quality of formerly loved "classic" cartoons like Scooby-Doo,
Speed Racer, and The Perils of Penelope Pitstop.
One such series was 1970's Archies spinoff Josie And
The Pussycats, a show about an all-girl rock band that occasionally
has to solve a crime, or defeat a villain, or travel into outer
space, or...something. Long before the Bangles, the Go-Go's, the
Spice Girls or the Cramps, Josie and her pals strummed their guitars
sexily and belted out bubble-gum tunes in our living rooms wearing
leopard print bodysuits and cute little kitty ears. Those were
the days.
And so it is inevitable that this traditional cartoon fave
would be put through the Hollywood nostalgia mill, forcing decades-old
ideas to conform to modern-day standards and allowing opportunistic
producers to capitalize on the cartoons-to-movies trend. Written
and directed by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan (The
Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas), Pussycats is about
as vapid as its cartoon inspiration, but it attempts to rise to
something higher, offering some meager satire of current trends
in music, merchandising, and teen fashion.
Although guitarist/vocalist Josie McCoy (Rachael Leigh Cook)
and her two friends, bassist Valerie Brown (Rosario Dawson) and
drummer Melody Valentine (Tara Reid), have the talent and dedication
to make it in the music business, so far they have not been discovered.
Not taken seriously by their lazy manager, Alexander Cabot (Paulo
Costanzo), nor his skunk-haired sister Alexandra (Missi Pyle),
the Pussycats are about to lose hope when they meet British talent
agent Wyatt Frame (Alan Cumming, currently appearing one auditorium
over in Spy Kids), who is not
only ready to sign them unheard, but instantly begins planning
a stadium concert. Although Josie, Val, and Melody are surprised
by his sudden interest, they're perfectly happy to have a record
deal, and their first single skyrockets to #1 in one week.
What they don't know, however, is that Wyatt works for the
villainous Mega Records CEO Fiona (Parker Posey), who heads up
a huge corporate conspiracy to implant subliminal messages in
pop music, causing the nation's teens to buy whatever products
they suggest. To further their plot, Fiona and Wyatt have designed
special pussycat headphones to distribute at the concert, so when
the thousands of teenage fans wear them, they will be under the
spell of Fiona's secret message.
Josie And The Pussycats, the cartoon, was never known
for particularly intelligent plots or important social commentary,
it was just another of the mindless Hanna-Barbera products we
kids lapped up every Saturday morning. So in a way it would actually
be against the original principles of the show for the movie to
have a great deal of integrity.
Yeah, that's what we'll say.
The film is fluff, but it's good-natured fluff, and the Elfont-Kaplan script pokes a few jabs at the runaway trend of product placement in movies, with some logo or company name in the background (or foreground) of nearly every scene. It also makes fun of the glut of seemingly disposable teen groups by featuring an amusingly spoiled and pretentious musical foursome called Du Jour, whose part in the film is a key factor in the Pussycats' discovery of the truth. This film didn't need to be made, but here it is. The best praise I can offer is it could have been worse. ***½